I just picked up a Marble Madness Turbografx Prototype

[mrmark0673]

Hi all,

My brother just posted this on the PC-Engine forums, but I thought it was worth mentioning here as well :)

I purchased a massive lot of prototype materials from Tengen/Atari, one of which is a Turbografx-16 copy of the unreleased title "Marble Madness." I bought the lot untested, and in many instances unlabeled (as was the case with the MM prototype). I knew the game was a TG-16/PC Engine prototype from Tengen though, so I was willing to take a shot. I figured I'd end up with a prototype copy of KLAX at the very least. The lot got in today, and immediately fired up the card to find it to be Marble Madness.

I've heard stories of other copies existing, but through all my searching I haven't been able to find concrete evidence to prove it. Was there a copy for sale on Yahoo Japan? Does anyone know any collectors that own a copy? The title screen on mine is slightly different than that of the scans that are floating around, so I'm sure there were other proto cards out there at one point. The game is fully playable to the end, but I don't know how complete it is exactly.

I will be updating with pics and screen shots shortly. If you have an idea of who I am, you can trust that this is not some lame hoax. For the time being though, I'm just trying to find as much info as possible on the game.

[Yakumo]

Yep, we know how you are and know about all the good stuff you've brought us along with your brother. Your word is good

I'm not a fan of Marble Madness but I'm sure there are many who are and eagerly wait screen shots of this unreleased version.

Yakumo

[mrmark0673]

Got some pics for those interested!


Game inserted into my region modded Duo-r.


Debug message you get when turning on the power


Credits.


Attract mode.


Attract mode pic 2.


"Practice Race."


"Beginner Race."


"Intermediate Race."


"Aerial Race."


"Silly Race."


"Ultimate Race."


Debug menu 1


Debug menu 2. If you hit the run button, the songs from the game begin to play. The keys for the song light up on the keyboards, effectively showing you how to play all the tunes. How fucking cool is that?


Debug menu 3. You can change the wave on the screen and it controls the pitch of a song. Kinda weird.


Debug gameplay 1.


Debug gameplay 2.



Debug gameplay 3. You'll notice on the first debug screen there's a "Palette Filter" option. For the above screen shot I chose the "Monochrome" option, but there are like ten different styles to choose from.

That's it for now guys. I hope you're enjoying everything so far!

[Vosse]

THAT's AWESOME.

I love the shit out of MM.
Any chance of a video or just pictures?

[LuckyToke]

I hated that game as a kid! - Mum brought if for me for the NES and made me play it, I wanted to play my other games Mario, TMHT 2 Arcade, mega man etc... but no I had to play the "nice" game without shooting and killing!!! Arrrggghhh

Great find tho!

[pool7]

Looks like an interesting, addictive and probably challenging game!

[Mystical]

haven't played MM in years, was one of my favorite games on the Mega Drive, thanks for the screenshots

[G0dLiKe]

MM will always be in my personal "All time classics"

thx for sharing the pics

[geluda]

Interesting find!

[gorgyrip]

Will you dump the rom?

[Greg2600]

Very cool, is it any different from the NES?

[GaijinPunch]

Cool find. I've been hearing about this proto for over 10 years. PC-Engine Paradise hasn't updated the site in over 3 years, but as of last update, it was on his wanted list -- and he has tons.

[Niknice]

Is there any more news about this? I would love to see a video of Marble Madness in action :)

[Tempest]

Wow,great!Thanks for the screenshots!I hope that anyone dump this prototype.

[wilykat]

Me too. I'd offer to help with the dumping but my EPROM programmer went south years ago

[Niknice]

Any updates? Vids maybe?

[Bad_Ad84]

Were the eproms without window stickers?

Because the ones in the picture are modern.

[derekb]

guessing maybe mark pulled the chips to dump then replaced with burned copies?

[LocalH]

I'm guessing that the chips didn't have stickers on them, and Mark just grabbed what he had handy to protect them.

[mrmark0673]

I'm guessing that the chips didn't have stickers on them, and Mark just grabbed what he had handy to protect them.

Bingo. I order from buyicnow very often for my repros, any proto that comes in without stickers covering the EPROMs gets the generic sticker treatment. Older ones are black and brown with the buyic website info, newer ones are silver.

Bit rot is no one's friend.