- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
How popular was it?
Read this, Particularly page 9 which describes macworld, page 12 which describes beta leaks, and page 13 which desribes shipping. Here's an excerpt on how "popular" it was.
"Bungie unveiled the reworked Marathon at the Boston Macworld Expo in August ‘95. The reaction was ecstatic. Dedicated gamers and curious passers-by clustered around Bungie’s tiny booth, vying for a chance to play. Macworld attendees were invited to pre-order the game at the show. “The game will ship in two weeks,” more than one attendee heard from the earnest Bungie staffers. “We’re just waiting for the boxes.” Famous last words. Marathon didn’t ship in two weeks, nor in two months; indeed it was some four months before the game finally ship.
So what happened? Ales Seropian explained: “There was never any intention to deceive anyone. The boxes were in production and there was every intention to ship in two weeks. But some changed were necessary to make the solo game enjoyable.” Put bluntly, the solo levels Bungie has designed to that point weren’t much fin to play. The cleanup process was a Pandora’s box: as fix for one problem inevitably caused three more. In the end, all the solo levels had to be redone.
. . .
no one could leave the building until he had played through the entire solo game twice. Alex and Reg were both halfway through the second game when they started to feel nauseated by the fast first-person motion and the rule was waived when Reg finally lost his lunch. This “Play-Till-You-Puke” policy, grotesque as it was, allowed Bungie to finally announce Marathon’s impending release on Wednesday, December 21st.
The Bungie team, drained after many months of effort, now had to deal with a shipping nightmare. Bungie had pre-sold some 25,000 copies of Marathon. A local Chicago firm had been contracted to handle the product assembly, but they could only finish 500-1000 units a day. Doug fielded hundreds of calls and e-mails from irate customers demanding the game they’d pre-ordered months ago. Alex fielded hourly phone calls from angry distributors who were openly furious over the production delays. Desperately trying to box up enough units to meet the demand. Alex marshalled the Bungie troops and drove over to a warehouse in the Chicago suburbs to help assemble boxes. In order to get the game to as many people as possible before Christmas, the first units shipped without boxes - four floppies and a manual shrinkwrapped together. It was somewhat ironic that the people who got the game first did not receive the very thing that was initially supposed to have delayed shipping back in August. Once they received the game, however, few customers felt the urge to complain. Most held in thrall by Marathon’s intoxicating mix of action and mind-candy, were just happy to have the game at last."
Oh, and that's why Bungie always says now "It'll be done when its done" and "Soon(tm)" Which is why many ppl are incredibly suprised over the Nov 9th release date; i don't ever recall bungie giving us a hard date months in advance!