I found this in probly thousand-four, and come back to it now and again.
Ages ago, the staff of Raptisoft stumbled upon a Marble Madness machine in a video arcade. It was love at first sight.
We never understood why nobody ever put out sequels to Marble Madness, or made a 3D version, or made a version for windows! Eventually, we decided to do it ourselves!
Hamsterball takes the spirit of Marble Madness and brings it into the next century!
I have it, but it's been gathering dust for a long time because I got to a point where I really needed a trackball to progress. Yet I never bought a trackball. At one time X-Arcade (I think) had an arcade style trackball, but they discontinued it so now you have to buy a full panel to get their trackball. Since I already have a Hotrod SE (that still needs to be upgraded to USB- yeah, that's about how much I use it) obviously that is not an option for me.
There are of course the standard mouse-replacement trackball one can find, but I never looked into how much they can withstand arcade play. I owned one once, but it didn't really work as well as I had hoped for arcade games. That was a long time ago though- even before I owned Hamsterball.
Oh, and Hamsterball 2 is supposedly in the works, just as soon at Raptisoft finishes an HD remake of one of their iphone games.
Oh yeah, X-Arcade made a trackball panel. Probably didn't sell that well, but people wanted one, so they incorporated it in. I made a related mistake when I bought my Slik Stik panel (after returning the X-Arcade 2-player), where I didn't want a trackball, but Christian (remember that name??) said, 'You really want a trackball.' I ended up returning the custom panel for a Classic. Should've just got a CO2 the first time round!
Anyways, I long ago explored all the permutations of joystick, trackball, and mouse with MM and Hamsterball. These days I play MM with a joystic. Hamsterball worked best using a stick and a mouse: power from the stick, fine movement with the mouse.
Even so, it took a lot of continues to get past the red (hammer and saws) screen, so I don't know as a sequel is necessary for me - but I look forward to it.
> I have it, but it's been gathering dust for a long time because I got to a point where I really needed a trackball to progress. Yet I never bought a trackball. At one time X-Arcade (I think) had an arcade style trackball, but they discontinued it so now you have to buy a full panel to get their trackball. Since I already have a Hotrod SE (that still needs to be upgraded to USB- yeah, that's about how much I use it) obviously that is not an option for me.
> There are of course the standard mouse-replacement trackball one can find, but I never looked into how much they can withstand arcade play. I owned one once, but it didn't really work as well as I had hoped for arcade games. That was a long time ago though- even before I owned Hamsterball.
> Oh, and Hamsterball 2 is supposedly in the works, just as soon at Raptisoft finishes an HD remake of one of their iphone games.
I have the full range of Kensington Trackballs - which are "mouse replacements" rather than gaming trackballs. I think they all work well, the only two noticable differences between their cheapest model, and their more expensive, being the inclusion of four buttons on the pricey ones (rather than 2), and the size of the ball itself (around 30mm to 55mm).
I'm not sure they're suitable for a cabinet though, if that's your hope. Only one model has a ball that is "fixed", with the others you can easily remove the ball.
I have to adjust it to each game, but once set I find it makes Centipede, Marble Madness, Missile Command etc. more fun to play. For a cabinet experience you'll want a larger ball, imo.
As to this game - they have a lot of the basics right, and it's fun enough. However, it's dressed in one of those "mobile devices" interfaces that just spoil any arcade feel. The music is beyond annoying, and you keep getting dumped back to the menu when you complete a course. So - Marble Madness it ain't.
I know MAME has gotten much better with analog controllers since I used one- it was over a decade ago that I had a trackball after all. Eventually I'll get another one again, and undoubtedly it will be a mouse-replacement type rather than an arcade one. Unfortunately money is tight right now so it's not high on my priority list. One day.
I dig the music. It's timely for the period. The interface isn't mobile at all. Mobile wasn't a thing then, first off. Also, it doesn't take you back to the menu; it goes to the course list, which is important for a couple/few reasons. It's part of the experience.
I remember first seeing the Kensington ball-mouse at my cousin's house in '95. He told me you could replace the ball with a cue ball. A few years ago I was curious enough to buy a near-mint four-button smaller ball model. I think it was twenty bucks with shipping. The cable is serial, with an included dongle to PS/2. The USB models were expensive. My modern PC won't recognize it via a PS/2 to USB adapter, so I can't re-visit it at the moment, but I remember not caring for its lack of travel when spun. It's designed for high resolution (for the time), minute detail movement - not slick and fast.
The latest model, recently issued, is wireless and BT. Reviews say ball movement is very smooth.
It's all the silly awards, the comparing scores to the systems best, the bouncy music etc. Even visually it looks like more modern games.
The course list is a menu.
I don't really see the importance of it, other than allowing you to go to any "unlocked" (there we go again with mobile type gaming) course you want.
Still - each to their own. The courses I tried could be fiendish, even if they were kinda short. With my trackball I was able to get around some spiral curves, but damn I died a lot.
I hoped the game would have a Marble Madness vibe, given how close it is gameplay wise. Sadly it didn't capture that, instead looking like it was begging for the introduction of micro-transactions. A fun distraction then, but not really something I'm going to obsess over.
On Trackballs, the Kensington's are, first and foremost, mouse replacements. They're not gaming trackballs. Fortunately you can make adjustments to suit your taste within Mame and of course within Windows, and I think you can get a good approximation.
The ball movement on all current models is smooth, with the smoothest being the high-end model (Slimblade) which is what I use for all my work on the PC. The one surprising factoid Kensington don't publish is that it's only 1000 dpi though - which is not a problem for anything I've used it for, but may bother some. Since the models are divided into two button or four button configurations, that might factor in. I bought the Slimblade to see if the larger ball made any real difference - honestly I can't say that for me, it did.
My personal high scores in Tempest, Centipede, and Missile Command did improve though - but I'm not a skilled player and I won't be bothering anyone at Twin Galaxies within the next 100 years. Still, that's not the trackballs fault, I'm just not very good.
Having said that, I know folk around here are perfectionists, and as such I can see there would be reluctance to accept them for gaming. I have no idea what a dedicated gaming trackball costs, but assume they would be better. Of the trackballs I have, the Slimblade exposes more of the ball, so I suppose that would work better in a dedicated controller configuration. However it's reasonably pricey. Still, as I use it as a mouse replacement for all computer tasks, it's a compromise that works well, imo.
Closer to Sega's Monkey Ball game play with using a different controller device.
The game genre might be somewhat similar, but no way is it a sequel to Atari's Marble Madness. And I am/was a huge fan of Marble Madness back in the mid 1980s days. Marble Madness was my own version of the "Pac Man" fever back then because Marble Madness was only game I played for the years of 1985 through mid 1987.
You're totally right. I'm really surprised I haven't seen more games like Super Monkey Ball or this one on cell phones. One would think having a tilt sensor and accelerometer would be perfect for games like this.
> > Just saying. Be fun. > > You're totally right. I'm really surprised I haven't seen more games like Super > Monkey Ball or this one on cell phones. One would think having a tilt sensor and > accelerometer would be perfect for games like this.
https://apkpure.com/super-monkey-ball-bounce/com.sega.smbbounce I'm in shock that this website still have the Super Monkey Ball Bounce host. Note: Grab it before it get remove later down the road. You must download the xapk. Other wise it won't work because the server is no longer host by Google to download the data files.
Ahm, sounds like they were years ahead of the model, then - but didn't push it on people, cos you buy once. It's a PC game to me, so it doesn't have to go straight from board to board. It's one of the few PC games I really care for, if that's any indication.
You can get a HAPP or Betson USB trackball for sixty, seventy bucks. So, less. They're worth it. High ball version is better. Remember that original trackballs were 2.25 inches, whereas modern balls (perhaps starting with Golden Tee and that) are three. High ball is same, just higher in the cradle, and hence more exposed. The U-trak is in this vein, though it's a bit more than a HAPP or betson high ball.
I did a cursory Google and didn't see any usable Betson trackballs at that price, they appear to be closer to $100. Also, they seem to be primarily designed for installation into a cab - whereas the desktop models are ideally suited for those of us who play at desks, or seated on couches.
Still, each to their own. I actually think Tempest works great on a trackball. Or at least, a trackball is a massive improvement over a keyboard or joystick.
On mastering Marble Madness - I've been playing Space Invaders for coming on 40 years, and I've not mastered it yet.
> I can go a lot of places.....but Space Harrier is not one of them. The enthusiasm for > it has always boggled me.
It had amazing visuals which we'd never seen before, fantastic music and a kick ass simulator. Hey to be fair, I think I was 11 at the time it was at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, was on holiday there.
I recall walking into the arcade and a guy was playing it with a large crowd of people gathered.
I bought a Wingman Warrior back in the day for a cheap spinner to use with Tron and Tempest (I think Tempest was emulated by then). Unfortunately as is typical with cheaper options, they tend not to last. In this case, I still have the controller and it is presumably fine, but it required a serial port (yes, old 9-pin serial port) and special driver for the spinner. It quickly became dated when a new driver was not released for whatever the OS upgrade was (been too long, don't remember the specifics). The joystick used a standard (at the time) game port and could be used for a long time after as long as computers included the port, but without the spinner it was just another flight stick.
>>...Marble Madness was only game I played for the years of 1985 through mid 1987.
>That's heavy, dude. That's, like, ten times as much as you need to master it.
During the two years, Marble Madness was my own variation of "Pac Man Fever" (folks over-addicted to some particular arcade game)
It always frustrated me many times of rarely getting past level 4 on to level 5. The level 4 music always stuck in my mind. About 1997 of when Digital Eclipse was marketing arcade classic titles on CDs for Mac and Windows users, I had purchased a copy myself.
I played Digital Eclipse's version of Marble Madness and was able to get to level 4, but I had noticed one musical medley was missing. I knew I could not be mis-remembering Marble Madness. I explored the files on the CD and noticed the audio wav files and played them. None of the files matched the specific level 4 music medley.
A few years after 1997 and when discovering community emulation preservation projects such as MAME and other emulators in 2000, I tried running Marble Madness in MAME. I noticed that Aaron Giles had emulated the Atari System 1 games such as Marble Madness and Aaron emulated Marble Madness correctly in which the particular level 4 music medley was being played while Digital Eclipse's commercial port was missing that musical medley piece on level 4.
Another example of where the commercial port might fall short compared to MAME.
What turned me off from the beginning was the pastel color palette. Outrun similarly, but not as bad. Afterburner didn't suffer the same, and it was basically the same game as Space Harrier, with a more interesting angle - flight. Plus, player fire in Space Harrier gets in the way of view. No bueno.
I can't recall being able to hear the music in Space Harrier. Could barely hear it in Outrun at the local pizza joint.
In the end, the only one I care for is Outrun, Afterburner being somewhat second.
Yeah, Betson no longer makes trackballs, and nothing but shafts and balls on ebay. (HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH....I only thought of that on re-read....) Happ trackballs are as low as fifty bucks, though. Of course they're for cabs, they're arcade products. Doh. You could try this, though:
> > What turned me off from the beginning was the pastel color palette. > > It was 1985, pretty much no games (or computers) were *capable* of showing pastel colors. So that just made the hardware seem more advanced.
Perhaps it was....but....having an innate Classical aesthetic, and preferring primary colors, I totally felt no on that. Ne-gatory.
I loved the main 80s Capcom games for this reason alone. Only the ground in 1942, though.
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