Marathon!

[stunt_man]

They released a new version the other day, and it works great. For those of you who aren't familiar with Marathon, it was one of Bungie's earlier projects. It's a sci-fi shooter with graphics similar to Doom's, but improved in many aspects. The setting is similar to Halo's. There's tons of features in this game. More so than all the Halo games combined (minus matchmaking, I guess). Don't believe me? Check it out :)

NOTE: Before you go on, I want to add that this game is completely free of charge. The source code was even released by Bungie. It costs nothing to play this game!

General Game Features:
Much improved OpenGL graphics.
Great campaign with compelling storyline.
An overwhelmingly full settings menu (fully-tweakable everything, basically).
Many editing tools released and documented by Bungie and the community.
Bungie-quality solidness.
Marathon is actually a trilogy; there are three free games available for download - but they all run from only one application! You can change switch map and scenario files from the main menu.
Wide range of difficulty levels - each setting is well-balanced, too.Multiplayer Features:
Custom map sharing (maps files are almost always under 1MB).
Mic support (surprisingly high-quality, with included option to ignore players).
Text chat (with support for macros and admin tools).
Highly-competive, fast paced action.
Low lag thanks to extremely minimal system requirements (game is 15 years old!).
You can save your fucking replays!
Online Coop!
Very well-balanced weapons/gameplay.
Tons of hosting options.Possibilities & Limitations of the Engine:
Choose between OpenGL and software renderers.
Syncing doors and other 'platforms.'
Syncing AI.
Game is not 3D - it uses the same kind of system as Doom, with 2D sprites.
Dual-wielding weapons.In case there's any confusion, Aleph One is a version of Bungie's Marathon that was re-released by the community. The new version introduced online play to the series, and support for newer, higher-end machines. There's even support for AA and AF! Here are some screenshots:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/stunt_man/AlephOne2007-05-3018-15-50-51.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/stunt_man/AlephOne2007-05-3018-14-51-75.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/stunt_man/AlephOne2007-05-3018-14-41-48.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/stunt_man/AlephOne2007-05-3018-14-27-25.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/stunt_man/AlephOne2007-05-3018-14-26-00.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y76/stunt_man/AlephOne2007-05-3018-14-24-73.jpg

If you're interested, please take a look at the link below. It's the homepage for Aleph One, the 'new and improved' version of Marathon. I've spent countless hours making maps and fraggin' fools online. Anyway, here's the link:
source.bungie.orgThere's also a very large community. You can find their message board here:
www.pfhorums.com (http://www.pfhorums.com)Since this game has been out for such a long time, you can also find literally hundreds of thousands of quality maps, mods, total conversions and many other goodies. There are a few sites which host these, but this is probably the best:
www.fileball.net (http://www.fileball.net)I'll post more screens and help anyone who has problems installing or anything. I want to increase our playerbase!

I hope to see a few (or a lot) of you guys ingame - it's really fun and these guys spend so much time trying to make it better for us.

[Rob Oplawar]

Marathon rocks. I wore my Marathon t-shirt to work today. Too bad I didn't get into gaming earlier, because I'm admittedly a Marathon convert, and am therefore not as cool as the original Marathoners. Cool in a totally shamelessly geeky way. =)

Edit: lol pfhorums at least I'm enough of a geek to get that.

editedit: aiee the server's down at the moment, and I just realized I forgot to transfer over Marathon when I got my new puter. Now I'll have to wait. =(

[stunt_man]

Sorry, fixed the link. That was weird...

Hey, and don't worry about not being one of the originals. What do you think I'm trying to do here? Find old Marathon dinosaurs on a Halo 2 Vista forum? I think not. This game is seriously better now than it was when Bungie was in control of it, so new players aren't unusual.

Anyway, I hope this thread gets more hits!

[Varmint260]

I've never even played Marathon, but I've heard of it. I suppose now's as good a time as any to give it a go. Thanks for the link!

[rossmum]

Will have to give it a go.

[stunt_man]

Nice, I figured this might be a hit on these forums, considering everyone's bitching about the *locked* features in Halo 2 Vista. Marathon ironically has almost all of these features, and the game is ancient. Hope you guys enjoy it!

PS: I won't be on tonight, but you might see me sometime in the server lobby. My name is 'stunt.'

[~ZMT~Trace]

Sounds fun, but installing it is confusing.

[Emmzee]

I never played Marathon. Blood and Shadow Warrior were where it was at back in the day.

[Varmint260]

Shadow Warrior and Duke Nukem 3D are still great games, but this Marathon has something very cool about it that I can't quite put my finger on. It's very Doom-like or Wolf3D-like, and I have to say that it's pretty damn neat. I'm one of those people that will love a game simply because it has online co-op, so this could be one for me! I'd better tell my buddy that we have to try co-op.

[Rob Oplawar]

It's the story, methinks. It's very Halo-esque, or should I say Halo is very Marathon-esque. It's the only game of Bungie's I've played beside Halo, but those two have very immersive storylines, and that's what made Marathon unique compared to, say, Duke Nukem and Doom (but the both still fuckin rock). Heh, I'm a campaign whore, I never was all that big on multiplayer.

edit: oh snap, I just decided I'm going to install it for Linux instead, so I can make some use of that poor neglected OS. Lol, it's apt anyway, because I haven't got the proper Linux video driver and can only do 1024x7whatever without dual screen. Marathon Looks better closer to its original specs.

[Agamemnon]

http://mods.moddb.com/7153/marathonsource/

[stunt_man]

Great! Is anyone have any problems? I'm here to help out...

[stunt_man]

Sorry for the bump, but I just checked Agamemnon's link, and I must say - holy crap! I never knew about this project! If this topic needs a better reason for the bump than that, I'll be posting some Marathon videos today (probably), so you'll be able to see this great game in action!

[Pooky]

You mean a new Aleph One version right? I love playing Aleph One online but I hate the marathon story missions, the AI is just too weak for me

[stunt_man]

I hate the marathon story missions, the AI is just too weak for me

Try it on a harder difficulty. I love challenging this game. Halo's Legendary mode = Marathon's Major Damage (2nd hardest). The puzzle-solving is really complex, though, and my mind gets blown easily. I beat Marathon 2 once...

I'm having some problems with Fraps, I'm going to reinstall. Expect a video of multiplayer carnage really soon (plus more screens!).

[Pooky]

Try it on a harder difficulty. I love challenging this game. Halo's Legendary mode = Marathon's Major Damage (2nd hardest). The puzzle-solving is really complex, though, and my mind gets blown easily. I beat Marathon 2 once...

I'm having some problems with Fraps, I'm going to reinstall. Expect a video of multiplayer carnage really soon (plus more screens!).

I tried it on the hardest difficulty. It's still the same shit, just everything has more health =\

I really enjoyed the storyline, but I found myself wishing I could skip the missions and just read all the text

[~ZMT~Trace]

:still doesn't know how to install it:

=[

[stunt_man]

:still doesn't know how to install it:It's quite simple, actually. Download this (the app and core-files):

http://marathon.sourceforge.net/download/windows.php

Extract the contents of 'AlephOne-20070525' into "Program Files/Aleph One/Marathon Infinity." Obviously, this directory doesn't exist, you're going to have to create the necessary folders.

Now, it's time to download the game content. Download this:

http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/files/MarathonInfinity.zip

And extract the 'Marathon Infinity' folder into "Program Files/Aleph One." Click 'Yes' when it asks you if you want to overwrite.

All done! Shortcut 'AlephOne.exe' to the desktop or Quick Launch for easy access, and you have (for free) one of the best, most timeless games ever!


PS:


It's still the same shit, just everything has more health

Not true, harder difficulties have less ammo and weapons lying around, and higher-ranked enemies (much like Halo's blue/red/gold/black elites).

[~ZMT~Trace]

=]
So hows the editing tools work?

[stunt_man]

So hows the editing tools work?The inevitable question... Alright, here goes:

Marathon was made way back in the mid-nineties, and when it was released, it was a Mac-exclusive title. Unfortunately, Bungie never released the editing tools for Windows. However, with time came some work-arounds. Basilisk II (a Mac emulator, if you will) was released, and people figured out how to run Forge and Anvil (the map editor and 'Shapes' editors, respectfully) through this - on a PC. There's a map editor for Windows called OBED, but it was created by a member of the community, and isn't nearly as powerful as Forge. It's also long been abandoned, and no new versions will likely come out.

On another note, the Marathon community going really strong these days, and people are starting projects left and right. There's been many posts of WIP utilities for Windows, because many Aleph One players use PC's.

If you already have a Mac (an old Mac - the utilities don't run with OS X either... I'm not too sure about 'classic mode'), then you shouldn't have any problems. Both official tools are very documented, and have tons of tutorials (even video walkthroughs by Bungie!).

You can find more information about the editors on the Marathon forums:

http://www.pfhorums.com

If you need to learn how to set up Basilisk II (for emulating a Mac), or want some information about OBED (the PC Windows map editor) try this thread:

http://www.pfhorums.com/index.php?showtopic=595

Here's some documentation to chew on for weeks:

http://webwonks.org/Marathon/Forge/ForgeIndex.html

Everything you need to get started is there. For advanced techniques, try this link:

http://source.bungie.org/content/basics/map_editing_forge/_index.html

NOTE THAT MARATHON IS NOT RENDERED IN 3D LIKE MODERN GAMES. BE PREPARED TO SPEND A LOT OF TIME FIGURING OUT THIS NEW ENGINE, AND LEARNING HOW TO USE THE EDITOR.

[~ZMT~Trace]

thanks for the info, but after playing it, I learned ATI doesn't like Marathon, Thus deleting my desktop image and temporary freezing my computer.

[Pooky]

<_<

ATI likes marathon just fine, I can play with the hi res texture pack and everything absolutely maxed, and still get high fps with a radeon x1600 pro

[~ZMT~Trace]

<_<

ATI likes marathon just fine, I can play with the hi res texture pack and everything absolutely maxed, and still get high fps with a radeon x1600 pro

But my card is an old integrated Xpress 200 ;-;

[stunt_man]

But... this game is mad old. Try changing renderers. Open the game, go to preferences, and change to OpenGL. It's recommended that you restart the game after changing this option, though. Update your drivers?

If that doesn't work, just try playing with the options. Can you run Halo?

[~ZMT~Trace]

But... this game is mad old. Try changing renderers. Open the game, go to preferences, and change to OpenGL. It's recommended that you restart the game after changing this option, though. Update your drivers?

If that doesn't work, just try playing with the options. Can you run Halo?


Course I can play Halo. Also, I guess I'll upgrade my drivers again. :has feb. version, has be updated since then:

Edit: Oh hay; The Catalyst Software Suite includes a shortcut for a free game offer from Valve, the Steam software installer and a shortcut for Earthsim.

[Pooky]

But my card is an old integrated Xpress 200 ;-;

I used to have one of those and I still got x00 fps =\

[Huero]

I do believe that there is a team that is creating a marathon mod for halo; if anyone has a link, please post it.

[Rentafence]

I think i'm missing something here. When I look for multiplayer games nothing shows up in the list. O_o

[stunt_man]

I think i'm missing something here. When I look for multiplayer games nothing shows up in the list.No, unfortunately, you're probably not missing something. There aren't that many people that play, but if you go on at the right times, it can get pretty busy. Peak times are evenings (EST) and weekends. Of course, with summer arriving, we can expect the playerbase to grow, since there's no school...

Lately it's actually been picking up quite a bit, and I expect that soon there's going to always be at least a couple people hosting games at all times.


I do believe that there is a team that is creating a marathon mod for halo; if anyone has a link, please post it.

Actually, it's the other way around. It's a Halo mod for Marathon... Anyway, it's called Halothon (I think), and it's been abandoned. They did some pretty groundbreaking stuff, though. I believe there's also a Halo 2 conversion in the works. Check the pfhorums.

[Pooky]

Not true, harder difficulties have less ammo and weapons lying around, and higher-ranked enemies (much like Halo's blue/red/gold/black elites).

Okay, same shit, less weapons, everything has more health. All the higher ranked enemies are are ones that have more health. Just like in Halo =\
(yes I know higher ranked enemies also carried better weapons in Halo, but they don't in Marathon)

[stunt_man]

It's still a good challenge, though. Just don't try it on Total Carnage unless you hide away every throwable object on your desk ;)

EDIT: Alright, my problem with FRAPS doesn't seem to be going anywhere. After making a clip, when I open it in Windows Media Player (or DivX - I tried both), it says something about a missing codec. I've never had this problem before. I have the full version of FRAPS, if that makes any difference...

[Pooky]

It's not that it wasn't challenging, it was just really boring for me to fight enemies that do nothing but run straight at you

[}_50Æ{_|ñeا†«O]

I clicked on the EXE and nothing happens.