Cult of Mac says: Bring back Marble Madness!

Craig Grannell ()

marble-madness

What it was: A trackball-controlled arcade classic, released by Atari in 1984. You had to guide your marble through six perilous courses. Think Super Monkey Ball’s granddad, with a penchant for Escher and isometric projection, minus the monkeys.

What we’d like to see: Although there were, at the last count, 46 billion iPhone ‘marble rolling’ games, most of them suck, and none hold a candle to Mark Cerny’s Atari classic. Since other Atari games have made it to iPhone relatively intact, there’s no reason why Marble Madness couldn’t make an appearance, perhaps with the choice of of tilt-based controls or a virtual trackball, as per our mock-up above. How about it, Atari?

UPDATE: iPhone gaming website Slide to Play reports that a tilt-controlled Marble Madnessis due on the App Store “in the next couple of weeks” and will include bonus tracks, content and modes. No trackball, alas.

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6 comments »

About the author

Craig Grannell

Craig Grannell is Cult of Mac's designer and an occasional contributor. He also runs iPhoneTiny.com, a Twitter-driven reviews site for iPhone apps and games. Follow Craig on Twitter @CraigGrannell and visit his website, Snub Communications.

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Posted in Gaming, iPhone, Opinions |

  • Ryan Hoover

    Check out Marble Blast Mobile for the iPhone. Although a little different than Marble Madness, it’s similar marble fun. http://bit.ly/kUYvP

  • Aaron

    You gotta check out Marble Blast Mobile. It is a port of the game Marble Blast Gold brought to iphone. The game itself is inspired by Marble Madness ;)

  • http://blogs.opennms.org Tarus

    Heh – just study this guy – Marble Madness owned: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYsTvS3VCYQ

  • Erik

    Oh yes please! I would love it.

  • Andy Misle

    I was thinking the exact same thing just the other day. Marble Madness would translate perfectly to the iPhone. Pretty please, Atari?

  • http://www.snubcommunications.com Craig Grannell

    Atari games also have a good track record on iPhone. Super Breakout and Centipede both offer the original versions and really good updates. Missile Command’s update is trash, but the original version is converted nicely (bar the hideous fonts) and works brilliantly on the touchscreen. Marble Madness would be an obvious choice, and if they wanted it to sell by the bucketload, they could always drop in the unreleased Marble Madness 2.