Marble Madness (Hyo)

Title – Marble Madness
System – Nintendo Family BASIC V3
Author – Hyo!
Publication – Micom Basic (マイコンBASIC) November 1985
Page Scans – 1 2 3
Preserved By – ximwix
Recommended Emulator – Mesen

Download ROM

Files:

notes.txt – The file you’re reading now (wow!)
Marble Madness (Hyo).nes – Game converted to standalone NES rom
Marble Madness (Hyo) (No Keyboard).nes – Game converted to standalone NES rom
without keyboard input
marble-madness-prg.txt – The typed-up program listing
marble-madness-prg.wav – WAVE file of the program listing, for playback to
hardware
marble-madness-bg.wav – WAVE file of the background data, for playback to
hardware
marble-madness-prg.vtp – Virtuanes tape file of the program listing
marble-madness-prg.fbt – Mesen tape file of the program listing
marble-madness-bg.vtp – Virtuanes tape file of the background
marble-madness-bg.fbt – Mesen tape file of the background
scan1.jpg – A scan of the program listing from Micom Basic (part 1)
scan2.jpg – A scan of the program listing from Micom Basic (part 2)
scan3.jpg – A scan of the program listing from Micom Basic (part 3)
screenshot1.png – Gameplay screenshot
screenshot2.png – Gameplay screenshot

Notes:

1.
The game relies on keybaord input, so I have included an alternate ROM that
changes the title screen and game-over logic to rely soley on controller input
instead. Note that in this version it is not possible to choose the starting
level/difficultly for single-player mode.

2.
The background is a big rectangle made of “M6” blocks, leaving two blank rows
and columns along the left, top, and right side. If you do not have this
background loaded, your ball will fall to its doom as soon as you roll off of
your starting position.

3.
The listing suggests removing lines that generate random level data (lines 840
through 890), so that you can design your own level in the BG tool. Try it
out!

4.
The program listing uses a few non-text characters. In the
marble-madness-prg.txt, these are typed between curly braces. “{M5}” is
one “M5” background character, and “{M5|M5|M5}” is three M5 characters in a
row, etc.

Game Instructions:

This is a game inspired by the arcade game “Marble Madness”. Instead of
traversing a maze, you are instead traversing a single screen and trying to
knock your opponent off the edge of the map.

The title screen lets you pick from three game modes:

Typing “-1” will put you into Be Carry mode. In this mode, you control the
blue marble and try to knock the red marble onto the goal in as few bumps as
possible.

Typing “0” will put you into two-player mode, where player 1 controls the blue
marble and player 2 controls the red marble. Try to knock each other off the
map!

Typing “1”, or any number up to “10” will start a single player game. In this
mode, you control the blue marble and try to knock the CPU-controlled black
marble off the map. The later levels have a more aggressive opponent.

The controls in all three modes are the same. Use the d-pad to move your
marble around, keeping inertia in mind. You can hold down the “A” button as
you move to accelerate rapidly. Random terrain will be generated for each
level, including pits, slanted surfaces, and hurdles.