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 2.0?
A: This version works with the real Marathon. Consequently, it does not work with the demo. Bungie changed the file format a bit (I assume they did it only to annoy me! ). If you need to edit files from the demo, use version 1.1.
Q: What's new in version 2.5?
A: Now you can also edit your oxygen level. This should allow you to finish the Sunbathing level more easily. I also added the "Max Everything!!" button, on the assumption that if you are reduced to the level of cheating, you'd want to do it properly :-)
Q: I can't get it to work! How do I use it?
A: Save a game in Marathon and drag it onto the cheater program.
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 have a blue icon that looks 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. One is located in the top room of level 1, just beside the entry to the maze.
Q: What maze?
A: Never mind.
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 was transported to another level, and didn't have the weapons I selected. What gives?
A: You've tried to use this verion of the Cheater with the Marathon Demo. That doesn't work. I haven't found a way to tell the two file formats apart, so you get no warning.
Q: I've finished the game. Now what?
A: Give youself 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: I was using the invisibility/invincibility/night vision/fisheye powerup and all of a sudden it disappeared. What happened?
A: These goodies only last for a limited time. When you turn them with the cheater the time is set to maximum (about nine minutes and six seconds). If you can't get to another saving panel in that time you'll just have to live without them.
Q: Wow, this program is the coolest thing I have ever seen!!!!! It's cooler than Marathon itself!! You are a genius!! Did you do this all by yourself?
A: Actually, no. Sean Howard and Paul Vader found the weapons info, Benjamin Trumbull told me where the health was stored (I actually managed to find the powerups by myself), Paul M. Hoffman wrote the Dragonsmith shell which is used for the drag'n'drop-ness of the Cheater and Jeremy Condit created the icon.
Q: Why is Marathon so slow on my mac? I only bought it six years ago!
A: Tough luck. Buy a PowerMac.
Q: How do I get in touch with you?
A: My e-mail address is eggth@ismennt.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: While I doubt that there will be any more versions of this program (this is the same thing I said after version 1.0), you can always find the latest version on my WWW homepage: http://rvik.ismennt.is/~eggth
Q: Can I get a copy of the source code?
A: No. This was a one 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: 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: Where can I download Marathon from?
A: If you are on the Internet, you can download it from my pirate ftp site. The address is 127.0.0.1, login using your own username and password.
Q: Hey, that didn't work!
A: Of course it didn't! Can't you tell a fake IP address when you see one? And do you think I'd be stupid enough to advertise a pirate ftp site to the world under my own name? Sheesh. (Actually, you'd be amazed at how many people fell for that one :-)
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.
