The Marathon 2 Bug List.

Compiled by Mr Angry, Surbiton.

* Microphones don't work
   A couple of Bungie posts claim that this is Apples fault due to changes
   in the Sound Manager - this doesn't really hold water because the Mics
   should still work with old versions of the OS in this case (I tried with
   Sys 7.1, and Sys 8.1, and the Mics don't work with either)

* Can't switch player views in films
   You can only switch views between players on the same team.  Bungie
   claim that this isn't really a bug, but it does seem a bit stupid

* Mouse flakyness
   The mouse control has some problems - looking down whilst running forward
   can grind you to a halt.  Many people have claimed that left and right
   movement is inconsistant, although this is often blamed on the person
   being left/right handed.  Strange that left/right movement feels fine
   in Quake though.

* QD slowdown problems
  When you run Marathon at 100% on a 640x480 screen, it runs far slower than
  when the screen is at a higher res (e.g. 800x600).  Caused because Bungie
  forgot to turn off the desktop clipping region for QuickDraw blitting.  This
  was fixed in Infinity, so should be included in the patch.

* Color screw up on 68K machines.
  When playing on 68K Macs with 256 colour displays, and starting Marathon
  by double clicking on a saved game, when you quit the game, the colour
  table is not switched back to the System clut.  This doesn't happen when
  you start Marathon normally and then open a saved game

* Two annoying things when you jump onto platforms that are going down:
   1. If the platform is moving fast, you end up bouncing out of control -
      this isn't really a bug but is caused by Marathons physics/gravity.
   2. If the platform is moving slower, you can get 'stuck' on the platform.
      You'll 'slide' across the platform in the direction you're facing,
      so by spinning around, you can have some sort of control, but you can't
      run or walk until the platform comes to rest.  You mainly notice this
      in 3rd party scenarios, as the original scenario doesn't have many
      slow elevators, but it has happened to me a few times.  Definitely
      an engine bug.

* Another platform bug.
  On platform areas made out of two platforms with identical settings (i.e.
  so it functions like one big platform), you often can't move between
  platforms when they're in motion.  An invisible wall seems to appear.  This
  of course only happens in 3rd party maps (even ones made with Forge).

* The Win95 version of M2 doesn't suffer from the 'two many transparent sides'
  problem - some maps made with Obed play fine on the Win95 version of the
  game, but will crash the Mac version instantly.  Of course, Bungies maps
  were all made on Macs, so they don't have this problem, but if Win95 users
  get this engine improvement, Mac users should too.

* Can't handle too many files in the Marathon folder.
  If you have more than about 40 files within the Marathon folder (or sub
  folders), some of them won't show up in the Environment settings. Also,
  if you're playing a map and save the game, Marathon will often not be able
  to find the original map again even though it hasn't been moved.  The
  problem still exists in Infinity, and even in Myth.

* Terminal Splat
  If you read through a terminal quickly you can let off a shot after the
  terminal exists - if you're holding the rocket launcher, this is fatal.
  This may only happen if you're using enter to scroll through the terminal,
  and enter is also one of your fire keys, but I seem to recall a thread
  saying it happened at other times also.  The final term on IIHARL is the
  normal complaint.

* Run key opens doors.
  This may well be considered a 'feature' rather than a bug.  Basically a
  double click on your run key will work as the action key.  Seems like
  kind of a strange 'feature', but many vidmasters make use of it.  The
  'bug' aspect comes in as often you'll run up to a door, release the
  run key as you hit the action key to open the door, and then as you hit
  the run key again to run through, this will register as another action
  key press and the door will close on you.

* Save buffers don't flush the keyboard input first.
  Say you're using 'space' as your run key, and run up to a save terminal,
  release space and hit the action key.  Even though the space bar was
  released before the action key was pressed, you'll often get a whole
  load of spaces output as the filename.

* Bouncy walls
  If a poly next to a wall is 128 bytes or thinner, you'll seem to bounce
  in and out of it.  This bug didn't exist in the original Marathon engine,
  and does show it's head in a few places on the original Marathon 2 maps.

* The major, but little known bug on Waterloo Waterpark
  'nuff said.

* The #Checkpoint tag no longer works properly
  In M1, a #Checkpoint in your terminal scripts would show a map view
  centered on that checkpoint.  In M2, this still works, but the map it
  displays often goes way of the screen, is corrupt, and sometimes misses
  large areas even though they aren't hidden by 'secret' platforms.

* Didn't Bungie promise ARA support in their next game in the Marathon 1.2
  updater?

* Missing Floor Textures Makes Me Angry!
  The top left room in Begging For Mercy Makes Me Angry!, has an untextured
  floor at the bottom of the pfhor slime pit (I believe this is the only
  untextured floor area that the player can see in the whole Marathon Trilogy,
  and it's annoying that it wasn't fixed for the Win95 release)


Simon
Simon.Brownlee@pobox.com