Marathon FAQ 2.0
By puskala@kruuna.helsinki.fi

This file was written before the Release actually came out, but it still contains a lot of great info. Thanks, Aapo!

Note: If you have a larger monitor than this window, the text may be more easily read if the window is wider.

(c)1994 Aapo Puskala (Aapo.Puskala@Helsinki.fi or
puskala@kruuna.helsinki.fi)
Please send any additional info to me and I will update this FAQ.
Feel free to distribute this anywhere you wish.

NOTE: There are probably many mistakes and inaccuracies in this FAQ. Please
inform me when you notice them - otherwise they might never get corrected.


What's new since the last version (1.8)?

- Added where to find QT 2.0 on the net.
- Several modifications & corrections to the Controls section.
- Another way of getting the flame thrower added.
- It was found out why the Rocket Launcher didn't always appear on the
network level.
- Recorded games can be speeded up & slowed down while watching them (using
the bracket keys)
- A fix in the network time patch for PowerMacs
- Added a hint for PowerBook 500 series users
- Numerous minor corrections



=================
Table of Contents
=================


I What is Marathon?
1. The story so far...
2. Where can I get it?
A) Marathon Demo
B) Sound Manager 3.0
C) QuickTime 2.0 & QuickTime Musical Instruments
3. Bungie's address

II Playing the game
1. Status display
2. Saving the game
3. Controls
A) Example Controls
B) Function keys
C) Other commands
D) The self-playing demo controls
E) Reversing mouse control
4. Alien characters
A) Soldiers
B) Compilers
5. Human characters
A) Bobs
B) Other players
6. Weapons
A) Fists
B) Magnum Mega Class (Pistol)
C) Zeus-Class Fusion Pistol
D) MA-75 Assault Rifle/ Grenade Launcher
E) SPNKR-X17 SSM Launcher
F) TOZT-7 Backpack Napalm Unit (flame-thrower)
G) UNKNOWN WEAPON CLASS system error 0xFFBD
7. Features & imperfections
A) Gravity & physics
B) Explosions
C) Climbing
D) Lack of furniture
8. How to's
A) Jumping
B) Grenade hopping
C) Activating switches
D) Punching
9. Performance notes

III Secrets (spoiler alert!)
1. Level 1: Arrival!
A) The Bob in the maze
B) The secret ammo room
2. Level 2: Bigger Guns Nearby
A) The TOZT-7 Backpack Napalm Unit (the flame-thrower)
B) The Infrared Scanner (ISEEYOU)
C) Faster termination of the level
3. Level 3: Blaspheme Quarantine
A) I'm stuck in the very beginning
B) How to get to/open the door in the large square room?
C) How do I solve the puzzle?
D) There is a button in a corridor in the middle of the square room
4. Network play level: Mars Needs Women
A) How do I get to the hidden corridor and what do the switches do?
B) Where are the weapons?
C) Super Shield
D) FISHEYE
E) Carnage Central
F) Are there any terminals on the network level?
G) Is there a window in the roof of the room prior to the maze with
the spiral staircase?

IV Technical problems
1. The background music won't work
2. Bugs & conflicts
A) Mouse & Keyboard/Keyboard control
B) Screen savers
C) Looking down
D) Multiple monitors
E) 'A' key stops working
F) Quadra 630 acceleration
G) Save game dialog box
H) Cursor on screen
I) Net play
J) Microphone
K) AppleTalk Remote Access
L) Speedy Mouse

V Cheating
1. Starting at any level
2. Editing the save game file
3. Keyboard codes
4. Network game patch
A) 680x0-based Macs
B) PowerMacs

VI Miscellaneous
1. When will the release version be available?
2. Network play
3. Can I play the network level on my own?
4. I died and can't continue!
5. The self-playing demo
6. How can I make film other than level 1?
7. Why can't I run in high-resolution, 256 colors or with
textures OFF with my Quadra/LC/Performa 630?
8. Marathon on a 12" screen
9. Hint for PowerBook 500 series users
10. Is there any way to change the difficulty of saved games?
11. Hints
12. Thanks & contributor list




===================
I What is Marathon?
===================


Marathon is a 3-D first person shoot-them-up type game by Bungie Software
Products Corporation. Its features include (from the DON'T READ THIS file):

- Texture Mapped 3-D, Continuous-Motion Graphics
- Active Panning Stereo Sound
- In-Your-Face Network Carnage
- Digital Soundtrack
- Dynamic Sensing Artificial Intelligence
- Interactive Lighting Effects
- Full screen graphics with 5 Degrees of Freedom
- "Live" Automapping Feature
- High Resolution graphics in 8 or 16 bit color

It requires the following:
- Macintosh 68020 or higher [68040 or faster recommended]
- 8-Bit (256) Color display
- System 6.0.5 or higher
- 3 Meg of free RAM [6 Meg or more recommended]
- Hard Drive
- Networking requires System 7
- 13" or bigger color or gray scale screen


----------------------
1. The story so far...
----------------------

From the DON'T READ THIS file:

You are a security officer aboard the interstellar colony ship Marathon.
You are returning from the colony when the aliens simultaneously attack
your shuttle and the Marathon. You manage to get into an escape pod, and
arrive at the Marathon about a half hour after the Alien attack has begun.

Armed only with a pistol, and guided by Leela, one of the shipboard
Artificial Intelligences, you are the last chance to save the Marathon and
the colony from the attacking aliens.


----------------------
2. Where can I get it?
-----------------------

A) Marathon Demo

The demo is available on sumex-aim.stanford.edu, umich.edu and all their
mirrors. And there are plenty of other sites that have it, such as WWW page
http://198.114.176.148/101.html. It should really be no problem to find it
anymore.

B) Sound Manager 3.0

Sound Manager 3.0 can be found in ftp.support.apple.com at
ftp://ftp.support.apple.com//pub/Apple SW Updates/Macintosh/Supplemental
System Software

C) QuickTime 2.0 & QuickTime Musical Instruments

These files can be acquired from ftp.radius.com:

1. hook up to ftp.radius.com
2. go to pub/radius/software/mac/Videovision
3. download VVision2.0Images.sea.hqx (this file is almost 3 megs)
4. download DiskDup+.sea.hqx
5. log off and expand both of the files
6. double click on DiskDup+.
7. When it says "looking for master," click on "hard drive" and select
"System Extensions v.2.0" from the new "VideoVision 2.0 Images" folder.
When it says "looking for copy," insert an HD disk that you don't need into
the machine.
8. When it's done (I got an error message for the verify process; it worked
fine when I ignored it), quit and double click on your HD floppy disk.
Among other files, QuickTime 2.0 should now be on the disk. Copy it to your
Extensions folder and delete or move your existing QuickTime extension.
9. Repeat steps 6-8 with the "VidVision Installer v.2.0" file instead of
the "System Extensions v.2.0" file used last time. And this time, instead
of getting QuickTime 2.0 on your disk, you should have a copy of QuickTime
Musical Instruments.

An alternative route:

4. decode the hqx sea file if necessary.
5. use some disk image mounter; I recommen ShrinkWrap* by Chad Magendanz,
but mountImage, Drop%Disk, etc.... should be fine.
6. On one of the disks is QT2.0 & the PowerPlug for PPCs. On another in the
Musical instruments file.


-------------------
3. Bungie's address
-------------------

Bungie Software Products Corporation
P.O. Box 7877
Chicago, Il 60680-7877
(312) 563-6200
Fax: (312) 563-0545
America Online: Bungie1
eWorld: BungieCorp
AppleLink: BUNGIE
Internet: BUNGIE1@aol.com



===================
II Playing the game
===================


-----------------
1. Status display
-----------------

In the bottom of the status display you can see what weapons and ammo
you're carrying. On the left of the 3-D window there are status bars for
your shields and oxygen levels, below these is your name, which you can set
only in the net game. On the lower left-hand corner there is the motion
sensor (NOT radar), and to the right from here is the microphone status
light. As of now it is unclear what the function of the round thing on the
upper left-hand cornet of the control display is. Is says something like
'135 MHz' under it.

Note that you can only see the control display while playing 100%, 75% or
50% size, not Full Screen.


------------------
2. 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 :-).


-----------
3. 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 blow
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

Some people have proposed, that there should be a way to reverse x-axis
controls on the mouse, i.e. when you move the mouse up (away from you),
your gun would point down - this is how the controls are in almost all
flight simulators. I have not seen a satisfactory solution for this yet.


-------------------
4. Alien characters
-------------------

A) Soldiers

These creatures are sometimes called bugs, hunters or fighters, but in this
text they are referred to as soldiers.

There are two types of aliens in the demo; Soldiers and Compilers. Soldiers
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 Soldiers 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.

There are supposed to be 15 different alien species in the final version of
the game. Each different color alien is of a different race among the same
species. That is, we should see 13 more species aliens, each probably with
multiple races (colors).

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.


-------------------
5. Human characters
-------------------

A) Bobs

The "civilians" are the crew of colony ship Marathon that was attacked by
aliens half an hour before you got there. They are of no use in the demo.
In the release version you are supposed to rescue these, I believe, but you
might as well kill them in the demo -if you don't the aliens will. Often
they're just in your way.

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 frienly or not; I believe that
on the demo you're always supposed to fight against each other. Of course,
these can only be seen in the network game.
----------
6. Weapons
----------

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
n the left and one on the right hand. However, there is no second pistol
to be foun in the demo, but by cheating you can get two of these, one for
both hands.

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 item cannot be obtained in the demo in single player mode except by
cheating. It is on the network level, though. 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
willload for couple seconds and fire a "turbo shot", which seems to be 5
times more powerful than standard (at least it takes 5 times more energy
than a normal shot so in one battery there is enough energy for only 4
shots), 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
7. 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

This is a rocket launcher, only available on the network level of the demo
(see below). 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)

The flame-thrower is on the second level of the demo and on the network
level. It is quite difficult to get, but it is possible (see below); on the
network level it is rather easy to find. 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

This is the same as "Alien Weapon" was in the beta. It is purple with no
discernible shape, as ammunition this uses Pirated Copland Betas. You can't
find Pirated Copland Betas in the game, but you can give them to yourself
by cheating. This weapon is powerful, fast, accurate. And nonexistent, at
least to the honest player. This does NOT have unlimited ammo as I believed
earlier, but it reloads extremely quickly. But if you let your Pirated
Copland Betas go down to zero, it is possible to keep firing with the
weapon; but if you then switch to another weapon the alien weapon vanishes
from your inventory.


---------------------------
7. 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...?


-----------
8. 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) 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)

D) 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.

--------------------
9. Performance notes
--------------------

From the DON'T READ THIS file:

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.)

Go to next chapter for the rest of the FAQ