Marathon Trilogy now available for free!

[Cantaloup]

Now you too can experience the original Bungie FPS games:

http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/

You will probably also need Aleph One, a free, cross-platform, open source Marathon engine that will allow you to play Marathon 2 or Marathon Infinity once you have their files:

http://source.bungie.org/

[Jorpho]

Funky! (I would have thought Microsoft would have tried to prevent this, though.)

[maxlords]

I always wanted to play those....darned Mac exclusives! Thanks!

[Perkar]

holy balls. this is way better than those crappy Rockstar Classics ;)

finally able to play these games on PC. this is uber \m/

/me downloads NOW

[Lady Jaye]

Enjoy, guys! I've had the Marathon trilogy for a few years now (I have the Bungie Action Sack from their pre-Microsoft days) and it's great.

And I agree with Jorpho: get it before Microsoft sends bungie.org a cease-and-desist.

[unbroken]

so lemme get this straight, these are mac files, and you need this aleph program to run them on a pc?

[Lady Jaye]

Exactly. It's an Sourceforge project: http://sourceforge.net/projects/marathon/

[jonjandran]

Well I just got finished playing them for a while....

I don't see the big deal.... Just another Doom/Quake clone... :hmm:

Well back to playing a REAL Doom clone......Doom 3. LOL

[Cantaloup]

so lemme get this straight, these are mac files, and you need this aleph program to run them on a pc?

Correct. Aleph One is basically a modernized, cross-platform Marathon engine. However, in order for it to do anything useful, you need the data files (levels, graphics, sounds, etc.) from the commercial Marathon games or their demos. These are the files that were just made available. It's similar to how there are free, open-source Doom engines for modern platforms, but you need the WAD files from the commercial games or demos to actually play the levels. However, a drawback of Aleph One is that it will not play the first Marathon, only the other two (though there is a "M1A1" conversion that is supposed to work; you'll find a link to it on the Trilogy page).

One other thing... if you need to decompress the Mac StuffIt (.sit) files, you can download the free StuffIt Expander for Windows:

http://www.stuffit.com/

[Cirrus]

Actually, you'll find the expanded files on the right side of the Bungie page, below the .sit files.

[Ed Oscuro]

Just another Doom/Quake clone...
How the hell was it a DOOM clone when it's the logical extension of the Pathways Into Darkness engine, which dates from around 1993? Nevermind QUAKE...lol.

Hmm, now I understand why I'm seeing all these "OMFG!!111 MARAFON TROILOGEY" auctions on eBay (they're still illegal). :hmm:

[jonjandran]

Just another Doom/Quake clone...
How the hell was it a DOOM clone when it's the logical extension of the Pathways Into Darkness engine, which dates from around 1993? Nevermind QUAKE...lol.


I was just trying to see if the Mac fanboys would respond...

[Ed Oscuro]

OK Then. I'm just an EVERYTHING fanboy obviously. ;P

[DJ_DEEM]

at the risk of sounding like a idiot, what's the story behind this? i've never even heard of it? it seems like everyone is really excited about it, but why? im quite curious as to the story on this one

[Jive3D]

Marathon was pretty cool back in the day. I got into it and out of it with Marathon 2. I used to love shooting all the good guys. The good old days of getting games on Dad's Mac Power PC.

I still remember the theme song for Marathon 2

Da da da da da da da da da da daaa da da da da da da da da MARATHON!!!

I'm not going to DL this though. Way too many games to play right now.

[Ed Oscuro]

Yup, I've listened to Durandal's theme song more than a few times. Good stuff for the era.

[Jorpho]

The Marathon games are sometimes credited with starting the vast and vibrant mod scene that is out there today, thanks to Bungie's generous release of appropriate tools. (ref http://archive.gamespy.com/titlefight/matches/0101.shtml , among others.)

Apparently the "Bob launcher" is one of the more famous mods. Imagine a weapon that lets you launch bodies (named "Bob"?) at your enemies. And that's just for starters.

You may also enjoy ZPC, an old PC game based on the Marathon 2 engine (but unforunately incompatible with the current release of Aleph One). The art style is one of a kind. You can get a chopped-up version at Underdogs, but I managed to find the full ISO on another website; considering that the Underdogs version doesn't let you reload savegames and is missing all the FMV, the ISO is probably well worth it.

[WiseSalesman]

Is there no way to play Marathon 1 on PC then?

[jonjandran]

Yes just get the "M1A1" conversion on the website above and use it with Aleph One .

[Cantaloup]

at the risk of sounding like a idiot, what's the story behind this? i've never even heard of it? it seems like everyone is really excited about it, but why? im quite curious as to the story on this one

One of Marathon's claim to fame is that it was one of the first FPS's that attempted to add in a story rather than just having you blast everything in sight for no reason. This web site attempts to give detailed information about the story of the games (beware spoilers!):

http://marathon.bungie.org/story/contents.html
http://marathon.bungie.org/story/

The first game was released at roughly the same time as Doom, but it featured some more advanced features, like the ability to look (and aim) up or down, and to have somewhat more complex level designs. It also featured fairly realistic looking weapons that reloaded and that had secondary fire capabilities. It also featured network play with voice chat.

Some people are probably excited because the games were originally by Bungie, who now brings you the Halo series, and this gives you some historical background on their early games. Probably the reason you've never heard of it is because it was originally on the Macintosh. I believe only the 2nd game, Marathon 2, was ported to Windows 95.

[Ed Oscuro]

You may also enjoy ZPC, an old PC game based on the Marathon 2 engine (but unforunately incompatible with the current release of Aleph One). The art style is one of a kind. You can get a chopped-up version at Underdogs, but I managed to find the full ISO on another website; considering that the Underdogs version doesn't let you reload savegames and is missing all the FMV, the ISO is probably well worth it.
I haven't heard of ZPC; I do know that there's some sort of "special operations" game that used the Marathon engine/level editor (and that it apparently sort of sucked; the lead developer has written a book on game design where he talks about that and some other rather uninspiring projects he's worked on, heh).

Anyhow, BOB = Born on Board. I've yet to play the games, and I'm just hoping to find time to set up a Mac and get through Pathways Into Darkness.

DOOM III fans take note: A mod has just been released called...what else...Pathways Into Darkness; it's a rather small mod at ~30MB but it seems to play out the PID story. Not sure about new models and such (anything would have to be an improvement over the old ones, heh), but it must be worth a look (I've downloaded it and will try it out after the original title).

[Avenger]

so ive got all 3 games now:
Marathon
Marathon 2
Marathon Infinity

but the controls are INSANE, i guess tey are set up for MAc...i have really no idea...i could mess around with them forever but itd be easier, and better imo, to just see how everyone else plays these games...what layout does everyone else use?

i was thinking about maybe using my ps2 pad...

also, how long will it take it beat each game..roughly...

[Lady Jaye]

Here are the control setups for the Marathon trilogy:

In the start screen:

Preferences > Setup (right hand of the Preferences screen) > Control Keys

A window will pop up that'll allow you to map the game's controls to your liking.


During the game you can pause the game with command-P (since you're on PC, try Ctl-P) and quit with command-Q (Ctl-Q on PC?).

Any other questions? Since I have the trilogy on CD, I also have the games' manuals.

[Jorpho]

Aren't those the same manuals up for download?

[Lady Jaye]

If the manuals are on the site, then it'd be a good idea to read them. :D

[Avenger]

ok...i guess i wasnt clear...i know HOW to chage them...i just want to know what setup ppl use...like..wat button they use to go forwrd, back, shoot...etc

[Cantaloup]

ok...i guess i wasnt clear...i know HOW to chage them...i just want to know what setup ppl use...like..wat button they use to go forwrd, back, shoot...etc

I use a combination of mouse and keyboard (and I use Aleph One). My keyboard setup looks like this (and I don't claim it is optimal or in any way great):

W -- move forward
S -- move back
Q -- turn left
E -- turn right
A -- move (strafe) left
D -- move (strafe) right
Z -- glance left
X -- glance right
F -- look up
V -- look down
C -- look ahead
1 -- previous weapon
2 -- next weapon
tab -- activate
M -- map (probably could find a better key for this one, maybe 3?)
space -- primary fire
option/alt -- secondary fire

Basically I use W, A, S, and D to move, and use the mouse to aim/look, fire and change weapons (with scroll wheel). Since I use the mouse to aim, I don't really use the turn or look keys at all. And since I have a 2 button mouse I use that for both fire buttons.

[Avenger]

awesome thanks man...i will try this out right now!