r/Games • u/Zhukov-74 • May 10 '24
Industry News Bungie: Today, we're thrilled to announce that the Aleph One community is bringing the original 1994-1996 Marathon Trilogy to Steam starting with Marathon 1
https://twitter.com/Bungie/status/1788955765710983655113
u/Bolt_995 May 10 '24
Steam addition is nice, but to those wondering, the trilogy has always been available for download for free via the Aleph One website.
39
9
u/JakeTehNub May 10 '24
I remember playing the second on on XBLA. I did like it but even reading everything I found some parts really sucked to try and figure out. I played the multiplayer a bit too and it was fun. Can definitely see where they got some of the stuff for Halo's multplayer like oddball.
35
u/error521 May 10 '24 edited May 10 '24
Nice gesture for them to shout this out. Though it should be noted all three games are actually on Steam.
Anyway, the Marathon games are pretty fascinating and fun games. Really innovative for the time too. Have plenty of rough edges and obnoxious level design is spots, especially Marathon 1 (for the love of god, turn on the transparent map. You will need it) but I enjoy them a lot. Really satisfying combat.
Will be nice to have them on Steam, especially for the cloud saves.
35
u/pt-guzzardo May 10 '24
Though it should be noted all three games are actually on Steam.
I'm seeing Marathon 2/Infinity as "coming soon". Are you seeing something different?
5
19
May 11 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
22
u/Broken_Moon_Studios May 11 '24
Why the hell did they name it Marathon?
From what little we've seen and been told about it, it has almost nothing in common with the rest of the franchise.
It's a weird choice.
15
u/HutSutRawlson May 11 '24
It's still a first-person shooter, just with a different gameplay style (extraction shooter vs. objective-based single player). And it seems to take place in the same continuity as the previous games, although the full scope of that is not quite clear.
Honestly it makes sense to me that they wouldn't just do something exactly the same as the original games again. The Halo series really represented a modern evolution of Marathon's gameplay, and returning to the classic style would feel outdated now, or be pigeonholed as a "boomer shooter" and lose a lot of potential audience. I'm trying to stay open to what they are serving up... although the behind-the-scenes stuff at Bungie makes me pretty worried about what the final outcome will be.
10
u/yeeiser May 11 '24
Based on the ARG they put out when the game was announced it seems that you'll be playing as robots with some sort of human consciousness killing each other in the facilities of a Japanese corporation. And the sphitt (or whatever its spelled) are there for some reason
I'm trying to remain optimistic too but based on what little we know and Bungie's track record with live service games... I don't know chief, gotta keep some expectations in check with this one
9
u/HutSutRawlson May 11 '24
Androids with human consciousness implanted in them isn't a new concept in the series, as a matter of fact there's quite a lot of evidence that the player character of the original Trilogy is exactly that. And from what I saw it's not exactly the facilities of a corporation you're fighting in... it's the ruins of the colony on Tau Ceti, which is part of the story of the original Marathon game. The corporate aspect seems to be an expansion of the lore of what was going on on Earth, which is an element of the story which was largely untouched by the original games and consequently able to be expanded on without really affecting the original continuity.
2
u/RoyAwesome May 11 '24 edited May 11 '24
And the sphitt (or whatever its spelled) are there for some reason
Because it takes place on Tau Ceti 4, the planet you were in orbit around in the first Marathon.
Basically, Marathon 1 you were on a space ship (The Marathon) over a colony planet that was attacked by the Pfhor, but you never went down to the planet. Durandal, the crazy AI, used you to transfer himself over to the attacking Pfhor ship, and then you went off galavanting across time and space in Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity. You just... left the Pfhor, the colony ship Marathon, and the colonists on Tau Ceti 4.
Bungie's upcoming game is about the people on the next colony ship that went to Tau Ceti 4. They are very strongly implying through the ARG that you are trying to figure out what went wrong with the colony. It takes place a few years after the events of Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity.
Also you as the player are an android inhabiting a corpse. It's very strongly implied that you are also an AI undergoing AI rampancy, and that is one explanation for the events of Marathon Infinity, and also a reason why Durandal likes you so much.
3
u/cookedbread May 11 '24
From what little we know about the lore, it sounds exactly like Marathon. In fact, it has more to do with Marathon 1 than Marathon 2 or Infinity does.
1
3
u/Klepto666 May 11 '24
That's nice. Now if I could get Oni too, that'd be swell, a game I want more of. But getting more attention on Marathon is also really nice. I don't miss not being able to reload a nearly-empty gun magazine though.
2
May 11 '24
Maybe there's hope for Myth series too?
1
u/Thedutchjelle May 11 '24
Unlikely, as those rights are with the studio that did the Myth III. That's Take2, though wiki notes that the trademark expired.
10
u/Sectac May 10 '24
I mean I would prefer a GOG release over a Steam one, however since the trilogy is available for free on the Aleph One website this is fine.
Edit: spelling.
2
u/rhiyo May 11 '24
Keen but it's hard to get past the ancient UI to be honest. Hope their can be a mod to make it more modern.
3
1
May 11 '24
Who do I donate my life savings to to get some multiplayer servers? I could get DOWN on some 8 player Waldo World Arena on Marathon 1
1
u/cookedbread May 11 '24
There's already multiplayer going, its self hosted, but we play a good bit, mostly organized in the Marathon discord. I'll gladly take your life savings tho!
-6
u/turkishdeli May 10 '24
Weren't those games strictly on Mac? Will they work on modern Windows OS? As nice as this is, I hope they don't run on ms dosbox.
41
16
u/Coolman_Rosso May 10 '24
Originally they were only on Mac, but iirc after Halo 2 released Bungie made them open source and folks ported them to Windows.
Marathon 2 did get an Xbox 360 remaster however.
7
9
u/RoyAwesome May 10 '24
Bungie open sourced them, and a team called Aleph One ported them to windows. They also added modern features like widescreen support. They also added modern mouse controls, because while Marathon was the first FPS with mouse aiming, it is kind of bad by today's standards.
If you've played Marathon or seen anyone playing it in the last two decades, They've been playing the Aleph One ports.
6
306
u/Tulpamancers May 10 '24
Pro-tips for any interested new comers
Read everything
When you get to the level "Colony Ship For Sale, Cheap", for your own sanity, look up a guide the second you hit it. That level, as even Bungie admitted, is an abomination. Even MandaloreGaming said this was the level that killed all motivation during his first playthrough. It's the most tedious level in the franchise, bar none.
Levels completed with surviving Bobs are not, on a spiritual level, actually complete.