What if some sickeningly dedicated Marathon fanatics took it upon themselves to set down a bunch of guidelines for what defines a "great map", and then then found maps that fit those guidelines? What if they actually told you what they thought those guidelines were, so that you could decide for yourself if their opinion was worth anything to you? Would that make your life easier?

That's the basic concept behind this site. We've played a hell of a lot of levels, and even made a few. We all deal to some degree with interface design (whether that be web design, or a program's front end, or a user's manual), so we spend a lot of time thinking about what works, and what doesn't. Good mapmaking is an art, and like any art, not all aspects can be taught. There are no templates to follow to create that perfect map. There are technical features you can tweak to make a good map great, but a poorly designed map will never capture the imagination of the Marathon community, no matter how gussied up it is.

We've picked a few maps from the hundreds (thousands, if you count levels instead of map files) released on the internet or America Online that we think contain the qualities that make a "great Marathon map". We've done this systematically, by first spelling out what we think those qualities are, and then finding maps that fit the criteria. We all have to agree that a map belongs on this page (the exception is a map that one of us created-we cannot rate our own work). This list won't be huge, but it will provide you with a pool of maps that are eminently playable.

We welcome your feedback.