Has anyone here attained this score? The highest I've seen is Scott Kessler's 179k Youtube video. Scott says in the comments for that video that he would like to get 181k and that was four years ago.

You're less likely to get wands when you are having a killer run which makes 180k so hard to get.

You could also get lucky and quickly break the black marbles in stages 2 and 6 to add 2,000 points.

 

To get 181k, all you need is a wand in stage 2 and do a near flawless run after that. I was trying to do it earlier this year, and had probably 5-6 shots at doing so in stage 6, but failed (you absolutely need to finish the last level with 79 seconds). As of today, I did 179,230 (registered on the scoreboard), but I intend to finally get that 181k run at some point.

If I do 181k I will virtually have no reason to replay the game to beat that score, lol. It is mathematically possible to get as much as 183k with the right wands placement (wand in stage 2, stage 3 and another one at the end of stage 4 or 5, and yes, it is possible to get 3 wands even on a killer run).

Breaking the Marble at stage 2 is easy without losing any time, but breaking the Black Marble at stage 6 would serve nothing as you would lose enough time to not finish the stage with 79 seconds (with every second meaning 1,100 points each).

No, I have not.   I've not been particularly close to a deathless run.

I've done deathless runs a few times, but my highest score is only 171k. I'm not in the same league as these other guys who can get near 180k, and I have practiced a ton. But then guys like guiill have been practicing for years.


 

I've been playing for years (non contiguous), true, but it took me a week (the first contest) to get 178k. The experience will make you better at getting 170k+ on a regular basis, but the extra points passed 177k are all about getting 'that' run where you nail everything and kill the last stage. A 77-79 finish on the last stage is very important to be a high roller.

I think I recall Randy getting 180k but I'm not positive. I know 180k has been most of our goals for a long time.

Oh man, Steve Barrios would have hit 180k in this world record run had he not lost one life to the birds on the silly race. He says that he wants to improve on this run in the future.

http://www.twingalaxies.com/showt...


 

Just to annoy me, his run is 10 points higher than my best score registered through the AVS, lol. But he will get 180k anytime soon, so whatever.

I would love to see a twitch stream of him going for 180k+. I bet he could easily do it within an hour of trying.
 
It's such a short game that speed runners must be hitting a wall with how fast they can beat it. They should start playing for ridiculous scores now.

 

Marble Madness was my second game ever for the NES. I thought I was good after playing it for such a long time but then I saw some of the high scores and I don't think I'll ever get a flawless run with wands  
I can get 150K alright but I don't think I'll ever get 180K

My pb is 178k. 179K is still the highest that I've seen anywhere online.

180k is well within the grasp of anyone who can consistently beat the game with 79 seconds left on the clock. All they need is a stage two wand. But it seems that it's mostly dedicated speedrunners who are are that good, and they don't usually play for high score.
 

The formula that gives you a wand is out there and the values that the inputs add to the variables used in that formula too, but someone would have to figure a set of inputs that would cause the register to be at the right value at stage 2 to cause the wand to spawn.
I just didn't have enough time to do that yet.