The Marathon Vidmaster Challenge was posed by Jason Jones (Bungie Software) on comp.sys.mac.games
and alt.games.marathon in January 1995. In a post with the subject line
"the marathon vidmaster challenge..." Jason wrote:
Prior to July 1996 Michio Hashimoto (aka Miha) came the closest to completing
all 27 Marathon solo levels Vidmaster style. However six Marathon
levels remained unvidmastered. These were:
Both Cool Fusion and Ingue Ferroque
require that you start out with a weapon that
can activate unreachable switches. Because of this drawback Tim Seufert created the
Marathon Vidmaster Challenge Physics Model.
Tim wrote on comp.sys.mac.games in early February '95:
Sadly there is little film evidence to indicate that anybody ever used the
Marathon Vidmaster Challenge Physics Model.
Even with Tim's Physics Model Cool Fusion and
Ingue Ferroque are no pushovers.
Who in their right mind would want to Vid Colony Ship For Sale, Cheap? While not exactly the
most difficult of levels it can be the most frustrating from the point of view of
raising the seven pillars correctly. Most people will have bad memories of this
level - why relive them?
Two things make Habe Quiddam and Unpfhorgiven
very difficult to Vid - narrow passage ways and Wasps.
A combination that is potential lethal. Eupfhoria just
adds to this by including Hunters at the start. Now see if you can
get to the rocket launcher Vid Boi!
On October 24th,1996 Jim Mitchell (aka young gun) completed the Marathon Vidmaster
Challenge.
"I challenge anyone who thinks they rule at Marathon to complete all of
the game's levels on Total Carnage starting with only the pistol and
x1 health (via Command-Option Begin Game). Upload your replays!"
There may be good reasons for this.
"The Marathon Vidmaster Challenge is cool. But there are some levels you
can't play, because you need to use a grenade or fusion blast to flip
switches. To get around this problem, I just created a physics model that
implements only one change: pistol bullets are given the ability to toggle
switches. This should not affect game balance in any way, shape, or form,
so all Vidmasters out there will now be able to test their skills on any
level at all."
But wait that's not all... there is also Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon Infinity with levels such as Sorry Don't Make It So and Acme Station that will have you Begging for Mercy. Go on: