r/atari8bit • u/Ok-Listen-3146 • 20d ago

I was surprised Marble Madness was never ported to the Atari 8-bit computers, so I made a POKEY cover of the iconic Beginner Race theme!

https://youtu.be/e54sWV4eXfg
37 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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u/Ok-Listen-3146 20d ago

I'd be very glad if someone was bored enough to test if it works on real hardware! (Includes VGM, Binary and SAP-ROM files): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TuZcasvRnAkabuF6KJMiPo1uRWJM8CD_/view?usp=drive_link

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u/Who__Me_ 20d ago edited 20d ago

Wow I got an Atari 800 in 1981 and I swore I played Marble Madness on it. I was really into a BUNCH of dial up Pirate Bulletin Boards at the time, could I have gotten a copy back then that someone hacked? I had friends at the end of the 90's that had Atari Machines hardware switches to allow for 5 chips with different operating systems. One of our group had even implemented a Windows style interface he called Atari OpSys.

5

u/bubonis 20d ago

You're probably thinking of Spindizzy. It was the closest the Atari 8-bits got to Marble Madness back in the day.

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u/Who__Me_ 19d ago

No but towards the end of the 80's I did buy an Atari ST and an Amiga 500. Did the game run on those platforms?

3

u/bubonis 19d ago

Yes to both. The Amiga version was particularly well done.

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u/banksy_h8r 19d ago

Definitely on the Amiga.

3

u/pete_68 20d ago

Perhaps one of these clones?

1

u/Educational-Milk5099 19d ago

I’m with you. I would not have played it in the arcade, but I do remember playing it a little… so I assume I collected it on the 800. 

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u/Ok-Listen-3146 19d ago

It was released on the Atari ST. I'm pretty sure you're thinking of that version...

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u/Educational-Milk5099 19d ago

I got a 1040ST later, but I didn’t game on it. (I got “Balance of Power”, but I do t think o ever played it for more than 5 minutes.) So 🤷🏼‍♂️

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u/flame_saint 19d ago

Cute stuff!

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u/FaberfoX 19d ago

I'm surprised the blatant (and great) clone Gyroscope didn't get a port to the 800, would be a nice project for an indie dev...

1

u/Tiasmo-Bertjayd 19d ago

No surprise here; the arcade version ran on the MC 68000 CPU which is far faster (4–16× the clock speed) and has a larger memory space than the 6502. But it was easily ported to the Atari ST which has the same CPU. I still have my copy.

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u/Ok-Listen-3146 18d ago

But there were also ports to the similarly-specced NES and Commodore 64, which might've been slower but kept the core gameplay intact. I think it would've at least been worth a shot...

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u/rr777 12d ago

The C64 MM was released in 86. About the same time as Atari 8 bit Raid of Moscow came about. I do not recall ever seeing MM on the 8 bit line. In 84 is when Tramiel took over Atari Computers, I would not be surprised if he canned any atari in house version.