[Alo81]

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfkcmJ8vxZU



I remember playing this game not long after the 360 launched and it being a real treasure. When I heard that Garage Games lost the IP rights and had to have the game removed from XBLA, I was heart broken because the game wasn't purchased on my current account so that meant I could never play it again.

Well apparently, some kind souls have ported it over to PC, and got damn it holds up amazingly.

It still looks great, it plays incredibly well, and it's still really challenging in later levels.

The game shines at 1080p with 60fps. I urge everyone to give it a play if you haven't already.

Steam Grid:

Edit: Someone on Reddit informed me about Marble Blast Platinum, a fan conversion of Marble Blast Gold that I figured some might be interested in.

I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you guys about Marble Blast Platinum. Link: http://philsempire.com/?view=mbp&mbpview=about[1] It's a fan-made total conversion mod for the classic Marble Blast Gold. MBG was the original game which came out on PC in 2003, and was the precursor to the Xbox version, Marble Blast Ultra. Marble Blast Platinum has beautiful HD graphics, hundreds of levels (all of them fan-made) ranging from easy to insanely difficult, some pretty awesome music, and online high-scores / leaderboards for every map. This mod has been out for a few years now, and a lot of people put a ton of hard work into it. Marble Blast Platinum requires Marble Blast Gold to be installed. After you have it installed, you can download the Platinum mod and have a bunch of fun. The mod is still currently supported, with new updates and maps coming out all the time. It's a shame more people don't know about this. It's a must-have for any Marble Blast fan.

[web01]

This is a really great game.

Its sad that alot of games will be lost forever once services like XBLA and PSN disappear which seems inevitable sometime in the future. So its nice to see this has been preserved.

[KillerTravis]

I remember a demo of this coming preinstalled on my Xbox a long time ago.

[Exuro]

No way. This was one of my favorite arcade games back when I was a heavy 360 player.

[Persona7]

Someone Archive this!

[Smilax]

Ahh yes. This is a very fun game. Of course, I only played the Demo version with my friend. Still very great!

[godhandiscen]

I find a lot of pride in the fact I beat all levels of this insanely hard game.

[Exuro]

I find a lot of pride on the fact I beat all levels of this insanely hard game.

But did you collect all of the easter eggs :o

Game looks and runs amazingly. Also looks like they implemented a stand alone achievement system thing. Can't seem to find a separate menu for it, but they popped up when i finished the first level and got the first egg. Either way solid port.

[Neuromancer]

I find a lot of pride in the fact I beat all levels of this insanely hard game.

Me too.

Honestly seeing this game at a friends house was part of what convinced me to buy a 360. Just awesome.

[Kenak]

I cannot get par time on level 60 (Schadenfreude), but I was able to do it for the rest. Plus I was able to get all of the easter eggs.

Fantastic game. Shame it was taken down.

[THACHITS]

If anyone hasn't played this yet, then you need to. Great game

[jbueno]

One of my regrets this gen was not getting this before delisting took place. Hopefully there will be a legitimate way to get it on PC.

[THE NO LIFE KING]

Isn't this illegal?

[EatinOlives]

Isn't this illegal?

Yeah, I'm wondering about this? Who is this "some people" who ported the game?

[Shadow Hog]

Ball selection texture doesn't work and the menu UI isn't very friendly to a WASD+mouse setup (even though the game itself is), but this otherwise works just like I remember the full game on XBLA does.

Thank goodness this came about, since I know one of the Xbox Live accounts in this family owns the full version of this game, but I can't find a single one that can run the copy on our 360 as the full version - just the trial, which cannot be upgraded to full anymore. Drives me nuts.

[Speevy]

You haven't lived until you've played this over dialup.

[SparkTR]

Isn't this illegal?

Seems like a legal grey area like abandonware and some aspects of emulation, regardless for the sake of gaming conservation I'm glad this happened. Would have been a shame if this died along with 360 Live.

[Pappasman]

I fucking loved this game. Its too bad that it got removed from XBLA.

[jooey]

Isn't this illegal?

are you going to rat them out?

[Alo81]

Isn't this illegal?

I think this is a legal grey area since it's essentially abandonware. If the mods request it I'm glad to remove the link to the download.

[THE NO LIFE KING]

are you going to rat them out?

j/k

[Shark Johnson]

Who even owns the rights now that InstantAction doesn't exist?

[whitehawk]

I really hope this is legal. I never got to buy it on XBLA, and kicked myself when it was pulled.

[Night_Trekker]

Its sad that alot of games will be lost forever once services like XBLA and PSN disappear which seems inevitable sometime in the future. So its nice to see this has been preserved.

Nah, the games won't be lost. Ironically, we'll have pirates to thank for game preservation.

[TaroYamada]

Funny, I was just thinking earlier today about how I wish Super Monkey Ball 1/2 would get SEGA Heritage releases so they could be on PC. Marble Blast Ultra is good fun, and somewhat similar, so it should fit the bill. I used to play Marble Blast back on Instant Action, that and Fallen Legions.

[Alo81]

Nah, the games won't be lost. Ironically, we'll have pirates to thank for game preservation.

I hope 360 XBLA emulation comes sooner rather than later, because once they stop producing 360's and all the ones in rotation break, a lot of that stuff will be gone for good. We've got the files but without a 360, theres no way to actually play them currently. I know there are still Ataris going strong today, but with how complex the current gen consoles are they seem much more prone to breaking than older ones.

I don't expect that to happen for a long time obviously, but it's a very real possibility that really does cause some worry.

[K2Valor]

This game saved early Xbox 360 for me. Played it so much.

[hongcha]

Does anyone still have this on their X360?

[Alo81]

I think this video shows exactly what I love about this game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfkcmJ8vxZU (If anyone wants to try and beat my time I'd love the challenge)

With enough fiddling you can exploit levels in ridiculous ways and get super quick times. It's fun to just try and break from the path laid out in front of you to try and beat the levels in completely new ways.

[Dire]

I think this video shows exactly what I love about this game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfkcmJ8vxZU (If anyone wants to try and beat my time I'd love the challenge) With enough fiddling you can exploit levels in ridiculous ways and get super quick times. It's fun to just try and break from the path laid out in front of you to try and beat the levels in completely new ways.

For those of us with OCD competitiveness this game got insane when obsessing over the leader boards!

[Alo81]

For those of us with OCD competitiveness this game got insane when obsessing over the leader boards!

Definitely one of the funnest things was getting (what you thought was) a great time, then seeing people on the leaderboard beat you by like 30 seconds and just going "Well what the fuck how!"

[C4Lukins]

It sold like a million copies on Xbox. I never got why we never saw a sequal or anything else from that company for that matter. I was top ten there for a week or so.

[_woLf]

I freakin' loved this game on XBLA! Multiplayer was really fun too.

[Alo81]

It sold like a million copies on Xbox. I never got why we never saw a sequal or anything else from that company for that matter.

Just looked it up and it sold 756,000 copies. And the reason there isn't a sequel I guess is because they got bought out and lost the rights to the game. The developers got the rights to the engine, and a different entity got the rights to the IP.

[C4Lukins]

Just looked it up and it sold 756,000 copies. And the reason there isn't a sequel I guess is because they got bought out and lost the rights to the game. The developers got the rights to the engine, and a different entity got the rights to the IP.

820,000 on my leader board.

[Kokonoe]

Is it true this game is essentially classic Sonic in 3D in terms of gameplay?

And someone ported it to PC? how did that happen?

[Cisce]

Is Multiplayer in the unofficial port or not? Just curious.

[apesh1t]

Does anyone still have this on their X360?

I do, game is made by Garage games?

Just fired it up

[Alo81]

Is Multiplayer in the unofficial port or not? Just curious.

Yep, but I'm assuming it's probably only LAN or online through Hamachi.

Is it true this game is essentially classic Sonic in 3D in terms of gameplay? And someone ported it to PC? how did that happen?

I talked to one of the guys who was working on the port and he said they basically just used the XBLA version alongside the Instant Action version and just using those assets to port it.

820,000 on my leader board.

Yeah, my source was wikipedia so your is probably more trustworthy any way.

Edit: Looked it up and yeah it was 756,178 at the end of December 2010 and it got delisted February 2011 so I guess that's time for more people to have bought it.

[Branduil]

Is this the spiritual sequel to Marble Madness?

[tiggerkiddo]

This looks like a pretty fun game. I hope to try it out one day.

[Alo81]

This looks like a pretty fun game. I hope to try it out one day.

It's been ported and if you check out the video at the top there's a link to it. I probably should have made that clearer.

[XANDER CAGE]

This and Bankshot Billiards 2 were HOOOO-LEEEEEE shit moments that made me realize how great HDTV was.

[dani_dc]

Never played, I'm curious as to who ported since it had to be someone with access to the game assets. I imagine it was likely one of the developers who didn't want the game to get lost in time with no way of people accessing it.

Just looked it up and it sold 756,000 copies. And the reason there isn't a sequel I guess is because they got bought out and lost the rights to the game. The developers got the rights to the engine, and a different entity got the rights to the IP.

Theycould had still had done a spiritual sequel, such as Dark Souls was to Demon's Souls.

[CrunchinJelly]

Isn't this piracy?

Edit: oops, I see others said the same.

[atomsk]

I've got MBU and the DLC

Loved loved loved it.

[Dambrosi]

Isn't this piracy? Edit: oops, I see others said the same.

Why on earth would it be piracy? It's an unofficial port, sure, but how can you pirate a FREE PC port of an XBLA game that hitherto never existed on PC? How do you pirate a freeware game, anyway? :p If they were charging for it, on the other hand, there might be some problems, but since it's free, well...

The PC version is a different thing from piracy. It's barely even copyright infringement, especially since it seems that nobody holds the IP rights to the original game anymore. Anyway, since it's free, I really wouldn't worry too much about it, myself. Download and rage/enjoy!

[1-D_FTW]

Funny, I was just thinking earlier today about how I wish Super Monkey Ball 1/2 would get SEGA Heritage releases so they could be on PC. Marble Blast Ultra is good fun, and somewhat similar, so it should fit the bill. I used to play Marble Blast back on Instant Action, that and Fallen Legions.

Plus these type of games tend to look good in stereo 3D. I would be after SMB1 so hard.

[Alo81]

Never played, I'm curious as to who ported since it had to be someone with access to the game assets. I imagine it was likely one of the developers who didn't want the game to get lost in time with no way of people accessing it.

I actually asked the guys who are working on it.

They said they just took the XBLA version and the Instant Action version of the game, and have been working from those as a base to convert it all over to a PC usable format.

You can find an XBLA download online and then if you extract it you get access to all of the game data. At that point you have to find a way to extract that stuff out and you can work on porting stuff from there.

I've got MBU and the DLC Loved loved loved it.

Woah woah. DLC? What?

[Winnie the Pimp]

Damn i was hoping that somehow it would magically turn up on Steam so i could buy it in some sale and then never play it!! :(

Actually LOVED this game years ago on XBLA