History VideoGame / Marathon

In the modern day, the original trilogy is now freeware. Shortly before its acquisition by Microsoft, Bungie open-sourced the engine of ''Marathon 2'' and five years later rereleased [[http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/ all three games' assets]] for free download. (''Infinity''[='=]s source was finally released in 2011). Fans have [[VideogameRemake upgraded the engine]] to support (optional) shiny graphics and lots of new features, and ported it to every major [[UsefulNotes/OperatingSystem OS]]. You can grab the original games and the Aleph One engine [[https://alephone.lhowon.org/download.html here]], some of the most popular scenarios [[https://alephone.lhowon.org/scenarios.html here]], and various other mods, enhancements and maps [[http://www.simplici7y.com/ here]] (newer, currently updating, with an archive [[https://lochnits.com/s7/ here]]), [[http://fileball.whpress.com/ here]] or [[http://www.rising-studios.com/Marathon/fileball/Fileball%20Archive/marathon/ here]], or [[http://archives.bungie.org/ here]]. For those willing to go down the emulation route (which is also necessary to run some of those old files), Macintosh Garden also has [[https://macintoshgarden.org/games/marathon-trilogy-box-set the Trilogy Box Set's Definitive Map Collection]], which contains around a thousand add-ons for the games. Aleph One also has [[https://github.com/Aleph-One-Marathon/alephone/releases a GitHub]], which often has development builds of the engine.

* SetRightWhatOnceWasWrong: The main plot of ''Infinity''. The trippy part is that the person trying to set this right is [[spoiler:the Durandal/Thoth hybrid AI, which at the start of the game doesn't even exist yet. It's implied that the cybernetic implants in the Security Officer have some Jjaro tech to them, as does the Thoth AI; and that by merging Durandal with Thoth, it's able to perceive time in a non-linear fashion and move the Security Officer through the timestream in this manner. Thus, Durandal/Thoth ends up setting the player on a path that not only creates itself but also re-traps or destroys the W'rkncacnter.]]

''Marathon'' is a series of groundbreaking ScienceFiction [[FirstPersonShooter First Person Shooters]], of which the first three were developed for the UsefulNotes/{{Macintosh}} by [[{{Creator/Bungie}} Bungie Software]]. Players take control of a SuperSoldier originally tasked as a security officer onboard a colony ship called the ''Marathon'', hence the title. As the ship is attacked by an alien race called the Pfhor, the player joins forces with several {{Artificial Intelligence}}s to save the day. At least, that's what nominally happens.

* ''Marathon 2: Durandal'' (1995, Macintosh) (1996, Windows) (2007, [[UsefulNotes/Xbox360 XBLA]]) (2011, [=iPad=], [=iPhone=])

* UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}: A lot of the backstory involves Mars, its bad relations with Earth, various wars, the breakdown of [=CRIST=] mega-freighters that caused the end of a Martian golden age and the beginning of extreme poverty, the first major case of Rampancy courtesy of Traxus IV and, of course, the conversion of Deimos into ''UESC Marathon''.

* {{Unwinnable}}: A number of “suicide traps” existed, including the GuideDangIt secret rooms on “Smells like Napalm” and “Blaspheme Quarantine.” Even worse were “trap” situations where you could ruin a saved game by having too little health or oxygen to reach the next charge-up.