Here are the most frequently asked questions about the Marathon Cheater (slightly paraphrased for your reading enjoyment):
Q: What does this program do?
A: It allows you to edit saved games from Marathon. You can add to your health, give yourself incredible powers and increase your arsenal of weapons.
Q: What's new in version 4.0?
A: This version works with Marathon II:Durandal. I've also works with all the previous versions of Marathon (Marathon, Marathon Demo, Marathon II Demo and the Marathon II Sneak Preview).
I have also modularized it, so that people can add cheat definitions for new versions of Marathon, if they can't wait for me to release a new version of the Cheater. (Finding out how to do it is left as an exercise for the reader :-)
Q: I can't get it to work! How do I use it?
A: Save a game in Marathon or Marathon II and drag it onto the cheater program. Make sure that the version of Marathon you are using is selected in the "Version" popup menu.
Q: I tried opening a saved file and the program said it wasn't the correct type of file. What am I doing wrong?
A: Does the file icon look like a strip of film? If so, it is a movie file, not a saved game.
Q: Oh, so how do I save games?
A: You must activate a "Save game" panel (also known as pattern buffers) in the walls of Marathon.
Q: OK, I managed to open a game file and get the editing dialog box. What is all this stuff?
A: Find out for yourself. Turn them on one at a time, open the game in Marathon and see what has changed.
Q: When I opened an edited game in Marathon, I got wrong weapons, was teleported to another level, Marathon crashed etc. What gives?
A: You are either using the Cheater with a file from an unsupported version of Marathon or have selected the wrong file type from the "Version" popup menu.
Q: I've finished the game. Now what?
A: Give yourself a lot of missiles and invincibility and try going through the game again using missiles only. When you've done that, give yourself a lot of health and do it all over again using only your fists.
Q: I've finished the whole game twice on "Total Carnage" using only my fists. What now?
A: Go for a walk. Sit in the grass and smell the flowers (or sit in the snow and suck on an icicle, depending on the season). Talk to real people and try to resist the urge to bash them with a running punch.
Q: How do I get in touch with you?
A: My e-mail address is eggi@itn.is. Or, if you really want to, send me a postcard. My address is:
Eggert Thorlacius
Sudurgata 16
101 Reykjavik
Iceland
Q: I've heard that there is a new version available, but I can't find it anywhere. Could you send me a copy?
A: You can always find the latest version on my WWW homepage: http://itn.is/~eggi, or from your local Info-Mac mirror.
Q: Why don't you answer my e-mail? I sent you thirteen messages today!
A: Relax, I'll answer it as soon as I can (unless you are begging me to send you a copy of Marathon or asking for serial numbers, in which case I won't).
Q: Can I get a copy of the source code?
A: No. This was a one (alright, two) night hack, and the code is so ugly, I don't want to look at it myself. And besides, all the comments (what little there are) are in Icelandic.
Q: Is this program shareware or what?
A: It's freeware. You don't have to pay anything. You can distribute it in any way, but you must include this file with it! When I released the first version, someone actually bothered to download it, remove the ReadMe file and reupload it to the net. Why he did this is beyond me, but since then I have been pestered with stupid questions, most of which were answered in the ReadMe. I would like to avoid that this time, so please remember to include this file when you give a copy of Marathon Cheater to your friends.
Q: I'd like to put your program on a CD-ROM, distribute it with my magazine etc. Is it OK with you?
A: Sure, but I'd appreciate it if you'd send me a copy so I can impress my friends with my international fame :-)
Q: Help! I'm stuck on level X, I can't find the Y I need to kill the Z! What do I do?
A: I don't know! Why is it that everyone asks me what to do when they get stuck? I'm just as bad at this as you are!
Q: Why do the shotgun shells show up twice in the ammo list? Where is the ammo for the alien gun? And why does Marathon say I have pirated Copeland betas in my ammo list?
A: Since there is no way to get clips of Alien Weapon ammo without cheating, Bungie didn't give them a real name. In Marathon, they are called "Pirated Copland Beta", but in Marathon II they are called "Shotgun Shells" (this is probably a devious plot to confuse innocent cheaters).
Q: Where can I download demos of "Marathon and "Marathon 2: Durandal"?
A: You can get them from the Bungie Web site http://www.bungie.com or from the Arizona Mac Users Group ftp site ftp://ftp.amug.org/pub/contrib/marathon
Q: There is a nasty bug in your program. How can you be so unforgivingly sloppy?
A: Whoops, sorry. Send me a bug report, and maybe I'll fix it.
The small print: I take no responsibility for any damage to software, hardware, disks, the ozone layer or your mental health that this program will undoubtedly make. Use it at your own risk.
