Vidmaster Tips & Tricks: My Own Private Thermopylae

My Own Private Thermopylae, created by Greg Kirkpatrick, was designed to be a turning point in the Marathon 2 story. The light and the space on this level provides a stark contrast to the darker and more cramped earlier levels. You arrive in an almost idyllic setting... things are looking up. :-) As Greg put it:

This level was where the tide turned, where all ships floated with the rising tide (except Tfear's - his sank).

But don't let the light and space of Thermopylae put the zap on your head. You've got a mission here. Two of Thoth's personality cells (points A and B on the map below) have to be activated. You are also meant to rescue some Bobs but unlike Marathon this is not an actual requirement for successfully completing this level.

The high 'cliff-like' walls and ledges surrounding the pools on this level seem to force you to follow a prescribed route. But do they? Can a different, shorter route be taken?

Kiyoto "GJ" Maeda <rxr03321@niftyserve.or.jp> showed how this level could be completed quickly by using a series of three grenade climbs. His film appeared in a package called M2 Shortcut L21&28 (.sit or .zip) on the Marathon Trilogy "Map Collection" CD. The climbs are very impressive and Michio Hashimoto (a.k.a. Miha) described Kiyoto as the king of the "Grenade-Jump" (hence his a.k.a. GJ). Unfortunately and somewhat surprisingly the second film in Kiyoto's package is not a Total Carnage film. Nevertheless his My Own Private Thermopylae film is an outstanding display of innovative wall climbing.

Todd Keating <cxtdk@eiu.edu> the author of the Advanced Grenade Jumping Tutorial (.sit or .zip), improves upon Kiyoto's film by demonstrating a series of four grenade climbs and one long grenade jump in his film My Own Private Shortcut (.sit or .zip). Todd pushes the art of grenade jumping and climbing to its limits. It's a no hits film. Enjoy