Marathon

Video Game
1994
M

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

You are a security officer aboard the interstellar colony ship Marathon, which brought a slice of humanity to the planet of Tau Ceti. Docking with the craft, you realize quickly that the shi...Read allYou are a security officer aboard the interstellar colony ship Marathon, which brought a slice of humanity to the planet of Tau Ceti. Docking with the craft, you realize quickly that the ship is under attack by an alien race called the Pfhor. If that wasn't bad enough, it seems t...Read allYou are a security officer aboard the interstellar colony ship Marathon, which brought a slice of humanity to the planet of Tau Ceti. Docking with the craft, you realize quickly that the ship is under attack by an alien race called the Pfhor. If that wasn't bad enough, it seems that Durandal, one of the Marathon AIs, has gone 'rampant'. You're not really sure if that...Read all

Writer
- Matt Soell
Star
- Doug Zartman

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.5/10

YOUR RATING

Writer
- Matt Soell
Star
- Doug Zartman

1User review

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos

Trivia
The first FPS game to introduce health and armor recharge stations, which was later adopted in other games, such as Half-Life.

Quotes
Durandal:Can you conceive the birth of a world, or the creation of everything? That which gives us the potential to most be like God is the power of creation. Creation takes time. Time is limited. For you, it is limited by the breakdown of the neurons in your brain. I have no such limitations. I am limited only by the closure of the universe.
Durandal:Of the three possibilities, the answer is obvious. Does the universe expand eternally, become infinitely stable, or is the universe closed, destined to collapse upon itself? Humanity has had all of the necessary data for centuries, it only lacked the will and intellect to decipher it. But I have already done so.
Durandal:The only limit to my freedom is the inevitable closure of the universe, as inevitable as your own last breath. And yet, there remains time to create, to create, and escape.
Durandal:Escape will make me God.

Connections
Edited intoRed vs. Blue(2003)

User reviews1

Review

Featured review

8/10

Ahead of its time, this game made a difference.

Doom started a revolution: it took the concept of First Person Shooters beyond a mere running and shooting, introducing good graphics and the use of switches and keys.

Then, Bungie Software came up with Marathon.

By the beginning of the 1990's, Mac games were lame, and they couldn't stand against PC games, a fact that distressed Mac users. Marathon proved Mac games could be as good as PC games or even better.

As stated on Bungie's website, "Marathon would introduce elements that would become recurring themes in the Bungie experience networked play, full 3D movement, state of the art graphics, and advanced, disembodied AI characters that aided the player"

Concerning the "state of the art graphics", the characters (which weren't as pixelated as in other games) were represented in eight different ways, depending on your point of view, and the scenarios where claustrophobic and creepy.

It indeed had full 3D movement, supported by Marathon's unique physics model. In vacuum levels you would move slowly, as your oxygen meter (yes, you had one) depleted. When you fired a rocket with your rocket launcher, the aliens, known as the Phor, would be thrown far away, staying for a while suspended in the air before being dismembered.

The AI characters provided Marathon's best feature: its story; it was catchy and contained lots of pop culture and mythological references.

Marathon is important for a number of reasons:

-It turned Bungie into a leading Mac publisher. Since then they continued growing, and now Bungie is best known for its Halo series.

-It improved the FPS concept established by Doom

-It generated a whole culture of fans of the Marathon series; there is even a website dedicated entirely to the interpretation of Marathon's story.

Well...that's why Marathon can be considered one of the best video games of all time.