Playing the game . . .
1. Saving the game
Games can be saved only at pattern buffers, terminals that have a picture of a man. Read the DON’T READ THIS file and the text in the terminals :-). If you possess the Marathon Gamma version, you can save at any point by pressing command-s.
2. Controls
If you use either the AppleDesign keyboard or the Apple Adjustable keyboard, the computer only recognizes two keys held down simultaneously, plus the modifier keys (shift, option, control, command). This means that you should use as much modifier keys as your controls as possible. A useful tip for all keyboards is to use the Caps Lock key as your run key – you can run all the time without holding down an extra key. If you use the command key as one of your controls, be sure not to use the period, P, Q or W as any control, since these keys have a special function in the game (if pressed while holding down the command key).
Also, if you do have the Adjustable keyboard and you are using keys on the island and the main keyboard, you will cause problems because they are treated as separate devices, and hitting a key on one will cause the other to stop sending data.
You can select the controls you wish from the preferences window (please see the Bugs section below on selecting keyboard & mouse/ keyboard). Here are a couple control sets as an example.
A) Example Controls
Forward 8 W
Turn Left 4 A (see Bugs!)
Turn Right 6 D
Backward 2 S
Sidestep Left 7 Q
Sidestep Right 9 E
Look Down 1 2
Look Up 3 5
Look Ahead 0 8
Trigger Space Space
2nd trigger Command Option
Run Caps Lock Control
Previous Weapon A 1
Next Weapon S 2
Action D Tab
B) Function keys
You can use the function keys on your extended keyboard to access the game settings during the game:
Key Function
F1 Full Screen size
F2 100% size
F3 75% size
F4 50% size
F5 High/low resolution
F6 Draw every other line (low res only)
F7 Floor textures on/off (low res only)
F8 Ceiling textures on/off (low res only)
F9 ?
F10 ?
F11 Darken the environment
F12 Lighten the environment
C) Other commands
The game can be paused with command-P, closed with command-W and quit with command-Q.
D) The self-playing demo controls
If you don’t do anything at the startup screen for a couple of minutes, the game will start on its own to demonstrate you the capabilities of the game. In the network demo, the name of the player can be seen on the left below the oxygen and shield indicators. By pressing the “delete” key you can view the same situation from the perspective of the other player(s). You can slow down or speed up the demo by pressing the left and right bracket keys ({ or })
E) Reversing mouse control
If you play Marathon Demo on a 68K Mac (not PowerMac), you can reverse the vertical mouse controls (when you move the mouse up, your nose points down, when you pull back, your nose point up as in almost all flight simulators). Here’s how:
• Open up the Marathon Demo in ResEdit.
• Open up the CODE 4 resource.
• Go to offset 112c.
• You should see the following bytes: “303C 00F0 906E FFFE”. Change them to “302E FFFE 907C 00F0”
If you didn’t see those bytes, then DON’T CHANGE ANYTHING!
3. Alien characters
*Graphic coutesy of Briareos N@aol.com
A) Fighters
These creatures are sometimes called bugs, hunters or fighters, but in this text they are referred to as fighters.
Fighters come in four varieties, distinguishable by color. In order of increasing toughness: Green, Purple, Orange, Blue. The greens and purples will just run up and smack you, while the Orange and Blue ones will fire at you.
The Orange Fighters fire single shots, and do not aim too well, while the Blues can fire up to two shots at a time, very accurately. Greens can be taken out with one run-punch (see below), while all others take considerably more. Beware of getting into close combat with these, as they can hit you between punches.
B) Compilers
These are the cloaked things. There are red and purple compilers, the purple ones being decidedly more nasty. Both fire little star-looking things, Reds fire annoying green stars that hurt a lot, and Purples fire really annoying yellow stars that are guided (like Greater Nightmares out of PiD). If you are facing only one compiler, or are in a hallway such that you only have to fight one at a time, use your fists. The compilers will not be able to fire back. The flame-thrower will not hurt any kind of compilers.
C) Hulks
Very large, very strong and very slow creatures. If you stay away from these and shoot only from a distance, they should be no problem,
D) Enforcers
According to the information from the terminals, these are the police of the aliens. They should only shoot at other aliens and not at humans.
E) Troopers
These are heavily armored creatures that have a weapon similar to your MA-75 Assault Rifle/ Grenade Launcher. Usually they move in groups. If there are many and they get too close, they can be pretty hard to get rid of.
F) Hunters
These are taller than the Fighters and use a large energy weapon on their shoulders. They never take prisoners
There are other creatures besides these, but I do not know their names or other qualities so I have not mentioned them here.
4. Friends
A) Bobs
The “civilians” are the crew of colony ship Marathon that was attacked by aliens half an hour before you got there. You’re supposed to save their lives. But beware of the exploding ones!
B) Other players
These look like the red guy in the second start-up screen (except that these can be in other colors). They can be friendly or not; depending on your friends… Of course, these can only be seen in the network game.
C) Defense Drones
These Drones fly around hunting those pesky aliens you have yet to encounter. They use a weapon similar to your MA-75. In the later levels, some have been reprogrammed by our favorite AI, Durandal to hunt you . . . Fun . . . Kill 'em at a distance 'cause their explosion is mighty powerful.
5. Weapons(graphic provided by Briareos N@aol.com)
A) Fists
You start with these, and have them all the time. They are mainly useful to run-punch with. This involves running at your target and punching them at maximum range. This does greatly increased damage. Fists can also be used to activate switches (the right way to use the delicate equipment…). See also Punching.
B) Magnum Mega Class (Pistol)
You have one of these at the beginning. These are relatively accurate, and do a fair amount of damage. They fire clips of 8 rounds. You can have one on the left and one on the right hand.
Please note that you use the first trigger key for the gun in your right hand and the second trigger (option by default) for then gun on your left hand – not a single trigger for both guns.
C) Zeus-Class Fusion Pistol
This weapon can fire more rapidly and do more damage than the .44 Magnum Mega Class. Only one can be in use at a time, however. The fusion pistol uses fusion batteries that can supply power for 20 shots.
If you fire this weapon using the 2nd trigger (option by default), the gun will load for couple seconds and fire a “turbo shot”, which is 5 times more powerful than standard, These turbo shots can also activate the switches. Note that you can move about when the turbo-shot is loaded.
The Fusion Pistol is the only way to kill an enemy when he has the “turbo shield”, see Turbo Shield.
D) MA-75 Assault Rifle/ Grenade Launcher
This is a combined assault rifle and grenade launcher. The assault rifle is wildly inaccurate, and fires clips of 52. The grenades are affected by gravity, and do much damage at short range. The grenades come in clips of 6. The switches on the walls can also be activated with the grenades. You fire bullets with the first trigger and grenades with the second (option by default).
The grenade will hurt you if it explodes too close. This may happen if you shoot a nearby wall or an alien who is standing next to you.
By firing a grenade at your feet you will fly a few feet upwards which is sometimes the only way to get up to a ledge (see grenade hopping)
E) SPNKR-X17 SSM Launcher
Very powerful, but must be reloaded every two shots. The explosion is a huge blast, which will kill a bunch of aliens (or other players) if they’re close to each other. Like the grenade launcher, you will die yourself if you shoot an alien with a rocket if he is standing close to you. Switches can also be activated with the rocket launcher.
F) TOZT-7 Backpack Napalm Unit (flame-thrower)
Very powerful, all the aliens die instantly when they’re fired with this. However, this has no effect whatsoever on the compilers and the range of the flame-thrower is quite limited. But nothing beats the flame-thrower if you come across a large group of bugs. One napalm canister can supply fuel to about 7 seconds of continuous flame.
G) UNKNOWN WEAPON CLASS system error 0xFFBD (Alien Weapon)
It is purple with no discernible shape, as ammunition this uses Pirated Copland Betas. This weapon is powerful, fast, accurate. The aliens leave these behinds when you kill them.
6. Features & imperfections
A) Gravity & physics
In Marathon the gravity that affects you seems to be very light (this might be understandable since we’re on a spaceship here). But I do not understand how I can turn around while in air after a jump. It is fun, though.
B) Explosions
Gunfire lights up a dark room, which is a very nice touch to the game. However, explosions (such as grenades and missiles) do not light up the room, although one would assume their lighting capacity would be much greater than that of a pistol.
C) Climbing
You can’t climb in Marathon, not even chest-height. You have to fire a grenade at your feet to get even a foot off the ground.
D) Lack of furniture
There is no furniture in any of the rooms in Marathon. Where does the crew normally sit, eat, sleep, work…?
7. How to's
A) Jumping
You can’t actually jump in Marathon – what is usually called jumping is actually running off a ledge. Sometimes this involves firing a grenade (see Grenade hopping).
B) Grenade hopping
To get on a ledge at chest-height, you need to fire a grenade at your feet and the explosion will throw you upwards. This procedure is called grenade hopping.
C) Missile jumping
As grenade hopping, but uses missiles instead of grenades. You jump a lot higher, but lose a lot more shields, too. If you have Super Shield, you lose no shields, though,
D) Activating switches
The “normal” way to activate a switch is to stand beside it facing the switch and pressing the activate key (tab by default)., However, you can also activate the switches by punching it with your fist, firing a grenade or a rocket at it or firing a “Turbo shot” with a Fusion Pistol (see Weapons: Fusion Pistol)
E) Punching
You can simply punch by standing still and pressing the first trigger when you have fists selected as your weapon. A much more powerful method is to run-punch, that is, run towards an alien and when you are close enough for your hand to reach (but as far away as possible), punch. The alien might die after the first punch. Apparently, a punch does more damage to a “sleeping” alien also, but this probably due to the fact that it is much easier to run-punch them when they are stationary. Switches can also be activated by punching.
8. Performance notes
From the DON’T READ THIS file of the demo:
There are a few things you can do if you need to speed up the animation in Marathon.
• Run Marathon in 100%, 75%, or 50% to make the animation smoother. The smaller the window, the faster the animation.
• Low Resolution setting will increase game speed. The every other line setting will further speed the Low Resolution setting (especially on machines with slow VRAM, such as Powerbooks). Turning off floor and/or ceiling textures will also increase speed. Note that you can only do this with 256 colors, not thousands.
• Make sure nothing is running in the background (i.e. open applications, print monitor, control panels, etc...)
• To increase performance, use fewer sound channels. The number of sound channels is the number of sounds that can be played simultaneously. The stereo sound option effectively doubles the number of sounds that can be played at once. Since the sound manager is not native on the Power Mac, using 3 or more sound channels will greatly impede performance. (Don’t blame us. Native sound manager should be available before too long.)
Next Chapter
1. Saving the game
Games can be saved only at pattern buffers, terminals that have a picture of a man. Read the DON’T READ THIS file and the text in the terminals :-). If you possess the Marathon Gamma version, you can save at any point by pressing command-s.
2. Controls
If you use either the AppleDesign keyboard or the Apple Adjustable keyboard, the computer only recognizes two keys held down simultaneously, plus the modifier keys (shift, option, control, command). This means that you should use as much modifier keys as your controls as possible. A useful tip for all keyboards is to use the Caps Lock key as your run key – you can run all the time without holding down an extra key. If you use the command key as one of your controls, be sure not to use the period, P, Q or W as any control, since these keys have a special function in the game (if pressed while holding down the command key).
Also, if you do have the Adjustable keyboard and you are using keys on the island and the main keyboard, you will cause problems because they are treated as separate devices, and hitting a key on one will cause the other to stop sending data.
You can select the controls you wish from the preferences window (please see the Bugs section below on selecting keyboard & mouse/ keyboard). Here are a couple control sets as an example.
A) Example Controls
Forward 8 W
Turn Left 4 A (see Bugs!)
Turn Right 6 D
Backward 2 S
Sidestep Left 7 Q
Sidestep Right 9 E
Look Down 1 2
Look Up 3 5
Look Ahead 0 8
Trigger Space Space
2nd trigger Command Option
Run Caps Lock Control
Previous Weapon A 1
Next Weapon S 2
Action D Tab
B) Function keys
You can use the function keys on your extended keyboard to access the game settings during the game:
Key Function
F1 Full Screen size
F2 100% size
F3 75% size
F4 50% size
F5 High/low resolution
F6 Draw every other line (low res only)
F7 Floor textures on/off (low res only)
F8 Ceiling textures on/off (low res only)
F9 ?
F10 ?
F11 Darken the environment
F12 Lighten the environment
C) Other commands
The game can be paused with command-P, closed with command-W and quit with command-Q.
D) The self-playing demo controls
If you don’t do anything at the startup screen for a couple of minutes, the game will start on its own to demonstrate you the capabilities of the game. In the network demo, the name of the player can be seen on the left below the oxygen and shield indicators. By pressing the “delete” key you can view the same situation from the perspective of the other player(s). You can slow down or speed up the demo by pressing the left and right bracket keys ({ or })
E) Reversing mouse control
If you play Marathon Demo on a 68K Mac (not PowerMac), you can reverse the vertical mouse controls (when you move the mouse up, your nose points down, when you pull back, your nose point up as in almost all flight simulators). Here’s how:
• Open up the Marathon Demo in ResEdit.
• Open up the CODE 4 resource.
• Go to offset 112c.
• You should see the following bytes: “303C 00F0 906E FFFE”. Change them to “302E FFFE 907C 00F0”
If you didn’t see those bytes, then DON’T CHANGE ANYTHING!
3. Alien characters
*Graphic coutesy of Briareos N@aol.com
A) Fighters
These creatures are sometimes called bugs, hunters or fighters, but in this text they are referred to as fighters.
Fighters come in four varieties, distinguishable by color. In order of increasing toughness: Green, Purple, Orange, Blue. The greens and purples will just run up and smack you, while the Orange and Blue ones will fire at you.
The Orange Fighters fire single shots, and do not aim too well, while the Blues can fire up to two shots at a time, very accurately. Greens can be taken out with one run-punch (see below), while all others take considerably more. Beware of getting into close combat with these, as they can hit you between punches.
B) Compilers
These are the cloaked things. There are red and purple compilers, the purple ones being decidedly more nasty. Both fire little star-looking things, Reds fire annoying green stars that hurt a lot, and Purples fire really annoying yellow stars that are guided (like Greater Nightmares out of PiD). If you are facing only one compiler, or are in a hallway such that you only have to fight one at a time, use your fists. The compilers will not be able to fire back. The flame-thrower will not hurt any kind of compilers.
C) Hulks
Very large, very strong and very slow creatures. If you stay away from these and shoot only from a distance, they should be no problem,
D) Enforcers
According to the information from the terminals, these are the police of the aliens. They should only shoot at other aliens and not at humans.
E) Troopers
These are heavily armored creatures that have a weapon similar to your MA-75 Assault Rifle/ Grenade Launcher. Usually they move in groups. If there are many and they get too close, they can be pretty hard to get rid of.
F) Hunters
These are taller than the Fighters and use a large energy weapon on their shoulders. They never take prisoners
There are other creatures besides these, but I do not know their names or other qualities so I have not mentioned them here.
4. Friends
A) Bobs
The “civilians” are the crew of colony ship Marathon that was attacked by aliens half an hour before you got there. You’re supposed to save their lives. But beware of the exploding ones!
B) Other players
These look like the red guy in the second start-up screen (except that these can be in other colors). They can be friendly or not; depending on your friends… Of course, these can only be seen in the network game.
C) Defense Drones
These Drones fly around hunting those pesky aliens you have yet to encounter. They use a weapon similar to your MA-75. In the later levels, some have been reprogrammed by our favorite AI, Durandal to hunt you . . . Fun . . . Kill 'em at a distance 'cause their explosion is mighty powerful.
5. Weapons(graphic provided by Briareos N@aol.com)
A) Fists
You start with these, and have them all the time. They are mainly useful to run-punch with. This involves running at your target and punching them at maximum range. This does greatly increased damage. Fists can also be used to activate switches (the right way to use the delicate equipment…). See also Punching.
B) Magnum Mega Class (Pistol)
You have one of these at the beginning. These are relatively accurate, and do a fair amount of damage. They fire clips of 8 rounds. You can have one on the left and one on the right hand.
Please note that you use the first trigger key for the gun in your right hand and the second trigger (option by default) for then gun on your left hand – not a single trigger for both guns.
C) Zeus-Class Fusion Pistol
This weapon can fire more rapidly and do more damage than the .44 Magnum Mega Class. Only one can be in use at a time, however. The fusion pistol uses fusion batteries that can supply power for 20 shots.
If you fire this weapon using the 2nd trigger (option by default), the gun will load for couple seconds and fire a “turbo shot”, which is 5 times more powerful than standard, These turbo shots can also activate the switches. Note that you can move about when the turbo-shot is loaded.
The Fusion Pistol is the only way to kill an enemy when he has the “turbo shield”, see Turbo Shield.
D) MA-75 Assault Rifle/ Grenade Launcher
This is a combined assault rifle and grenade launcher. The assault rifle is wildly inaccurate, and fires clips of 52. The grenades are affected by gravity, and do much damage at short range. The grenades come in clips of 6. The switches on the walls can also be activated with the grenades. You fire bullets with the first trigger and grenades with the second (option by default).
The grenade will hurt you if it explodes too close. This may happen if you shoot a nearby wall or an alien who is standing next to you.
By firing a grenade at your feet you will fly a few feet upwards which is sometimes the only way to get up to a ledge (see grenade hopping)
E) SPNKR-X17 SSM Launcher
Very powerful, but must be reloaded every two shots. The explosion is a huge blast, which will kill a bunch of aliens (or other players) if they’re close to each other. Like the grenade launcher, you will die yourself if you shoot an alien with a rocket if he is standing close to you. Switches can also be activated with the rocket launcher.
F) TOZT-7 Backpack Napalm Unit (flame-thrower)
Very powerful, all the aliens die instantly when they’re fired with this. However, this has no effect whatsoever on the compilers and the range of the flame-thrower is quite limited. But nothing beats the flame-thrower if you come across a large group of bugs. One napalm canister can supply fuel to about 7 seconds of continuous flame.
G) UNKNOWN WEAPON CLASS system error 0xFFBD (Alien Weapon)
It is purple with no discernible shape, as ammunition this uses Pirated Copland Betas. This weapon is powerful, fast, accurate. The aliens leave these behinds when you kill them.
6. Features & imperfections
A) Gravity & physics
In Marathon the gravity that affects you seems to be very light (this might be understandable since we’re on a spaceship here). But I do not understand how I can turn around while in air after a jump. It is fun, though.
B) Explosions
Gunfire lights up a dark room, which is a very nice touch to the game. However, explosions (such as grenades and missiles) do not light up the room, although one would assume their lighting capacity would be much greater than that of a pistol.
C) Climbing
You can’t climb in Marathon, not even chest-height. You have to fire a grenade at your feet to get even a foot off the ground.
D) Lack of furniture
There is no furniture in any of the rooms in Marathon. Where does the crew normally sit, eat, sleep, work…?
7. How to's
A) Jumping
You can’t actually jump in Marathon – what is usually called jumping is actually running off a ledge. Sometimes this involves firing a grenade (see Grenade hopping).
B) Grenade hopping
To get on a ledge at chest-height, you need to fire a grenade at your feet and the explosion will throw you upwards. This procedure is called grenade hopping.
C) Missile jumping
As grenade hopping, but uses missiles instead of grenades. You jump a lot higher, but lose a lot more shields, too. If you have Super Shield, you lose no shields, though,
D) Activating switches
The “normal” way to activate a switch is to stand beside it facing the switch and pressing the activate key (tab by default)., However, you can also activate the switches by punching it with your fist, firing a grenade or a rocket at it or firing a “Turbo shot” with a Fusion Pistol (see Weapons: Fusion Pistol)
E) Punching
You can simply punch by standing still and pressing the first trigger when you have fists selected as your weapon. A much more powerful method is to run-punch, that is, run towards an alien and when you are close enough for your hand to reach (but as far away as possible), punch. The alien might die after the first punch. Apparently, a punch does more damage to a “sleeping” alien also, but this probably due to the fact that it is much easier to run-punch them when they are stationary. Switches can also be activated by punching.
8. Performance notes
From the DON’T READ THIS file of the demo:
There are a few things you can do if you need to speed up the animation in Marathon.
• Run Marathon in 100%, 75%, or 50% to make the animation smoother. The smaller the window, the faster the animation.
• Low Resolution setting will increase game speed. The every other line setting will further speed the Low Resolution setting (especially on machines with slow VRAM, such as Powerbooks). Turning off floor and/or ceiling textures will also increase speed. Note that you can only do this with 256 colors, not thousands.
• Make sure nothing is running in the background (i.e. open applications, print monitor, control panels, etc...)
• To increase performance, use fewer sound channels. The number of sound channels is the number of sounds that can be played simultaneously. The stereo sound option effectively doubles the number of sounds that can be played at once. Since the sound manager is not native on the Power Mac, using 3 or more sound channels will greatly impede performance. (Don’t blame us. Native sound manager should be available before too long.)
Next Chapter