Marble Craze - Atari 2600

Marble Craze is a masterpiece. If Mr. Slocum had worked for Activision in the early 80s, he\'d be up there with the Rolling Stones of today. From start to finish, Marble Craze is tour de force for the Atari 2600. The graphics are well suited for the gameplay, and the mazes are as creative and unique as any I have ever seen. The sound is also incredible, especially when you consider the limited sound capabilites of the VCS. There is a pulse-pounding, synthesized feeling to every sound Marble Craze hypnotically churns out. It not only adds to the atmosphere of the game, but it reveals a tremendously upbeat tune as well.Overall, Marble Craze deserves to be at the top of every Atari 2600 video game library.

I\'m very impressed with Paul Slocum\'s Marble Craze. The dual paddle control is not merely innovative, it\'s absolutlely PERFECT for the game. Once you\'ve fiddled with the paddles for a minute or two, your control of the game is just like that of the real Labyrinth after which it was modeled. Paul even thought to include horizontal and vertical position indicators (or is it pitch and yaw?), a very nice touch which helps keep you from oversteering the controls. And then there\'s the music. Really, it\'s very impressive considering the limitations of the 2600 and in the absence of a DPC chip inside the cart. Marble Craze has it all. It\'s challenging, fun, graphically and visually appealing, and it\'s addictive as anything out there. But what impresses me most about this game is that there is absolutely NOTHING like it for the 2600. It\'s truly a great, grerat homebrew. Marble Maze is a programming masterwork which, even in their glory days, Activision or Atari would have been proud to have claimed as their own. Get it. Marble Craze will change your list of Top 10 games forever.

I was excited the very first time I read a preview page of this release, because as a kid my parents bought me one of the wooden maze ball games the concept is based on. When I found out it was going to be available at the CGExpo I was attending, I was even MORE excited. Then my heart crashed when word spread around the convention floor that the carts were defective and couldn\'t be sold. They left a sign-up sheet where you could leave your name and e-mail address to be contacted later, and I thought that would be the end of it. Lo and behold on Sunday I learned that all of the carts had been tested and SOME of them actually worked, so Paul was going to release a few to whoever was still around to get one. I stood right there next to the display for it for 20 minutes until Paul came back, put a few in his special tins, and put them up for sale. Timing and luck, I managed to get a working copy of this game and even got Paul to autograph it. When I got home, I discovered it had been worth ALL of the worry and the wait. There are not many homebrews more spectacular than this on 2600 - it\'s very well animated (with almost no flicker), has a FULL SET OF BACKGROUND MUSIC (how many 2600 games homebrew or OTHERWISE can say that) and is far from easy to play - it\'s quite a challenge to even this veteran gamer! You might not get the limited edition in a special tin that I did in Las Vegas, but that\'s no reason to pass up on this one of a kind Atari game that proves the 2600 was never really dead - it just went on hiatus for a little while!

Most certainly the best 2600 homebrew ever written... If you are going to buy a homebrew game... this is the one you HAVE to buy.

Still a great game! It takes a bit to get used to the controls, but once you do its lots of fun. Very impressive for the 2600!