Marble Blast(marbleblast.vaniverse.io)
148 pointsby sunday_serif4 days ago15 comments
  • darthcircuit3 days ago
    If you want a more dedicated game that can be downloaded, check out

    https://marbleblastultra.com/

    I believe this is a reverse engineered port based on the Xbox 360 version.

    I play it on my steamdeck once in a while. I like having native controller support now that I’m getting older.

    • bengarney3 days ago
      I was a developer on that version!

      We got the team back together and did a spiritual successor, Marble It Up!. If you are still enjoying the original I’d recommend checking it out (on consoles and Steam).

      • mcyukon3 days ago
        Haha, thank you!

        I have many fond memories playing Marble Blast on a G5 iMac as a teen, I think it came to our Internet-less house bundled with the iMac along with Glider Pro which I think came via CD.

        I managed to get Marble Blast ultra running on my Steam deck, but the controls weren't amazing. Marble It Up runs like a top, and scratches that itch I have for the original.

      • vmladenov3 days ago
        My friend had Ultra on his Xbox 360 some 15 years ago and I instantly fell in love. Thank you for making another entry
    • n8cpdx2 days ago
      This is fantastic. I fell in love with Marble Blast Ultra on Xbox 360 and sunk many hours into it.

      Fun fact: if you still have a physical Xbox 360 and previously purchased the game, you can still download it and play it.

      Of course I might not have gone through the trouble if I knew about these ports, but at least I got a new hobby out of it.

  • LanceH3 days ago
    Cool. I have have a least one of my custom maps on there.

    It was my son's favorite game when he was 3-5, so I started making maps that couldn't be failed, working my way up to some tricky things.

    At one point I made a birthday cake map and my wife decorated a cake to look like it. Ring pops for the gems, and an upside down reese's peanut butter cups decorated with icing for the start/finish pads. Of note, putting icing on a reese's does taste good, it is a step too far for human consumption.

    • vanilagy3 days ago
      Yo, that's awesome and incredibly sweet. There's actually a centralized repository nowadays with all custom levels for the game, here: https://marbleland.vaniverse.io/

      Pretty sure you can find your levels on here.

      • LanceH2 days ago
        I still have the levels, though I shudder at the thought of opening quark to edit them :)

        Incidentally the cake only existed for about 2 minutes while we got a photo of it, then it was cut up and devoured by ravenous 4 year olds.

        It was a fun little community making maps for the game.

  • archerx3 days ago
    I made a rolling ball game a while back. https://sphoxie.com if anyone wants to check it out.
  • mdtrooper3 days ago
    The oldies are great such as: https://neverball.org/
    • Tarsul3 days ago
      Thank you so much for posting this. This looks a lot like the game I played back then, but I cannot find videos of the last level which I always played... guess there's only one way to find out...
  • tronium3 days ago
    Macs released from 2002-2005 shipped with Marble Blast Gold on them. Playing it is one of my earliest memories (I was 5 at the time), especially taking absolutely forever to figure out the two Escher's Maze levels.

    Great game :)

    • frollogaston3 days ago
      I miss it when Macs shipped with games
  • n8cpdx3 days ago
    It isn’t obvious at first but there are touch controls and they work really well.
    • sublinear3 days ago
      I wish there was a transparent shadow showing where the d-pad is without touching that part of the screen.
      • dylan6043 days ago
        I wish there was a way to turn of the music without going 3 menus deep
        • stavros3 days ago
          Why, how often do you need to do that?
  • Savageman3 days ago
    Is it normal that when I "turn" the camera stays still? Makes it quite unplayable for me (I tried both "Free camera" enabled/disabled, it didn't change anything)
    • onychomys3 days ago
      You can use your left hand to steer the marble (via WASD) and then the right hand on your arrow keys to move the camera around.
    • tgv3 days ago
      You have to click and drag.
  • Bondi_Blue2 days ago
    I am surprised nobody has mentioned this port of Marble Blast Gold.

    https://marbleblastgold.randomityguy.me/

    He also did Platinum and Ultra.

    https://github.com/RandomityGuy/MBHaxe

  • smithstreet3 days ago
    Is there a 'Black Diamond' level from the xbox 360 original? if so, where can i find it
  • Apreche3 days ago
    Pretty good for a browser game! Not quite Super Monkey ball, but not far off either.
  • reverendsteveii2 days ago
    My boss absolutely did not need me to find a super monkey ball clone in the middle of what otherwise would have been the workday. Thank you.
  • jbverschoor3 days ago
    I'd call it Marble Drift :)
    • burnt-resistor3 days ago
      Marble Tokyo Drift. And it should have a squealing tire noise. ;)
  • spapas823 days ago
    This would be really great if

    A. Was playable on mobile

    B. Could use the phone's gyroscope for controlling the ball

    • vanilagy3 days ago
      You won't believe this: it _is_ playable on mobile! I see a lot of people playing this on their phones and iPads.

      I contemplated adding gyro controls, like in "Marble Blast Mobile" from back in the day, but they are very imprecise and don't really scale well to high-level play. With the current d-pad controls, there's actually a mobile player who holds the world record on many levels. Never would've expected mobile controls to scale this far.

    • Delk3 days ago
      Gyroscopic control might be even more suited for something like Neverball where the physics are based on tilting the board. In Marble Blast the board was stationary but the ball could be moved by acceleration which turns out to be quite different in terms of controls.
  • truemotive2 days ago
    Welp, there goes my day.
  • 01HNNWZ0MV43FF3 days ago
    Trying to find the powerup button I hit Ctrl and closed the tab

    lol