Bungie's Marathon Infinity on Linux

Derek Moeller writes "Remember those late nights playing through Bungie's Marathon series? It looks as if right before Microsoft acquired one of the top gaming companies of the time, Bungie shot off an escape module in the form of the Marathon source, under the full GPL. Now, with the help of Christian Bauer and the SDL libraries, it is running with full OpenGL beauty under Linux! Play Bungie's extensive classic game under our favorite operating system--check out the screenshots here. Mark one up for great 3D gaming on Linux. Download the binary, or grab the source."

Amen. But...

I don't know about anyone else, but I have spent more sleepless nights playing nethack then any other 3d rendered, first person shooter
Heh, me too. What a great game that is. I still haven't ascended (not even when i cheat!), but I'm working on it.

You're definitely right that NetHack is an example of OSS succeeding. On the other hand... Diablo seems to be much more popular, even though it's basically "shiny nethack" with animations and such, and even though Nethack is free. I'm not sure I could enjoy Diablo nearly as much as I enjoy NetHack, but that's just me. Now, why is Diablo more popular? I'm not sure. Maye it's that it's simpler; some people I try to introduce to nethack complain that they have to learn too many keys (uh...). Maybe it's the graphics; I geuss text mode or tile mode just isn't enough for the average short attention span. Maybe it's the advertising campaign. But do you think it's possible that whatever it is, it's a result of the big company behind the game?

I'm honestly not sure. I personally think that Nethack is a lot better than may other games out there. But it's clearly not as popular.

PS: yeah, "popular" is defined loosely here. sorry.

-J

Favorite OS?

under our favorite operating system

Palm OS ports?! Where? Excellent, lead me to 'em!

</sarcasm>

-J

Data Files

The RPM posted won't work without this RPM:
[sourceforge.net]
http://download.sourceforge.net/marathon/AlephOne- minf-demo-1.0-1.noarch.rpm

Geez I am Karma Whore.

--ALex the FIshman

One word: Nethack

Diablo, Planescape, those "Whatever his name is" Gate games are all nothing but cute graphical interfaces to a tiny subset of Nethack's gamely. The gameplay is the ONLY thing. Yes, the interface is ASCII, but it's still around, still being enhanced and still more complex and detailed than any of the pretenders with glitz and glamor.

Nethack is proof positive that Open Source workes for the game core. Sadly, the same has yet to be proven true for graphics and 3D engines.....

Besides, you gotta love a game with instructions written by Eric S. Raymond. [nethack.org]

http://www.nethack.org/ [nethack.org]

http://www.matthewmiller.net [matthewmiller.net]

The games you mention are GPL'd

Long after Descent and Quake have been forgotten, Marathon will live on via its source code.

Except a quick Google search tells me that Quake is released under GNU GPL [idsoftware.com] and so are Descent [descent2.com], Descent 2 [descent2.com], and a Tetris clone that gives you motion sickness like Descent [8m.com]. But the mission pack in many games (required for the game to run) is written by artists and level designers and is not GPL'd. This is why open source is thought not to be able to produce professional quality games: how do the artists and level designers eat?

Like Tetris? Like drugs? Ever try combining them? [pineight.com]

The story in Bungie's Marathon + more cool stuff

The thing I used to love about these games was the depth and quality of the story that you pieced together as you played the game. It really felt like it was worth playing on, something that can't be said for today's crop of blast-em-ups.

For more on the story in the Marathon games, look here [bungie.org].

On a vaguely-related matter, have a look at this [bovinia.net]... some lunatic is porting Bungie's Marathon to the HalfLife engine! Now if only I had that sort of free time... I might get that Linux MIDI sequencer finished... :-)

Screenshots and mirror site (tar.gz/rpm/zip)

You can also get Aleph One from the Author's mainsite [uni-mainz.de]. There are some screenshots there as well. Also included are datafiles that are necessary to get the game running.

Enjoy

A noble goal.

All though the mission of Aleph One is a noble one, I find that it is slightly misguided. Sure, Marathon IS a great game, but the engine does have limitations.

The 2D format in which levels are designed is very limiting. Bridges ARE impossible (believe me, I've tried). Personally I think that the Marathon: Resurrection [bungie.org] project will have a more fruitful outcome.

As a former member of the M:R team (I hate you, school) I've seen the goods, and Aleph One, though exciting, pales in comparison.

I love Marathon as much as the next Bugie acoly.. erm fan, but at some point, it needs to become clear that the engine does have its limitations.

Hopefully we can port the content of Marathon to HALO (without getting sued) when it launches.

GPL games don't really make sense

Ok this is my first post to slashdot. Be tender, be gentle, be rough.

Games just don't fit in with the open development, because their whole appeal is suprise. How interested would you have been in the plot of American Pie if everyone had sat around for 6 months discussing how it should end. The key point of entertainment is to be original. GPL is about taking someone elses ideas and improving them. No one would watch Armageddon again just to see the really cool new ending someone thought up. (Guess I forgot Meteor, or was it Asteroid) The point is that games, like all forms of entertainment are about creative flashes. Their not about a plot that everyone knows five weeks in advance. Unfounded rumors are part of the excitement about a new game.

I'm not against the GPL as far as the core game engine goes. A GPLed game engine with encryption for the data sets would be a great thing because it would allow for game programmers to build their games in secret, hiding those cool little easter eggs. A few people might hack the data sets, but it would stop the vast majority from having the plots, levels, secret codes, etc. from being spoiled for them.

IIRC:

Bungie merely GPL'd the game engine. They still retain the copyrights to all game art, content, yadda yadda yadda. I think to legally play the full version of Marathon, you have to actually own a copy of the game.

I believe it works like Quake does; you pull the content files off your CD and dump them in a relevent directory. Do Bungie a favor and plop down the fifteen bucks it costs to get Marathon.. let 'em know we still love the game. :)

AlephOne is tres cool. They've completely updated the engine, and have been hacking at it for over a year now.. the source was released last January. I believe they distribute "demo" data files, so you can still play the game while not owning a full copy.

I'd verify the info, if b.org wasn't already hosed beyond accessibility. ;)

Bungie no longer owns Oni...

Ok...to clarify a few points in your post:

1. Bungie no longer owns Oni. Oni is owned by Take 2/GoD. This was part of the deal of the MS buyout. In exchange for Take 2's shares of Bungie, they got Oni and the Myth games. Take 2 is currently developing Myth 3.

2. Microsoft bought Bungie because they (MS) needed a killer app for the xBox when it comes out. That killer app is Halo, which IMNSHO will be one of the best games ever created, and will probably ship with the xBox. However, it will be followed later by the Mac/PC version(after the initial xBox sales)...sorry, a linux version if HIGHLY unlikely to come out of MS. :(

BTW, the opening of the source of Marathon 2 is pretty old news, but still very good news. The aptly named Aleph One project is awesome and doing a great job keeping the Marathon universe alive. Here's a few sites of interest:

Marathon.bungie.org [bungie.org] - Tons of Marathon info including links to the story page, the Aleph One project, and many many user created maps and scenarios.

HBO [bungie.org] - Lots of Halo information. This game is going to ROCK!!!

Rampancy.net [rampancy.net] - A Bungie community site that primarily focuses on Halo but covers all things Bungie.

Hope this info is useful to some of you. :) I hold Bungie in very high esteem because they have always made quality games with excellent plots (well, since PiD at least...)

out.

Can games really work under the GPL?

This is something I really doubt. Games require a lot more than just a bunch of raggle taggle coders these days - they need graphics artists, musicians, actors. It is akin to a Hollywood production. The OSS model may be good for the core code of the game - the 3D engine and such (even then I am not sure, there are not any OSS 3D engines to rivals Id's latest work) - but it cannot compete when it comse to the actual gameplay, and all the elements of a game that impress themselves on peoples minds whilst playing them. The atmosphere of the game, if you will, is not produced by programmers, but by artists and designers, who are ignorant of the OSS philosophy and unlikely to contribute to it.

Games under OSS will never rival the commercial offerings.

In addition, why is the editorial on this topic so biased? 'Escape module'? This leads me to suspect that the AC's who flame the editors may be right after all. I find it very disappointing. One would not find that phrase in a professional publication. I suspect the integrity of the editors, when their words appear a few centimetres below an ad for Red Hat.

You know exactly what to do-
Your kiss, your fingers on my thigh-

This is a must grab

I remember playing Marathon 1 and 2 in an all Mac computer lab in the early 90s. I still prefer some things about it to any of th new shooters.

#1)It actually had a plot. And not only did it have a plot, it ws one worthy of a great SF novel. Also unlike the Highlander series the followups to the first one actually built apon the plot instead of going off in an alien direction.

#2)When you emptied your clip, you had to reload which took a bit of time depending on what you were firing. Not too common in the FPS of today. Also reloading the rocket launcher took longer than reloading a pistol.

#3)This is the first FPS I ever saw that seemed to realize hey 2 hands means that I can hold two pistols... or for that matter two combat shotguns, a personal favorite.

#4)The Marathon Infinity (not Open GL of course) would run on a 40 Mhz 68040 and not suck.

#5)The audio system was awesome for it's time, the closer you were to water the louder it was. There were many things that were like this. Also incorporated into the game was stereo panning of sound.

#6)First FPS I ever saw to do 16 bit color.

#7)It also had many other the type of things for multiplayer that Quake II needed a lithium server for. Example ring of shadows, invicibility, etc.

All in all I am glad to see a resurgence in it. Was a great game and am very much looking into dl and compiling it on the various linux boxen I have.