Justin De Lucia

For the past few years I have been curious about this particular game that General Computer Cooperation, the makers of Ms. Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man, Quantum, and Food Fight, created but ultimately never released. It was called Nightmare, and as the name would suggest it's a horror game that's also a top-down shooter. The controls are reminiscent of Tron- you have a spinner to aim with and a joystick with a trigger to move and fire. Very little coverage of the game exists and in modern times the only way to experience it in full is to attend California Extreme, assuming the machine is still there. Here's a video on the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHcdm-rn4Nc And some additional bits of info, plus screenshots: http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=752&gid=393#393

This here is a very appealing looking beast! I especially like how the numpad is laid out and the spinner is a nice bonus.

They seem like the same company, given I recognize their games on several bootleg/unlicensed NES systems.

I think if this game were to get some kind of fan-made polish it would redesign all the levels to rely more strongly on the layouts themselves being hard instead of the difficulty coming from hostile creatures and mobs attacking you every second while still being designed for three players. The player's marble would also lose the anthropomorphic traits from the "Marble Man" phase of the project that carried over into the dumped copy, and what enemies remain would be altered to be less cartoony and more abstract.

I heard from a friend of mine that owns a local mall arcade that someone is trying to make a kit for original Marble Madness machines that would allow you to house both MM1 and MM2 in the same cabinet. I don't know if this is true or not since my friend gave no source or context to the kit's existence.

So what will happen to the supposed reproduction cabinets and boards with trackball controls in production now that the proto was leaked for everyone to experience? Do you think they'll still get made?

I was just about to ask if there were any updates from the guys producing reproduction MMII cabinets. Glad it's going somewhere, maybe I'll ask the owner of a local arcade of mine if he'd be interested in getting a cabinet once it goes on sale...

All the footage I've seen of this game paints it up as a worthy follow up to the original, and the changes I bet were the devs trying to sprinkle up some variety with powerups and larger enemies and shake up the gameplay. Especially for a sequel created years ahead of the original game. That said I wonder what will happen when units go on sale and if the game does get slapped with a DMCA. Will they continue to sell machines? Will they sell just the boards themselves in greater secrecy? Or will they just dump/release the two versions of the ROM they created out of desperation to get the game into more locations/homes?

If that's the case, then it's only a coincidence that they're now putting Akka Arrh in the Arcade1up machines years following the rom dumps online.

Akka Arrh was made before Atari split. Marble Madness was made by Atari Games (the arcade division) then they got absorbed into Midway alongside Williams, then further absorbed into WB when midway went out of business, taking all the Atari Games titles Midway had the rights to with them. Arcade1up recently announced a Mortal Kombat machine with some Midway/Atari Games/Williams but there's no Marble Madness and I think Akka Arrh was only in some of their machines because it was dumped and made available online. That said I wonder where/how you'll be able to order a Marble Madness II board/cabinet once they go into production.

Hopefully WB Games or whoever else owns the rights to Atari Games/Midway's old titles doesn't try to put a stop to any of this (considering they only have interest in Mortal Kombat above all else these days).

Jeez, an awful lot about this game came up in the last two months. First talks about getting the game into arcades around the world and now we have full gameplay footage and a music rip. I do wonder how they plan to reproduce and distribute Marble Madness II, considering copyrights, getting good CRT's, and everything else involved with reproducing the hardware. Plus the title would only feel natural in retro arcades not part of larger chains.

Even if Marble Madness II was dumped and released on MAME unmodified, I wouldn't mind at all if I had to play it with only a joystick- it just has to work so you can still go straight across the lines of the grid regardless of whenever you do it on flat or sloped ground. The NES version did this (with a turbo button to simulate faster spins of the trackball) and it still felt good to play- considering the NES had no such thing as a trackball controller. iirc the one in John's video is the earlier "Marble Madness II" build, not the later "Marble Man: Marble Madness II" that changed the marbles into superheroes altered the voice, and updated the level selection screens.

Looking forward to seeing you re-tackle Ms. Pac Twin in the near future. (And no kidding, the sprites for the Ms. Pac-Men are rather... creepy in this game)

Holy moly, That is one sexy cart!

Feel free to comment on this but I'm wondering what led to the decision to add in Popeye Pac-Man when it's essentially a Hangly Man variant with no other differences beyond the player's sprite being swapped. Ms. Pac Attack and Ms. Pac-Man Plus Arcade at least have different maze ordering to warrant them being separate, but Popeye Pac-Man doesn't have any major gameplay differences to set it apart from Hangly. I'm guessing cause there was no other feasible option to take that spot?

At the moment the only thing I'd say this game lacks, game mode wise, is a Random Ms. Pac Plus since Pac Plus has a random mode as well (unless the max number of modes was reached). But otherwise it's great that "real" Ms. Pac Plus exists (complete with a mix of Ms. Pac and Pac Plus' fruits, even!) and the package feels even more complete than it was before. I also have one very minor comment on the round selection feature- I know tying it to fruit changes has been the norm since something like the Champ Pac-Em games and the earlier Pac-Man home-brews for this system, but I thought what if it was tied to round number instead to allow Ms. Pac to start up to Round 13 and Pac to start on even-numbered rounds following Round 2 up to the first Key. Even if it was something like [Fruit 1] and [Fruit 2] for every fruit in-between the second and eighth fruits or in Ms. Pac's case, [Random 1] to [Random 6].

While likely impossible to do on the cart/rom itself, I attempted a mockup of a Ms. Pac Plus mode in which the mazes change color and the only assets used are ones that already exist in the game in some form. There are some minor errors with the image, most notably the dot colors on the fourth maze being wrong (they should be cyan, not purple) and I forgot to recolor the lives counter next to Maze 3, but otherwise this should be a realistic enough take on the idea.

Speaking of Pac-Man Plus, do you plan on adding a Ms. Pac-Man Plus game mode to the collection? I ask since it was in the original Pac-Man Collection and I always liked the aspect of a proper Plus mode for Ms. Pac.

After giving the current build a try, I love seeing the advent of a full-on random mazes mode, gives this new collection more flavor and helps it stand out from other home-brews. My only comment is the Hangly Man-styled single-unit walls these random mazes generate look kind of out of place in these random mazes- IMO they were only ever really intended for Hangly Man itself and otherwise the randomizer should preferably use more natural-looking walls like what Ultra-Pac uses for its "circle" walls.

Now this is a surprise! Really loving the level of authenticity here and it's great seeing all these different modes- the new mazes especially look interesting.

Thank ya PMP, and that's completely fine by me- take as much time as you need.

While I'm here, was the AI of Baby Pac's ghosts ever documented during the development of this port?

The occasional bit of work here and there (plus keeping the machine and glass clean), but nothing major since the one time a wire got short-circuited and blew the fuse- plus having to repair the right saucer/launcher which still goes dead occasionally here and there so I have to remove the CP and glass and free the ball myself, but it only fails on certain power-ons afaik. It cost me 1 grand and was a local pickup but it was hugely worth it, and this port will help get the game into even more homes if it ever comes out on cart.

Came on here just to say that I'm really glad I found this project. A bit latter than I wish I did, but as an owner of a Baby Pac machine myself, I support the eventual completion of this project.