Marathon Hits iPad Free Of Charge

[Earnest Cavalli]

Marathon Hits iPad Free Of Charge

Before Halo there was Marathon, and thanks to one dedicated fan, you can now play the classic shooter on your Apple iPad free of charge.

By day Daniel Blezek programs software for a medical center. By night Blezek fancies himself a games programmer. Leveraging his affection for Apple's latest gadget and his love for Bungie's Marathon series, Blezek has spent the last year bringing the latter to the former.

If you've spent any amount of time following the gaming industry, you'll know that this scenario isn't all that unique. Talented fans have been recreating and repurposing their favorite games for every manner of technology for years. In this case though, Blezek's efforts have the Bungie seal of approval.

Instead of slapping Blezek down with a cease and desist letter, Bungie is actively promoting the iPad port, going so far as to interview the would-be game developer as part of the company's 20th anniversary festivities [http://www.bungie.net/news/content.aspx?cid=31828].

It should be noted that while the standard version of Marathon is currently sitting in the App Store with a $0 price tag, there is also an updated version available for $4. The standard version is essentially a direct port of the game's 1994 release with an updated, iPad-specific control scheme, while the more expensive iteration features updated aesthetic touches like high-resolution textures.

Whether you shell out cash for the game, or opt for the gratis version, I urge every iPad owner to nab this thing as soon as possible.

Not just because Marathon is wildly underrated compared to id Software's ubiquitous DOOM games, but because publishers need to be sent a message that supporting fan-developed projects is a good use of their intellectual property. Crushing every fan project in sight is a quick way to earn spite from your supporters, and if you have no plans to create a certain project anyway, what harm is there in letting the fans build it themselves?

Corporate politics aside, those of you itching to blast aliens to pieces can now find the gratis iPad Marathon port on the App Store [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/marathon-1/id419805412?mt=8]. Enjoy the carnage.

Source: MTV Multiplayer [http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2011/07/07/bungies-marathon-makes-its-way-to-ipad-and-its-free/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MultiplayerBlog+%28Multiplayer+Blog%29]

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[repeating integers]

God dammit, if only I had an iPad.

 

[Rad Party God]

See Sega and Nintendo?, this is how it's done.

 

[Wuffykins]

I'm not surprised Bungie's cool with it, as the open source recreation of the game engine (called Aleph One if I recall) is one of the only projects I've seen that links directly to download the needed game data (where as most engine recreations kindly ask you to "procure" any potentially copyrighted data by yourself). Where I am curious is if the author worked on porting that to iOS or wrote something up by himself, as he doesn't particularly seem clear on that point.

Still, this is cool. Not going to be getting myself an iPad any time soon, but the knowledge of this option is still kinda cool

 

[Sean Strife]

That is pretty cool of Bungie to fully support the fan port of one of their games, and I wish more companies would follow suit... I'm looking at you in particular, Sega. Namely when it comes to your Sonic projects, since your fans are CLEARLY doing a better job making Sonic games than you guys are.

 

[Irridium]

Another thing that was before Halo was ONI. I'd love to see that go open source. Or at least appear on GoG.

Though Take Two has the publishing rights to that game... shame.

As for this, awesomesauce. They're also making Marathon 3 open source.

 

[Realitycrash]

Another thing that was before Halo was ONI. I'd love to see that go open source. Or at least appear on GoG.

Same. I loved Oni, and I loved Marathon even more. I love that more people get to play Marathon now, and share the a w e s o m e story.

Btw, the reason Marathon is "underrated" is that it was made for Mac, then ported to PC. More people got to play DOOM because simply more people owned a PC (what, nine to one in favor of PC? Maybe a bit less back then).

 

[Earnest Cavalli]

Another thing that was before Halo was ONI. I'd love to see that go open source. Or at least appear on GoG.

Same. I loved Oni, and I loved Marathon even more. I love that more people get to play Marathon now, and share the a w e s o m e story.

Btw, the reason Marathon is "underrated" is that it was made for Mac, then ported to PC. More people got to play DOOM because simply more people owned a PC (what, nine to one in favor of PC? Maybe a bit less back then).

You both have excellent taste. I'm glad to have you in my comments section.

 

[Neverhoodian]

God dammit, if only I had an iPad.

You can download all three Marathon titles for free on the PC as well:

http://marathon.sourceforge.net/

This project was also given Bungie's blessing, so it's perfectly legal.

It's nice to see continued interest in an old classic like this.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Only one thing to say: FROG BLAST THE VENT CORE!

 

[BlackWidower]

Why the iPad? Why not a platform I actually own?

 

[Mr. Gency]

Screw not having an iPad, I'm downloading it anyway!

 

[TimeLord]

Yay for my iPad! It feels complete now. Or it would do more so with an Oni port.

 

[Narcogen]

Another thing that was before Halo was ONI. I'd love to see that go open source. Or at least appear on GoG.

Though I think 2K has the publishing rights to that game... shame.

Close. Take Two. They own Oni and Myth rights.

 

[Merlark]

Sigh, another example of the ipad and other mobile devices taking what would be a good game and forcing people to play it wrong. Just cause you CAN port an old PC/Mac games to a mobile device. Does not mean you should. the interface is bad, its a super pain, you can't aim and shoot at the same time, buttons are placed in uncomfortable positions.

Granted its free, but marathon was meant for a mouse and keyboard. How we play a game is equally as important as what game we are playing. Analog stick accessory's are a must, but even then your hands are going to get sore, forcing you to lay it on a table and hunch over it.

Shooters just don't belong on the Ipad. The all mighty analog stick and buttons are in no danger of becoming extinct thanks to the touch pad.

 

[Rad Party God]

Another thing that was before Halo was ONI. I'd love to see that go open source. Or at least appear on GoG.

Same. I loved Oni, and I loved Marathon even more. I love that more people get to play Marathon now, and share the a w e s o m e story.

Btw, the reason Marathon is "underrated" is that it was made for Mac, then ported to PC. More people got to play DOOM because simply more people owned a PC (what, nine to one in favor of PC? Maybe a bit less back then).

You both have excellent taste. I'm glad to have you in my comments section.

About Oni...
I don't know why that game got a lot of love. Yeah, I mean, it was a pretty good game that was clearly inspired by Ghost in the Shell and you could even see some early concepts and ideas that were used later in Halo, but damn, I really, really hated the loading times that game had, especially in the last few levels as it get a lot much harder. Also, the story made absolutely no sense. And yet, I'd like to replay that game someday =)

 

[repeating integers]

God dammit, if only I had an iPad.

You can download all three Marathon titles for free on the PC as well:

http://marathon.sourceforge.net/

This project was also given Bungie's blessing, so it's perfectly legal.

It's nice to see continued interest in an old classic like this.

Imma need some help with that: It's telling me to copy several files into the game's "data folder". I can't find a "data folder" anywhere.

 

[Irridium]

Another thing that was before Halo was ONI. I'd love to see that go open source. Or at least appear on GoG.

Same. I loved Oni, and I loved Marathon even more. I love that more people get to play Marathon now, and share the a w e s o m e story.

Btw, the reason Marathon is "underrated" is that it was made for Mac, then ported to PC. More people got to play DOOM because simply more people owned a PC (what, nine to one in favor of PC? Maybe a bit less back then).

You both have excellent taste. I'm glad to have you in my comments section.

About Oni...
I don't know why that game got a lot of love. Yeah, I mean, it was a pretty good game that was clearly inspired by Ghost in the Shell and you could even see some early concepts and ideas that were used later in Halo, but damn, I really, really hated the loading times that game had, especially in the last few levels as it get a lot much harder. Also, the story made absolutely no sense. And yet, I'd like to replay that game someday =)

I loved it because it blended third-person shooting with really nice fighting mechanics. It's funny, lots of third-person games are trying to make close-combat "visceral" and "intense", and yet even after all these years, ONI still trumps them all.

 

[NLS]

Why the iPad? Why not a platform I actually own?

Aleph One is open source, so it will run the Marathon games for just about any device you own (as long as there is a port for whatever your system is).

 

[Neverhoodian]

Imma need some help with that: It's telling me to copy several files into the game's "data folder". I can't find a "data folder" anywhere.

It's actually not as confusing as they make it sound. The "data files" simply refers to the various files and folders withing the "M1A1" directory. All you have to do is open the AlephOne folder and extract all of its contents into M1A1 (make sure to merge/override when prompted). Then open "AlephOne" (it will have the Marathon logo) and you're good to go.