After the Aleph One developer community released the first in the trilogy of Marathon on Steam, originally created by Bungie, they've now put up Classic Marathon 2.
As a reminder: the Marathon series was created by Bungie (Halo / Destiny) originally back in the 90s for Apple computers. Later Bungie opened up the source code of the Marathon 2 engine in 1999 with the game assets being made freeware in 2005. Now all three games are available via Aleph One, the open source continuation of Bungie's Marathon.
Pictured: Classic Marathon 2 running with Proton 9
About Classic Marathon 2:
Fresh from your triumph on the colony ship Marathon, you are seized by the rogue AI Durandal to do his bidding in a distant part of the galaxy. Within the ruins of an ancient civilization, you must seek the remnants of a lost clan and uncover their long-buried secrets. Battle opponents ancient and terrible, with sophisticated weapons and devious strategies, all the while struggling to escape the alien nightmare…
This classic 1995 Bungie™ FPS 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.
For the Steam release of Classic Marathon 2, they are once again only providing macOS and Windows builds. So you can either play it via Proton on Steam, use Luxtorpeda for the Native Linux release from Steam or just download Aleph One directly.
The Steam version though does have the free XBLA Graphics Pack DLC, which is a "Replacement textures from the XBLA game Marathon: Durandal by Freeverse".
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
williamjcm Jul 16
Anyway, time to wait until Infinity drops so I can replay the whole trilogy.
Quoting: williamjcmOh, it even has the XBLA graphics via a free DLC.It occurs to me that a lot of what we say these days is really ephemeral. Like, we say things that make sense now, but didn't make sense like ten years ago and will more or less stop making sense except to retro enthusiasts in ten years time. In the year 1300, if you said something it probably made sense a thousand years previously, certainly would continue making sense for a few hundred years, and may well still make sense now.
TruckStopSantaClaus Jul 17
It's unfortunate that Microsoft bought Bungie and discontinued Halo development for Mac, which could have helped with Linux port of Halo. At least Halo runs quite well in wine, although I've heard subsequent versions Halo 2 and beyond cannot be run in wine or even run properly in MS Windows, only in Xbox.
Quoting: zkarjIt's unfortunate that Microsoft bought Bungie and discontinued Halo development for Mac, which could have helped with Linux port of Halo. At least Halo runs quite well in wine, although I've heard subsequent versions Halo 2 and beyond cannot be run in wine or even run properly in MS Windows, only in Xbox.
You could try xemu.
Last edited by Technopeasant on 19 July 2024 at 2:57 am UTC
JolteonShapeshifter Jul 19
Quoting: zkarjI'd finished all the trilogy. You can download and build from source and download the game data since they are now free. No need to wait for Steam.After a long time they eventually did release Halo 3 onwards (and the Halo CE and 2 Remasters) via the Master Chief Collection on PC (which is all Halo games except the Halo Wars series and Halo 5 onwards with lots of enhancements, added content and bundled together), which got a steam release and does run really well under Proton. With stuff like optional anti-cheat (to allow modding or if you would rather avoid it on your machine) and anti cheat support for proton (for official matchmade multiplayer). Mods and whatnot all work.
It's unfortunate that Microsoft bought Bungie and discontinued Halo development for Mac, which could have helped with Linux port of Halo. At least Halo runs quite well in wine, although I've heard subsequent versions Halo 2 and beyond cannot be run in wine or even run properly in MS Windows, only in Xbox.
Halo Infinite got a PC version and also does work with Proton, and has a steam release.
Currently the only Halo game to not have some form of PC port is Halo 5, (excluding a windows store stripped down free version that's supposed to give the level editor, game engine like features for more advanced editing than what would of been possible with a controller and a way to play custom games).
Halo Wars 2 does have a PC port but was stuck behind the Microsoft Store as both games came out in that awkward period of Microsoft starting to release games on pc.
williamjcm Jul 22
Quoting: robvvI'd actually never heard of these games until they appeared on Steam. I think I was playing too much Doom or Quake back in those days!To be honest, the series being effectively Apple-exclusive (before Aleph One became a thing, only Marathon 2 was ever released elsewhere, on Windows and Xbox) kinda had a hand in that.
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