marcus@reed.UUCP (Marc Burns) (05/09/85)
<<I Hunger, Coward. RUN!! RUN!! Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh>>
Hey, net-heads, not so long ago, there was acutally a
reasonable amount of traffic on this group about the game called
Marble Madness. When I read the articles, I thought, great, but
where can I find the game? Well, I finally found the game at a local
arcade, but of course I didn't save any of the pertinent postings.
By now you have probably guessed my request. Please mail me (or
post, and brave the flames) strategy hints for this quarter eater.
Enuff importuning, now for some conversation, as there hasn't been
a whole lot of traffic on this net of late {pinball machines?
Jeezus H., I thought those things were long dead and buried in
today's hi-tech age :-) }
Are arcades still full these days? Do people even play
vid games anymore? I remember not three years ago there were seven if
not more game houses in my home town (Vancouver, WA, pop ~= 50000), but
now all but three (maybe less, I haven't been there in a while) have
gone to the great convenience store in the sky. One of them still
exists because it is in a shopping mall, and is exposed to more traffic
than other places. The other two have kept their prices low enough to
stay in business, I suppose, bringing me to my other great question,
how much do the dang things cost? Of course quarters continue to be a
standard, but most acutal arcades I see have switched to the token
system. 8 for a buck is about the norm, although charging admission of
a dollar or so and then 5 cents a game is also around. Howzabout
elsewhere?
Is Marble Madness the extent of the technology? Good God, its
good, but is that *it*? What about laser disk? Dragon's Lair was a
good time indeed, and so was Space Ace (spaceface?) but some of the
others in the genre were pretty blase. (Bega's Battle (sp) had a cool
intro screen with the degenerating head and all, but it seemed to me
that it quickly turned into an uninteristing shooting game. Am I wrong
about this, I thought that it was only worth one play when I saw it.
Y'know, it seems sad, but true, vidiots, that we are facing the
end of an era, the passing of an archetype, and the death <gasp!> of a
what has appeared to be a short, yet turbulent fad. Hell, the Atari
2600 now sells for < 30$ normally, and who knows how cheap it will be
come the sales at Christmas. The Apple II+(e;c) game machine even
seems to be slipping. I know not what the world comes to. Sigh.
Lord, if there's life left in the arcades, give me a sign!
Let the video-minions spill forth, stand up and be counted. its 40
years after wwii, the time is ripe for conquest. Ve can Rule the
vurlt!
Awright, this is over. sign me:
tektronix!reed!marcus
Wait, said the glassy eyed hacker, the era hasn't really ended. Why
just last night I had dinner with the Pac family.....
kAwws@whuxlm.UUCP (Stoll W William) (05/11/85)
> Hey, net-heads, not so long ago, there was acutally a > reasonable amount of traffic on this group about the game called > Marble Madness. When I read the articles, I thought, great, but > where can I find the game? Well, I finally found the game at a local > arcade, but of course I didn't save any of the pertinent postings. > By now you have probably guessed my request. Please mail me (or > post, and brave the flames) strategy hints for this quarter eater. > Here's the posting that summarized "how to win". Enjoy (I still haven't won...). Mail didn't work, or I wouldn't be posting this to everywhere... sorry. Bill Stoll, ..!whuxlm!wws >From whuxl!houxm!mhuxj!mhuxr!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!bmcg!sdcc6!ix925 Thu Feb 21 00:45:54 1985 Relay-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site whuxlm.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site sdcc6.UUCP Path: whuxlm!whuxl!houxm!mhuxj!mhuxr!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!bmcg!sdcc6!ix925 From: ix925@sdcc6.UUCP (??????) Newsgroups: net.games.video Subject: Marble "Madness"?? Message-ID: <1925@sdcc6.UUCP> Date: 21 Feb 85 05:45:54 GMT Date-Received: 22 Feb 85 22:45:42 GMT Organization: U.C. San Diego, Academic Computer Center Lines: 65 Marble Madness is a fun game, but they're aren't enough races. After the Ultimate Race, the game ends and plays some fancy music. After about being on the floor for about two weeks at the arcade which I go to, most of the players were able to finish the entire game. Maybe Atari should put in more longer races, I was sort of disappointed when I found out that there were only 6 races, Crystal Castles had 40 levels and Missle Command and Asteroids had more then could be counted. Here are a few tips you can use to play the game: 1. Use both trac balls when playing single player Both of them control the marble and combined they give you more speed. 2. The light blue stuff is ice. You can't control the marble when it is on this stuff. It appears at the end of the beginner race at in the Ultimate race. Roll the marble in along the right side and let it go. 3. In the intermediate race, You can avoid the opening maze, you know, the one where the marble keeps bouncing around inside, by jumping onto the middle section. When the marble gets about halfway down, roll both tracballs to the right and it'll jump onto the middle to get off, just jump off where the maze ends. It really works, but it takes practice. It saves ALOT of time. 4. The green slime can be avoided most of the time by going as fast you can by them. For some reason the slime seems to move out of the way if you move fast enough... Maybe they're afraid??!! 5. In the areial race, there are two paths you can take after the red scoop throws you. One is in the front with those pipes and one is in the back with nothing but ups and downs. Take the one with the pipes, its quicker. The hammers have a pattern. The most common is two hammers and then four. Go after the four. With the one with one hammer at a time, you move forward then back then forward again. 6. In Silly race watch the time, don't spend too long squashing things. It's fun but time is of the essence. If it takes more then two seconds to squash one, its time to move on. The pink birds are helpful at one point. Get hit by one bird when you are going to the right along the path. It'll teleport you right to the exit. After the birds, the path goes up and into another bouncy maze. That is also a waste of time. When the marble is going up roll it back down and to the left. It'll hop off and you'll be on a flat surface. I've seen some people save about 4-5 secs doing that. 7. In Ultimate Race, GOOD LUCK!!! It takes a lot of luck everything comes into play here. The first two parts with the slime and marble eater, just takes a lot of luck and manuvering. On the ice, just roll in at a moderate to fast speed. Your hoping that by going fast, you can knock the black marble off at the same time you die. The disappearing paths is just an illusion. Go through them at a average speed. They always seem to appear at the right time. Even if they do disappear just as you are about to leave it, the marble will usually fall onto the next one with a SMACK and dizziness. And, that is the end. Just sit back and listen to the music. What did Atari do, put car speakers into that machine? They sounds pretty good. Good Luck....