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xraydash
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by xraydash Sat Jun 28, 2008 10:24 am

I was going to sit this one out because I've been out of town and have an insane backlog of games. I'm still playing Kid Icarus and Lunar: Silver Star Story for TR! But then I came across the NES version yesterday as part of an insane lot I bought (more on that later) and gave it a go. Fun! Hard though. From reading about it and looking at the screen shots I didn't think I knew this game but now I remember playing it on my C64 back in the day.
Scooter
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by Scooter Sun Jun 29, 2008 3:55 am

I just tried the Game Gear version in earnest, I'll bet it's the same as the Master System version. I'm more used to the Genesis version. The camera control on the GG version is inferior in that the marble is typically near the edge of the screen which makes it hard to tell exactly where you should be going and the edge of the screen will bump you back as if you hit a hard barrier. The level designs (at least through level 4) are the same as the Genesis version.
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racketboy
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by racketboy Sun Jun 29, 2008 7:30 pm

I've been playing it on my DS via nesds.
Seems to work pretty well, but there is a graphic glitch on the countdown clock at the beginning of each level.
But the controls are surprisingly good. Just still need to get used to the game again :)
Ivo
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by Ivo Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:41 am

Anyone else playing it on MAME, should I change the settings for Mouse sensitivity? It seems like I REALLY have to roll it, I suspect I need to tinker with the sensitivity but I don't want to "cheat" the controls either... OTOH all the trackballs are different from the arcade ones, so it can't really be cheating as I don't even know if as it is I have a handicap due to relatively low sensitivity (which makes going fast or "braking" near the end of a ramp to avoid falling very hard or impossible).

Ivo.
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Doctor Fugue
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by Doctor Fugue Wed Jul 02, 2008 7:46 am

Ivo wrote:Anyone else playing it on MAME, should I change the settings for Mouse sensitivity? It seems like I REALLY have to roll it, I suspect I need to tinker with the sensitivity but I don't want to "cheat" the controls either... OTOH all the trackballs are different from the arcade ones, so it can't really be cheating as I don't even know if as it is I have a handicap due to relatively low sensitivity (which makes going fast or "braking" near the end of a ramp to avoid falling very hard or impossible).


This is exactly why I think the Genesis version is much easier. Without a huge, proper, Golden Tee '98 type of trackball, it is very hard to stop rolling in a certain direction. But the Genesis version (and others; I don't know) has a "fast" button, which makes it very easy to stop rolling...just push the button and hold the opposite direction...it gives you immediate full speed...which is like being able to stop a trackball spinning and send it in the other direction in an instant.

Anyone playing it on MAME should feel no guilt at all, I can't imagine any settings making it easier than the Genesis version. Are the other console versions like this?
"Your vessel, your beginning. All that you knew...is gone." - The Guardian of Forever
Ivo
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by Ivo Fri Jul 11, 2008 5:07 am

Optical trackballs don't work very well... They don't seem to capture well movements when you roll them fast (maybe they would if the ball was larger, the one I could get is shown below).

In the end what I did was increase MAME's setting to maximum sensitivity, to be able to go faster. Unfortunately that also made going slow slightly fidgety which made some parts hard to navigate... Worse than that, however, is that I obviously wasn't doing the maximum speed, which became rather apparent in a number of sequences:
1. Level 1, not able to jump for the extra points
2. In several levels, VERY hard to "beat" the enemy marbles (I usually was able to avoid them, however), which would give extra 1000 points.
3. Aerial Race has a steep ramp before a jump in the shortest route. It was EXTREMELY HARD to get to the top of the ramp without having the marble almost completely stopped.
4. Ultimate Race has a similar steep ramp near the Goal, which you can't take long climbing as it vanishes periodically.

Only after having a very hard time finishing it the first time (using save states) I tried the cursor keys, and that clearly showed me that indeed I wasn't cutting top speed most of the times. With the cursors, I could get 5k in level 1 from a ramp jump, push some enemy marbles with less difficulty, clear the Aerial race jump in one try mostly everytime, and easily climb the ramp in Ultimate Race. But I was too used to playing with a trackball, so I played everywhere else with it. Switching controls in midgame doesn't do wonders, but was the best control I could have given the circumstances.

For reference, the optical trackball I used was this one, which is obviously very poor for the job (I held it on the left hand so I could use it more like a regular trackball):
http://images.vnunet.com/v7_images/hard ... soft09.gif

Ivo.
GP1138
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Re: What Port of Marble Madness Are You Playing?

by GP1138 Mon Nov 17, 2008 6:31 pm

I've only ever played the Genesis version and the NES version, but I prefer the NES version. The graphics are pleasing and I like the music better on that particular port, it seems a lot less disjointed.
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