I got myself a Marble Madness prototype!

[BeaglePuss]

Nice to see it's not one-player only like the SMS version!

I haven't had the chance to actually try playing with a second player though (I am adapter-less at the moment), so I'm not 100% sure that the second player has been implemented yet.  I will have to pick up a multi-tap and give her a run-through.

The game comes equipped with a stage select feature (Simply pressing the select button does the trick).  I plan on posting (at least) a single screen shot from each level of the game.  The game itself does have an ending, but on the off-chance this is released, I would hate to spoil things (as anti-climatic as they may be).

[Necromancer]

We've discussed Marble Madness off and on over the years and nobody's been able to give solid info., so I doubt you'll get much now (though I'd love to see someone come forward).  Heh, you probably already know more about it than all of us put together.

[BeaglePuss]

We've discussed Marble Madness off and on over the years and nobody's been able to give solid info., so I doubt you'll get much now (though I'd love to see someone come forward).  Heh, you probably already know more about it than all of us put together.

That's a bummer.  I'll have to poke around a bit more apparently.

[csgx1]

Wow, amazing find!  Congratulations.  I'm excited to see more screen shots. 

[BeaglePuss]

Well, I have plenty to report:

Firstly, I took a picture of the opening screen and each level.  The game opens up in the exact same fashion as the "Off the Wall" prototype does.  The player is greeted with "Tengen presents: Debug Level II."

After a bit messing around, I discovered an insanely awesome debug menu.  I have pictures of each "Test" that will likely do more justice than my simple explanation would.  Each test has to do with sound effect and things of that nature, but one choice allows you to mess with the color pallet.  At the end of all the test, the game defaults to a debug mode that allows you to "fly" your Marble across each landscape.  The color of the level depends on the pallet you chose.  I'm sure this sounds insanely confusing, but the pictures will help put things together.

As an aside, the second Marble is pictured leading me to believe this is a legitimate two player game.

I'm putting some primitive watermarks on the pictures and plan on uploading them shortly.

[BeaglePuss]

Game inserted into my region modded Duo-r.


Debug message I mentioned earlier.


Credits.


Attract mode.


Attract mode pic 2.


"Practice Race."


"Beginner Race."


"Intermediate Race."


"Aerial Race."


"Silly Race."


"Ultimate Race."


Debug menu 1


Debug menu 2.  If you hit the run button, the songs from the game begin to play.  The keys for the song light up on the keyboards, effectively showing you how to play all the tunes.  How f*cking cool is that?


Debug menu 3.  You can change the wave on the screen and it controls the pitch of a song.  Kinda weird.


Debug gameplay 1.


Debug gameplay 2.


Debug gameplay 3.  You'll notice on the first debug screen there's a "Pallette Filter" option.  For the above screen shot I chose the "Monochrome" option, but there are like ten different styles to choose from.

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

[Chuplayer]

What does widescreen do? Does it make for a 16:9 presentation?

[BeaglePuss]

What does widescreen do? Does it make for a 16:9 presentation?

Haven't tried it to be honest.  I could give it a spin I suppose.

I do love the fact that this game has gone undiscovered for 20+ years, and the first question someone has after it's finally unearthed is "What does widescreen do?"  Hahahaha!

[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. ^^

[FiftyQuid]

Thank you for those pics!  It's awesome to see this on a console!  I use to dump quarters into the arcade machine.

[BeaglePuss]

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.

[Sadler]

...

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

I certainly am! That looks awesome. I never owned Marble Madness, but some of my earliest video game playing memories are of that game. I'd love to mess around with those debug modes! Thanks for sharing!

[BeaglePuss]

Thank you for those pics!  It's awesome to see this on a console!  I use to dump quarters into the arcade machine.

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.

[Deletion]

It's cool just to witness all of this. Thanks for sharing, BeaglePuss. Hopefully some day we'll all be able to enjoy this forgotten game.

[Mathius]

First things first. How are the tunes???