Top stories

Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

Guide To Black Friday Apple Bargains: Cheap MacBooks, iPods and Accessories Galore

Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]

Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.

Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]

Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]

Cult of Mac says: Bring back Marble Madness!

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.

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.

Email the author | Read more posts by Craig Grannell.

6 comments

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

    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 ;)

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

    Oh yes please! I would love it.

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

    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.

Buy Inside Steve's Brain Buy from Amazon.com Buy from Barnes & Noble