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Subject: Whats Bungie's very best game?
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  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

vote for my poll!!! halo 2 arsenal!!

  • 06.17.2004 12:27 PM PDT
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i have never played marathon. i have no idea

  • 06.17.2004 12:28 PM PDT
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Are these games (Marathon, Myth and Oni) available on PC or just Mac?

I would give them a try on PC if avail.

Regardless, I can't imagine any beating out Halo.

  • 06.17.2004 12:45 PM PDT
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Marathon is a bit of work on your pc; but easily doable. Check some of the other threads on doing it. Oni is for PC, and so is the whole myth series. (Marathon 2 is the only marathon that had also come out for PC).

  • 06.17.2004 1:22 PM PDT
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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!

  • 06.17.2004 1:28 PM PDT

bah

Posted by: Jager
four floppies
Hard to imagine huh?

  • 06.17.2004 11:14 PM PDT
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Bungie's very best game is....The Marathon series. Duh. Do you think you'd even have a Halo to play if it wasn't for Marathon?

  • 06.18.2004 4:06 AM PDT

Ach! Was ist los?

Posted by: B4dCyborg
Bungie's very best game is....The Marathon series. Duh. Do you think you'd even have a Halo to play if it wasn't for Marathon?


They wouldn't. If not for Marathon we'd all be playing Quake VIII or some similar horror from Idiot^H^H^H Software.

  • 06.18.2004 5:55 AM PDT
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Posted by: The Rip Saw
Posted by: Jager
four floppies
Hard to imagine huh?


I know I have a hard time imagining! Esp. because Marathon is ~12 megs. I didn't know floppies back then could hold that much ;) (as well as such a great game only being 12 megs).

I also have a hard time imagining how the great, and difficult, game PiD - which I lump in with marathon - was only 4.3 megs (who knew 4.3megabytes could keep you busy for weeks on end?)

M1- only ~12 megs.

M2- ~54 megs.

M∞- 150 megs.

Halo. Unbelievably freakin huge.

And all they all are is just a bunch of 0's and 1's in the correct confirguration. :D

  • 06.18.2004 8:35 AM PDT
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What is marathon about and what can you do in it?

  • 06.18.2004 9:14 AM PDT
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Marathon 1:

As security officer aboard the UESG Marathon colony ship, you must fight off waves of alien slavers called the Pfhor and save the day! After they destroy the Marathon and the colony of Tau Ceti, it is only a matter of time before Earth is next! You have the help of the marathon's Three AI's -Leela, Durandal, and Tycho- who lead you through the mission objectives. But as a single pawn in a giangantic struggle, you only get to see a tiny picture of the full tru7h. Who are you really? Who are the Pfhor? And what are the AIs' true indentions? And it is quite clear that as least one of the AI's is probably insane.


Edit: oh, and what you do? Its a first person in which you go around, save BOBs, and shoot aliens. It often requires thinking as well to get by certain "puzzles." Marathon had "vidding" (looking up and down), it had alternate firing (duel pistols, M2 had duel shotguns as well), overcharging plasma pistols, flamethrowers, M2 had swimming, the story was relayed through terminals, the game can only be saved at terminals around the maps, and your sheilds are only recharged at terminals as well. You even have a store of oxygen for vacuum and water levels (water is in M2). In all, marathon had stuff that was original when it first came out; and it even has stuff that Halo doesn't have! (like swimming, duel weapons). Only thing you couldn't really do was crouch or jump. but it had its own type of jump: the grenade hop which is better and cooler than real jumping anyways! ;)

[Edited on 6/18/2004 9:31:18 AM]

  • 06.18.2004 9:26 AM PDT
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The Marathon series was special not for its graphics, but because of the size, complexity, and numbers of levels... and the briefing transmissions, weapons, and storyline.

Think Halo has good storyline? Marathon has a by far superior plot.

If only it was modernized... 3D Pfhor... Hulks... S'pht... it'd be very large when completed, because the size of the game would dwarf Halo. I could easily imagine using multiple discs. But the payoff! We might get cutscenes, and something similar to holographic representations of AIs later in the series, after Durandal finds the alien tech.

  • 06.18.2004 12:17 PM PDT
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Posted by: Jager
Only thing you couldn't really do was crouch or jump. but it had its own type of jump: the grenade hop which is better and cooler than real jumping anyways! ;)


What? You had those starting in Marathon.

  • 06.18.2004 12:19 PM PDT

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