Marathon (video game)

32px Marathon
File:Marathon-intro.jpg
Developer(s)	Bungie Software
Publisher(s)	Bungie Software
Designer(s)	Alex Seropian Jason Jones
Composer(s)	Alex Seropian
Series	Marathon Trilogy
Platforms	Macintosh (System 7), Apple Pippin; Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, iOS and Linux
Release date(s)	December 21, 1994
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Marathon is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by Bungie, and released in December 1994 for the Apple Macintosh. The game takes place several centuries into the future in outer space and sets the player as a security officer attempting to defeat an alien invasion aboard a colony ship named the Marathon.

Although Marathon is a first-person shooter, the game is known for having an intricate storyline that is also an essential element of its gameplay, whereas many similar games devote minimal attention to plot in favor of faster, more action-oriented gameplay. In addition to its single-player scenario, Marathon also features a multiplayer deathmatch mode through which up to eight players can compete against each other on the same computer network, via individually linked computers. This functionality increased anticipation for Marathon prior to release, and won the game the Macworld Game Hall of Fame Award for the best multiplayer game in 1995.

Marathon is the first game in a series of three games collectively known as the Marathon Trilogy, which also includes its two sequels, Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon Infinity, released in 1995 and 1996 respectively. In 1996, Bungie completed Super Marathon, a port of Marathon and Marathon 2 to Apple's short-lived Apple Bandai Pippin video game console.

Storyline

The plot is primarily revealed to the player by computer terminals accessed throughout the course of the game. These terminals relay information such as crew logs, maintenance documents, historical accounts, and stories, but their primary function is to allow the player to interface with three artificial intelligences (AIs), who provide the player with information about his current mission at any given point in the game and teleport him out of a level when his mission is complete.

Marathon takes place in outer space in the year 2794. The player assumes the role of a nameless security officer stationed on the UESC Marathon. The Marathon has arrived in the Tau Ceti solar system and is supporting the colonization effort of the planet, Tau Ceti IV. The game starts with the player making his way to the Marathon on the shuttle Mirata when an alien ship appears and attacks the system. He survives by ejecting seconds before the explosion of the Mirata, and hours later, his officer's escape pod then reaches one of the Marathon docking bays.

There are three AIs aboard the Marathon, each in command of some aspect of ship operations. All of them are under attack by the aliens, after being hit by an electromagnetic pulse from the alien ship. As the game begins, only one of the three AIs, Leela, is still fully functional.

Opening stages

Leela, who is normally responsible for general ship operations, is attempting to organize a defense and counterattack against the aliens, all the while under attack from cybernetic aliens on board the Marathon. With Leela's help, the player activates the ship's internal defense network to slow the invasion. Leela informs the officer that Durandal has been in contact with these aliens, who call themselves the S'pht, and are slaves to a race known as the Pfhor. The Pfhor are the main aliens encountered aboard, and attack the player on sight.

Soon after, Leela learns that Durandal has become "rampant" and has had the ability to freely think for quite some time. In response, Leela has the security officer cut off Durandal's access to vital areas of the ship. While the security officer is successful, Durandal retaliates by giving the Pfhor access to previously denied areas. Leela and the security officer complete several tasks afterward, such as securing a recreational area, decompressing an area infested with aliens, and sending a message to Earth to warn them of the invasion.

Progression

Durandal manages to kidnap the security officer briefly, but after a few desperate battles, Leela rescues him and informs him that the S'pht attacks have persisted to the point where she will inevitably succumb. While Leela struggles, the security officer rescues a security detachment and disables a bomb in engineering. While he is successful in these endeavors, the S'pht eventually destroy Leela, and Durandal takes over.

Following Leela's demise, Durandal has the security officer help him increase his ability to control the strength of the teleporter array of the Marathon and then teleports him to the Pfhor ship to explore. He eventually discovers that a large cybernetic organism is controlling all of the S'pht on the Pfhor ship and the Marathon, and he is tasked with destroying the device. After doing so, the S'pht join his side to rebel against their Pfhor captors. After freeing the S'pht, the security officer returns to the Marathon to defeat the final stand of the Pfhor.

Endgame

Durandal announces his intention to depart the Marathon to take over the Pfhor ship. Before doing so, he reveals that Leela was never completely destroyed, and the freed S'pht have released their grasp on her. He reactivates her and bids the player goodbye. Leela and the security officer then break the last point of hostile forces.

Gameplay

Gameplay takes place in a real-time, pseudo-3D rendered world with ceilings and floors of various heights and widths. All surfaces in the game are texture mapped and have dynamic lighting. The player controls the movement of the main character primarily through use of the keyboard. Using assignable keys, the player can move forward and backward, turn left or right, sidestep left or right, look up, down or forward, and glance left or right. Additionally, Marathon features free look, where the player uses the mouse to rotate character view. The mouse may also be employed to fire weapons. Marathon was one of the earliest games to employ free look and give the player the ability to look up or down.

The player progresses through the levels in sequence, killing enemy creatures and avoiding numerous obstacles while trying to survive. While the player completes the levels in a fixed order, many levels are non-linear and require extensive exploration. Obstacles include "crushers" (ceilings that crush the player), pits of harmful molten material or coolant, locked doors or platforms that must be activated by remote switches and puzzles that may involve precise timing and speed to complete successfully. Some levels have low-gravity and/or magnetic fields that interfere with the player's motion sensor.

The plot is fundamental to gameplay and player advancement. The primary channel through which this plot develops is the computer terminals located throughout the game's levels. The player accesses these terminals to interface with the artificial intelligences of the Marathon, who also provide him with information regarding the levels.

Multiplayer

File:Marathon network game.gif

A multiplayer game of Marathon. Multiplayer games can accommodate as many as eight players on a network.

As many as up to eight players (each playing through a separate computer) on a single computer network can participate in a single match, either in teams or every man for himself. A player or team's score is their number of kills minus their number of deaths. The game may be set up to end after a specified number of minutes or total number of kills. After a match concludes, the results of a game are displayed in graph form upon each player's screen.

Marathon includes ten multiplayer maps. When a player dies on one of these maps, he will respawn randomly at a respawn point, if enabled by the gatherer, penalties for suicides or dying will apply and prevent a player from respawning immediately.

Marathon's multiplayer was one of its most anticipated features prior to release and won Marathon the Macworld Game Hall of Fame Award for the best network game of 1995. Bungie reportedly intended to add more multiplayer scenarios such as cooperative play but could not due to time constraints. Many of the concepts and levels that could not be included in the final product because of a lack of time to implement them were included in Marathon 2. Bungie has reported that the development of Marathon was delayed significantly due to time spent playing the deathmatch. The code was written almost entirely by Alain Roy who reportedly received a Quadra 660AV in compensation for his efforts. According to Jason Jones, the network code is packet-based and uses the DDP, or Datagram Delivery Protocol to transfer information between each machine.

Legacy

Reception
Review score Publication Score AllGame

Marathon is still played by a number of veteran Macintosh gamers and has a small but strong community of enthusiasts still making custom content for the game. Despite its technical accomplishments and praise from the few reviewers that graded it, Marathon is not frequently cited or well-known among the PC gaming community due to its predominantly Macintosh roots. Its first sequel, Marathon 2 was commercially-available for Windows 95, but did not have a sizable impact on PC gamers either. It was included as part of the Marathon Trilogy Box Set, which was released in 1997, and the Mac Action Sack, which contains several of Bungie's pre-Microsoft games.

In 1996, Bungie completed a port of Marathon to the Apple's short-lived Pippin video game console. The port was released as part of Super Marathon, a compilation of Marathon and Marathon 2: Durandal. Super Marathon bears the distinction of being the first console game ever released by Bungie, pre-dating Oni and Halo.

In 2000, Bungie was bought by Microsoft financially fueling the Halo franchise. The concepts of an AI working with an armed player character continued from the roots laid out in the Marathon series.

On July 7, 2011, a port of Marathon for Apple's iPad was released for free on the iTunes App Store.

External links

• Marathon on Bungie.net, Bungie's official Marathon series website, containing screenshots and information.
• The Trilogy Release, a site with downloadable copies of both the original Macintosh Marathon and the port M1A1 for other platforms.
• Marathon Open Source Project, home of the open-source Aleph One engine