If you're in to arranged soundtracks you should try and track down a few other FM Towns conversions are you'll probably love the arranged soundtracks they feature. It was kind of fujitsu's thing really.

Their port of Super Street Fighter II X had fantastic music!

FM Towns got a port of Super Street Fighter II, not Super Street Fighter II X.

@@Tempora158 You sure? I thought the Marty at least got Super Turbo...

@@jesuszamora6949 The FM Towns Marty can't run Super Street Fighter II at all, much less a Super Turbo port that doesn't exist; it only ran on an RAM upgraded FM Towns. Super Turbo was console exclusive to the 3DO and was published by Panasonic.

Someone with an Amiga complex, I think!

I have to agree, i could turn on a sixpence with practice

Mark is playing a bad version on some emulator with a joystick. the amiga version is perfect with the mouse on an original amiga 1000 that I owned. I hate the amiga but marble madness on it is pure gold !!!!!! 10/10 !!!!!!

@@DJDanceClassic ...but it has terrible Slowdowns as a two player game with two mice connected. I loved the Amiga-Version back then, but the Japan-only Tengen-Version for Megadrive is so much better. I still play it today.

Yes, 2 player has slowdowns but remember, marble madness on the amiga was made in 1986 and was the first game that was exact like the arcades

You'd be correct to think that. The FM Towns version in particular is very smooth.

Though the arranged soundtrack doesn’t sound as good as the 80’s synth in my ears 😊

that is until it became time warner interactive then got abosrbed into midway

That could be a reason why I thought it controlled so poorly. Strange that they have it messed up.

Retro Core This is true. I played this a lot back in the day, both arcade and an original Amiga 1000. The Amigas mouse controls are literally spot on to the arcades trackball control, with no slowdown whatsoever. I still have a real A1200, and this still plays fine. If I recall correctly you could even adapt one of those Marconi track ball controllers to work with this on the Amiga. Before the FM towns etc versions came out this was by far the best port. Unlike a lot of other arcade conversions this is 100% NOT a lazy ST port. Back in the day EA really supported the Amiga and actually did some great ports and original games for it. They were nothing like the EA that is always lambasted for the ‘yearly updates’ it is infamous for these days.

Thanks Sky Man. I just wish I could have also added the NEC PC9801 version. I Goulding find it anywhere.

I suggest going to the Tokugawa forums since that is where I found the vast majority of NEC PC-98 games there (including Marble Madness). As for the Sharp X68000 and NEC PC-88 theisozone.com has "Complete Game Collection" full rom entries for both of those that conveniently divide the games up into their respective genres include a separate category for arcade ports. You can also find huge rom/iso sets for the likes of the Fujitsu FM7, Sharp X1, Fujitsu FM Towns and many others through the "Neo Kobe" rom sets. (The Neo Kobe rom set for the PC-98 is currently under active construction in the Tokugawa forums.) A couple of things to note about this episode: The dos port was specifically designed for Tandy computers. Therefore, it actually utilizes the Tandy 3 speaker sound for music as well as 16 color Tandy graphics. (Not that it makes the gameplay any better but it certainly gives the presentation and sound a few marks up.) There are two ways you can access this: You can either go into the Dosbox config file and set "Machine" to "tandy" (or possibly "pcjr") or if that fails, there is a separate emulator called Tand-em that is specifically designed to play Tandy games. I noticed you are missing the Apple IIGS port of marble madness. I assume that's because, like me, you had trouble getting it to run. I actually managed to get it to run without crashing on the emulator Kegs. If you need help, I'll tell you how. Sorry for the long message but I want you to be best equipped to take on and assess all the ports to the best of your ability. Nevertheless, great episode and one that I had been diligently waiting for for a long time ;-)

Some good information there. I'll take a look at the tokugawa forums. That place would be a great resource for Japanese computer roms as they are kind of tough to find. Also thanks for the information regarding the Apple llGS I did have issues with that so next time I'll give kegs a go. I also didn't know about the DOS Tandy mode. Interesting that.

Retro Core Awesome. Glad I could be of service. I will warn you though. Kegs is far from perfect as it still ramains difficult or impossible to get certain games running. Also, the controls, much like the rest of the emulator, are incredibly buggy when it comes to setting up. Also, as someone who owns an authentic Apple IIGS, the framerate is also a bit choppier than a genuine machine. Sadly, as it stands, it's the best there is at the moment. A bit of advice for setup and use: 1. Instead of going through the agravation of installing the os, just download a preinstalled disk image on the e-maculation page for kegs (located at gs/os section). While your there, download the installation disks anyway they have tool files that some games (such as QIX) require. If they are propted, insert the "system tools" disk that contains the required tool file(s) and drag and drop them to the tools folder on the os disk. 2. Rom 1 is more compatible with games than rom 3 so for your purpose, use rom 1. 3. If a game crashes or fails to boot when opening it through the os (as was the case with me and marble madness), try booting from the game disk image instead of the os disk. To do this, replace the os disk with the game disk at the s7d slots. 4. For the most authentic experience, play at 2.8 speed since that was the defult speed for the stock apple iigs. Good luck. Hope it gets the job done for you. Also hope for a Donkey Kong ports episode in the future ;-)

Roudansk Alamir Nice suggestions but I still miss underground gamer

Tengen Japan were a very talented team. They were also behind the amazing Gauntlet IV on the Mega Drive too.

Sweeeeet. I'm a HUGE fan of Gauntlet "IV." Would have been pretty cool if Gauntlet 2 was included or had gotten a similar treatment. Gauntlet IV 2. :D

Maybe Nintendo had a grip on the license for that one :(

Retro Core As publishers of the game, yes. However, the actual team behind Gauntlet IV are the porting gods themselves, M2.

Really? There were no Japanese games using them back then? I nerve knew that.

The same thing happened with Kalax too. The Japanese Namco version is way better than the western Mega Drive release.

I'll admit that in Klax's case I prefer the Tengen version, 'cause it's a lot closer to the original arcade (and was even done by the same programmers as that), although when it comes to Klax ports in general I prefer the TurboGrafx version a lot; feels better to play to me.

I've not played the PC Engine version. I should give it a try one day.

Lol, 1000 levels. As if.

Yep, this was one that many people requested but I kept putting it off due to the shear amount of ports there were. This video is actually missing two as well, the NEC PC9801 and Sharp X1.

Yep, the Japanese were so lucky. They had 3 of the best versions all to them selves. The only other good version was on the NES.

The midi audio would have been pretty good I'd imagine. Such a shame about the crappy gameplay though.

Ah yes, you are right. It was Rare who made the port. It's a excellent port too. Maybe not the best as that's got to go to the FM Towns version but it's sure up there along with the X68000 and Japanese Mega Drive ports.

Well said. But I guess we do have to consider that some of those early British developed games were done by kids in many cases. Still, no excusing the publisher for releasing such crap.

The FM Towns was a fantastic gamers system. Sometimes Ports on it were not as good as the X68000 but they were always quality.

Retro Core​ i'll read that as "Sometimes ports on it had their own charm, and they were always quality.

I think it is. The section at the end of the video showing 18 versions together took 7 hours to render! The rest of the video was done in 48 minutes.

That is a great shame and probably the main reason why someone should own a sports pad.

With either mouse or joystick the controls were poor compared to other elements Ports. Amiga fans do praise the game a lot. And for its time it was a very impressive port but I can't lie, the controls are pretty ropey when you compare them to the NES version and the Japanese developed Ports on the FM Towns, X68000 and Mega Drive.

Ah yes, I know about the windows version. I was close to adding it to the video but decided against it since its not actually an official port.

Sad he doesn't want to release it, if it's not going to do much nowadays and he wouldn't see a cent for it.

You are right but I couldn't really add that since it's not technically a port of Marble Madness but a rip off. Still, it is better than the crap actually released under the Marble Madness name.

No, you couldn't ;) Just wanted to give a little "wink", if people want to check for a better alternative :)

They are frustrating beyond belief but some of them are that way due to really crappy controls.

What you describe sounds more like how the 'music' of the GBC port sounds....

Really? Wow, that is pretty poor.

Nothing new there. Many of the awful LJN releases were also by Rare but they are not credited. That's actually a blessing though.

Nice find.

@@RetroCore did you known that there also exist a pc engine version?

lol, nice

Pretty much with most of them being excellent.

Retro Core Gotta agree, especially since they're arcade perfect.

Yep, I did try out the Speccy version of the construction kit. Quite nice for an early attempt but still too slow for my liking. I have played the Arcade version quite some time back in the UK. It was pretty good but did take a while to u derating how much spin to apply to the track ball.

I have to confess to never actually seeing this game as a kid. I think the first time I played it was the EA version on the Mega Drive.

FM Towns games did tend to have some great original music tracks.

Yep. I live in Japan. The Amiga over here is none existent so emulation is the only viable option. I'm not importing an Amiga. Maybe some FPGA solution in the future may work though. . The C64 exists though as a strange console like system. Not that one which got a UK release but something that came much earlier. I can't remember the name of it now but I can tell you it is rare. I've only seen two in the 24 years of living here.

Probably since I used a mouse on other versions. This video is very old now so I can't remember for sure.

​@@RetroCoreit is not a matter of what you used. Not sure if anyone mentioned it already but it does not control properly on an emulator (I just tried with WinUAE, PUAE and a couple more and it is twitchy). Running it on actual hardware (also just did that) it scrolls smoothly and the mouse control is almost as good as the arcade trackball. Precise like you wouldn't believe.

Basically a lack of programming skill. The Arcade game was American so there's no reason why western developers couldn't get hold of reference code. Basically the developers behind the Japanese versions just took so much more care.

If you were using Dos Box, you may have had the system settings too high.

Yes, that's right. For some reason I thought Tengen was behind it but as you say it was actually developed by Rare.

I wonder if digital eclipse had anything to do with that port?

Digital Eclipse did the GBC ports of both 1942 and Marble Madness. Also a slight correction; Tengen didn't develop the NES port. Some copyright strings in the PRG lead to Rare as the developer. Yes, the Rare that did Donkey Kong Country and Battletoads.

Woops, looks like you knew the latter already.

Mostly because I don't have access to it here in Japan.

In this video everything in emulated however I have played the Game boy, Mega Drive and FM Towns versions on real hardware in the past with all playing and looking just as they do on this video.

The SFC got a Taito game called Cameltry which I guess is kind of like Marble Madness?

Haha, only PC fanboys would come out with such a phrase to make them selves feel better. Even now I'd say console users are still the "master race". Yes, consoles are less powerful but they're much cheaper than the equivalent PC and simpler to set up. I only own a very small amount of PC games, probably under 10.

I'd still consider the PC to be "masterrace" for the X68000 and FM Towns alone. lol

Dude relax, it was a joke.

Imgema I know. Why did you think I was being serious with my response.

I was replying to Retro Core

The FM Towns and X68000 versions are kind of in HD :) I'd love to see a virtual reality version. That would be one tense game.

You should give it a try. It's much nicer on the ears and to play.

Yes, I think there was an issue with that.

A600 is probably a good bet as it will play most of the 500 games just fine. The A1200 is the best choice however quite a few games are incompatible and will need a crack to make them work.

Thanks for the info!

You'll find A500's the cheapest way. 95% of games were released for it. A600 are the last model and didn't sell too many so are more expensive (and don't do anything more compared to A500, unless you want an easy way to include an external compact flash 'harddrive'). A1200's are the next gen model with upgrades such as 16 million colours. Some later games have A1200 versions, but not enough to justify the extra cost they are going for.

​@@RetroCoreif you boot an A1200 holding both mouse buttons it will take you to a bios like screen where you can disable cpu cache and select between ocs/ecs/aga chipset which usually solves all compatibility issues. Actually what will conflict sometimes with AGA is the crack intros of non original games

Sure it is. There are loads of excellent arcade conversions as well as original action type games.

It must have been his day off when porting Marble Madness as its truly awful.

DaSHalpha Electornic Arts seems to have done a lot of these computer ports of the title as it is.

I've never seen the trackball myself and to be honest I don't even know if it exists. Maybe the manual was referring to the Master System trackball? Or I guess you could turn the mouse upside down and use that as the track ball :)

English computer fans always bitch that their ports are crap because Japanese game companies don't share the source code. Well, here we have a western arcade game that still crap of English home computers yet the Japanese home computers and console port (Mega Drive) are all excellent. As I always say, that source code argument is invalid.

I'd have to agree with you.

When they were porting games, yes. However, their 90s classics like Road Rash were definitely worth playing.

Good point. I'd forgotten all about that accessory.

@@RetroCore You said MM could be played on a trackball with the Mega Drive (19:40) but it does not have one. Maybe you got the md and sms mixed up. I learnt about that crazy control pad the XE-1 AP from Dempa today from the Starblade video which is the precursor to the Saturn analogue, Dreamcast and Xbox 'Duke' pad though.

Ah, for Mega Drive you use the Mega mouse upside down. So, it's kind of a track ball. 👍

@@RetroCore Nice try. The Sega Sports pad rather disappointingly only supports 3 measly games though - Marble Madness is not one of them.