C&VG


Marble Madness
By Melbourne House
Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #63

Marble Madness

Here's a nifty bit of software that no true MM fan should be without - the only problem is that 64 owners aren't likely to get a chance to play around with this useful utility because Melbourne only have the rights for Speccy and Amstrad.

What you get is the normal Marble Madness game plus an editor which allows you to construct your own MM tracks - complete with all the nasties like bubbles, oil slicks and Mary Poppins flying umbrellas. All the ingredients of the arcade classic.

You can build your tracks from scratch or simply edit the ten different tracks already included in the program.

Marble Madness Deluxe Edition

The construction screen shows a smaller version of the play area with icons representing the different MM track sections ranged down the right hand side of the screen and the nasties/bonus scores! options along the bottom of the screen.

When defining a playing area you are free to move the cursor over any part of the screen. To place a new piece, move the cursor over the shape you want, press fire, that shape appears as a cursor in the play area, where you can move it to the desired position and press fire again to drop it.

To delete a piece, move the cursor over it and press fire. All other aliens and special features are placed using the cursor and the fire key.

Once you've built a track you can try it out by selecting the "test" option. And if it doesn't work out you can go back to the edit mode to put things right.

You can go on adding screens until the memory is full up and then you can save your designs and go back to creating more new MM challenges.

Fancy a break from building? Then just go back to the main menu and select the play the game mode. This gives you as good a game of MM as you can expect on the Speccy.

The construction set makes MM a whole new ball game every time you play!