Marathon Review
By Jeremedia@aol.com


Mac owners have long suffered with PC game envy. However, from time to time, the roles are reversed and PC weenies are seen staring forlornly at colorful shrinked-wrapped boxes in the Mac aisle. Like Myst before it, Marathon is such a game. Taking the the first-person fighting concept born in the Ultima Underworld series, rehashed with Wolfenstein 3D, and made famous in Doom, Marathon has set new standards for 3D games, and it is only available for the Macintosh. No Wintel version is planned.

Developed by Bungie Corporation, who created Pathways in Darkness, Marathon takes place on a huge interstellar colony ship called the UESC Marathon. Its mission is to move through the stars and plant human colonies on livable planets. The game’s story starts when an alien ship appears suddenly, apparently using an FTL (faster-than-light) drive, and attacks Marathon and the colony currently under construction. You are a part of the Marathon security team and are flying from colony operations back to Marathon when the attack begins. You barely make it out of the airlock before the alien ship blows your little craft into space dust, where you then float into a space dock and carefully enter Marathon. There your battle begins.

While perhaps only a glimpse of what the future of virtual reality games will be, Marathon is truly an amazing experience. All of the 27 levels offers both intense gunplay and challenging puzzles. Each level is a huge enclosed area, and some measure more than 100,000 square feet of space with lots of elevators, stairs, transporters, switches, and doors. You are given missions to perform by Leela, one of three artificial intelligences that control the computer systems of Marathon. She works with you to fight the alien invasion by giving you maps of the area and supplying intelligence on the several species of aliens. If you are a fan of good science fiction, Marathon’s twisting storyline will certainly please.

The variety of the game play is incredible for a product that ships on four floppies. The six different guns, ten different aliens, and thousands of different rooms will leave your head spinning. It is by no means an easy game: the boards can be long and complex, and the aliens will pound you quickly and often. However, the thrill of exploring each new board, coupled with the fear of unknown dangers, is really unlike any game I have played before. Never before have I cried out in fear while playing a game, but that is just what I did when a red-cloaked Compiler appeared from nowhere, spreading its arms and shooting me down.

Beyond the solo game, however, exists an entirely other experience. Marathon supports network play with up to 8 participants and has 10 unique levels for network games. Running around battling seven other people is an even more engaging experience than the real game. Being lucky enough to have a couple of Power Macs at my house, I can tell you it is a unique and powerful feeling to toast your roommate with a missile launcher. After each round, you are presented with a “Carnage Report” that graphs the performance of the participants and a DPM, or Deaths Per Minute ratio. If you have access to networked Macs, and won’t get fired or kicked out for playing, you’ll have no reason not to play, for each copy of Marathon comes with two serial numbers for instant network carnage.

There are a hundred little details that make Marathon such an incredible experience. Every bullet hits something, be it an alien, a colonist, or a wall a hundred feet away, you see the impact point or ricochet. Dark rooms are lit by the flash of guns. Through windows you see the alien’s ship lurking ominously in space, floating in a bed of 3D stars. Aliens fight each other when one accidentally shoots another. Stereo sound imaging places sounds in the direction of the sound’s creator, be it the battle cry of aliens, or the screams of the dying. Dead bodies lie ruptured on the floor, to the point that sometimes the floor cannot be seen for the dead that cover it. Secret rooms abound, some containing weapons, some with special messages from Bungie. And much, much more.

Marathon is completely Power Mac native and that alone should play a large role in helping Apple meet its goal of a million Power Macs sold in their first year. Marathon really shows what Power Macs are capable of in a way that faster progress bars do not: real-time textured mapped 3-D graphics with interactive lighting effects in 16-bit color at full screen resolution is awe inspiring. This is, in my not unsubstantial gaming experience, the single best action game yet produced. Buy it.

© 1995 The Savannah Macintosh Users Group

Marathon
• System 7.1 or better, 68030 processor or better, Power Macintosh recommended
• 4MB RAM, 4.5MB RAM for Power Macintosh, 12MB hard drive space
• 640 by 480 resolution screen with 8 bit color, 16 bit color supported
• QuickTime 2.0 and QuickTime Musical Instruments extensions needed for MIDI soundtrack
• All joysticks and CyberMaxx VR helment supported
• Street Price: $39.95

Jeremy Roush is a student at The Savannah College of Art and Design, where he is the Apple representative for student Macintosh purchases. He is also involved in Satellite, the new interactive services group at SCAD. His online address is Jeremedia@aol.com.
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The article above is reprinted from Mac Monitor, the newsletter of The Savannah Macintosh Users Group. It may be reprinted in a single issue of newsletters published by non-profit user groups. Payment shall consist of a single issue of the newsletter in which the article appears, sent to the following address:

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