Marble Madness - Versions Comparison (HD 60 FPS)

I don't know, but the music of second level is beautiful

First ever arcade machine to have stereo sound, and designed by Mark Cerny, architect of the PS4 and PS5. And Knack!

This is one of the few channels that not only lists the year the ports were released in, but also puts them in that order. A detail that's very important but often missing in other channels.

Dude, get a load of overachiever FM Towns over here, with that dramatic soundtrack! That and X68000 are the clear winners for me, both being even better than the arcade. But of course I'm an NES kid through and through, so that version gets an honorable mention for doing so much with its modest chipset. I gotta say, growing up with an NES first and then a SNES later, when I was younger, I always viewed the NES as having a cute-yet-primitive charm, but as I get older and wiser and compare it to the other stuff it was competing with at the time, boy, it really swung for the fences in all categories.

Something a lot of these ports leave out from the arcade is the 8 squares on the marble sprite. They are helpful in seeing how fast the marble is spinning.

Marble Madness always looked like an art game to me, with its abstract graphics and soundtrack. I wonder if the authors expected this game to have the success it ended up having.

God the NES port is such a remarkable achievement.

The FM towns one sounds like it's a soundtrack remaster for Smash Bros

It's not often that you see a game with consistently decent ports across the board. I'm especially impressed by the Amiga port, considering how early in that system's lifetime that version was made.

I played this to death on the Amiga back in the day- of the computer versions (PC, ST, C64, Apple II/IIgs) it was probably the best version. I love the music on the FM Towns, never heard that before.

What's kinda frustrating about a lot of these versions is that they're on systems with Yamaha OP chips like the original arcade cabinet but they still changed the music. The X68000 version and EAs Genesis version could've been nearly arcade perfect. Edit 12/24/22: Specifying EAs Genesis port, as Tengen's Japanese port was nearly arcade perfect

The Mega Drive/Genesis actually had two versions of Marble Madness. The more obscure version was a Japanese only release and was developed by Tengen. It was much more arcade accurate.

You know, im surprised id never heard of this game when i was a kid. It was on everything! That fm towns version is so smooth... that system keeps impressing me.

Funny how in most versions the maze is scaled down where in the Gameboy version it is not although it had a smaller screen. The sound is the best on the Amiga. I like how it sounds when the marble gets dizzy.

I’ll always think of the Nintendo Version of this since it’s the only one I played lol

I love the Arcade, NES / Famicom, Genesis Tengen Versions. They're my favorite versions.

Found this in a new arcade that opened in my area and the music is excellent but the gameplay is so challenging yet addicting.

Whoever made this game is an absolute genius.

So glad they stopped the footage of the Genesis version before my eardrums ruptured

I played the SMS version growing up, and I was always so confused by some aspects of the level design that were totally non-functional, like in the yellowy-green level, there should be a ribbon or carpet type thing that waves and you can travel along it, but in the SMS version it was totally static, making the shortcut it made pointless. It wasn't until I got the Mega Drive version and played it that I was like "WHAT". X)