Marble Madness — stories left

In 2008, Levi Buchanan of IGN listed Marble Madness as one of several titles in his "dream arcade", citing the game's difficulty and the fond memories he had playing it.

Retro Gamers Craig Grannell, in referring to the game as one of the most distinctive arcade games ever made, praised its visuals as "pure and timeless".

In 1995, Flux rated the game ninety-ninth on its "Top 100 Video Games".

In 1996, Next Generation ranked the arcade version of Marble Madness as 15 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time".

Reviewing for Computer Gaming World, Roy Wagner stated that the Amiga version was superior to the arcade original.

Bruce Webster of Byte wrote that the graphics of the Amiga version of Marble Madness in December 1986 "are really amazing".

While criticizing the lack of a pause function or a top scores list, he said that it "is definitely worth having if you own an Amiga".

Bil Herd recalled that the Amiga version was so popular at Commodore International that employees stole the required memory expansion from colleagues' computers to run the game.

The magazine liked the graphics, but criticized "marbles that handle like intoxicated turtles".

In the history of games it is the first game ever developed in C rather than in machine language or assembler, and the first game ever to play its background music in stereo rather than mono.

For Atari it was the first game made on the Atari System 1 board, Atari's first arcade board, and the first game to use FM sound (Taito's Cycle Maabou, which also used FM sound, went into operation in Japan in the same month of the same year, and which of the two was the world's first is not known).

Made as the first game on the Atari System 1 board, the game became a major hit, with 4000 units shipped, and the board itself was a success, being used for Indiana Jones (1985) and RoadBlasters (1987), among others.

It is the only game that used the Mega Drive mouse, the "Sega Mouse", turned upside down as a trackball, and its conversion reproduced the arcade version almost exactly.

Marble Madness is known for using innovative game technologies: it was Atari's first to use the Atari System 1 hardware, the first to be programmed in the C programming language, and one of the first to use true stereo sound (previous games used either monaural sound or simulated stereo).

Flanagan intended to address the short length of the first game and, with the help of Mike Hally, developed seventeen courses.

In the Gamest Mook The Best Game 2, published in 1998, it was introduced with the comments "the enemies are all unique, with presentation and gameplay in step", "the presentation when you make a mistake is also very entertaining", "1 play lasts about 5 minutes, but playing game after game is quite tiring", and "the gameplay is of course excellent, and so are the graphics and the sound; it is a very well made classic".

Critics praised the game's difficulty, unique visual design, and stereo soundtrack.

Retro Gamers Craig Grannell, in referring to the game as one of the most distinctive arcade games ever made, praised its visuals as "pure and timeless".

While criticizing the lack of a pause function or a top scores list, he said that it "is definitely worth having if you own an Amiga".

The magazine liked the graphics, but criticized "marbles that handle like intoxicated turtles".

Dragons three reviewers—Hartley, Patricia and Kirk Lesser—praised the Apple IIGS port, calling it a "must have" title for arcade fans.

A programmer then at Tengen, who had made the Mega Drive version mentioned above, was working on a port to the PC Engine. Work had advanced to about 80 percent, close to completion, but for various reasons including production costs and insufficient ROM capacity it was ultimately cancelled.

A sequel was developed and planned for release in 1991, but was canceled when location testing showed it could not succeed in competition with other titles.

An iOS port was in development by Handheld Games, but was never released.

Bil Herd recalled that the Amiga version was so popular at Commodore International that employees stole the required memory expansion from colleagues' computers to run the game.

In the Game Boy version stage 6 is removed and the tempo of the background music is wrong on stages other than stage 1, so it appears to be a forced port of the NES Marble Madness.

The game was originally released in arcades in December 1984.

An arcade sequel titled Marble Man: Marble Madness II was planned for release in 1991, though Cerny was not involved in its development.

Flanagan intended to address the short length of the first game and, with the help of Mike Hally, developed seventeen courses.

Critics praised the game's difficulty, unique visual design, and stereo soundtrack.

In 2008, Levi Buchanan of IGN listed Marble Madness as one of several titles in his "dream arcade", citing the game's difficulty and the fond memories he had playing it.

Outside Japan it was ported to many systems, including home consoles such as the Family Computer, Master System, Game Boy, and Game Boy Color, and home computers such as the Commodore 64 and the Amiga.

In the "Cross Review" feature of the magazine Famitsu,the four reviewers gave 7, 5, 6, and 7, for a total of 25 out of 40.

Following the video game crash of 1983, game development within Atari focused on providing a distinctive experience through the use of a unique control system and by emphasizing a simultaneous two-player mode.