Bungie's first big hit, Marathon, is now free on Steam thanks to a fan revival that has Bungie's blessing

therealjcdenton, 13 days ago

Let me guess, bungie also blocked this from being used on the steam deck

woelkchen, 13 days ago

Let me guess, bungie also blocked this from being used on the steam deck

Bungie blocked nothing. They aren’t involved with the Steam release. The Marathon games were released as freeware ages ago and the engine under an open source license as well. The Steam release is by the open source community that maintains a continuation of the engine.

massive_bereavement, 13 days ago

This is a game that has an amazingly over-developed lore and some truly crazy, House of Leaves-style level design.

Hux, 13 days ago

I loved these games back in the day.

My memory might be a bit fuzzy, but I seem to recall an old Easter egg or mod or something that allowed you to fire NPCs out of an RPG—it was about the funniest thing I had experienced in a video game up to that point.

psvrh, 13 days ago

I don’t recall this exactly, but I do remember:

• Rocket-jumping, where you can point the rocket-launcher at your feet and, if you survive the back-splash, get places you normally couldn’t
• The exploding BOBs could be backsplashed to places (“Frog blast the vent core!”) to amusing effect.

some_guy, 13 days ago

Back when Bungie made Mac games only. A friend was super into this. I played a bit, but only a handful of games really appeal to me. Still, stuff like this warms my heart.

bjoern_tantau, 13 days ago

Because of the Mac focus I really had a sliver of hope that Halo might get a Linux release. Or that the Windows release might at least be playable via Wine. Then they got bought by Microsoft.

psvrh, 13 days ago

Marathon, via Aleph One, has been free for at least a two decades at this point, hasn’t it? Bungie open sourced it before 2000 and Aleph has been a thing since at least 2004, I think.

Also, wow I’m old…

CaptObvious, 13 days ago

I think that’s the point of the article. Bungie arranged to use Aleph One’s code for the free Steam version. It’s just another avenue to introduce the game to new players.

psvrh, 13 days ago

Ah, got it. I was confused because Aleph has been a thing for a very long time. I didn’t click that it was “…on Steam” that’s the important part.

I loved Marathon back in the day; played the hell out of it on an LC475, and it was a key reason why a) I stuck with Macs in my post-Amiga era, b) made me a fan of Bungie in general, c) broke my heart when Halo became an XBox exclusive, and c) resulted in my buying an XBox anyway because Halo is/was basically Marathon 4.

CaptObvious, 12 days ago

I didn’t play Marathon when it was first released due to life making other demands. But I’ve enjoyed it immensely in the last several years. Old school is my thing, it seems. :)

woelkchen, 13 days ago

Bungie arranged to use Aleph One’s code for the free Steam version.

Bungie isn’t even listed on the Steam page as developer or publisher. I don’t think Bungie arranged anything here. They just promoted the release via a tweet.

CaptObvious, 12 days ago

Sorry if I have that wrong. I’m not on Steam. That was the gist of one of the articles.