Marble race is a simple [real life](irl.md) [game](game.md) in which marbles (small glass balls) are released onto a prepared track to race from start to finish by the force of gravity. This game is great because it is [suckless](suckless.md), cheap (i.e. accessible), [fun](fun.md) and has almost no [dependencies](dependency.md), not even a [computer](computer.md) -- such a game will be playable even after the technological [collapse](collapse.md).
Even though this is a real life game, a computer version can be made too, in different forms: [2D](2d.md), [3D](3d.md), realistic or with added elements that would be impossible in real life, such as teleports. And indeed, there have been many games and mini-games made based on this form of entertainment. From the implementation point of view it is very convenient that marbles are of spherical shape as this is one of the simplest shapes to handle in physics engines.
Collecting marbles often comes hand in hand with this hobby, kind of like collecting race horses or Pokemon -- yes, collecting is a bit of a materialistic hobby, however this is one of the cheapest such hobbies that can satisfy the natural human hoarding needs with minimum of actual [harm](harmful.md), just like video games satisfy the need for violence without actually harming anyone etc., so we probably consider it a net-good hobby. Consider that getting a new marble, basically a piece of [rock](rock.md), brings basically the same amount of happiness and satisfaction as buying a new car while shrinking the price for it about a million times -- that's very close to what in software we would call [suckless](suckless.md).
