Marathon: Difference between revisions

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 [[wp:Double Aught|Double Aught]], a short-lived studio spun off from Bungie which was co-founded by Marathon's lead writer, Greg Kirkpatrick.

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 with its [[Multiplayer|canceled multiplayer]], Marathon shipped with a very popular multiplayer feature (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 by fans 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 [[wp:Intellectual property|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 in public alpha testing but a release date has not been announced. A major Oni reference has already been spotted in the form of the AI agent named ONI – see {{SectionLink|Easter eggs|Marathon (2025)}}.