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Everything is not as it seems{ }. seems{ }. seems{ }.
Leela. Shake Before Using... (Terminal 1). July 26, 2794.Happy Marathon 2 for Windows 95 Demo day.
Yes folks, this day 26 years ago Bungie released the demo of Marathon 2 for Windows 95.
In an effort to make amends for their part in the downfall of Microsoft Bob Bungie decided to port Marathon 2: Durandal to Windows 95. But this port would be different. Microsoft Bob would be bigger and stronger than Macintosh Bob this time.
Bob art by Shogoki.
The Win95 Demo Read Me file read like a Marathon Infinity terminal:
a vanished civilization, in the shadow of alien mountains.wading in the shallows or submerged in the depths of lava pools and waterways.
the starship Marathon, you are taken to a world of roaring rivers and howling winds. 16-bit sounds employ real-time stereo tracking to give you audio clues to your environment and position.
surfaces, dance in synchrony and add significance to your surroundings.
And in this timeline... Durandal is... different.
"Damaged, one of the Marathon's onboard synthetic intellects, Durandal, struggled to organize a defense of the stricken vessel."Synthetic intellect? Struggled to organize a defense of the stricken vessel?
The Bungie Team responsible for the port and rewrite were:
Ryan Martell (Development)
Jay Barry (Whatever)
Jonas Eneroth (Scenarios)So on this special day fire up the Windows 95 demo and... find yourself starting back.
Be careful. Everything it not is as used to be.
Leela. Shake Before Using... (Terminal 1). July 26, 2794.
Shhhhh... Leela I'll look after the children.
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"We live in cracks at the edges of society. Old, forgotten Gods, in a land without Gods. But there are New Gods growing in America. They've already replaced us."
Odin (Mr. Wednesday). American Gods (Season 2, Episode 1). 2019With over 777K views of his Marathon Review YouTube video Mandalore of MandaloreGaming could be consider one of the New Gods. His videos are well researched and professionally put together. Watched by millions he embodies New Media.
Now he has taken on Marathon 2: Durandal. The most straightforward of all three Marathon games and the one most people will be familiar with as it was ported to Windows 95 in 1996 and Xbox 360 in 2007. Marathon 2 occupies the "Goldilocks Zone" of the Trilogy. It is "neither too hot nor too cold, but just right".
The cold impenetrable darkness of Marathon Infinity awaits. Mere mortals forever walk the edge of its abyss.
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"But, like the hundredth copy of a third generation duplication of a substandard bootleg — they're a little fuzzy."
Bungie. Marathon 2: Durandal manual. November 1995.Sally from Redmond writes to say that my knowledge of Marathon is a "little fuzzy" pointing out that it was not "Manus Celer Dei" it was "celer manus dei".
No, she is not referring to the Marathon sticker from the Marathon Trilogy Box Set.
She is referring to the name Jason Jones used during Marathon net games at the Boston Macworld Expo in 1995. Namely ""celer manus dei". Steve Wood made reference to this in his report of the Bungie booth at the Expo.So there you have it folks... an error on the Story page.
My apologies to Jason "celer manus dei" Jones.
celer manus dei"Manus Celer Dei" is the Jjaro dreadnought Durandal returned to Earth in.
I would imagine the value of the "celer manus dei" sticker has just increased seven fold.
Hey! So whose hand was it?
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So recently on r/Marathon I saw a pic of a Marathon tattoo posted by SorryYouOK. You can see it below:
Apparently he got it 16 years ago.
Then I remembered this pic from back in April 2004.
And wondered if it was the same person. I mean how many people get a Marathon symbol tattooed on their upper arm?
Then I remembered this news post from back in January 2002. Same but different.
Then I remembered The Marathon Purity Test and Question 46: Do you have a Marathon tattoo?
The Purity Test was first mentioned in this news post back in January 2012. Apparently it hailed from Sweden.Then I remembered the famous Ne Cede Malis tattoo and the Manus Celer Dei.
Apparently it hailed from a nightclub in Redmond. But Jason denies all knowledge of it.But I digress.
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Somewhere in the heavens...they are waiting.
Bungie Press Release. July 25, 1994.Happy Marathon Announcement Day.
Yes folks, this day 28 years ago Bungie announced their new game... Marathon.
But wait... there's more. It is also...
Happy Marathon Attack Day.
i did it i did it i brought all this here all them here. our
friends with three eyes and their toys and their cyborg pets
and their computers. i did it i did it. i saw them i saw
them far away not looking our way and i called them here i
called them here.
Durandal. The Rose (Terminal 3)Yes folks, this day 772 years from now the U.E.S.C. Marathon will be attacked by hostile alien forces.
Apart from Durandal and the S'pht I am not sure who else will be happy. Certainly not the Pfhor. Certainly not Bernhard Strauss. And certainly not Bob.
Will you be happy?
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh.
I have been called a hundred names and will be called a
thousand more before the world goes dim and cold.
Kill Your Television (Terminal 1: 2nd message)
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You've played too much Marathon when...
I have always enjoyed the artwork and humor of Italian artist juzo-kun not least her seven "You've played too much Marathon when..." comics.
Her homepage is here and she is also on Deviant Art. Check out her humorous Marathon / Transformers crossover.
Her "...out of paper? AGAIN" joke reminds me of The Conversatron and the age old question: Can you briefly summarize the plot of the Marathon series? Try working out the answer.
Of course the Immersionists will tell you that you cannot truly understand Marathon's story by reading it on a page. You have to read it in-game, in the heat of battle. Every terminal must be a struggle, every screen a victory.
Bigger Guns Nearby by juzo-kun
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Happy Sack Day!
This day 23 years ago Bungie released the Mac Action Sack at MacWorld Expo (New York, July 21-23, 1999) and got to do what they do best. "Action Sack For Those That Lack" proclaimed the press release. The Bungie Booth was awash with Sack and Your Mom jokes. Inquisitive fans seeking "Historical Monument No. 7" were pointed in the direction of Jason's...
But I digress.
Today is also... Happy Halo Day!
Yes folks, this day 23 years ago Jason Jones got up on stage with Steve Jobs and proved to the world that he could swing it with the big boys.
The rest they say is... history.
Got Sack?
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I received the following question the other day..."Why is there no official Marathon Infinity manual in Acrobat (PDF) format?"
Why indeed.
Actually this very same question was asked back in November 1998.
Bungie originally released the electronic manuals for Marathon, Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon Infinity in DOCMaker format. DOCMaker was an application for the Apple Macintosh which created stand-alone, self-running document files. Written by Mark S. Wall / Green Mountain Software it was very popular in the mid-to-late 1990s.
When Bungie released the Marathon Trilogy Box Set in May 1997 the hardcopy manual that came with the box stated:
"We've included all the original Marathon manuals in Acrobat format on the Marathon Trilogy CD-ROM just in case you'd like to check out these manuals."
Marathon Trilogy Manual (page 4). May 1997.
Only they didn't. There was no Marathon Infinity manual. Only Marathon, Marathon 2: Durandal and the new Marathon Trilogy manual. Bungie used the Infinity manual as the basis for the Trilogy manual striping out all the Infinity introductory story pieces in order to make it generic for the Box Set. There were also a few other minor changes too.
Bungie had an opportunity to make amends with the release of the Mac Action Sack in July 1999. After all they were selling all three Marathon games again.
Only they didn't. They just included the original manuals in DOCMaker format... again.
No problem. You could just download a PDF version of the Infinity manual from Bungie's Support page (support.bungie.com). Nope... the download link gave you a trilogy_manual.sit file (aka. the Trilogy manual).
To remedy the lack of a PDF version of the Infinity manual Steve Levinson translated the original DOCMaker format into PDF format for the Story page back in March 2003. The translation isn't perfect however. The formating and image quality could be improved upon. Maybe some day someone will reverse engineer the Trilogy manual back into the Infinity manual since most of the text and images are the same and add the Infinity introductory story text.
So that's the story of the missing Infinity manual... again.
(circumstances are cyclical)
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"At Bungie, however, rare is well done."
Bungie. Press Release. July 19, 1995.Happy Marathon 2 Announcement Day!
This day 27 years ago Bungie announced Marathon 2: Durandal because... "You asked for it."
Actually Marathon 2 development started as far back as January 27, 1995. Buried deep in the Marathon 2 source code is the following comment from Jason Jones:
Friday, January 27, 1995 12:49:25 AM (Jason') the marathon 2 rewrite begins.In an interview in the Jan/Feb 1995 issue of Inside Mac Games Jason Jones stated that they were working on a second game. And in a later interview admitted that the ending of Marathon allowed for a sequel:
"I don't know how many people noticed this, but the very last thing that happens to the player in Marathon is that he is teleported off the last level to where? Maybe someday we'll take advantage of this."And this is from the man who famously said in a 1993 IMG interview:
"...I tend to dislike sequels. Many times when a publisher comes out with a sequel to a game, it means that they made a lot of money on the first one and they're going to continue to publish similar games until everyone gets sick of them."But I digress.
This is also... Goodbye Alex Day.
Yes folks, this day 20 years ago Alex Seropian announced he was leaving Bungie after founding the company 11 years earlier.
But that's a story for another day.
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So on Friday Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation, completed the acquisition of 100% of the shares of Bungie, Inc.
Sony started this process back in January but it takes time to count that many shares. You do have shares... right?
In Bungie parlance this whole process is called... BLAM "Your mom!" DINK.
So what does all this mean? More Marathon games or at the very least the long awaited Marathon Infinity: The Director's Cut? You see Marathon is... "Big In Japan" .
Japan had the very first Marathon Vidmaster, the one and only Michio Hashimoto (aka Miha) and his side kick... Tomoaki Deguchi (aka DEGU).
DEGUThanks to Miha Japan has the very first certified copy of Marathon 2: Durandal. Worth millions now.
The Japanese version of the Marathon's Story page has already started canvassing Sony Group Corporation in Japan to port the Marathon Trilogy to PlayStation.
Time to brush up on your Japanese perhaps?
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" QUITE A LOOSE OPERATION "
Marathon Infinity Demo. Ne Cede Malis. August 10, 1996.When Greg Kirkpatrick assembled the Double Aught team to take on Infinity which team member was found... "beneath a pile of Mentos wrappers under the Brooklyn Bridge" ? Choose the correct one. (5 marks)
1. Randy Reddig
2. David Longo
3. Colin Kawakami
Related links.Marathon Infinity Demo terminal text (and how it helps to explain what happens in Marathon Infinity).
Double Aught's mental bohemian construction (and how it helps to explain what happens in Marathon Infinity).
Marathon Infinity manual (and how it helps to explain what happens in Marathon Infinity).
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Jeoku continues his in-depth playthrough of the Marathon Trilogy on his YouTube Channel. The second video in the series talks about how to play Marathon today and covers the following:
The Various Versions of Marathon
About Aleph One
Difficulty Settings
What is a Vidmaster?
How do You Cheat in Marathon?
Aleph One Plugins
Worth a watch.
Related links:
Marathon Scrapbook
Marathon Beta SF Jan'94 walkthrough
Marathon Zero, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Blamma
Electronic Entertainment December 1994 Marathon beta sneak peek
A Guide to Vid_Mastery
Marathon Vidmasters' page
The Marathon Vidmaster Challenge
Vidmaster FAQ
Marathon Cheat Codes
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"Beware of Low-Flying Kitchen Appliances."
Bungie Comic. February 25, 2003.Back in July 2002 Bungie began a comic strip featuring Bungie employees and the characters from their games. One of these comics featured Greg Kirkpatrick. I have added this to the Blasts from the Past section. Because all these moments will be lost in time.
Hey! A Bungie Comic?
Related links.Mac Hall's "Web Bastard" webcomic.
Mac Hall's "Things That Hoot" webcomic.
The Origin of the Jjaro Boxers. A Mac Hall webcomic.
Michio Hashimoto's The Marathon Comic.
Hey! What about Penny Arcade?
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Well this made me chuckle.
Posted by taffer_78 on Marathon Discord.
And of course we all know how this ends.If you are new to Marathon then go here for an explanation.
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"The horror, the horror."
Colonel Walter E. Kurtz. Apocalypse Now. August 15, 1979.Which Marathon game did Bungie describe as having "a futuristic story line that will make your head spin and your soul freeze with horror." Choose the correct one. (5 marks)
1. Marathon
2. Marathon 2: Durandal
3. Marathon Infinity
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Happy Bungie Day.
Contrary to what you read online these days Bungie Day actually dates back as far as July 7, 2000.
Max Hoberman (aka yeron) entered it into the Bungie Events calendar as Fri, July 7th 2000 7:07 AM CST proclaiming Happy Bungie Day!. 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.
For July 7, 2001 Matt Soell (aka Proud Flesh) wrote on the bungie.net news page:
Have a Happy - but Safe - Bungie Day! | Proud FleshAs I'm sure you're all aware, July 7 is traditionally celebrated around the world as Bungie Day. We encourage you to have as much fun as possible - but because we are always concerned for our fans, we offer the following guidelines on partying responsibly:
- If you are cooking fish, be especially careful, as real fishes might hurt human body. We recommend Soffish as a 100% harmless alternative.
- Leave the pyrotechnics in the hands of experts. Look in the Yellow Pages under Surly Dwarves.
- Pranks involving severed dog's heads break a variety of state and federal laws, and can also annoy your neighbors. Please be considerate.
- We recommend that you avoid "grenade-hopping" displays or contests, especially those on carnival fairways.
- Remember that Mom jokes should always be told in good fun; you should never step "over the line" and provoke anyone to violence. Besides, if you get in a fight with someone, his mom might not like you anymore.
- On Bungie day, be especially kind to friends and acquaintances named Bob. You have 364 other days to pick on them.
- Above all, remember to eat good food (we recommend Lou Malnati's pizza), drink your favorite drinks, and have fun whomping on your friends in your favorite Bungie games.
To mark the 22nd anniversary of Bungie Day we bring you... The origin of Frog Blast The Vent Core (and some other stuff too)
Bob art by Shogoki.
Hey! Is that Joe Staten?
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The top seven pages people are reading. Or... maybe just looking at the pictures.
Why are they reading these pages? Is there a connection? Should you be reading them?
The Origin of the Jjaro Boxers
Marathon 2: Durandal Strategy Guide
The Fourth Terminal on Never Burn Money
Original Level Notes for Marathon
Original Level Notes for Marathon 2
Hangar Ninety Six
The Marathon Art of Craig Mullins
Hey! Where are the Original Level Notes for Marathon Infinity?
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The Marathon 101 Competition... continues:
Q13. At the 1995 San Francisco Macworld Expo, Bungie were out in force selling Marathon after the long delay with the "Box". As a result the Bungie crew all wore name tags with titles such as "Box Production Manager", "Box Quality Manager", "Box Design Manager". Who wore the name tag "Manager of Delays"? Choose the correct one. (5 marks)
1. Alex Seropian
2. Doug Zartman
3. Jason Jones
Bungie Booth.
San Francisco Macworld Expo, January 4-7, 1995
Picture courtesy of Steve Wood who originally
used it with permission from Richard D. Huff.
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Happy Pfhorth of July... Marathon style.
Have a good one.
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Jeoku begins his in-depth playthrough of the Marathon Trilogy on his YouTube Channel. The first video in the series is a brief overview and covers the following:
Marathon Hype
Intro
What is Marathon?
Is Marathon Just Another Doom Clone?
What is the Marathon Symbol?
What are Marathon's Sources of Canon?
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"It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap"
Bruce Springsteen. Born To Run. August 25, 1975.The subject of 'softlocks' in Marathon came up again recently. Back in the day we called them... "suicide traps". They came up quite regularly.
While the definition of 'softlock' can vary the most prevalent is:
A situation where a game remains apparently playable, but further progress is impossible, typically due to a design flaw.The only option is to quit the game and restart a previously saved game. Or in the case of Marathon kill yourself and the game will automatically start from your last saved point. Hence the term "suicide trap". This of course assumes you have a "Weapon of Choice".
The first ever "suicide trap" in Marathon appears on the first level of the Marathon Demo v0.0. It was created by Greg Kirkpatrick. The only problem was you couldn't suicide as you didn't have a "Weapon of Choice". Thankfully Greg fixed it in the final game.
Bungie broke the rules on 'softlocks' or perhaps simply rewrote them. There are at least two areas in Marathon which were designed to 'softlock' the player if they failed to do something correctly.
Time for a "suicide traps" section on the Story page... perhaps?
Go Back to Marathon's Story Home Page
***TRANSPORT WHEN READY***
Page maintained by Hamish Sinclair
Hamish.Sinclair123@gmail.com
Last updated July 31, 2022
