I got myself a Marble Madness prototype!

[TheClash603]

Very cool pics.  Glad to see one of my favorite multiplayer games of the era on the best system of the time.

Are you familiar with the other ports of the game at this time, such as the NES and SMS?  How does this game compare with those?  Does it feel as though it is complete, or did you notice any rough points?

[BigusSchmuck]

Here's a pic of the board to hold you over for a moment (Note: I added the stickers.  The EPROMs had no covering when the game was purchased).


As for the preservation of the game, I think I have things under control lol.  This ain't my first rodeo fellas.  I've purchased, dumped, and preserved hundreds of prototypes over the years.  This is nothing new for me.

Now, back to my original post....
Can anyone fill me in on other owners of the game?  Someone mentioned early on in the thread that there are "very few" of these out there.  Well, how few?  Was there a Yahoo Japan auction?  What other history can you tell me about the game.

I have more pics and screen shots that I will be slowly leaking over course of the day/week.  I'm really interested in the history of the game at the moment though, not it's potential distribution.  No offense meant of course, just don't want to put the carriage in front of the horse is all.

All I know about the game is that the guy who had the prototype to the arcade of Marble Madness 2 supposedly had the pce/turbo version and he wouldn't dump neither rom. This was of course many years ago on zophar domain's message board (mid to late 90s ish?) and to this day I bet whoever he is probably will never dump the roms. BTW, sorry for the delayed response, been real busy at work as of late just got home. ^^

The Marble Madness 2 arcade rom has been available for years now.  Are you sure you're remembering the story correctly?  Do you remember if he posted any actual proof of his TG-16 prototype? 

I read at one point that there was a Yahoo Japan auction "A long time ago" for a Marble Madness prototype, but I'm wondering if it's all a bunch of internet lore at this point.

If he really did decide to dump it thats news to me, all I know is that I haven't been able to find a rom of it anywhere let alone the machine. Anyway, back on topic, its great that you posted some screenshots of this game and I hope we see a reproduction coming to a Turbob near you!

[Black Tiger]

Very cool pics.  Glad to see one of my favorite multiplayer games of the era on the best system of the time.

Are you familiar with the other ports of the game at this time, such as the NES and SMS?  How does this game compare with those?  Does it feel as though it is complete, or did you notice any rough points?

There is a Genesis version, although I don't think I ever bothered to try it. I never got into Marble Madness. It would still be cool to see how the 16-bit versions compare though.

[ParanoiaDragon]

First things first. How are the tunes???

My thoughts exactly!  How are the tunes!  Man, this is epic!

Ofcoarse, for me, one of the first things I'm thinking, is that we could finish the game(assuming it's not finished), put it on cd, & I could make redbook tunes for it!  This is one of those games I've often tbought about trying to get Nod to create it from scratch, so I can do cd tunes, since we never got the official game released.  Heck, maybe we could even have an enhanced mode with more colors, shading, effects, etc.  It's probably fairly close to the arcade I would assume.

As to the game itself, I've always wondered if it existed, & just figured any pics of it were mockup's/arcade shots, & nothing more.

BTW, I didn't see anyone else ask this, but, it sounds like you got more then just Marble Madness, or am I wrong?  You said, & I quote "I purchased a massive lot of prototype materials from Tengen/Atari, one of which is a Turbografx-16 copy of the unreleased title "Marble Madness.""  Maybe you were waiting for someone to point out that there was a "lot" of games you won?

[TR0N]

Interesting i like to see a reproduction made of this if that is even possible.

[cabbage]

BeaglePuss, Congratulations on tracking this one down. What an exciting find! Thanks for generously sharing such nice photos and information. I've been waiting a long time for a MM proto to surface Good luck with whatever you decide to do with this treasure.

[Damon Plus]

So it is real! I love the original Marble Madness, and this seems a good conversion, very similar to the Genesis one or even the arcade. Thanks for sharing.

[Otaking]

That's it for now guys.  I hope you're enjoying everything so far!

Wow, great images thanks.
 

[soop]

Hahah, this is great! Hope 2 player is implemented.  Though as pointed out, it looks like it's pretty much done, I'm sure someone would be able to finish the last bit.

I love it that a gem like this can be found so long after the system "retired".  Wonder why they didn't release it though?

Tell you what, if there are credits anywhere on the ROM, maybe we can get hold of someone who was there and find out?

[Necromancer]

Awesome pics, thanks for sharing.  I too would like to know how if the tunes are good, how it compares to other ports, and also if it controls nicely.

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying them.  These things are a lot more fun when you share them with people that are equally enthusiastic.

Heck yeah!  I'm so damn enthusiastic my pants are getting uncomfortable.... perhaps I've said too much.

Tell you what, if there are credits anywhere on the ROM, maybe we can get hold of someone who was there and find out?

That's what I was thinking too.  There's a few different dudes listed on the credits pics - maybe one or more of them can be tracked down and will remember something.

[Samurai Ghost]

Wow, thanks for all of the screen shots!! I'd love to mess around with that debug menu one day. Looking forward to hearing the music if you could post a video at some point. I've always loves the marble madness tunes as well as the TG16 sound chip!

[soop]

I think this is the perfect place to introduce everyone to Marble Madness - The Movie!

[sunteam_paul]

This is fantastic news, I'm really interested to hear some of the music from this version.

[Mathius]

This is fantastic news, I'm really interested to hear some of the music from this version.

Aren't we all! The arcade version's tunes makes for a wonderful atmosphere. Even the NES port was able to convey the same atmosphere, so I am eager to hear what the Turbo can do with it.

[mrhaboobi]

i'm really interested in some of the background stories around how you have tracked these down.. the find is awesome.. but the story is almost more interesting to me