Marathon total conversions

This is a partial list of major total conversions and "scenarios" (story-driven sequences of single-player levels) which have been created for the computer games " Marathon", "", and "Marathon Infinity", and of original games created for Aleph One (a free open-source fork of the "Marathon 2" game engine).

Although the original "Marathon" and "Marathon Infinity" were Macintosh-only games, many scenarios designed for them have since been repackaged to be playable on both Macintosh and Windows systems using Aleph One.

Creation tools

Two basic and simple programs were released by Bungie in 1996 with Marathon: Infinity. They were also released as part of the Trilogy Release and can be legally downloaded for free from [http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/ http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/] . However, before 1996 there was already a thriving and prolific "Marathon" and "Marathon 2" editing scene using fan-created editors such as "Pfhorte".

Forge

Forge is used to create levels to play in Marathon. Forge was used by Bungie in the creation of Marathon, Marathon 2:Durandal, and Marathon: Infinity but was not released to the public until Marathon Infinity. Before Forge, a shareware program known as Pfhorte was used to create custom maps. Pfhorte was similar to Forge but had no visual mode and didn't require merging.

Forge is still in use today but only runs native to Mac OS 9. The source code was apparently lost by Bungie Fact|date=February 2007, so there will be no port to any other operating systems. There have been some attempts at creating a replacement for Forge but Forge continues to be the best map editor available, primarily because of its visual mode. Running Forge on a modern machine often requires an emulator for Mac OS 9, such as Basilisk II or Mac OS X's Classic Mode.

As a homage to the "Marathon" series, "Halo 3"'s in-game "editor" was also named Forge; however, it only allows users to edit a map's object placement. [ [http://kotaku.com/gaming/feature/talking-halo-3-and-what-comes-after-halo-3-with-bungie-290082.php Feature: Talking Halo 3, And What Comes After Halo 3, With Bungie ] ]

Anvil

Anvil is the sister program to Forge and is used to apply shapes (graphics), sounds, and physics. Physics can be edited directly in Anvil but shapes and sounds require additional programs. Anvil merely aligns the graphics and sounds so they perform correctly in game.

Anvil, like Forge, is a Mac OS 9 program.

Other

Other programs are available to make scenario making and total conversions easier. Such programs like Hex make editing terminals as simple as Forge. Fux! is used to change colors on overhead maps and in terminals. These programs are third party and are not affiliated with Bungie in any way.

Conversions

[http://bighouse.bungie.org/devil/ Devil in a Blue Dress]

"Devil in a Blue Dress" is a scenario originally designed for the original "Marathon" and later updated to work with "" and Aleph One. It was the first project created by the Marathon Map Makers' Guild (MMMG) and can still be downloaded and played for free. It features 21 solo levels and an entirely new storyline. "Excalibur: Morgana's Revenge" is the sequel to "Devil in a Blue Dress".

Storyline

While the scenario uses Bungie's environment (level textures, monster and weapon sprites, etc), the storyline is not related whatsoever to the U.E.S.C. Marathon or the fictional world in which it exists. The player is tasked with finding a space pirate known as the "Devil in a Blue Dress".

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scenario for "Marathon", "Marathon Infinity", and Aleph One. Originally released in March, 1997 for the Marathon 1 engine, it was then released in 2000 for the Marathon Infinity engine, and finally released in 2007 for the Aleph One engine. It is a sequel to "Devil in a Blue Dress". It features 37 solo levels; new textures, sounds, physics, graphics, storyline, maps and interface; and musical scores incorporated into Infinity's ambient sound slots. The scenario is particularly notable for its extensive use of Lua scripting to achieve some of its unique customizations, as well as its foray into non-sci-fi environments.

Storyline

The begins with flashbacks to Arthurian times. The first flashback reflects a time of peace and prosperity in Arthur's kingdom, a time before Morgana took her revenge. Kirin, champion archer of the Enchanted Forest, has a nightmare of Morgana attacking Camelot. As she awakes, the nightmare becomes reality. Morgana, Mordred and Mauvair, the Treacherous Trio, launch an all-out assault on Arthur and his kingdom. The climax of the battle is the massacre which occurs at the Mannehaum stronghold near the base of the mountain upon which Camelot stands. The second flashback reflects the horrors of this massacre, where each knight, archer and sorcerer are brutally put to death.

The adventure begins as Merlin reveals his true identity. Merlin of Camelot, sorcerer and friend to King Arthur, is one in the same with the AI Merlin that guided our brave marine through the battles against the space pirates in "Devil in a Blue Dress". Merlin tells the story of Morgana's revenge, her rise to power, and the increasing threat she poses to mankind with her newly found, albeit slightly unstable, ability to time travel. If she retrieves some rare actinium crystals from the Jurassic time period, the result could be catastrophic. The mission, quite simply, is to stop Morgana.

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" is a scenario for "Marathon Infinity", originally released in 1997. It features 17 new solo levels; 22 new network maps; and new enemies, sounds, textures and weapons. A chief difficulty is the low amounts of ammunition available, resulting in a greater reliance on melee weapons, such as fists or staff.

Storyline

"Marathon Evil" is a sequel to a Marathon 2 single player mission called "Siege of Nor'khor" by the same author. In this new installment the player must trace the ship that he had disabled, but which had mysteriously vanished before its complete destruction. After finding it crashed on a small abandoned moon, the player finds another much older Pfhor ship hidden at the bottom of a lake, and, visiting it, inadvertently awakens a very ancient, taboo superior caste of the Pfhor called the Mystiques, which remained hidden for eons while watching over the lower castes of their race, regarding them as their young and naive offspring and helping them behind the scenes on occasions. The player must then infiltrate the Mystiques' moon and stop them from going back in time, or else they will be able to intervene and help the Pfhor enslave both the humans and the S'pht.

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Tempus Irae

"Tempus Irae" is a scenario for "Marathon Infinity", originally released in 1997. It features 37 new solo levels; new textures, sounds, scenery, shapes, terminal pictures and chapter screens. This level pack features traveling to the past to retrieve certain Manuscripts by Da Vinci. The goal is to return all these manuscripts to the ship where you started. You will explore many Renaissance areas in these levels.

Storyline

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Trojan

"Trojan" is a total conversion scenario for the original Marathon 1, originally released in June 1997. It includes 27 levels, 15 new aliens, 6 new weapons, and new music and sounds.

Storyline

The story begins with a distress signal from the human-colonized planet Trojan. The player and a squad of marines are sent to investigate. It turns out that mysterious aliens are invading the colony and the player and his squadron must drive them out of the colony with force.

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[http://www.marathonrubicon.com/ Marathon: Rubicon]

"Marathon: Rubicon" is a scenario for "Marathon Infinity" and "Aleph One". The project started in 1997 as "Marathon: Chimera", was first released to the public in 2001 as "Marathon: Rubicon", and was overhauled for Aleph One in 2005 as "Marathon: Rubicon X". It features a nonlinear plotline that can be traversed in any number of ways, with different endings based upon a player's choices over the course of the game. It features more than 360 new textures, over a dozen new characters, new scenery, 8 new weapons, and 83 solo levels.

Storyline

You awaken inside a Pfhor stasis chamber 50 years after your last battle. It seems that a vicious war erupted between the Pfhor and the UESC right after your last adventure. Fortunately, the war is at a stalemate. You are sent to the planet where all the UESC soldiers are fighting, to tip the scales and win the war.

You arrive on Pfhor Prime, where the UESC flagship "Chimera" has crashed, and are tasked with preventing the ship's AI from falling into the wrong hands. If successful, the player will follow a dispatch of Pfhor troops to a remote research station. If the reactor of the ship goes critical, the player must rescue the leader of the UESC fleet. Alternatively, the player may assist a clone of Tycho and help the AI with its own agenda.

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Marathon RED

"Marathon RED" is a single-player scenario set in a dark alternate version of the "Marathon" universe. It was created by Ian McConville, who also built most of the game's graphics and environments. Additional credits and acknowledgements are included in the game's main menu.

The original version of "RED" (requiring Mac OS and "Marathon Infinity") is available from the scenario's [http://bighouse.bungie.org/red/ official website] . A version for Aleph One (which is free and runs on modern platforms) can be downloaded [http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/ here] under "Complete scenarios to download".

Storyline

You wake up in a small sleeping chamber area, only to find yourself late for a briefing. Turns out, you are assigned to investigate a "dead-in-the-air" Pfhor scout craft. Once you land, you, along with other armed marines, will search the craft. This scout craft has been completely inhabited with deadly monsters, lava pits, and dark slimy RED walls. But, you are armed to the teeth, and you can use those arms to fight your way through. Despite the massive weapons presented to the player in RED, he is eventually overcome by the same monsters that inhabited the Pfhor Scoutship. After being overcome, he becomes one of the monsters himself, and wields even more immensely powerful weapons, which he needs in order to defeat Michael, an evil being of immense power who intends to destroy the universe which he believes will make it perfect.

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[http://eternal.bungie.org/ Eternal]

"Eternal" is a scenario for Aleph One, featuring 52 new maps, hundreds of new high-resolution textures, all new weapons including many previously limited to the Pfhor, over a dozen tracks of original music, a completely renovated user interface, and several new creatures and characters, alongside the complete cast from the original trilogy and several familiar locations.

Eternal has been through many releases and is still a work in progress. It began development in late 1996 under the title "Forever More", went dormant by the year 2000, and was then renewed in time for a series of preliminary releases in 2004. In February 2008 the completed version, titled "Eternal X", was finally released to the public.

Storyline

Picking up from the end of the Marathon trilogy, you find yourself suddenly ninety-four years in the future, in the year 2905. You are on the S'pht moon K'lia, hanging in orbit over a desolate and ruined Earth. Clearly all is not well with this future, and once again you are the last hope for mankind. The people of this time say that nobody really won in the war with the Pfhor; but now, thanks to recovered Jjaro technology, a plan has been devised to make things right. Paired with another sort of hybrid creature, the former Battleroid known as Hathor, you have been selected to venture back across time, one hundred and eleven years in the past to the U.E.S.C. Marathon. There, you and Hathor are to set in motion a plan that will alter the course of history and bring true victory to mankind. But things don't always go according to plan, and what begins as a mission to right history turns into an epic pursuit which spans not only the stars but also the centuries...

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Marathon: The Gray Incident

Marathon: The Gray Incident takes place at some undetermined point past Marathon Infinity. It was released on March 4, 2006. It's one of the more linear (and shorter) scenarios, but one of the key features of the scenario is its straightforward difficulty. It is a prequel to the Portal of Sigma. It features 17 new single-player levels and 7 multiplayer arenas, five new weapons, and several new and improved enemies.

Storyline

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Portal of Sigma

"Marathon: Portal of Sigma" is a scenario for Aleph One. It is a three-chapter scenario, the first chapter being released on March 4, 2006. Due to a lack of updates by its creators prior to the release of the first chapter, it was long believed to be vaporware. It features enhanced aliens sprites; eight new weapons; five large texture sets, with improved textures from "Marathon 2" and "Marathon Infinity" as well as original textures; 16-bit sounds; eleven single-player levels and 37 multiplayer arenas.

Storyline

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[http://www.losdisneys.com/ Los Disneys]

While not related to the Marathon Universe, [http://www.losdisneys.com Los Disneys] is a total conversion of the marathon game that takes place in Disney World, or more specifically, The Magic Kingdom. Los Disneys was originally released as a conversion for existing Marathon installations, however has been released as an individual game using the Aleph One engine.

Storyline

To help with the National Debt, The U.S. Government has sold the entire state of Florida to the Walt Disney Company. This new country's president, Disney CEO Michael Eisner has made The Magic Kingdom the capitol of Los Disneys.The game itself starts in 2015 with the player at the entrance to The Magic Kingdom. The player is assigned to infiltrate Magic Kingdoms via underground tunnels and destroy the cryogenically frozen head of Walter Elias Disney. However, doing so causes an array of nuclear missiles hidden throughout Los Disneys (including one of the towers of Cinderella Castle) launching towards every major city in the world.

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Dead scenarios

Only a small portion total conversions make it to the light of day. Though many have been attempted, few have been completed. Many dead scenarios can be found at [http://bighouse.bungie.org/ The Big House] which hosts many classic total conversions and scenarios. A few dead scenarios (such as Marathon: Vietnam) have contributed to a place known as [http://marathon.bungie.org/orphanage/ The Orphanage] which hosts unused sounds, maps, shapes, ideas, and more.

References

External links

* [http://traxus.jjaro.net/traxus/Category:Scenarios List of scenarios] at Traxus Project, a Marathon series wiki (the list is still highly incomplete as of 2008)
* [http://bighouse.bungie.org/ The Big House] , a site hosting the official websites of a number of major scenarios
* [http://archives.bungie.org The Marathon Archives at Bungie.org] , a large repository of "Marathon" scenarios and other files which was maintained from 1995 to 2004
* [ftp://ftp2.fileball.net/fileball Lh'owon Ar'kives FTP] , another "Marathon" repository which was maintained from 2001 to 2007
* [http://www.simplici7y.com/ Simplici7y] , a repository which hosts mostly more recent releases, but which is still active as of 2008
* [http://webwonks.org/Marathon/Marathon.html The Battle Cat's Litterbox] , a repository of "Marathon" editing tutorials and resources
* [http://resurrection.bungie.org Marathon Resurrection] , an unofficial remake of "Marathon" in the form of a total conversion for "Unreal Tournament"

See also

* "Marathon"
* ""
* "Marathon Infinity"
* Aleph One, a fan-maintained evolution of the engine which is required by most modern scenarios
* "Damage Incorporated", "Prime Target" and "ZPC", three commercial games created using the engine