Marathon, Not the Race, The Classic Game

So for the past year I've been keeping my self-busy with some old school classics and some free games. The reason why I've have been doing this is because being broke sucks and I got to keep myself entertained. There’s one I found in the deeps of the Internet.

This Macintosh classic called Marathon is made by the same folks who brought you other classics such as Oni and The Halo trilogy. Now, If you know Marathon and played quite a bit of Halo, than you would know that there are many Marathon references in the game. What got me interested the game at first was from my recently peeked interest in the love of old Macs and Apple computers. After some searching on Google I found the site source.bungie.org and was surprised to find that there has been a community of people of have made, with bungie’s blessing, an open source version of the game that can updated with high quality textures to make the game seem almost new. The game is available for all three major operation systems, yes that means Linux. The game was made in 1994 and was a smashing success, it went on to create two sequels, Marathon 2: Durandle and Marathon Infinity. The game has a great feel and flawless controls, with little to no bugs, glitches and other things that most older games suffered from; this is one heck of a game.
What stands out the most to me is the music. Unlike other older games where the music is added later or not at all. In Marathon the music has a techno, rock style to it that is the best. My personal favorite is one called ‘Aliens Again(?)’ it’s in one of the early levels of the game, and is one of the best.
Unlike other games, The story and missions are told though Terminals. Terminals are a big part of the game. Saving, healing, and mission briefs are all told though these.
What is also quiet impressive is the art, the characters are two-dimensional on a three-dimensional background. It gives it a very comic book like feeling that is not seen much in games. This style on 2-D on 3-D is pulled off even better than Paper Marion.
What made Marathon so popular, as well as Halo, is its multilayer. Huge LAN games on Apple Talk networks where extremely popular back in the 90’s. As for in this version, It’s Internet play is pretty good, but I haven’t played enough MP to give a finally verdict. The reason is that it is pretty difficult to get a game going, since most people don’t play online. So if anyone interested a time can be set a later date. I recommend this game for everyone, Try it, update the textures and enjoy!

So get out there and kill some freaking Aliens.