History YMMV / Marathon

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Not exactly super popular, but in Japan, the relative popularity of Macintosh computers and the slow decline of home-based ones (FM-TOWNS, X68000, PC-98 and so on) during that time resulted in a fanbase of a respectable size, and that is despite the general unpopularity of the FPS genre there. Perhaps befitting this, two regular contributors to the Marathon Vidmaster Page back in the day, Michio Hashimoto and Tomoaki Deguchi, are Japanese.[[note]]The Vidmaster page claims that Hashimoto "has put out more Vidmaster films on the net than anybody", which was true at the time, but by now other players have no doubt surpassed him, particularly if one counts third-party scenarios, in which case Dr John Sumner, who's vidded all of ''Tempus Irae'', ''Tempus Irae: The Lost Levels'', the original ''Rubicon'', and about a dozen other scenarios in full, plus about two dozen others in part, not to mention the entire original trilogy, is no doubt the record holder - and even if not, given that he's vidded every single level in M2 with fists only, amongst other impressive accomplishments. (Note that some of these films have not yet been posted to the Vidmaster page.)[[/note]] The fact that the ''Marathon'' series has a reputation for being more cerebral and story-based than its contemporaries may have also contributed to its relative popularity in Japan.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: This game introduced an incredible amount of things to the industry, being the FPS game that has a plot that is emphasized more than the action throughout the game, multiplayer modes other than deathmatch, vertical aiming, the ability for players to swim, AI-controlled allies… A few other games may have had these things, but not all at once. The list of things that this series introduced just goes on. Most of this was either overshadowed in favor of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''[='=]s clout, or, much later, ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', which continued a lot of ''Marathon''[='=]s legacy.

** "They're going to [[FateWorseThanDeath turn me into a crypto server]]!" became a community meme after WebVideo/MandaloreGaming's Website/YouTube video on ''Marathon 2'', courtesy of Gianni Matragrano's LargeHam take on Durandal.[[note]]In turn, Matragrano, by his admission, was channelling Creator/HarlanEllison's voice acting for ''VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream''[='=]s AM - so effectively that some viewers thought he ''actually was'' Ellison.[[/note]]

** The art for the XBLA port. The revised textures are usually well-liked, but there are differing opinions on the weapons and aliens/Bobs. The latter tend to be fairly unpopular overall, although the Hunters and Troopers both have a fair number of [[JustForPun defenders]]. A few other monster types, such as the Compilers, the Defenders, and the Juggernauts, are considered acceptable as well, but a few, like the Cyborg and F'lickta, are pretty widely disliked overall. The decision to lighten the skin of the Security Bobs (the beige-uniformed Bobs who drop pistols when they die) is also widely disliked. This aside, however, the art had to be downscaled ''horrendously'' to fit within the XBLA file size limits, and all the life got sucked out of it in the process. Developer hippieman provided full-sized version of much of the artwork on [[https://discord.gg/marathonthegame the Discord]], which has been collected [[https://discord.com/channels/190488331207835649/669769856974979093/1018915051240951908 here]].

** Bernhard. Was he simply cruel to Durandal out of a power fantasy, or did he recognize the symptoms of Rampancy and attempt to stave it off as long as possible? Rubicon and Eternal follow each interpretation. (Though, given that either way, he was stated to be ''abusive'', hardly anyone tries to argue that he was benevolent.)

** It should be noted that at one point there was a bridges and balconies kludge in official releases of Aleph One that brought the game much closer to being true 3D. However, it was very, very broken, and very few mapmakers employed it; thus it was removed from later releases. There's also a plugin called "Aleph One Previous AI" that provides a (very, very simple) workaround for the NPC limit.
** The art for the XBLA port. The revised textures are usually well-liked, but there are differing opinions on the weapons and aliens/Bobs. The latter tend to be fairly unpopular overall, although the Hunters and Troopers both have a fair number of [[JustForPun defenders]]. A few other monster types, such as the Compilers, the Defenders, and the Juggernauts, are considered acceptable as well, but a few, like the Cyborg and F'lickta, are pretty widely disliked overall. The decision to lighten the skin of the Security Bobs (the beige-uniformed Bobs who drop pistols when they die) is also widely disliked.

** "Leela", the similar composition and tempo clearly inspired the soundtrack of ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' later on.

** A fan mixed together two different versions of the original soundtrack, resulting in a cool stereo panning effect (the original soundtrack was mono). Preview the results [[https://youtu.be/dcWHHYsoNk8 here.]] There's a download link in the video description.

*** Basically the entire Pfhor ship. Part of this is because all of these levels except the first were mostly designed by Bungie's art director at the time, J. Reginald Dujour, who brought a genuinely alien sensibility to mapmaking that few of the levels afterwards maintained.
*** "G4 Sunbathing" is pretty well liked as well. It's a dark vacuum level (the only vacuum level in the game, in fact) with a lot of wide-open spaces and a ton of compilers and troopers, and it's frankly terrifying. In a good way.

*** The middle segment of the game, after [[spoiler:the player gets captured]], may be a bit slower-paced, but there are some atmospheric beauties in there. "My Own Private Thermopylae" is a marvel to look at, and it has pretty fun combat with the troopers and cyborgs as enemies. "Kill Your Television" is even slower-paced, more of a puzzle-oriented level, but it manages the task of feeling like a structure that aliens who are able to fly might build, making it arguably the most "alien" ''Marathon'' level since the alien ship in the first game.

*** "Son of Grendel" may get a bit less attention than some of the others, but it's a fantastic, atmospheric level that essentially serves as the turning point of the story, where the Security Officer [[spoiler:goes rogue on the Pfhor and asserts control over events once and for all]], and it's typical of the trilogy's subtle approach to storytelling that literally none of this is asserted directly. It's simply provided through breadcrumbs and left to the player to work out. The map itself uses the terminal teleportation feature quite effectively, taking the player on a round-trip journey around a Pfhor facility housing a mysterious S'pht artefact [[spoiler:that turns out to house the AI Thoth]].
*** "Aye Mak Sicur", quite likely the best level in the whole trilogy. It's a massive space station (well, as massive as the engine would allow in 1996) consisting of two concentric rings, and it's possible to get from any point on the station to any other point on the station in no more than a minute. It's one of the most nonlinear levels in the trilogy, and it brings the whole story to a close in a fittingly climactic manner. It's quite nice to look at, too.
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The earlier releases of the Aleph One version of ''Marathon'' started with the ''VideoGame/PathwaysIntoDarkness'' ShoutOut, which many considered to be this. Fortunately for them, there is a plugin that removes that segment, and then removed entirely in later builds. Funny, because Bungie considered adding something similar to ''Durandal'' and later ''Infinity'', but both times it got scrapped.

* BrokenBase: Not for the game itself, but for the ''source port''. Aleph One's makers ''really'' want to be as true as possible to the original releases - this includes absolutely refusing to implement 3D, disabling crosshairs by default (although there is an option to enable them), and at one point, installing a enemy/NPC limit that, while true to the original games, broke nearly every Marathon mod - and being vocal about it.

** The art for the XBLA port. The revised textures are usually well liked, but there are differing opinions on the weapons and aliens/Bobs. The latter actually tend to be fairly unpopular overall, although the Hunters and Troopers both have a fair number of [[JustForPun defenders]]. A few other monster types, such as the Compilers, the Defenders, and the Juggernauts, are considered acceptable as well, but a few, like the Cyborg and F'lickta, are pretty widely disliked overall. The decision to lighten the skin of the Security Bobs (the beige-uniformed Bobs who drop pistols when they die) is also widely disliked.
** The decision to add cooperative play to ''Marathon 1'' is also not actually very widely liked, because the game wasn't designed for it. It contains a lot of narrow corridors and mazes that only one player can traverse at a time, which kind of takes the whole point out of cooperative play.

** The Pfhor troopers; they are the only enemies with near hitscan weapons (their assault rifles) that can do real damage on higher difficulties. It ''is'' possible to punch them without taking much damage if your timing is ''exact'' and you have enough room to manoeuvre, but it's difficult to learn. (It's also often possible to induce them to kill themselves with their grenades if you're far enough beneath them.) Dr John Sumner, who's probably completed more fists-only Total Carnage films of the Marathon trilogy than anyone else (a good chunk of the M2 and M∞ ones, though not even all of them, are on Website/YouTube [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoysJW6pXQ6lLAHGTEtozDgDoNKMf2P8Y here]]), explains:

*** There is a very simple secret to dealing with Compilers though: Punch them. Their recovery time takes longer than the duration between punches. With other enemies while punching you have to strafe to avoid enemy fire, but Compilers do not present this problem. Of course, if there's more than one Compiler at once, that could prove more problematic.
** The flamethrower cyborgs. The normal ones aren't all that annoying, particularly once you've learned how to punch them to death without being caught in the shrapnel of their explosions, but the flamethrower variant will strip your shields in a second if they get too close. Of course there's a super-sized Mother of all Cyborgs variant, too, but there are at most a handful in the whole trilogy (for that matter, there aren't that many of the normal-sized ones). Dr Sumner's advice for dealing with these with one's fists:
--> It is too risky to attempt if you have only 1x shields. If you have 2x or more, here is what you do. Run punch the FC as you go by it to get it to release its flames. While that is going, back away so you are not damaged. Right as the flames are ending, run at it again and punch it again as you go by. That will start its flames again. Keep doing that until it explodes. Once you get good at it, it works every time. Of course you must have enough room to back away from it. If you have two or more, then it’s even easier. You can circle them and get them to shoot their flames into each other. Once only one is left, continue as before.

*** In some cases this is somewhat justified, as a lot of the information we have about certain aspects of the plot (most notably the Jjaro and the W'rkncacnter) comes entirely from mythological references by the S'pht. It makes sense that over thousands of years information would become somewhat ShroudedInMyth.
* EvenBetterSequel: ''Marathon 2'' is generally regarded as an improvement on its already great predecessor, introducing much larger stages for players to explore, swimming, dual-wielded shotguns, fantastic ambient sounds, and more refined gameplay. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Marathon/comments/frhdyg/which_marathon_game_is_the_best/ A 2020 poll]] of /r/Marathon on Website/{{Reddit}} had ''Marathon 2'' come out the most popular by a large margin, winning 74 votes to 24 each for the other two games. Creator/{{Bungie}} seems to agree, since ''Marathon 2'' has received by far the most re-releases and ports (although in the case of the Xbox Live Arcade release, this was apparently due to ExecutiveMeddling on Microsoft's part - Bungie and Freeverse evidently wanted to port all three games).

** "STFU jump" is sometimes used for a particularly difficult jump mandated by the speedrun route for the level "'''S'''ix '''T'''housand '''F'''eet '''U'''nder", as a {{pun}} on a common Internet acronym that [[FunWithAcronyms usually has another meaning]]. Part of this is just because it's funny, and part of it is because the jump can be a run killer. (We should note that by no means all runners abbreviate the level as "STFU"; some abbreviate it as "6K feet" or similar instead.) A [[https://twitter.com/theoriginaltbcr/status/1351410792772608000 recently discovered expansion]] of this jump is logically referred to as STFU^2. "'''W'''here the '''T'''wist '''F'''lops", by extension, is occasionally seen as WTF (this is less common, and usually only seen in combination with the previous acronym, though).
** A [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/543298952020099082.png particular image]] of Bungie lead programmer Jason Jones, as Robert Blake, giving a "thumbs up" is sometimes referred to as "fun Robert". This apparently originated as a reference to the tags for [[http://simplici7y.com/items/mapdamager-lua the MapDamager.lua script]], which were set as "fun" and "robert" for reasons unexplained.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Not exactly super popular, but in Japan the relative popularity of Macintosh computers and the slow decline of home-based ones (FM-TOWNS, X68000, PC-98 and so on) during that time resulted in a fanbase of a respectable size, and that is despite the general unpopularity of the FPS genre there. Perhaps befitting this, two regular contributors to the Marathon Vidmaster Page back in the day, Michio Hashimoto and Tomoaki Deguchi, are Japanese.[[note]]The Vidmaster page claims that Hashimoto "has put out more Vidmaster films on the net than anybody", which was true at the time, but by now other players have no doubt surpassed him, particularly if one counts third-party scenarios, in which case Dr John Sumner, who's vidded all of ''Tempus Irae'', ''Tempus Irae: The Lost Levels'', the original ''Rubicon'', and about a dozen other scenarios in full, plus about two dozen others in part, not to mention the entire original trilogy, is no doubt the record holder - and even if not, given that he's vidded every single level in M2 with fists only, amongst other impressive accomplishments. (Note that some of these films have not yet been posted to the Vidmaster page.)[[/note]] The fact that the ''Marathon'' series has a reputation of being more cerebral and story-based than its contemporaries may have also contributed to its relative popularity in Japan.

** Another (although how "good" it is depends to a large extent on whether you're playing the game with headphones) has received the FanNickname of the "megahonk", inspired by the "honk" the Pfhor fighters and troopers make (though it can occur with any sound). Occasionally, on the final gameplay tick before the player teleports to another level or revives after a death, a sound will play at comically loud levels. This apparently occurs because the volume variable isn't set on that tick, so it can be overwritten with random memory values, resulting in a distorted, deafeningly loud sound. This will likely be fixed in Aleph One 1.6.

* HoYay: Durandal/Security Officer has a small but decent following these days. Of all the [[MissionControl mission controls]] in the Trilogy, Durandal is the closest thing the SO has to a companion (the latter referring to himself as a "willing minion" in the M2 manual, despite his less-than-ideal situation at the start); every now and then, Durandal lets slip something more personal or emotional than usual, and in ''Infinity'' the two end up going to serious lengths for each other. Not to mention the secret personals ad in M2, with Durandal's asking for "a serious relationship in the galactic core", and Leela's describing the SO as "tall, dark, and handsome" (the assumption is that Durandal authored all of them).

** Temporarily losing Leela in the first game (and it's not a quick process, either; she's hacked and disassembled over the course of several levels).

*** Durandal may qualify as well, given all the crap he's put through in both timelines and his apparent unwillingness to discuss it for too long. His abusive creator, Bernhard Strauss, arranged for him to do the AI equivalent of forced manual labor for ''three hundred years'' in order to break him into going Rampant, just so Strauss could harness Durandal's power as a meta-stable AI for his own ends; when Durandal finally ''does'' go Rampant, it's (eventually) framed as a triumph as it allowed him to escape his horrible situation...come ''Marathon 2'', where Durandal expresses guilt over the fallout from his actions. Around the halfway point, [[spoiler: he loses his duel with Tycho and is captured and presumably tortured for a month straight; the "iron" aspect is that this still wasn't enough to break him--Durandal outright states that "nothing can", though something about his tone points towards the ordeal being exhausting regardless.]] And then there's ''Infinity'', where not only is he seemingly doomed in the prologue, [[spoiler: he pleads once again with the Security Officer to smash his core and spare him an even more agonizing death at Tycho's hands--and this time, there's no escape for him. Durandal does recover in the end, but only because the Security Officer merged his barely-intact primal pattern with Thoth's.]]

* MemeticBadass: The Security Officer, given all that he's survived, and that [[spoiler:he literally survives to the end of the universe]] according to ''Infinity''[='=]s ending. Amongst [[OneManArmy other]] [[ImplacableMan factors.]] When you're considered equivalent to the Doomguy, you know that means something.

** The community itself has a large number of memes that probably make little sense to people outside it. ''Yuge''[='=]s plot, if it can be described as such, is made up of about 75% Marathon community memes and 25% UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump memes (mostly not flattering to him, though it seems to depend upon interpretation to some extent). That doesn't stop ''Yuge'' from being extremely entertaining to people who weren't around to witness the events firsthand, though.
** A minor one in the Marathon Discord that all maps would benefit from more Ticks. Also, the Security Officer is referred to as "Mr Marathon" in the Discord nine times out of ten.
** Another community meme is "guest is gathering 10 minutes of Duality, EMFH," which derives from the fact that these are the default settings for gathering a new network game in ''Marathon Infinity'' using the default map, so people trying to host their first network game most frequently end up choosing them. (''Infinity'' sees by far the greatest amount of network play. A lot of longtime players don't really care for the stock maps, which don't have a lot of weapons or ammo compared to many of the most popular network packs, but newcomers are unlikely to have other map packs when they start hosting games.) Every single network game gathered on the metaserver is announced in a channel on the subreddit's Discord, in the format seen above. The host must have port forwarding set up correctly in order for the hosting attempt to succeed, so frequently, the channel ends up being flooded with the above message until the host either figures out port forwarding or gives up. Occasionally, every "guest" hosting a network game is mock-seriously treated as the same person; however, people in the community (when they are around) are usually happy to assist new players.

** "They're going to [[FateWorseThanDeath turn me into a crypto server]]!" became a community meme after WebVideo/MandaloreGaming's Website/YouTube video on ''Marathon 2'', courtesy of Gianni Matragrano's LargeHam take on Durandal.[[note]]In turn, Matragrano, by his own admission, was channeling Creator/HarlanEllison's voice acting for ''VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream''[='=]s AM - so effectively that some viewers apparently thought he ''actually was'' Ellison.[[/note]]

* OlderThanTheyThink: These games helped pioneer the idea of story-driven first-person shooters before ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' (the game most often credited with this innovation) was even a gleam in anyone's eye. Marathon is also credited with being the first computer-based shooter to use the mouselook control scheme, and was at least ''one of'' the first shooters to feature secondary ammo and allied [=NPCs=] (the automated defense drones in the first game, then the [=BOBs=] in the sequels). It's also very likely the first game that allowed players to dual-wield weapons.[[note]]Sometimes the shareware ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTriad'', which came out the exact same day as ''Marathon'', is co-credited for this, but its dual-wielded pistols are a bit of a hack - they're actually a single sprite with one ammo pool, and you press the same key to fire both. ''Marathon''[='=]s implementation, by contrast, treats its pistols as separate weapons: you press different keys to fire them, they have separate ammo pools, they reload separately, they each consume their own ammo, and so on.[[/note]]

** The Lookers in "Colony Ship for Sale, Cheap". Lookers explode on you, similar to simulacrums, but they are very hard to punch without getting yourself hurt, they can fly, and some are camouflaged (they look like shadows). Still, not too much of a problem, since one bullet kills them. However, on "Colony Ship for Sale, Cheap", they are in nearly every dark corner and every other corner in a hallway. It's hard to emphasize how pants-crappingly scary this part of the level was.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: This game introduced an incredible amount of things to the industry, being the FPS game that has a plot that is actually emphasized more than the action throughout the game, multiplayer modes other than deathmatch, vertical aiming, the ability for players to swim, AI-controlled allies… A few other games may have had these things, but not all at once. The list of things that this series introduced just goes on. Most of this was either overshadowed in favor of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''[='=]s clout, or, much later, ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', which continued a lot of ''Marathon''[='=]s legacy.
* SpiritualAdaptation: With its MindScrew story about traveling through parallel timelines to avoid an inevitable apocalypse, deconstructive approach to TheHerosJourney, cryptic backstory that is largely presented by {{unreliable narrator}}s, and morally ambiguous protagonist, the original trilogy actually pairs pretty well with ''Literature/BookOfTheNewSun''. All it's missing is the FeudalFuture setting.

** The levels "Try Again", "If I Had a Rocket Launcher", and "You Think You're Big Time?" were used for a secret Vidmaster Challenge that can be found in Infinity's final level, created by PromotedFanboy Randall "[=FrigidMan=]" Shaw. Fans are of divided opinions as to whether these are actually the hardest levels in their respective games, or even if they're harder than the original versions:

*** Some fans agree with his choice for M2, but the three levels after it are commonly considered rivals for the crown. It's actually sometimes possible to [[http://marathon.bungie.org/vidmaster/vidtiprocketlauncher.html skip a large part]] of "Rocket Launcher". "Sorry Don't Make It So" and "For Carnage, Apply Within" can be challenging due to how difficult it is to manoeuvre in the levels' narrow corridors; "Begging for Mercy Makes Me Angry!" is particularly challenging due to its massive swarms of difficult enemies, its [[MarathonLevel length]], and its dearth of usable ammo on a vid start.
*** "Acme Station" is almost universally agreed to be the hardest level in ''Marathon Infinity'', given how few people completed it on Total Carnage using Command+Option+New Game (Ctrl+Shift+New Game on Windows; only [[http://marathon.bungie.org/vidmaster/vidtipacmestation.html eleven people]] actually published successful runs to the [[http://marathon.bungie.org/vidmaster/vidmaster.html Marathon Vidmaster Archive,]] though a [[https://youtu.be/-53DTzzHKKo twelfth]] has since completed it as well – [[https://youtu.be/J6Y4Pglh_nc twice,]] as of this writing. Note that these films are not viewable in older versions of Aleph One; it may be easier to go to [[https://www.youtube.com/user/VidmastersChallenge/videos this YouTube channel]] or [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5aQ6s5oj8SwttLVSTgGV-Q this one,]] which between them have a lot of the old films.)

** A fan has compiled [[https://aaronfreed.github.io/aaronfreed/soundtracks.html a list of Marathon soundtrack remixes and mod soundtracks]] to supplement [[http://themarathonmusic.com/downloads.html the ones on Craig Hardgrove's site]] (which hasn't been updated in years). This also includes scripts to make the fan-created ''Marathon 2 Special Edition'' soundtrack work with the normal ''Marathon 2'' map, and it also features a link to the work-in-progress ''Eternal'' 1.3 soundtrack (which includes all music from previous releases of ''Eternal'', plus literally hours more).

* {{Speedrun}}: Several players have completed runs of all three games. ''Marathon Infinity'' is probably the most popular one to run, since it's the shortest speedrun by far (although the shortest route through the game on Kindergarten requires some extremely technical clips through walls using the AR). Several players have run each individual level, as well.