MARBLE MADNESS
By Ranza, he who hates complicated ASCII thingies
Buongiorno! This FAQ is here to help all you who like this game but
have yet to find any help for it. Well, I'm here for you mates! This
FAQ will highlight the 6 races (Practice, Beginner, Intermediate,
Aerial, Silly, and Ultimate), the various enemies, and some basic
information (not necessarily in that order).
Part 1: Basic information
Marble Madness
Copyright 1984 TENGEN
Liscensed by Nintendo of America
Marble Madness is a game where you control a marble as it glides through
6 mazes in a race against time. I would recommend this game to anybody,
as it is totally nonviolent and incredibly absorbing. You will love
this game. Really, you will.
Controls
The controls are quite odd. The A button and the D-Pad are the only
things you'll use. The D-Pad controls your marble and the A button
moves you to a higher speed (you accelerate automatically with the D-
Pad). There are two control layouts - 90 degrees and 45 degrees. 90
degrees controls your marble as it appears on the screen, with down
moving the marble down and up moving it up. 45, however, requires you
to move the D-pad 45 degrees to the right, so that the gap between "up"
and "left" is facing towards the screen for the movements on the D-Pad
to be accuratly represented by the marble (what a sentance.)
The Fairy: Every now and then (completly random, I think, e-mail me if
I'm wrong), a wand will appear out of nowhere and bless you with an
additional 10 seconds on the clock. Very wrathful. Of course, on
course 5, the silly race, the fairy takes time from you, so beware. You
can't prevent it.
The Obstacles
Stuffed olives - So named because of their appearance, they slink around
like a slinky and try to jump on you, eating you. This kills you
instantly, but the jump is easy to avoid.
Found in: 2, 3
Acid Pools - The green gobs. They are evil. When you touch them, you
are instantly disintigrated. They move slowly, but they often bunch
together.
Found in: 3, 4, 6
Chutes - Run into it and pop out the other end. Not a threat. Fear it
not, for it shall not harm you.
Found in: 2, 5, and a modified version on 6.
The infamous rolling floor - You have to see this once to believe it.
This green stretch of platform may not see odd at first, mate, but it
will when you see it sweep up like an ocean wave and toss you over the
side. It's not too hard to evade, but if you get caught in it, you can
lose up to 3 seconds.
Found in: 3
The Black Marble - These black marbles will come after you and ram you.
The ramming is never fatal unless it launches you off the side. They
would be less dangerous if they weren't in such annoying places. The
only enemy you can kill normally.
Found in: 2, 6
Piston Floors - Annoying. They push up and launch you away, often off
the path. But their patterns are predictable.
Found in: 4
Vacuums - You have to be REALLY dumb to get caught by one of these.
They suck you in, piece by piece, in a cool little effect.
Found in: 4
Punchy-Arms - I HATE THESE! Somebody get a revolver and shoot them to
death! They knock you off the side and backwards, typically into
another one. They are REALLY annoying and it's almost impossible not to
die once here.
Found in: 4
The Catapult - Not much to say about this 'un, just run into it and you
get launched on a predetermined trajectory. Simple.
Found in: 4
The MicroEnemies - On level 5, the silly race, you'll find mini-versions
of the Stuffed Olives, Acid Pools, and Black Marbles. It's payback
time. Run 'em down and get an extra 3 seconds. But why is the black
marble bleeding. . . ?
Found in: 5
Flying Birds - What the purple onion waxer is this? If one of these
flying purple birds rams you, you die. But their trajectories are
predetermined and straight, so fear not. They're not too much of a
threat.
Found in: 5
The Striped Floor - This floor is striped, and it has something akin to
thin, yet pronounced speedbumps. Why this is supposed to slow down your
wrathful marble is unknown to me, because it's just annoying and will
throw you off.
Found in: 6
The Blue Floor - This ranks second as the most annoying feature, after
the punchy-arms. Once upon the blue floor, you cannot change direction
and you are forced to move slowly. One stretch of it even has little
cones to deflect you!
Found in: 6
The Red Floor – Thank you very much to Homer J Simpson (like that's your
real name) for enlightening me! The red floor acts like ice (It reduced
your traction and makes you slip a lot.).
Found in: 6
The Magic Disappearing Floor! - Okay, I changed my mind. This annoying,
wrathful, tricky, 20+ second eating freak of nature will make you scream
in terror and hate. This disappearing floor, similar to something found
in IceMan's stage in Megaman and HeatMan's stage in MegaMan 2, will add
one new tile and remove another one every bit fo time (something like a
third of a musical measure). Fear it.
Part 3: The levels
Level 1: The Practice course. 60 seconds
Ahh, the practice course. The only course with area that is useful only
as scenery. Seriously, there is ground you can't visit in this level.
Anyway, we start at the top, with a beautiful cascading Q-Bert-like area
leading down until we flat out and enter a little tunnel that resembles
a bobsled track and you slide into the finish. Although you get points
for this course, you don't carry time into the next level.
Okay, my dear friend Robert A Pollack showed me that the area on the
side is NOT scenery, it is a place you can visit, and you can get up to
5,000 points depending on the number you land on. Grazie!
Level 2: The Beginner Course. 65 seconds
The first level that counts. You start at the top and fight past
rectangular areas until you reach a short flat area with a Black Marble.
Then, you take a slope down and left until you reach a short, flat area
with two paths leading down, one going down-left and one going down-
right. When you land, there are some stuffed olives there. Just cruise
past them. Then, you'll find a little bridge that changes position
occasionaly. Wait for it to change, then charge across it. From here,
there are two paths: The easy long path and the short hard path. The
short, hard path is my preferred. You slide down a chute, and go over
bumpy ground, first encountering a gap on the left, then the right, and
then you follow the path to the right. There is very little to tell
about the easy, long path, as it is straightforward. You will go down
another chute and into the game's first truly hard area, which I refer
to as The Reach. It is indented in the middle, and will drive you off
the right side or into a hole on the other side of The Reach. You have
to take this on the extreme left edge or you'll curve right and fall
into the pit. It takes practice. Then, turn right and finish the
level.
Level 3: The Intermediate Course. +35 seconds
Having fun yet? One of the shorter levels, it's more intense than the
previous level, but shorter. Go down the ramp, and through the little
maze. Then, slide down. You might miss the slide. Avoid the stuffed
olives, and keep following this path, Dodge past the acid pools, this
is one of the worst places to encounter them because they clump
together. Go down the chute, and swing left, then right. Now, it's
choice time. The easy route, or the hard route? The easy route is VERY
straightforward, but it has the game's first uphill path. The hard
route consists entirely of the Infamous Rolling Floor. Tactics for
defeating this floor are detailed above. Then, it's just down a curved
ramp and finish the level!
Level 4: The Aerial Course. +35 seconds
Oooh. An odd shade of red and a haunting musical track. This level is
scary and unique, in that it makes you jump and it has unique features.
First thing, WAKE UP! You have to catch your marble here. You begin on
a major slide that will send you to oblivion unless you stop it. Then,
groove on past the vacuums and go across a tricky little slide (one of
the few times in this game where one side has an advantage, Player 2
gets the luck here.) Then, head for the catapult. Let it launch you,
it won't hurt you. According to Robert A Pollack, sometimes there's a
black marble above the catapult area, but I've never found this. Oh,
also according to RAP, if you get fairy'd while on the catapult, you get
stuck there… Pick from two paths, once again the long and easy vs. the
short and difficult. As always, I prefer to do things the hard way.
Avoid the pistons. You have to gain up some speed for both jumps, and
you should wait until right after all the pistons pop up to jump the
first time. The easy path is tricky and angular, but still easy.
Either way, you end up facing off with the punchy-arms. With the
rightmost one being 1 and the leftmost being 4, this is the order they
follow (I think)
1 2 3 4 34 12 34 12 13 24 13 24
The best option is just to fling yourself across just as it does the 34
motion. Don't fling yourself off too fast, mate, or you'll go flying
off the side. Turn left, then left, and finish this stage! You earned
it!
Level 5: The Silly Course. +20 seconds
Everything you know is wrong... Where have I heard that... Oh yeah!
Weird Al Yanchovick! Thanks, Homer! Anyway, the worst thing about this
stage is the pathetic time-up you get (20 seconds). Get used to it.
This level has a silly, happy, psychotic song, and the walls have polka-
dots. Well, this is a tricky stage. Can you get used to your marble
moving uphill, cuz that's what it does? Charge uphill. Now, you see
some MiniEnemies. Show no mercy and make them suffer. Get three
seconds each time. Then, charge up the little ramp and into the silly
chute. Here, one side isn't definitly better, but it's different.
Player 1 gets a path that concaves (it goes in), player two gets a path
that convexes (it sticks out.) I don't know which one I like better.
Anyway, once you're past there, you head up to a strange area. The
birds fly from bottom right to top left, and will ice you if you touch.
So avoid them (just blaze past them) and head up a ramp. Now, something
difficult appears. You go down a ramp, but because physics along the Y-
axis (up and down) have been inverted, it will try to push you up wen
you get on it! So gain some momentum for this one, then slink over a
bridge (or dive off the right side, it won't kill you, thank you Robert
A Pollack) and ram into the goal and head for the ultimate challenge:
the Ultimate Race! Ooh, my loins quiver with anticipation...
Level 6: The Ultimate Race. +20 seconds.
+20 seconds! WTF!?! Anyway, you'll end up with under a minute,
usually, and at worst case about 35 seconds. You really have to hurry
through the silly race. There's a neato space background and a cool
song here. Well, get some momentum and charge up that ramp into the
modified chute. You'll come out in a different area for each player, but
they're the same, except player one starts with a striped surface and
ramps down to a red surface, while player two gets vice-versa, but the
floor is the same shape. Anyway, head inwards over a small stretch of
blue surface to reach a larger spread of blue surface. Go right at the
top, and go straight down. You'll have to dodge the marble instantly,
and the screen will scroll down to reveal the disappearing floor, your
final challenge as a player.
Anyway, the first leg, going to the left side (this is shaped like a
diamond) is a straght line composed of three panels. The second leg,
going to the bottom is the hardest, is only 2 tiles wide and from above
it looks like this:
_
| |_
| |_
The third leg, going to the right side, 4 tiles wide, has a ramp, and
looks like this:
/ /
_/_/
/ /
The line denotes the apex of the ramp. This part is dangerous because
of the fact that pieces of it dissappear. The fourth leg is striped
floor, and looks like this:
_
\
\
\
Well, this area is only two tiles wide. It lead to the finish line.
Congratulations! You've won!
SCORING
Very easy. After every race, add 2 zeroes to the number of seconds you
have left. For example, 51 seconds becomes 5,100 points. You get a
bonus for each completed race, but I forget how much that is. If you
feel like hunting it down for me, please inform me! I know that it's
1000 for the first race, but that's it. Also, you seem to get points
added to your score slowly for no reason... Why is that? I think you
get 10 points every second.
If you're playing 2 player, every time you fall a screen behind your
opponent, you lose 5 seconds, and the winner of each race gets an
additional 5 seconds at the beginning of the next race.
At the final, it measures up your current score, adds 1000 points for
each second, adds 20,000 points (I found that out), and detracts 1000
points for every time you die (ouch...) Today, my final score was
62,500. Can you beat it?
Okay, as of 10/31/00, My new high score is 118,250. Can you beat THAT?
I had almost a minute left at the end of the game, that's what did it.
Updates:
10/31/00
- Fixed the Ultimate race disappearing floor map.
- Added a bunch of stuff both Robert A Pollack and Homer J Simpson told
me about (Thank you!)
- Found out about the extra points for finishing the game (20,000)
FINAL WORD
Thanks for reading my FAQ! If you want to e-mail me, e-mail me at
[email protected]
Please e-mail me if you have anything to say about my FAQ, feel the need
to complement me, or just wanna chat with me about something, don't
hesitate, I like getting e-mail!
And thanks again!
