Marathon Appreciation Thread

[speckygingerweapon]

Played through the trilogy around the time the games came out for free online for both PC and MAC, took me a while to get into it but once I did I absolutely loved it.
They're primitive, repetitive games but I love the atmosphere and story, particularly the third, even if it is incredibly confusing and avant-garde.

Has anyone here played Marathon Rubicon? It's one of my favourite game mods of all time.

[Lila Feuer]

I heard one issue regarding Marathon (or Aleph One) having a weird frame rate. It looks like its playing at 15 fps or something and there's no way to fix it?

[TheEndOfUs]

I think its the fov, weird physics & mouse behavior that makes it feel like that. Great games though.

[Olroda]

speckygingerweapon said:

Has anyone here played Marathon Rubicon? It's one of my favourite game mods of all time.

No, not yet. How does it hold up to the originals?

Cyanosis said:

I heard one issue regarding Marathon (or Aleph One) having a weird frame rate. It looks like its playing at 15 fps or something and there's no way to fix it?

Hm. TheEndOfUs might be on to something, but I've played alot of M1A1 (I'm a PC user) without noticing it once. If I'm not mistaken, Marathon has a "ticrate" of 30 (DooM has 35).

[speckygingerweapon]

Olroda said:

No, not yet. How does it hold up to the originals?

Very, very well, it improves upon them and the way they integrate the story into the gameplay is brilliant, however the gameplay in some levels can be a bit frustrating due to difficulty and lack of resources and due to the alien nature of some levels it can be very easy to get lost in them.

Olroda said:

Hm. TheEndOfUs might be on to something, but I've played alot of M1A1 (I'm a PC user) without noticing it once. If I'm not mistaken, Marathon has a "ticrate" of 30 (DooM has 35).

Yeah Marathon fans are absolute purists when it comes to the games and the engine, don't bother trying to get technical stuff like this changed.

[TheEndOfUs]

The trilogy can be downloaded in its original format from the web... Does it work with emulators like SheepShaver & Basillisk II on modern Win pcs?

[Lila Feuer]

speckygingerweapon said:

Yeah Marathon fans are absolute purists when it comes to the games and the engine, don't bother trying to get technical stuff like this changed.

Srsly? Even Doom purists aren't this bad choosing to run the game at the original 35fps vs. uncapped/60. But apparently while Marathon runs at 30 the things in the world appear to be moving at half that. Sounds jarring to say the least!

[speckygingerweapon]

TheEndOfUs said:

The trilogy can be downloaded in its original format from the web... Does it work with emulators like SheepShaver & Basillisk II on modern Win pcs?

You don't need to do that, google Aleph One.

[Olroda]

speckygingerweapon said:

Stuff about Rubicon

Good to know. Thanks! I have to try it out at some point - preferably soon.

TheEndOfUs said:

Do I need an emulator to play Marathon on a PC?

As Speckygingerweapon wrote; You won't.


Here are some links to useful Marathon websites:

MARATHON.BUNGIE.ORG -Many Marathon-related links here, such as:

LHOWON.ORG -You can aquire the Marathon Trilogy, as well as some user-made scenarios of note, here. Also a hub for playing Aleph One online.

THE PFHORUMS -A forum dedicated to Marathon.

MARATHON'S STORY -The function of this site is obvious, and there's an active forum here, too.

SIMPLICI7Y -You can get user-made modifications and new scenarios here.

[TheEndOfUs]

speckygingerweapon said:

You don't need to do that, google Aleph One.

I know, its great... But I want to play the original versions, especially Marathon 1, since the AlephOne version is a little different.

[Nordevai]

TheEndOfUs said:

I know, its great... But I want to play the original versions, especially Marathon 1, since the AlephOne version is a little different.

Thats because Aleph One was based on Durandal's source code. Marathon 1 never had its source code released and there were several differences between the marathon 1 format and marathon durandal format. Eventually Raul Bonilla and Co got together and made Marathon 1 Aleph One (M1A1), a total conversion that attempted to remake the original Marathon in an Aleph One environment. While It was a close imitation there were several things that just couldn't be replicated perfectly, and at one point it contained a modified start for marathon involving the dreaming god from Pathways into Darkness that was eventually removed. Aleph One now supports the original Marathon map format, so when you go to download Marathon from the main site its not M1A1 anymore its Marathon 1.

To answer you first question thought, you can most certainly play the original games from the trilogy release site through sheepshaver. Before I acquired my G3 powerbook I used sheepshaver to emulate and play the originals and the various mods for them that where not so windows friendly.

[TheEndOfUs]

Ah, good to know, thanks. I`ll give Pathways a try too, looks fun. They only released the source for Durandal, so Infinity just works like a mod or a new scenario?

[june gloom]

Man, Pathways was a bitch to get going. Sheepshaver doesn't work for me so I had to use Basilisk II, which is only good for the old version of the game with gradients for floors and ceilings. It's also one of the most guide-reliant games I've ever played; without one the game is nearly impossible.

[Koko Ricky]

How does the Marathon emgine compare to Doom's?

[june gloom]

On its surface they're very similar, but Marathon supports room-over-room so long as they can't see each other (similar to Duke Nukem 3D, but not Blood or Shadow Warrior) and rooms can also share the same physical space (again without seeing each other -- and for the record Build can do this too) making for "impossible" levels like the deathmatch map 5D Space.

Also, actors aren't infinitely tall.