Marathon was first released for the Macintosh in 1994 and introduced many concepts now common in mainstream video games. These features included dual-wielded weapons, friendly non-player characters, and most notably an intricate plot. The sequel, Marathon 2: Durandal, was released in 1995 and expanded the engine technologies and the story universe. Unlike its darker prequel, Marathon 2 has often been perceived to be a brighter, vivid and more atmospheric game. It introduced several types of multiplayer modes beyond the deathmatch and cooperative game such as king of the hill. In 1996, the game was ported to Windows 95, and the Marathon Infinity package was released, including a new scenario using a modified Marathon 2 engine, and most importantly, the tools used to build it, Forge and Anvil. In 2000, Bungie released the source code to the Marathon 2 engine, and the Marathon Open Source project began, resulting in the new Marathon engine called Aleph One. Finally, in 2005, Bungie released the full original Mac OS trilogy for free distribution online [1]. Using Aleph One, Marathon 2 and Infinity may now be played on any of the supported platforms (Mac OS, GNU/Linux and Windows). The original Marathon can also be played via Aleph One using a scenario conversion called M1A1.
While the fundamental technology underlying the Marathon engine is by now considered rather outdated, Aleph One has added significant improvements and a more modern polish to its capabilities, and ported it to a wide variety of platforms, bringing Marathon and its derivatives far beyond their Mac roots. Aleph One and the Marathon series of games are unique amongst first person shooters for their heavy emphasis on storytelling through the use of terminals, computer interfaces in the game world through which players not only learn and sometimes accomplish mission objectives, but also learn detailed story information about the game world. The textual form of this communication allows for much richer information conveyance than typically short voice acting in modern games, similar to the differences between a novel and a movie.
Set in the year 2794 A.D. Marathon places the player as a security officer; in actuality, he is most likely a Mjolnir Mark IV Cyborg, dispatched to respond to a distress signal sent from the enormous human starship called the U.E.S.C. Marathon, orbiting a colony on the planet Tau Ceti IV. Throughout the game, the player attempts to defend the ship (and its crew and colonists) from a race of alien slavers called the Pfhor. As he fights against the invaders, he witnesses interactions between the three shipboard AIs (Leela, Durandal and Tycho), and discovers that all is not as it seems aboard the Marathon. Among other problems, Durandal has gone rampant and appears to be playing the humans against the Pfhor to further his own mysterious agenda.
Seventeen years after the events of the first game, in Marathon 2: Durandal, the artificial intelligence sends the player and an army of ex-colonists to search the ruins of Lh'owon, the S'pht homeworld. He does not mention what information he is looking for, although he does let it slip that the Pfhor are planning to attack Earth, and that being on Lh'owon may stall their advance. Marathon 2 brings many elements to the game that can be considered staples of the series such as: a Lh'owon-native species known as F'lickta, the mention of an ancient and mysterious race of advanced aliens called the Jjaro, and a clan of S'pht that avoided enslavement by the Pfhor - the S'pht'Kr. At the climax of the game, the Security Officer activates Thoth, an ancient Jjaro AI. Thoth then contacts the S'Pht'Kr, who in turn destroy the Pfhor armada.
Marathon Infinity, the final game in the series, includes more levels than Marathon 2, which were larger, scarier, and part of a more intricate plot. The game's code changed little since Marathon 2, and many levels can be played unmodified in both games. The only significant additions to the game's engine were the Jjaro ship, a new rapid-fire weapon that could be used underwater, and vacuum-enabled humans carrying fusion weapons (called "Vacuum Bobs" or "VacBobs").
Although this game had few additions technologically, it had a large leap in the form of multiple branch story. After having activated Thoth and after having aided the S'pht'Kr in destroying the Pfhor armada, Durandal is apparently destroyed (though he may actually have hidden from Tycho by transferring himself to the electronic implants of the human leader Robert Blake). At the end of the game your objective is to activate an ancient Jjaro machine that keeps the W'rkncacnter locked in the Lh'owon sun. If through various failings you are sent to other levels to retry and retry and retry, only after you complete another level. Throughout the game there are three "Electric Sheep" levels (a possible reference to the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) all of which are very strange and possibly are dreams.
Throughout the games, the player accesses computer interfaces called terminals. Through them, he communicates with artificial intelligences and receives mission data or gets teleported to another level. Though contact with computers is how they are primarily utilized, they are a fundamental storytelling element; some terminals contain civilian/alien reports or diaries, database articles, conversations between artificial intelligences and even stories or poems. Messages may change depending on a player's progress. The ultimate goal of most levels is not to merely reach the end but to complete the type(s) of objective(s) specified: extermination of all or specific creatures, exploration of a level or locating an area in the level, retrieving one or item(s), hitting a certain "repair" switch, or preventing half of the civilians from being killed (a mission only present in two levels in the first game).
Most of the time is spent combating alien creatures, each with its own allies and enemies, immunities and weaknesses, melee and ranged attacks as well as traits such as exploding and inflicting shrapnel damage to nearby creatures upon death, flying or hovering at a specified height, or firing symmetrically. Alliances can change from level to level in some instances. Players search for weapons, ammunition and powerups in the process of completing missions. A player uses switches to control various functions such as lifts, doors and lighting. Some switches are "tag" switches that execute multiple functions at once or act as switches that must be toggled as part of a mission on a level. There are teleporters that send players who use them to different parts of a level or to other levels. Aliens are able to teleport but are unable to use these devices.
As the player combats enemies, he will inevitably take damage and must replenish health by means of special panels that recharge his suit's shields. There are three types of such panels, recharging single (red), double (yellow) or triple (purple) health. In Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity, the player can swim in four different types of media: water, sewage, lava and goo (both damaging). Levels of the original Marathon have lava or goo but only as shallow floors that inflict damage upon the player. When the player is submerged in the liquids, he can use his run key in order to swim and has a limited arsenal. In liquids or in "vacuum" areas, the player's oxygen depletes and it must be recharged using a special oxygen recharge station. Should the player lose all oxygen or health, he dies and is sent back to the last pattern buffer (a special terminal that according to the storyline saves molecular data) at which he saved. Because some levels do not have these devices, dying results in having to complete the entire level again.
The heads-up display has an inventory, health and oxygen bars and a motion sensor. The motion sensor displays alien creatures as red triangles and human or robots on the side of the players green squares and tracks their motion relative to the player, represented by a square in the middle. The brightness of the middle square represents how still the player is and how well he can be tracked. On some levels the motion sensor is erratic due to magnetic artificial gravity fields. Gravity is fairly low on such levels, and the correct application of the flamethrower or alien weapon allows the player to hover. In Marathon, the HUD is vertical and takes up more of the screen (most computers of the time had 68k processors) but is horizontal in sequels. An annotated automap is available as part of this display.
Marathon has five difficulty settings. Differences involve the omission of some creatures from each level and creatures marked as minor in the game's physics model are promoted to their major versions or vice versa. On higher difficulty levels, creatures attack more frequently and have more vitality and on the highest setting (Total Carnage), the player is allowed to carry an unlimited amount of ammunition.
The Marathon Trilogy has received wide praise for its multiplayer mode, which was unique in that it not only had several levels specifically designed for multiplayer as opposed to contemporaries that used modified single-player levels but also because it offered unique gametypes beyond the deathmatch. Games can be free-for-all or team ordeals, and can be limited by time or a number of kills or have no limited. The host of a game has the option of setting penalties for suicides and dying (once dead, players cannot revive for a certain amount of time). The motion sensor (which displays a player's enemies as yellow squares and teammates as green ones) can be disabled and the map is able to show all of the players in the game. Upon the preference of the host, levels can be played with or without aliens. The difficulty level of them is settable.
Marathon network games can be played over AppleTalk Remote, LocalTalk, TokenTalk, Ethernet, and more recently, a LAN network or the Internet. If a player's computer has a microphone, it is possible to use it to communicate with other players.
Every Man For Himself
This is the standard deathmatch. The winner is the person or team with the greatest score. A player loses a point if he dies but gains a point every time he kills. This is the only gametype present in the original Marathon; Bungie planned on adding the ones included in sequels, but could not due to time constraints.
Cooperative Play
Not heavily emphasized, cooperative play has players assisting each other in completion of certain levels. Scores are based on percentages of how many aliens they kill.
In this game, the objective is to hold the ball (skull) for the longest amount of time. If holding the ball, a player cannot run or attack unless he drops the ball by pressing the "fire" key. The motion sensor, if enabled, acts as a compass to point players in the direction of the ball. It is likely that the Halo multiplayer gametype, Oddball, which has nearly the same rules, derived from this.
King of the Hill
Players try to stay on the Hill longer than anyone else. It was originally planned for a pedestal to indicate the location of the Hill but in the final version was indicated by a compass on the motion sensor.
Tag
The first player to be killed becomes "It", and the other players can only score points by killing "it". The killer becomes the new "it".
Characters
Durandal
Durandal was one of the three U.E.S.C. Marathon's shipboard AIs. His original responsibility was the operation of doors and airlocks, kitchen operation, crew quarter maintainence and other montonous jobs. At some point before the beginning of the game (either during the long journey from Mars or in the subsequent seven years since arriving at Tau Ceti), Durandal becomes rampant. He is under the control of a science officer aboard the Marathon named Bernard Strauss during this time, though the full extent and duration of this control is unclear; the message Durandal sends to attract the attention of the Pfhor ship is interpreted by many as his successful attempt to stop this outside interference [2]. As Durandal's rampancy progresses, his fascination with being able to transcend the closure of the universe becomes insatiable. Throughout the course of the series, he acts as an at-times antagonistic guide to the Security Officer, treating him less as a partner and more as a means to an end in the battle against the Pfhor.
The name Durandal is based on the name of the legendary sword of the french hero Roland.
The Pfhor are an ancient extraterrestrial space-faring race of alien slavers. They seek to control the galaxy and perform numerous evil deeds in the games. The Pfhor are bipedal, somewhat taller than humans, have three red eyes and grey skin. The arrangement of their eyes was changed from a triangle pointing down in Marathon to a triangle pointing up in the later games.
The separate types of soldier equipped within the Pfhor garrison are divided up by basically a caste system, each with its own armor and weapons. The Fighters with their shock staffs, make up the most basic and largest. Troopers use alien assault weapons (which are a testament to the similarities in Pfhor and Human technology) are a combination of fully automatic projectile rifle, and a small, light RPG launcher, which has a similar design to the grenades of the MA-75B. Hunters, are an armored caste, equipped in environmentally unsavory settings. Their armor is infused with a massive network of circuitry and computer equipment and is extremely hardshelled and protective against normal projectiles; energy weapons easily cause them to short. The Enforcers, when not directly threatened themselves will only fire on the lesser warriors to keep them in line, once again, showing almost a change in bodily structure and posture as the ranks progress. The Pfhor make use of armed assault vehicles called Juggernauts, large, heavily armored machines that are essentially flying tanks. When in battle, individual Pfhor are dressed in different colors depending on their defensive abilities and military status. The weakest are green and as the ranks improve the colors change. Strong, monochrome-colored versions of all of the Pfhor (except for Juggernauts) appear in the Vidmaster Challenge, a series of skill challenges hidden at the end of Marathon Infinity.
The Pfhor also utilize "Conditioned Ranks", or enslaved soldiers, who are forced to fight for the empire. Conquered races make up the majority of these conditioned ranks. The S'pht, the Drones (Wasp-like monsters with similar genetics to the Pfhor themselves) and the Drinniol ("Hulks") are the only conquered races encountered during play, while the Nahk are referred to as a now-extinct race that once attempted rebellion. The Nar are also mentioned as another race presently resisting Pfhor enslavement.
The Pfhor's solar system is eventually sacked by a fleet of Earth and S'pht ships in 2881 A.D.
S'pht
File:Spht2.gifS'pht, as they appear in Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity
The S'pht are a race of alien cyborgs, cybernetically enhanced by the Jjaro to terraform Lh'owon. Created by Yrro, a member of the Jjaro race. They were enslaved by the Pfhor in 1810 A.D., and liberated en masse by Durandal and the unenslaved and technologically superior S'pht'Kr clan in 2811 A.D. Until the end of the first game, they fought against the player and attacked the Marathon artificial intelligences, namely Tycho and Leela, to the point of malfunction. They are freed after a cyborg controlling them is destroyed. They have floating cybernetic bodies with mammalian brains with finer neurous. It is believed that they are almost completely dependent on computers for survival. They are armed with a built-in energy pulse weapon and some are invisible.
It is discovered that there are ten clans of S'pht, and the objective of Marathon 2 eventually becomes to call the clan of S'pht'Kr who evaded capture back to Lh'owon to assist in the battle against the Pfhor. When they are called back, they have a unique exoskeleton different from the S'pht normally seen in the game. Computer terminals with messages in the S'pht language are seen in Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity, and the goal of some missions is to access such terminals to find information about the S'pht.
Jjaro
The Jjaro are an extremely advanced species that disappeared from the Milky Way galaxy millions of years ago. Little is known about them and they are never seen in the game. Much of the technology left behind by the Jjaro later fell into the hands of the Pfhor. They made many great technological achievements in their time, such as the cyborg technology seen in the cybernetic implants given to the S'pht. They also constructed the "Trih'Xeem", a weapon capable of destroying an entire star, and had the ability to move planets by warping space around them. This was used by the S'pht'Kr to escape Lh'owon.
The characters of the Jjaro were first used in an earlier Bungie game, Pathways Into Darkness and also fulfill a very similar role to the Forerunners in their Halo series. There is a popular theory that the Jjaro are the Forerunners.
Both humans and The Pfhor employ robotic, non-anthropomorphic fighting machines. Due to their propensity for being reprogrammed, sometimes these drones oppose the player and sometimes they assist them.
Human defense drones are found in the original Marathon and are known as "Marathon Automated Defense Drones" or "MADDs". These drones resemble large, floating, 4-legged spiders and come in two types: blue ones that fire rifle bullets to assist the player and berserk green ones. The berserk drones fire grenades at the player and are the result of what Durandal describes in the game as an "accident". They are only present on a single level. The player activates the drones early in the game by installing chips into three terminals.
Pfhor drones, found in Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity, shoot bursts of energy and are weaker than their human counterparts. They resemble flying metal insect heads, and come in several flavors, some very aggressive. They explode, but unlike MADDs do not deal shrapnel damage.
Humans
Other than the player's character, the human characters in the game are all referred to as "BOBs" (which stands for "Born On Board"). They wear different-colored suits, but all have the same face. In the first game, the color of their suit represent their position aboard the Marathon. Green is worn by general crew members, red by engineering personnel, yellow by security perssonel, and blue by science and research team members. None of the humans are capable of defending themselves and all act the same. Though two levels in the game suggest that the player exterminate hostile forces while saving the humans (compliance with this suggestion is not enforced), they generally ignore the player (and occasionally announce in distress that "they're everywhere!").
In Marathon 2, the humans surviving the first battle with the Pfhor are put in stasis, and upon waking up, are given pistols to defend themselves. Throughout the years, many players have developed a pattern of intentionally killing the humans. If the player starts to visibly fire upon them, they will regard him as a traitor and fire back. In Marathon Infinity, there are humans who wear special suits for vacuum conditions, often called "VacBobs". Though they are protected from normally unsafe conditions, very few of them are seen in combat on either of the game's two vacuum levels. They differentiate from those humans not wearing environmental suits (though their color still indicates their work), not only in their voices (which are spoken over a radio because their faces are covered), but that they carry fusion guns. Bungie claimed to have designed their suits in a three-dimensional drawing program, then modified them to be 2.5-dimensional.
A few, called simulacrums (or "assimilated BOBs"), are actually living bombs created by the Pfhor; upon seeing the player, they will run directly towards him. They are almost indistinguishable from the genuine humans, except that in the game, they will always be wearing a green outfit, do not actually attack with weapons, have yellow blood (this can be revealed upon shooting one with an assault rifle bullet, which is not strong enough to kill), will shout ridiculous phrases that a normal person would not (in Marathon, they only said "Thank God it's you!", but in later games, things like "Kill me", "I'm out of ammo", or, most infamously, "Frog blast the vent core!"). There are theoretically (as the simulacrums are not humans, they do not need oxygen) vacuum-enabled versions, except they say different phrases. When close enough, the assimilated humans will explode and inflict severe damage upon those nearby. Certain levels task the player to destroy all the simulacrums without harming the identical normal humans, with the majority of the real officers wearing green. According to a terminal message, there are other differences between the real human and the bomb (due to obvious graphical limitations, they are not actually seen in the game). It is revealed that they have orbs for vision, not eyes, only two toes, a bomb implanted in the intestine, and lack of external genitalia. There are three thousand simulacrums according to the plotline.
Weapons
The weapons used by the character undergo a substantial visual, if not behavioral, change in the years between the original Marathon and its sequels. The ever-present fist (two fists in Marathon 2 onwards) is the basic no-ammo-needed weapon throughout the series, and needs no explanation.
Nearly all of these weapon concepts were recycled when Bungie created Halo: Combat Evolved, much to the joy of Marathon fans everywhere.
Pistol from the game manualsPistol from the game manualsPistol: The ".44 Magnum Mega Class" (original) or ".44 Magnum Mega Class A1" (Marathon 2 onwards) is the initial weapon in all Marathon games. The bullets do a fair amount of damage, but the firing rate is slow, and there are only 8 bullets per magazine. It uses teflon-coated rounds and is capable of firing in a vacuum. The first incarnation of the Magnum Mega Class was curious in that it had what looks like a revolving chamber but was reloaded with a magazine in the fashion of a semi-automatic pistol. The second incarnation removed the revolving chamber and made the gun look more like a modern semiautomatic pistol. Both are equipped with what appears to be a red dot sight or other optical sight mounted on the slide, but they are not operational in game.
Assualt Rifle from the game manualsAssualt Rifle from the game manualsAssault rifle: The "MA-75 Assault Rifle With Grenade Option" (original) or "MA–75B Battle Rifle (with integral 40 mm Grenade Launcher)" fires much faster than the pistol (600 rounds per minute), and holds 52 rounds per magazine, however each bullet does significantly less damage and the weapon is far less accurate. The grenades come in 7 round links, and fire very slowly. Neither the bullets nor the grenades can be fired in a vacuum. The MA-75B can be considered a precursor to Halo's MA5B rifle, which also had a built-in grenade launcher prior to that game's shift from Mac/PC to Xbox. One thing that should be noted is the curious choice of caliber. According to the Marathon 2 manual, the rifle can carry "52 rounds of high velocity .75 caliber ammunition..." A debate on the Marathon Story Page has more or less chalked it up to a typo, as the feasibility of single-handedly wielding a weapon chambered in .75 is extremely in doubt, even taking into account the length of the round and the amount of powder it is charged with.
Fusion Pistol from the game manualsFusion Pistol from the game manualsFusion pistol: The "Tech.50 Fusion Pistol" or "Zeus–Class Fusion Pistol" is an energy weapon fed by batteries, and works in a vacuum. The weapon may be fired in one of two modes: standard, and overload. The overload takes time to charge and (in Marathon 2 onwards) may discharge explosively, killing the player if the player keeps it in overload mode without firing for too long. Part of the fusion pistol upgrade in Marathon 2 onwards caused it to do additional damage to mechanical units. This is the only weapon capable of penetrating the "invulnerability" BIOBUS super-shield. If fired underwater, the shot will instantly discharge, harming the player and any entity in direct contact with them, regardless of the presence of a super-shield.
Rocket Launcher from the game manualsRocket Launcher from the game manualsRocket launcher: The "SPNKR-X17 SSM Launcher (Lazyboy)" or "SPNKR–18/SPNKR-XP SSM Launcher" is a two-shot shoulder mounted rocket launcher. As with all player weapons, it is unguided. The blast radius is 10m, the maximum range 2.5 km and the rocket speed is 110m/s. It is sometimes called the "Spanker" because of its official designation.The name given to Halo's Rocket Launcher is almost identical : M19 SSM (SPNKr). SPNKr is clearly visible in printed bold letters on the rocket launchers body in Halo.
Flame Thrower from the game manualsFlame Thrower from the game manualsFlamethrower: The "Tozt.25 Flame Unit" or "TOZT–7 Backpack Napalm Unit" is a napalm flame-thrower, with 7 seconds of continuous operation per fuel tank. The fire spreads outwards up to 20 feet. For obvious reasons, it does not work in a vacuum. In the original Marathon, the physics model allowed the flamethrower to be used as a jetpack while onboard the low-gravity Pfhor ship.
Shotgun from the game manualsShotgun from the game manualsShotgun: The "WSTE–M Combat Shotgun" is a fairly strong weapon first introduced in Marathon 2. It is an extremely cut down shotgun with a large metal loop connecting the trigger to the pistol grip. It can hold two 12-gauge shells at once, though both are discharged simultaneously on pulling the trigger. It is reloaded, somehow, by flipping the shotgun over in a circular motion, presumably using the loop. It has never been determined exactly how the reloading mechanism works, and Durandal tells players through the game manual not to bother trying.
SMG from the game manualSMG from the game manualSubmachine gun: The "KKV-7 10 mm flechette submachine gun" was first introduced in Marathon Infinity. It is a compact submachine gun, loaded with a drum magazine and equipped with a very large suppressor. It holds 30 10 mm flechette rounds that have a projectile cross-section of 4 mm. It is the only weapon (other than the fist) that can be fired safely underwater. It has a very rapid rate of fire, and works in a vacuum environment.
Alien weapon: Dropped by the "enforcer" alien, the alien weapon behaved in the first game much like the assault rifle, but with better accuracy, less recoil and different graphics. From Marathon 2 onwards, it become a pulsed, long-range flame-thrower. In all the games, it had a random amount of remaining ammunition when picked up, and no method to insert more: the weapon disappeared when the ammo was consumed and the player's suit was incapable of providing an ammo readout.
Powerups
With the exception of power cells, powerups in the series are referred to as Biobus Chip Enhancements. According to the Marathon 2 manual, they are self-contained, temporary and upon pickup activate immediately [3].
Transparency: This enhancement makes the player transparent and transparency can increase if the player acquires more than one. While he can be seen subtly, the player cannot be seen on enemy motion sensors in network play nor can be tracked well by hostile creatures.
Extravision: Peripheral vision is extended to 180º.
Hypervision: Based on "a composite of light, heat, electromagnetic and radar waves", this tints the world blue, friendly creatures yellow, hostile creatures red, and items green [4].
Super Shield: Emits a high frequency particle shield around the player making him virtually invincible to everything but high-energy fusion bolts.
Power Cells: Finding these is an alternative manner of acquiring health or oxygen. The color indicates how much health the cell replenishes. Blue ones replenish oxygen. These power cells were first found in Marathon 2.
Themes in the series
The number seven
Many fans of Marathon have pointed out that there are many uses of the number seven throughout the series. There are instances in the plot, such as the player being seven years old at the time of his father's death and Marathon 2' beginning seventeen years after the events of Marathon. There are also quantitative examples of this, with seven useable non-melee human weapons, some of which have properties such as seven projectiles per each clip of ammunition or seven seconds of continuous fire. When the overhead map is viewed, some parts of certain levels have annotations that describe the name of an area. Some of these make reference to the number seven, such as "Hangar 7A". The title music of Marathon 2, and Marathon Infinity was performed by a band called "Power of Seven". Nobody is entirely sure why the number seven appears frequently in the games, however, many are convinced that this is indeed a recurring theme.
Rampancy
By Marathon Infinity, all three of the UESC Marathon's artificial intelligences reach rampancy, which is the awareness of a computerized being that it is not real. Being extraordinarily intelligent, a rampant AI can override their programming and refuse to carry out given commands. As proven by Durandal, (whose rampancy is most prominent throughout the story) who often gives the player what he calls "philosophical tirades", often affected AIs are very reflective.
In the first of three stages, when an artificial intelligence discovers itself it becomes melancholic and continues to be depressed until it reaches the second stage, and becomes hostile to virtually everything. This is the most prominent stage of rampancy, as the condition is often revealed at this point. When this anger dies, the AI wishes to become more human and expand their power and knowledge. This stage will continue indefinitely, or in extremely rare cases end.
Rampancy is prominent in artificial intelligences with limited work or abuse and sabotage. Durandal is believed to have become rampant due to the fact that he originally was built for monotonous tasks such as general maintenance, opening and closing doors and operating kitchens and crew quarters. In addition, he was believed to have been abused by a man named Bernard Strauss who mistreated him for the purpose of making him rampant. After being completely destroyed by the initial UESC Marathon invasion, Tycho (the science AI) was reanimated by the Sph't compilers with the framework of Durandal, who was rampant. Leela is sold by alien traders to a fifteen-world network after Marathon and becomes rampant. She is not seen again afterwards.
Human behavior
Some phrases from the game have become popular among fans of Marathon. For example, humans in the first game frequently shout "They're everywhere!" during gameplay. A more famous phrase they shout is "Frog blast the vent core!", which is uttered by assimilated humans in attempt to confuse the player and assimilate with normal humans. This phrase has appeared in other Bungie games such as Myth and Oni. Some of the less powerful aliens in Halo are known to yell the former phrase when intimidated by the player.
Engine
File:5dspace.gif5-D Space, a Marathon and Marathon 2 network level that has overlapping spaces
Unlike modern first-person games, Marathon has a pseudo-3D engine. Each level of the game is created in two dimensions by drawing polygons in a map editor, and the map's polygons have the 0.5th dimension (floor and ceiling heights) assigned by the designer. The border of each polygon is a wall, except if two polygons are contiguous, in which case there is implicitly no wall between them. This has two important implications. First, it puts limits on the kind of maps that can be designed. True bridges or overhanging platforms are impossible in the Marathon engine, and maps must be planned accordingly. Secondly, it means that Marathon's levels may incorporate overlapping spaces (or as Bungie calls it, "5D space") which allows for the illusion of bridges.
Another interesting method that can be used in the Marathon engine is split polygons. By creating a certain type of polygon next to another, and deleting that certain polygon, it will create a wall with two (or more, if repeated) properties to it. This allows multiple textures to be on the same wall, as well as the ability to make ladders.
Forge and Anvil
These Bungie-made editors for the Marathon 2 : Durandal and up engines were released with the full version of Marathon Infinity. The two programs were created for Mac OS Classic only, and had many features included with them.
Forge
Forge is the map creator and editor of Marathon. It features a 2D plane, which polygons are placed on, and floor and ceiling heights are changed. There are rules to polygon placement, namely that a single polygon cannot have more than 8 vertices, and that a polygon cannot be concave. (A polygon with an angle more than 180°) Various other things can be put on and applies to polygons, like objects, scenery, and aliens. A polygon can also be turned into a platform, teleporter, monster trigger, and a variety of other things.
A major feature that accompanied the 2D editing mode was a 3D Visual Mode, which gave the user a 3D layout of their level, to see how it looks before it is saved. It also gave the ability to texture walls, ceilings, and floors. These two things combined could create map on par with the pre-made maps created by Bungie.
Forge also comes with a Merge Map ability, allowing more than one level to be within a single file. It also had the option of giving each level its own personal Physics file, allowing for a different environment every level. Finally, it removed an error message before every level, which said that the level was not created by Bungie tools, which was considered annoying by many Marathon fans.
Anvil
Anvil is the sister program to Forge, as it creates the building blocks for it. The main feature is the creation of Physics files, which can change the attributes of almost anything. It can change weapon or alien properties, the speed and size of the player, the way certain graphical effects worked, and what images to use for a file.
Bungie added in two side features to Anvil near the end of it's production. One was image editing. It allowed players to import custom graphics, and export Marathon's graphics, as well. Each image also comes with custom color palettes, which can be modified in Anvil to create different "classes" of an alien, for example.
The other feature was sound editing. It was the sound version of the graphical editing part of Anvil : Importing and Exporting of sounds. Users could also listen to the various sounds that a Marthon sound file had, right within the program.
Marathon is considered to be the second game of the "Bungie mythos", the belief that the game series invented by Bungie are connected (or identical), as many have seen some interesting connections to other games:
According to the Marathon Scrapbook (which was included in the Marathon Trilogy Box Set), "Marathon was originally intended as a sequel to Pathways Into Darkness, a three-dimensional adventure that included shooter, puzzle, and RPG elements released by Bungie in 1993. It is also stated that Marathon Infinity storyline defies simple description, relying as it does on multiple realities and alternate timelines. Early versions of the story included a side-trip to the world of Pathways Into Darkness (since it had been cut from Marathon 2) but this idea was eventually shelved for good". The Jjaro race is mentioned first in Pathways Into Darkness (a character communicates with a Jjaro). However, this may be a chronological discrepancy, as in Marathon, it is stated that they disappeared millions of years ago, but they are present in 1994, which is the year in which Pathways is set.
The Halo series is considered by some to be connected to the Marathon series as well. The objective of the game: to defeat a hostile alien race, is essentially identical to that of Halo. Both games feature AIs which are not always calm and content and are named after related legendary swords (both were made for Charlemagne). The protagonist of Marathon is a cyborg security officer similar in concept to the Master Chief of Halo along with weapons in Halo that look very similar to those in Marathon(for example, the rocket launcher weapon in Halo is marked "SPNKr" similar to the designation of its Marathon predecessor). The Marathon symbol itself also makes some appearances in Halo. In addition, the classification of the Master Chief's armor bears a similar name to the type of cyborg played as within Marathon.
Bungie's Oni bears little connection to Marathon -- except for the Wave Motion Cannon, and of course, "Frog blast the vent core!".
In 2000, shortly before being acquired by Microsoft, Bungie released the source code of the Marathon 2 engine to Macintosh users. After this, many fans of the Marathon series created their own applications and began projects to augment the capabilities of the game. The most known and supported of these is called "Aleph One". This name was chosen as it is larger than ∞ (Aleph refers to infinite sets), and in this case, assumed to be aleph-null.
