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Posted by: Tycho 41 49
RESOURCES AND EXTRAS
Marathon Scenarios
So you've played the campaigns, had a taste of multiplayer, and now you're hungering for more. Luckily for you there's a dedicated and surprisingly active modding community for Marathon. Many community-made scenarios exist for you to play, with some approaching the quality of the original games.
Use the same procedure as for the original games to install each scenario. Be sure to change the rendering system in-game to OpenGL, as each scenario includes high-res textures (hence the large file size).
* Marathon: Eternal (234 MB)
My personal favorite (mostly for the amazing music), Eternal picks up the story hundreds of years after the original Marathon. Using Jjaro technology, you and your A.I. travel back in time to the colony ship shortly before the Pfhor assault begins.
* Marathon: Rubicon (124 MB)
Another excellent scenario. Impressive in its scope, Rubicon X features multiple storylines and endings depending on your choices.
* Marathon: Evil (30.5 MB)
Your starship crashes on a planet inhabited by strange and terrifying creatures, guarding a secret that could bring an end to the universe. Probably the darkest of the scenarios.
* Marathon: Red (17.5 MB)
After your patrol ship comes across a Pfhor cruiser drifting in space, a boarding excursion goes horribly wrong. Trapped and isolated from your squad, you must fight the inevitable.
You're probably getting a bit sick of 2.5-D graphics at this point, which is why you'll be interested to hear that yes, a team has taken the time to remake the original Marathon in full 3-D. The project, called Marathon: Resurrection, requires that you have a copy of Unreal Tournament (or more specifically, the Unreal engine) installed on your computer. Further information, as well as screenshots, are available on the website.
Delving even further in Bungie history, you'll find Pathways into Darkness, a sci-fi game set in a lost pyramid. You are an American SpecOps soldier, on a mission to set and detonate a nuclear weapon to destroy the pyramid and stop the awakening of the Dreaming God. The style of gameplay incorporates heavy puzzle-solving and role-playing elements as well as standard FPS gameplay. Additionally, there are quite a few interesting plot tie-ins to the Marathon universe. Due to the difficulty of obtaining the original game and getting it to work, a project is well underway to port the game to the Aleph One engine. The project website is found here; it may appear to be dead, but rest assured that is not the case. You can download a demo and somewhat-functional beta of the game at this time. Be sure to check this website once in a while for further updates.
Community Websites
The following is a list of websites you should look into if you're interested in joining the community. If you have experience programming, making 3D models, or manipulating images, the community would appreciate your contributions.
* Marathon.Bungie.org
The hub of the Marathon community, major news such as the release of new scenarios or items of general interest are posted here.
* Marathon Open Source
Home of the Aleph One project. Watch this site for update releases and other news.
* Simplici7y
The new home for all user-created map packs, mods, and utilities. Have a look around - it's likely you'll find at least a few interesting things. Perhaps someday you'll submit your own.
* The Pfhorums
Home for general discussion of Marathon with heavy emphasis on scripts, mods, and scenarios, the Pfhorums is where the minds that made this possible congregate. If you wish to contribute to the community, declare your interest here.
Other Classic Bungie Games
If Marathon has only served to whet your appetite for more of Bungie's older stuff, you should check out Oldskool Downloads, which hosts every free file to come out of Bungie. Note the word free - Oni and the Myth series possess the unfortunate combination of costing money and being hard to find (the demos are freely available though). Fortunately, there's Amazon.You are a member. I thought you'd be a legendary member.