Anonymous edits have been disabled on the wiki. If you want to contribute please login or create an account.

Marathon

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 22:33, 24 September 2021 by Garrbot (talk | contribs) (updated template usage)
This page may require cleanup to meet basic quality standards. You can help by modifying the article. The discussion page may contain useful suggestions.
Marathon
Marathon cover
Developers
Bungie Software
Engines
Marathon Engine 1.0
Release dates
Mac OS (Classic) December 21, 1994
Windows December 2, 2011[1]
Linux December 2, 2011[1]
Marathon guide on StrategyWiki
Marathon on MobyGames
Marathon on Wikipedia
Marathon
Marathon 1994
Marathon 2: Durandal 1995
Marathon Infinity 1996

Key points

The game was made free to download in 2005. Note that it is NOT open source.
Aleph One supports modern systems and allows modding
Small but dedicated community
Frame rate is capped at 30 FPS (Fixed in April 8, 2021 update for Aleph One).
Cannot change settings while in a game.
Cannot manually reload weapons. Also cannot switch directly to a weapon (keys 1-9 serve no purpose by default) or rebind zoom key (F7). (Also fixed in the April 8th 2021 update for Aleph One)

General information

Bungie.net - The developer's site
Pfhorpedia - A wiki for everything Marathon related
Traxus Project - Another Marathon wiki
Marathon.Bungie.org - One of the biggest Marathon fan sites around
Simplici7y - A fan site for downloading mods and maps for the Marathon Trilogy

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
DRM details are not known
Mac OS
Official website
DRM-free
See Marathon (Original) for details.
Mac OS
Official website
DRM-free
Aleph One version.
Windows
Mac OS
Linux

Version differences

Marathon (Original)

The original Mac only version of the game and its manual are available to download for free at http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/. Individual files can also be downloaded as opposed to the full game. The game has also been modified to no longer require serial keys to install.

Note that they are provided as is and will only run on a classic Macintosh. The game is also using an older version of the Marathon engine, so features provided in the sequels such as mod support are unavailable.

It is recommended to use the Aleph One version as it adds modern PC support and a port to the newer engine.

Aleph One

Aleph One is an open source continuation of the Marathon 2 engine. Along with bringing all the benefits of the newer engine to the original Marathon, it makes the game more modern and accessible with many different improvements such as cross-platform support, widescreen resolutions, and improved multiplayer networking.

For Windows and OS X, everything is provided as a single app/folder. For Linux, the engine need to be downloaded separately from the game files, compiled, and merged in.

Both the engine and the game files can be downloaded at https://alephone.lhowon.org/.

As a bonus, the game files provided by Aleph One include HD textures, a revamped HUD, and a new UI.

Aleph One 1.1 and later can run Marathon 1; prior to this there was a fan made remake of Marathon 1 for Aleph One called M1A1. Despite using the original Marathon 1 assets, M1A1 has a different resource structure so mods created for it are not compatible with the official Marathon 1. M1A1 was officially deemed obsolete after support for the official Marathon 1 data files were added to Aleph One.

Essential improvements

Marathon Serial Key Generator

A legal serial key generator for the retail versions of all Marathon games. Refresh the page to get a new batch of keys. Marathon keys are stated with "M1" before the codes.

It can be found at http://marathon.bungie.org/maraserialgen/.

Aleph One Mods

Some of the featured mods are included with Aleph One.
  • M1 Weapons Redux - HD replacements for weapons, projectiles and most items.
  • xBR Monsters for M1 - HD upscaled (not remastered or redrawn) monsters and their corpses.
  • Marathon Music Remastered - Marathon's MID! music resampled on modern synthesizers. Also check out TheMarathonMusic.com; if the tracks are renamed correctly, they can also be used in Aleph One.
  • TTEP @ 1024x1024 - the Total Texture Enhancement Package is already included in the Aleph One download of the game, however this version is at 1024x1024 resolution vs the included version's 512x512. Recommend using with the Updated Starscape or StarScape DDS: unzip the starscape.zip then make 3 copies of the starscape.dds, rename each "04.dds", "24.dds", and "21.dds" then replace image "04.dds" inside folder 02. Replace image "24.dds" inside folder 17. And finally replace image "21.dds" inside folder 18.

Other

  • 3D scenery for M1 - Replaces the 2D scenery sprites with 3D objects. Note that some players do not like 3D objects in Marathon due to it's 2.5D nature however there aren't any HD scenery packs yet, unfortunately.
  • Marathon over Tau Ceti E-I Landscape - Gives more realistic landscape however has bugs on some systems. Quallity can generally be reduced in settings if it causes lag, however a smaller version is available here.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %APPDATA%\Aleph One\Marathon Preferences
Mac OS (Classic)
Linux

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Aleph One\Quick Saves
%USERPROFILE%\Aleph One\Recordings
%USERPROFILE%\Aleph One\Saved Games
Mac OS (Classic)
Linux

Video

In-game general video settings.
In-game general video settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Use Aleph One and set Field of view (FOV).
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Aleph One allows windows to be larger than 640x480.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Run Aleph One in Windowed mode set to your display's native resolution. The game is displayed in smaller window for menus, however, during gameplay the screen will render at your chosen resolution.[2]
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Use Aleph One.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Use Aleph One.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Use Aleph One.
60 FPS
Use Aleph One.
120+ FPS
Use Aleph One.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Field of view (FOV)

As of Aleph One 1.3, FOV must now be adjusted by editing the .mml file in the Plugin folder of whatever HUD you are using.

For example: open Marathon\Plugins\Enhanced HUD\FOV.mml and change the value to your desired FOV.

Input

In-game general control settings.
In-game general control settings.

Audio

In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English

Network

System 7 or higher is required for network play.

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
8
Online play
8

Connection types

Ports

No port information; you can edit this page to add it.
This game supports Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for automatic port configuration.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
OpenGL 2.0, 1.0 Use Aleph One. OpenGL "Classic" is 1.0, "Shader" is 2.0
Software renderer
ExecutablePPC16-bit 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
For 64-bit use Aleph One.
Linux
Mac OS (Classic)

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Audio ALSA, Speex Aleph One only.
Interface FreeType Aleph One only.

Classic HUD Plugins (Aleph One)

Aleph One plugins that change the in-game HUD to match the original release. There are two variants available:

System requirements

Mac OS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 6.0.5
Processor (CPU) Motorola 68020 or better processor
System memory (RAM) 3 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 150 MB
Video card (GPU) 256 colour capable


References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Remastered Marathon Games Released for Free on PC, Mac, Linux - Eurogamer - last accessed on 2019-10-25
  2. Verified by User:AmethystViper on 2020-09-03
    Tested on Aleph One v1.3 (2020-08-03, Windows 64-bit version)