Marathon

Marathon is a series of first-person shooter games started by Bungie. The original game was released for Macintosh in 1994 and was preferred by Mac gamers as a more sophisticated alternative to the PC hit DOOM. As with the Myth series, Bungie made the first two games (Marathon and Marathon 2: Durandal) and then another studio made the third (Marathon Infinity). Unlike Myth's third game, the third Marathon game stayed close to the previous games' roots because Marathon Infinity was created by Double Aught, a short-lived studio spun off from Bungie.

Bungie is known for cross-referencing their games, and indeed there are multiple references to Marathon in Oni, documented in the Easter eggs article.

Unlike Oni, Marathon shipped with a multiplayer feature (albeit LAN-only). Bungie also supported the modding community with helpful information on the file formats; they eventually released the development tools Forge and Anvil alongside Marathon Infinity.

In 1999, the Marathon 2 engine was open-sourced by Bungie. This code was used to produce Aleph One, a unified engine which runs the scenarios for Marathon, Marathon 2, and Marathon Infinity as well as fan-made scenarios. The original LAN multiplayer mode was improved and extended to be Internet-capable. In 2005, the Marathon Trilogy was made freeware by Bungie, so anyone can download it legally and play it on modern computers with the Aleph One engine (see links below).

Unlike Oni and Myth, the rights to the Marathon IP never left Bungie's hands. Bungie announced in 2023 that they are returning to the IP with a new extraction shooter set on/around Tau Ceti, the location of the original Marathon. The game is expected in September 2025. A major Oni reference has already been spotted, in the form of the AI agent named ONI – see Easter eggs § Marathon (2025).

Community links

Lhowon.org (serves the Trilogy, the standalone Aleph One engine, and links to the Aleph One source code)

Marathon.Bungie.Org (home of the Marathon Story Forums and Story Page)

Simplici7y (mod repository)

Pfhorums (community forum)

Lhowon.org metaserver (for Internet matchmaking)

Marathon (1994) on Bungie.net (archived)

Bungie History: Marathon

Picture galleries

Marathon on Wikipedia

The Marathon games are documented extensively on Wikipedia; you can start with the Marathon Trilogy article, but there are specific articles for each game as well.

Marathon (2025)

Official Announce Trailer - YouTube

Official Site

Reveal Cinematic Short - YouTube