1/Sep/09 Transfer to Fileball

The Fileball Archive has recently been reopened and offers ready upload & download access for Marathon & Aleph One-related files. Much of the Lh'owon Ar'kives material has been transferred there and can be found under the Fileball.net directory. To ensure a central location for material searches the contents of the Orphanage have also been transferred and can be found in the Scrap directory. Anyone wishing to contribute to the Orphanage can now do so with a direct upload to the Fileball website. The contents of this website will remain online for the forseeable future but changes will only be made to the Fileball-based collection.

1/Jan/09 Reopening

The Orphanage has been reopened, taking in abandoned material in the hope that it will either grow to maturity under another name or that individual pieces can be incorporated into other scenarios.

Many projects are begun, the authors minds set on goals ranging from humble single-level maps to glorious scenarios surpassing Bungie's efforts. Sadly many, if not most, bite the dust, the effort required for maintaining any project being strenuous. While they develop, however, a substantial amount of usable material can be created (textures, sounds, plots etc.) that should not simply disappear into oblivion. The Orphanage is the official scrap-heap for partially-completed projects, a source of adoptable materials that can be utilised to bring other projects to maturity.

As Aleph One (Marathon Open Source) has grown it has raised the quality of materials that can be used. Textures now have higher resolutions using png or dds formats instead of the original gif. Lua and MML scripts have been incorporated to modify the characteristics of individual games. 3D objects are now possible. Scenarios such as Rubicon and Tempus Irae have been revamped to take advantage of these changes. It is to be hoped that materials in the new formats & qualities will become accessible here.

New Additions

Xmas 3 Textures

Last year's Xmas Special used many new textures but some more remained unused. Alexander Marshall has donated the Photoshop files used in their construction with notes on how modern textures are assembled.

WMAID is still in development but Bad Man has released a weapon that won't be used. If someone wants to make use of a Fission Minegun (within Marathon) the physics & images are available. Both WMAID and Marathon: Infested are till active projects.

Regrettably Marathon and Beyond has bitten the dust, the material on the Big House site being the only surviving files. A copy of the demo is now available here.

Both Marathon: Red and Marathon: Destiny have the gone the same way.

The good news is that Infested and Where Monsters Are In Dreams are both still alive and growing.

Dean Dunakin has donated the artwork side of Bloodlust, including new aliens & weaponry, chapter screens and storyline. There is all or most of the material needed to create a Kfahr alien, SMG Bob and an energy handgrenade.

A bonus for this donation was the storyline for Marathon Ares Research Station (M.A.R.S.) a scenario sketched out but which never progressed to map building.

Submissions and Usage

Submission: any unused materials may be submitted to this site on the understanding that it is for free use.

Usage: scenario authors may download materials here to incorporate into their own projects free of charge, provided proper credit is given. At this time (Jan/2009) the Orphanage is not accepting direct uploads.

Contact the Curator to arrange for uploads.