Before the likes of Halo: Combat Evolved and Destiny, Bungie created the FPS series Marathon which nowadays lives on as an open source project called Aleph One and now it's available on Steam.
Only the first one has been released on Steam so far as Classic Marathon with the other two also planned. Currently, the Steam release of Marathon only has versions for macOS and Windows, but I've confirmed it does seem to run quite nicely with Proton 9.0.
Pictured - Classic Marathon on Steam, running on Linux with Proton.
From the Steam page:
Alien forces have boarded the colony ship UESC Marathon in the Tau Ceti system, in orbit around humanity’s first interstellar colony. The situation is dire, and as a security officer assigned to the Marathon, your duty is to defend the ship and its crew from the alien threat.
This classic 1994 Bungie™ FPS had a foundational influence on the genre, and is now maintained by the fan community. Experience authentic game play using the original data files, with optional widescreen HUD support, 3D filtering/perspective, positional audio, and 60+ fps interpolation, just in case the original is too authentic.
When the game released originally in 1994 it was only available for the Apple Macintosh, and later Bungie opened up the source code of the Marathon 2 engine in 1999 with the game assets being made freeware in 2005. Which made all this possible. To be clear, the Steam release is not from Bungie, but from the Aleph One team.
A good bit of gaming history there. Nowhere near the level on the likes of DOOM of course but perhaps you'll have some fun with it. The Aleph One game engine does have a good few community-made games that you might want to check out too. Who knows, maybe the Steam release will give it a whole new life.
Check it out on Steam. It's free. See the official website for more along with the Linux version available there.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
williamjcm May 10
QuoteNoway near the level on the likes of DOOM of course but perhaps you'll have some fun with it.
Doom is good, but IMO, the Marathon trilogy is a one-of-a-kind experience. Hell, out of all the boomer shooters that released in the last decade, I haven't seen a lot of them take after Marathon, which is a damn shame.
I wonder if Luxtorpeda will eventually add support for the native open source engine.
Quoting: WYWI first found out about this game when reading about the history of Bungie and the Apple Pippin video game console.I poked the developer, they're looking into it.
I wonder if Luxtorpeda will eventually add support for the native open source engine.
Quoting: pbI remember reading about it in a magazine and wondering why would anyone make a fps game exclusively for Macintosh. Oh well, I had an Amiga back then and I was busy playing Gloom and Breathless, lol. And some Citadel, too!
I loved gloom. did you play alien breed 3d that needs a rerelease. but the level design was excellent. could do with a resolution boost though
Quoting: ImFromMostonQuoting: pbI remember reading about it in a magazine and wondering why would anyone make a fps game exclusively for Macintosh. Oh well, I had an Amiga back then and I was busy playing Gloom and Breathless, lol. And some Citadel, too!
I loved gloom. did you play alien breed 3d that needs a rerelease. the level design was excellent. could do with a resolution boost though
Last edited by pb on 10 May 2024 at 7:48 pm UTC
Quoting: Liam DaweQuoting: WYWI first found out about this game when reading about the history of Bungie and the Apple Pippin video game console.I poked the developer, they're looking into it.
I wonder if Luxtorpeda will eventually add support for the native open source engine.
Not ready yet, but it's brewing. ;-)
https://github.com/luxtorpeda-dev/packages/tree/master/engines/alephone
[edit] works now!
Last edited by pb on 10 May 2024 at 8:08 pm UTC
Quoting: pbI did play Alien Breed 3D and II, but tbh I liked Breathless the most. ;-) It had the best (cleanest) graphics, which of course came at the cost of system requirements, luckily I had a 68040 expansion.
Breathless really was impressive looking. lucky sod
I only had a stock 1200. so it struggled quite a bit. There where some ambitious fps games on amiga such as genetic species which I also dreamed of playing
StoneColdSpider May 10
The Marathon sequels though... Fantastic games. :D
Quoting: StoneColdSpiderIt might be a Marathon....... But is it a Racer???.......Now I'm snickering.
Anyway, good to see the Marathon series being kept in circulation!
Quoting: WYWI wonder if Luxtorpeda will eventually add support for the native open source engine.
https://old.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1cpg2nb/classic_marathon_added_to_steam_and_luxtorpeda/
;-)
Quoting: PenglingYou two. Always raising the bar, humour-wise.Quoting: StoneColdSpiderIt might be a Marathon....... But is it a Racer???.......Now I'm snickering.
Quoting: Purple Library GuyYou two. Always raising the bar, humour-wise.HAHAHAHAHA! I see what you did there!
Alas, I have nothing else to add - I think we've run this joke into the ground.
StoneColdSpider May 11
Quoting: Purple Library GuyWould you like us to keep the story going???......Quoting: PenglingYou two. Always raising the bar, humour-wise.Quoting: StoneColdSpiderIt might be a Marathon....... But is it a Racer???.......Now I'm snickering.
Quoting: ImFromMostonQuoting: pbI remember reading about it in a magazine and wondering why would anyone make a fps game exclusively for Macintosh. Oh well, I had an Amiga back then and I was busy playing Gloom and Breathless, lol. And some Citadel, too!
I loved gloom. did you play alien breed 3d that needs a rerelease. but the level design was excellent. could do with a resolution boost though
https://arcturusdeluxe.itch.io/project-osiris
There you go. Also Gloom has a source port called ZGloom.
https://github.com/Swizpig/ZGloom
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