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Marathon's Story Page
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New Year's Eve art from General-RADIX.
Stay safe.
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Philtron completes his analysis of Marathon Infinity. The full list of his posts are below.
Introduction covers the rationale for what will be included and not included in his analysis.
Prologue covers Ne Cede Malis and also Infinity's conditions for success.
Chapter 1: Despair, Part 1/2 covers Rise Robot Rise and Poor Yorick.
Chapter 1: Despair, Part 2/2 covers Confound Delivery and Aie Mak Sicur.
Chapter 2: Rage 1, Part 1/2 covers Acme Station, Post Naval Trauma, and Where Some Rarely Go.
Chapter 2: Rage 1, Part 2/2 covers Thing What Kicks... and Carrol Street Station.
Chapter 3: Rage 2 covers Naw Man He's Close, Foe Hammer, Hang Brain, and You're Wormfood Dude.
Chapter 4: Envy covers the levels from By Committee to Aye Mak Sicur.
It is important to read his introduction first, note what he is not covering and familiarise yourself with the terms "diegetic" and "non-diegetic". This will help you understand Philtron's point of view.
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Christmas art from General-RADIX. Yes... this has become something of a tradition.
And a little puzzle for Christmas Day... assuming you have any spare time to 'don your boots' and face one of the hardest levels in Marathon Infinity.
If you have been checking the Story forum you'll know that Philtron has covered the following levels in his Infinity analysis:
Introduction covers the rationale for what will be included and not included in his analysis.
Prologue covers Ne Cede Malis and also Infinity's conditions for success.
Chapter 1: Despair, Part 1/2 covers Rise Robot Rise and Poor Yorick.
Chapter 1: Despair, Part 2/2 covers Confound Delivery and Aie Mak Sicur.
Chapter 2: Rage 1, Part 1/2 covers Acme Station, Post Naval Trauma, and Where Some Rarely Go.
Chapter 2: Rage 1, Part 2/2 covers Thing What Kicks... and Carrol Street Station.
Chapter 3: Rage 2 covers Naw Man He's Close, Foe Hammer, Hang Brain, and You're Wormfood Dude.
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Merry Christmas to all Story page readers... everywhere!
As is the tradition... here are some cool yule tidings from ghosts of Christmas past:
President People's The Twelve Days of CRISTmas Version 2 .Stay safe this Christmas. :)Ben Wigler's Jingle Bells.
poena.dare's The White Christmas Term.
And last... but not least (courtesy of The Wayback Machine) the perennial Battle Cat's
Christmas Aboard the Marathon
and
The 12 Days of Marathon Christmas.
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When was the Drinniol slave revolt?
On "For Carnage, Apply Within" we learn that a Pfhor scientist:
...implanted a Jjaro cybernetic junction into a Drinniol, causing the most terrible and destructive slave revolt in Pfhor history.Now Forrest of B.org <forrest@bungie.org> writes in a Story forum post:
There is a mention in M2 of the Drinniol revolt being the worst in Pfhor history, which would thus make it worse than the Nakh revolt, but since the S'pht revolt is said to be the worse since the Nakh revolt, that also means that the Drinniol revolt had to have been before the Nakh revolt.Updated the Marathon Timeline section to include this event before the Nakh slave revolt.
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Happy 26th Birthday... Marathon.
Marathon shipped on 21 December 1994, 26 years ago today.
Some folks had the game just in time for Christmas.
Doug Zartman didn't get punched.
Matt Soell bought a copy of Marathon... and the rest they say is... history.Matt's semi-autobiography "It was all downhill from there" available soon... just waiting for the covers. ;)
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December 17th... Happy 'last polygon filled' Day? Er, yes.
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Philtron continues his story analysis of Infinity with the levels Confound Delivery and Aie Mak Sicur. Note that Philtron is not discussing the Infinity dream levels.
His analysis to date is listed below:
Introduction covers the rationale for what will be included and not included in his analysis.
Prologue covers Ne Cede Malis and also Infinity's conditions for success.
Chapter 1: Despair, Part 1/2 covers the levels Rise Robot Rise and Poor Yorick.People may also want to read these in conjunction with the Infinity Volunteers posts which date from 2001. Yes, 19 years ago. These offer insights into the story, game play, level design etc.
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For your viewing pleasure. Two recent YouTube videos about Marathon and Bungie.
Marathon: Children of Doom Episode 4 by Errant Signal (Aug 7, 2020). Thanks to Tim "Mordeir" Branin <timbranin@gmail.com> for this one.
and
Bungie games BEFORE Halo? by SameToken (Dec 9, 2020). This is the 1st of 4 episodes and takes you up to Pathways Into Darkness. If you are old school you probably won't learn anything new. Some of the comments are straight quotes from previously conducted interviews etc. Had to smile when I heard those.
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December 14th... Happy 'last polygon filled' Day? Er, no.
Philtron discusses Rise Robot Rise and Poor Yorick, the first two levels of the chapter "Despair". Some interesting discussion on inconsistencies, how to pronounce Pfhor names and weapon design.
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Philtron discusses the 1st level of Infinity. He starts by giving a helpful guide to what is required to complete a successful timeline.
"...the puzzle pieces that need to be in their correct positions in order to 1) defeat the Pfhor, and 2) keep the W'rkncacnter from escaping."There is also some discussion about how the Security Officer (the player) is able to time jump.
It is worth reading this in conjunction with the Dream Levels and Failed Timelines section.
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"So, someone asked if there is a coherent story summary in Marathon Infinity.
It is my favorite Marathon game so, against my better judgment,
I decided I would go ahead and write it."
Philtron (7 December 2020)
On the Story forum Philtron begins his analysis of Marathon Infinity's story. Because of its size he has agreed to serialise this so folks won't be overwhelmed. In his first post of the series he provides an overview of what is to come and the rationale for what will be included and not included in his analysis.
The Story page will be following this and the resulting discussion. Check the Story forum or here for updates.
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Further discussion about the opening terminal on Rise Robot Rise and the reference to "Pfhor slave tanks".
See The Marathon Infinity Terminal Screenshot Text for details.
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It's not often that someone comes along with a theory that kind of blows your mind. More so because it has been starring you in the face for last 25 years.
So... did DoubleAught originally intend the player to play as a Cyborg Tank character in some parts of Infinity?
Wicked right...
Well Forrest of B.org <forrest@bungie.org> in a Story forum post makes that very connection.
See The Marathon Infinity Terminal Screenshot Text for details.
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Thanks to James Wheare <james@wheare.org> for spotting another PFHOR reference in Destiny.
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Destiny and the Pfhor?
Jonathan Lester <jon.dealspwn@gmail.com> writes:
The collector's edition for the new Destiny 2 expansion Beyond Light arrived today, and with it a new journal written by a character called Clovis Bray.I've included a picture, but suffice to say that the PFHOR make an appearance - if only as an acronym for "Primogeniture of Future History Ontogeny/Rephylogeny". The philosophy of this is quite interesting though.
Almost certainly a cute little Easter egg than more evidence of a shared/parallel universe, but thought I'd share it regardless.
Coincidence or something more?
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Occasionally I come across an old Story forum post which I either missed or failed to appreciate at the time of posting. Here are two which I found recently.
Both relate to the story told in the so-called "Dream" levels of Marathon Infinity. The first post entitled Men in black in Marathon? by Bob-B-Q draws similarities between the "black-suited men" in the Dream level terminals and the movie Men in Black (1997 but based on a 1990 comic) and also Agent Smith and his clones in the Matrix movie sequels "Reloaded" and "Revolutions" (both in 2003). As Bob-B-Q points out mysterious men in black suits and sunglasses are a common trope in film and literature. So perhaps we can't draw too much from their use in Marathon Infinity. But then again the line...
The noise in the train crescendoes as the train comes into a station, this station is lined with black suited men...
...so conjures up images of the final fight scene in The Matrix Revolutions.
The second earlier post entitled Moo Dream Sequence Ravings by scifiteki attempts to make sense of some of dream level text but in truth poses more questions than answers. One in particular caught my attention which relates to the use of keys.I have my keys in my pocket now, and I'm opening the other subway door...
I step in silently, and as is the ritual, I block the door with my bicycle and set the traps on the windows. Damn no way that anyone is getting in here without adequate warning.
While this text appears on two separate terminals they are in sequence and could be interpreted as being a continuation of the story. Does the key in this situation allow quick access to a different area of the dream similar to the keys in The Matrix Reloaded?
Perhaps the Wachowskis were fans of Marathon after all.
Just something to think about..
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Thanks to treellama in a Story forum post for letting us know that Aleph One 1.3 is now available.
You can grab it here.
And the release notes are here.
For all you old school Marathoners out there version 1.3 features the original game out of the box experience. No more messing with the settings to get that authentic look and feel. They are now default on first intall. So if you want the high res stuff, creepy mist, zombies and the like you have to add them yourself.
But remember folks... in Marathon it is...
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Happy Bungie Day.
Thanks to General-RADIX for remembering.
What is Bungie Day?
The earliest reference to Bungie Day dates back to Feb 24, 2000 when yeroen (webmonkey@bungie.com) had entered it into the Bungie Events calendar as Fri, July 7th 2000 7:07 AM CST. So was born Bungie Day. Nothing really happened on that actual day as Bungie were in the process of moving to the Microsoft Redmond campus in Washington, Seattle.
But the 1st Bungie Day did inspire the "What the Hell is Matt Soell Thinking?" competition.... and the rest they say is history.
Hey look it up...
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