MacWorld 1995 May/Macworld CD-ROM (May 1995).cdr/Demos/Games/Marathon/MARAFA.TXT

Text File | 1994-12-04 | 28.2 KB | 786 lines | [TEXT/CIM ]

Marathon FAQ

Version 1.6, 2nd December 1994


by Aapo Puskala ([e-mail] or [e-mail])

Please send any additional info to me and I will update this FAQ.
Feel free to distribute this anywhere you wish.

NOTE: There are probably many mistakes and inaccuracies in this FAQ.
Please inform me when you notice them - otherwise they might never get
corrected.

What's new since last version (1.0)?

Section with the descriptions of the characters in the game was
improved. Weapons-section and Cheating-section added (now I know how
to start at any level, even the network level). Several minor and major
corrections in many places, such as Bungie's address.
In addition, new bugs have been reported and there is a way to play
Marathon on a 12" screen.



*****
I    What is Marathon?
*****

Marathon is a 3-D first person shoot-them-up type game by Bungie
Software Products Corporation. Its features include (from the DON'T
READ ME file):

- Texture Mapped 3-D, Continuous-Motion Graphics
- Active Panning Stereo Sound
- In-Your-Face Network Carnage
- Digital Soundtrack
- Dynamic Sensing Artificial Intelligence
- Interactive Lighting Effects
- Full screen graphics with 5 Degrees of Freedom
- "Live" Automapping Feature
- High Resolution graphics in 8 or 16 bit color

It requires the following:

- Macintosh 68020 or higher (68040 or faster recommended)
- 8-Bit (256) Color display
- System 6.0.5 or higher
- 3 Meg of free RAM [6 Meg or more recommended]
- Hard Drive
- Networking requires System 7
- 13" or bigger color or gray scale screen


1. The story so far...

From the DON'T READ ME file:

You are a security officer aboard the interstellar colony ship
Marathon. You are returning from the colony when the aliens
simultaneously attack your shuttle and the Marathon. You manage to get
into an escape pod, and arrive at the Marathon about a
half hour after the Alien attack has begun.

Armed only with a pistol, and guided by Leela, one of the shipboard
Artificial Intelligences, you are the last chance to save the Marathon
and the colony from the attacking aliens.


2. Where can I get it?

The demo is available on sumex-aim.stanford.edu, umich.edu and all
their mirrors. And there are plenty of other sites that have it. It
should really be no problem to find it anymore.


3. Bungie's address

Bungie Software Products Corporation
P.O. Box 7877
Chicago, Il 60680-7877
[phone]
Fax: [phone]
America Online: Bungie1
eWorld: BungieCorp
AppleLink: BUNGIE
Internet: [e-mail]



*****
II      Playing the game
*****


1. Controls

You can select the controls you wish from the preferences window
(please see the Bugs section below on selecting keyboard & mouse/
keyboard). Here are a couple control sets as an example.


Function keys

You can use the function keys on your extended keyboard to access the
game settings during the game:

Key        Function
F1         Full Screen size
F2         100% size
F3         75% size
F4         50% size
F5         High/low resolution
F6         Draw every other line (low res only)
F7         Floor textures on/off (low res only)
F8         Ceiling textures on/off (low res only)
F9         ?
F10        ?
F11        Darken the environment
F12        Lighten the environment



2. Alien characters


A) Soldiers

These creatures are sometimes called bugs or hunters, but in the game
resources they are referred to as soldiers and soldiers shall they be
here too,

There are two types of aliens in the demo; Soldiers and Compilers.
Soldiers come in four varieties, distinguishable by color. In order of
increasing toughness: Green, Purple, Orange, Blue. The greens and
purples will just run up and smack you, while
the Orange and Blue ones will fire at you.

The Orange Soldiers fire single shots, and do not aim too well, while
the Blues can fire up to two shots at a time, very accurately. Greens
can be taken out with one run-punch (see below), while all others take
considerably more. Beware of getting
into close combat with these, as they can hit you between punches.

There are supposed to be 15 different alien species in the final
version of the game and it is not yet known whether these four colors
of bugs count as one or four aliens.


B) Compilers

These are the cloaked things. There are red and purple compilers, the
purple ones being decidedly more nasty. Both fire little star-looking
things, Reds fire annoying green stars that hurt a lot, and Purples
fire really annoying yellow stars that
are guided (like Greater Nightmares out of PiD). If you are facing
only one compiler, or are in a hallway such that you only have to
fight one at a time, use your fists. The compilers will not be able to
fire back. The flame-thrower will not hurt
any kind of compilers.



3. Human characters

A) Bobs

The "civilians" are the crew of colony ship Marathon that was attacked
by aliens half an hour before you got there. They are of no use in the
demo. In the release version you are supposed to rescue these, I
believe, but you might as well kill them in the demo if you don't the
aliens will. But much more often they're just in your way.

B) Other players

These look like the red guy in the second start-up screen (except that
these can be in other colors). They can be friendly on not; I believe
that on the demo you're always supposed to fight against each other.
Of course, these can only be seen in
the network game.



4. Weapons

A) Fists

You start with these, and have them all the time. They are mainly
useful to run-punch with. This involves running at your target and
punching them at maximum range. This does greatly increased damage.
Fists can also be used to activate switches (the
right way to use the delicate equipment...).

B) Magnum Mega Class (Pistol)

You have one of these at the beginning. These are relatively accurate,
and do a fair amount of damage. They fire clips of 8 rounds. You can
have one on the left and one on the right hand. However, there is no
second pistol to be found in the demo,
but by cheating you can get two of these, one for both hands. Please
note that you use the first trigger key for the gun in your right hand
and the second trigger for then gun on your left hand - not a single
trigger for both guns.

C) Zeus-Class Fusion Pistol

This item cannot be obtained in the demo except by cheating. Can fire
more rapidly and do more damage than the .44 Magnum Mega Bass. Only
one can be in use at a time, however. Uses fusion batteries that can
supply power for 20 shots.

D) MA-75 Assault Rifle/Grenade Launcher

This is a combined assault rifle and grenade launcher. The assault
rifle is wildly inaccurate, and fires clips of 52. The grenades are
affected by gravity, and do much damage at short range. The grenades
come in clips of 7. The switches on the walls
can also be activated with the grenades.

E) SPNKR-X17 SSM Launcher

This is a rocket launcher, only available on the network level of the
game (see below). Very powerful, but must be reloaded every two shots.
Also, you will die yourself if you shoot an alien with a rocket if he
is standing close to you.

F) TOZT-7 Backpack Napalm Unit

The flame-thrower is on the second level of the demo. It is quite
difficult to get, but it is possible (see below). Very powerful, all
the aliens die instantly when they're fired with this. However, this
has no effect whatsoever on the compilers and
the range of the flame-thrower is quite limited. But nothing beats the
flame-thrower if you come across a large group of bugs. One napalm
canister can supply fuel to about 8 seconds of continuous flame.

G) UNKNOWN WEAPON CLASS system error 0xFFBD

This is the same as "Alien Weapon" was in the beta. This can only be
obtained by cheating. As ammunition this uses Pirated Copland Betas,
which you seem to hold an infinite supply. Powerful, fast, unlimited
ammo. And nonexistent, at least to the honest player.


*****
III      Secrets (spoiler alert!)
*****


1. Level 1: Arrival!


A) The Bob in the maze

There is a single h uman in prison in the maze. You can go free
him, but it is of no use. If you kill him, a new one will appear
in 10 or so minutes. Here's how to get to him:

Activate the switch in the stairs near the first save-game terminal.
Walk on the ledge; now you will be able to reach the other corner of
the ledge. Open the door (tab) with the Marathon symbol on it and
enter the maze. Walk until you come to an
intersection, turn right and right again; walk up a couple of steps.
There is a secret door to the right of you (you will see a flashing
square in the map (M-key) showing the location of this poor fellow).
The Bob is behind this door, but that's all
there is. No weapons, no ammo, no secret doors. And you get no points
for freeing him, at least not in the demo.

Here's how to kill the poor fellow through the door:

Make sure the bob is as close as possible to the door. Lure it there
by opening the door, if necessary. Close the door and punch
repeatedly. You'll soon hear a scream and a sliding body. Open the
door to see the body on the floor. That bob is free
at last.

B) The secret ammo room

There is a secret ammo room on level 1. You can see it on the map at
the first terminal that you find when you start the game. Here's how
to get there:

Go first by the secret door to the bob in the maze (see the previous
entry). Run over the hallway you just came along, but turn diagonally
to the right. You will land on the other side of the hallway on an
another ledge. Turn right (run straight
over yet another hallway) and walk along the corridor. Kill the
Compiler (the alien in the gown) at the end, and view the terminal if
you wish. Turn back to where you came from and turn left - you will
arrive at a door; open it. There is a big room
which as aliens in the bottom. You might want to jump down or kill
them from the ledge, but they should all be dead before you continue.

When the room is empty of aliens, open the door again (if you jumped
down, you have to walk a long way to get back up), take a few steps
back and run and turn left in the air until you land on the ledge left
from the door (you might also try jumping
first on the other side of the room on the opposite ledge, it is
possible to jump from that ledge to this one, too). The secret door is
about halfway of the ledge you're standing on.

Alternatively, and much more simply, just run out of the door and turn
around instantly; you will end up in front of the secret door. If you
wait in the upper passage, and move in and out of the doorway, you can
probably get the aliens to fight each
other. This is always a good idea.



2. Level 2: Bigger Guns Nearby

A) The TOZT-7 Backpack Napalm Unit (the flame-thrower)

I assume you have gotten to the room with the switch that lifts the
stairs up. Get onto the elevator that lifted you up there. On the
opposite side of the room from the elevator there is a corridor near
the ceiling of the room; the flame-thrower is
located there. There are also two invisible compilers up in the
corridor, fire a few grenades to kill them first.

Next turn around, so that your back faces the corridor (you might want
to align yourself with the corridor using the map, M-key by default).
Look as much down as you can. Start running backwards and fire a
grenade or two in the air; you should be
able to land on the ledge. This will most likely take several tries
before you make it, but it is certainly possible. By the way, the
flame-thrower won't hurt the compilers (the aliens in the gowns).

B) The Infrared Scanner (ISEEYOU)

There is an infrared scanner that lets you see the dark corners of the
rooms for a few minutes located on a passageway between two large
rooms on the second level. This object looks like a square that has a
ball in the center and is blue in color
(if I remember correctly). The ledge is about chest-height, but you
cannot climb there. Instead, you need to look down and fire a grenade
at your feet, the blast should throw you up there. You need good
shields so that you won't die in the attempt.
Usually the infrared scanner is not worth the trouble, IMHO, at least
not in the demo - the real thing might be different.



3. Level 3: Blaspheme Quarantine

A) I'm stuck in the very beginning; can't find an exit!

There are stairs leading down in the end of the pillar that has the
two terminals (one for recharging the shield and one for activating
the elevator at the bottom of these stairs).

B) How to get to/open the door in the large square room?

Go activate the switch that starts the elevator up to the tunnel that
leads to the ledge. This switch is located on the outer wall of the
"building" in the center - walk around the center and at a certain
point there is an indention in the wall with
a light switch and the switch to turn on this elevator. This lift is
located in the middle of the "building".

Get on the elevator and run over the hallway below, you'll land on the
ledge. But be sure to kill the bunch of aliens on the ledge before
your jump (actually, you cannot jump, just run over the corridor). The
door on the left should be open now, but
there is ammo at the other end of the ledge. Run there and back, you
should be able to get the ammo and go through the door.

If the door at the left end of the ledge closes before you get there,
just run back across to the passage in the central block, turn around,
and run out to the ledge again. The door will be open once more.

C) How do I solve the puzzle?

Very simple. All you have to do is activate the switch that lifts the
last of the elevators: turn right, walk to the end of the ledge, and
activate the leftmost switch. Then run towards toe furthest of the
four elevators (you'll fall down from the
ledge first, but it won't hurt).

If you want to do it the "right" and less stressful way, try this:

Wait for the only moving elevator to start up, then flick all three of
the other elevator switches. Walk leisurely out along the path they
make for you, run across the gap to the last one, and stroll into the
teleporter.

D) There is a button in a corridor in the middle of the square room

This is correct. It opens to door to the last room, which contains the
terminal that ends the game. This door is located near the first place
on this level where you can recharge you shields. If you don't want to
play thhrough the whole level, you
can activate this switch by lauching a grenade at it.



4. Network play level: Mars Needs Women

A) How do I get to the secret room and what do the switches do?

Enter the circular room with the staircase on the wall going nowhere.
Go out of there towards the greenish area with the elevators. Turn
right into the second short corridor and press tab (or whatever you
have set as the action key) in the end - a
secret door should open. There are 4 different switches at the end of
4 separate corridors. These switches are used to turn on/off the white
lights on the walls in some places, such as the stairs going to the
second floor. Not much use IMHO, except
maybe when you have the infrared goggles.

The missile launcher is sometimes in this hidden corridor and
sometimes it is empty. I do not know when it does appear here and when
it doesn't. However, this is the only way of getting it without
cheating.



*****
IV     Technical problems
*****



1. The background music won't work

There are several things that could cause this. Check the following
first:

- You must have QuickTime 2.0 or newer and QuickTime Musical
Instruments in your Extensions folder.

- Music requires memory. Try allocating Marathon Demo 6000K or more
memory, especially if you use 16-bit (thousands of colors) graphics.
Also, if you're not able to use 16 bit graphics although you should
have enough VRAM, try allocating more memory
if you can spare it. Marathon seems to run fine with RAM Doubler
installed. Marathon might require up to 8000 K.

- To use stereo sound, you need Sound Manger 3.0 or newer.

Sound Manager is available via anonymous ftp at several locations on
the net, but QT 2.0 is not. You can obtain the needed files from the
CD version of System 7.5 or purchase QT 2.0 separately. QuickTime
1.6.2 is the newest QT that can be found on
the net. That
version will not help with Marathon music, though.

If your music still doesn't work, you might try allocating Marathon a
little less memory, so that after launching it there will still be
about 500K - 1Mb free for the system. The logic behind this is that
the system needs some memory for creating
the sound channels, etc. So on a 8 Mb machine the system takes about
1,5 Mb, allocate Marathon about 6 Mb and leave 500K - 1Mb for other
purposes. If it still doesn't work, try consulting your physician for
hearing problems ;-)


2. Bugs

A) The Mouse & Keyboard/Keyboard control bug

If you select Keyboard control from the preferences dialog box, you
can't change it back anymore. You need to trash the Marathon
Preferences file from the Preferences folder in your System folder and
launch Marathon again to fix this. You can switch
from Mouse & Keyboard to Keyboard only, but not back.

B) Screen saver bug

Marathon and After Dark (or many other screen savers) don't like each
other. You might be able to launch Marathon Demo and play it, but upon
quitting you might get a message saying "Application 'unknown' has
unexpectedly quit." and your system might
became very unstable and crash soon. It appears to exist with old and
new versions of After Dark as well as several other screen savers,
such as Darkside. To be tehcnical, all screen savers that install a
'SAVC' Gestalt selector might exibit the
same problem.

C) Looking down

Quite often when playing you can't seem to look down except for maybe
15 degrees or so. It is quite annoying, especially in the staircases.
I know of no other fix for this except to look all the way up and
back down again. I know this happens when playing
with the mouse, could someone who uses the keyboard please verify if
this happens with the keyboard, too? I do not know exactly what has to
be done to replicate this, but it is really common whatsoever.

D) Multiple monitors

Currently you can't set the monitor you want to run Marathon on.
Setting the monitor to 1-bit depth doesn't help. Either you have to
disconnect your main monitor or make the play monitor your main
monitor and reboot.

E) 'A' key stops working

If you use the 'a' key for something like glance left, turn left, or
sidestep left, you'll often be left with no way to perform that
motion. It stops working for some reason on some machines. The only
way to fix it is to trash the Marathon
Preferences file, but the problem will recur.

F) Quadra 630 acceleration

Your monitor must be in 640x480 mode to use the Q630 acceleration.

G) Save game -dialog box

If you use software to change the size or location of the standard
Save dialog box, such as DialogView or OpenWide, the screen will not
be correctly updated after saving or opening a saved game. Press F1-F4
(depending on your screen setting) to fix
the situation. This bug will be fixed in the release version,

H) Curson on screen

Sometimes after accessing a terminal, the cursor stays on the screen,
near the upper left-hand corner of the 3-D -view. It disappears after
accessing a Patter Buffer (a save-game terminal), bur appears again
after accessing any other terminal.
Currently I don't know what causes this behavior.

I) Net play

Sometimes the game will present the carnage report before the 5
minutes are up. Usually, the other player can just keep on playing.
This only happens during net play.

J) Microphone

I have heard reports that the microphone won't work on PowerMacs (I
don't have one so I can't verify). On 68K Macs it works OK, though.

K) AppleTalk Remote Access

Network play over ARA doesn't work on the demo nor will it work on the
first release version. But they're working on this, Bungie said they
don't fix this yet because the release of the game would be delayed if
they dif.


*****
V      Cheating
*****



1. Starting at any level

By holding down the command and option keys while pressing the Begin
New Game -button, you can start your game at any level. Enter a number
from 0 to 3 in the box, 0 means level 1, 1 means 2, etc. Level 3 is
the network level.

2. Editing the save game file

Eggert Thorlacius ([e-mail]) has written Marathon Cheat 1.0,
which lets you give yourself 32000 of any weapon/ammo item in
Marathon. It is unknown whether this will work on the final version,
but on the demo it works fine. This program
should be soon available on the standard ftp sites such as sumex, but
at least it is availbale at ftp.uu.net in /tmp/marathon. You can also
do this with MaraCheat0.1b, which sets all these attrobutes to the
maximum automatically, but this program
works on PowerMacs ONLY.


*****
VI      Miscellaneous
*****



1. When will the release version be available?

The demo was released in the end of November 1994. Bungie says the
release version will be in stores in the beginning of December, 1994.
On the other hand, they were three months late with their demo...


2. Performance notes

From the DON'T READ ME file:

There are a few things you can do if you need to speed up the
animation in Marathon.

- Run Marathon in 100%, 75%, or 50% to make the animation smoother.
The smaller the window, the faster the animation.

- Low Resolution setting will increase game speed. The every other
line setting will further speed the Low Resolution setting (especially
on machines with slow VRAM, such as Powerbooks). Turning off floor
and/or ceiling textures will also increase
speed.

- Make sure nothing is running in the background (i.e. open
applications, print monitor, control panels, etc...)

- To increase performance, use fewer sound channels. The number of
sound channels is the number of sounds that can be played
simultaneously. The stereo sound option effectively doubles the number
of sounds that can be played at once. Since the sound
manager is not native on the Power Mac, using 3 or more sound channels
will greatly impede performance. (Don't blame us. Native sound manager
should be available before too long.)


3. Network play

Network play is possible over LocalTalk, TokenTalk or Ethernet
connection. It won't work over Appletalk Remote Access (see Bugs). I
have heard someone managed to play over IPRemote, but since I don't
even know what that is, I will not say anything
about it.

The network game in the demo is also limited to 5 minutes and 2
players. I have not heard of a patch around this. Let's hope we get
the actual game soon!

You can try the network level on your own if you wish. See "Cheating:
Starting at any level" above.


4. Can I play the network level on my own?

Yes. See "Cheating: Starting at any level" above.


5. Saving the game

Games can be saved only at pattern buffers, terminals that have a
picture of a man. Read the DON'T READ ME file and the text in the
terminals:-).


6. I died and can't continue!

Yes, you can: press the tab key (or whatever you have set as your
action key).


7. The self-playing demo

If you don't do anything at the startup screen for a couple of
minutes, the game will start on its own to demonstrate you the
capabilities of the game. In the network demo, the name of the player
can be seen on the left blow the oxygen and shield
indicators. By pressing the "delete" key you can view the same
situation from the perspective of the other player(s).


8. How can I make film other than level 1?

You can't, at least not in the demo. Hopefully possible in the final
version.


9. Why can't I run in high-resolution, 256 colors or with textures OFF
with my Quadra/LC/Performa 630?

Turning on Quadra 630 acceleration locks in low-res/thousands mode.
The other options are greyed out. Turn off 630 acceleration to change
them.

Thousands of colors mode automatically uses textures. You can only
turn textures on and off in 256 color mode.


10. Marathon on a 12" screen

(This info supplied by Christopher Lishka ([e-mail])

After trying a number of things (including searching through
deassembled Marathon Demo CODE resources), I have found a fairly
simple solution to get the Marathon Demo to work on computers with
small screens. It might cost you some money in the long
run, but at least it makes it possible.

Disclaimer: I do not endorse, condone, or even acknowledge ;-) this
method. If your monitor or computer or
little brother blows up because of this method, remember that you took
the risks youselves. I will not be held responsible for any damage
caused by this method, nor do I recommend using this method.

OK, that being said, on to the description. I played the Marathon Demo
for a few hours last night on the 640x400 LCD screen last night, and
tried every level out. The Marathon Demo played quite well, although
the lower 80 rows of pixels were missing
(i.e. part of the radar and part of the ammo/weapons list were
off-screen).

Here's how I did it:

1. Go to your local info-mac mirror archive. In the "cfg" directory
you will find a handy configuration utility named
"mini-screen-171-demo.hqx". Download and expand this utility.

2. Mini-Screen is a little (and pricey!) utility that seems to cause
your Mac to report a different monitor size than it really has.
Supposedly this is to allow you to use smaller virtual screens on a
big monitor. The demo that is distributed has a
built-in expiration date -- the real utility costs $39.95 (ouch!), and
the demo contains instructions on how to order it. Note that as
distributed, Mini-Screen seems to have an expiration date well before
30-Nov-1994. I had to set the date back on
my Mac to even try the demo out.

 After you have unpacked mini-screen, install it according to
instructions. Basically, put the mini-screen control panel in your
Control Panels folder and reboot. (If mini-screen has already expired,
then you will have to set your date back and
reboot again to try it out.) When your machine is up again, run the
mini-screen control panel and manually type in "480" for the vertical
size of the monitor. (Note that the pop-up menu won't work for this
purpose.) Reboot again to get mini-screen
to take effect.

3. The Marathon Demo should now run. >>>HOWEVER<<<, there is one more
thing you will need to do if you want to be able to edit the
keystrokes. Run ResEdit (standard ResEdit disclaimers apply here!) and
find the dialog resource that defines the
layout for the keystroke edit screen. Open it. "Select All" and move
all buttons up to the top of the screen. Close this when you are
finished.

 The reason you need this step is because the "OK" button which lets
you get out of the keystroke edit screen in Marathon tends to go way
off a 640x400 monitor, leaving now way to get out of the dialog.
Fiddling with the resource as described above
moves the button onto the screen (well, it does on my screen).

4. Play Marathon!

This is all I had to do to get Marathon up and running. Folks with
monitors smaller than 640x400 may need to do additional fiddling to
get everything to work. Note that I know of no way to actually
reposition the screen elements in the normal game
mode (i.e. the weapons/ammo list and the radar). If somebody knows of
a way to do this, then please speak up.

Also, if you plan to use mini-screen, then it is politic to pay for
it. Alternately, if somebody knows how to cook up a small init or
control panel to cause a Mac to report a standard 640x480 screen,
please let me know or write a quick init to do
this and distribute it. I would do this myself, but I am not a Mac
guru and do not know what to fiddle.


11. Hints

- Switches can be activated with your fist or the grenade launcher,
too.
- The terminal often contain maps of the levels
- For most technical problems, allocating more memory (up to 8000K)
will help. If you can't get background music to play, if you can't get
enough colors on screen, if your microphone ceases to work, allocate
more memory.
- Make your run key Caps Lock, and run everywhere.
- Optimize your keyboard layout (see Controls)
- The game can be paused with command-P.


12. Thanks

Bungie
comp.sys.mac.games
Jamal Hannah ([e-mail])
Petteri Sulonen
Jake McGuire ([e-mail])
Simon K. Boocock ([e-mail])
Richard Johnson ([e-mail])
Eric Garneau ([e-mail])
[e-mail] (jere7my tho?rpe)
cpt kangarooski ([e-mail] )
Ishir Bhan ([e-mail])
Christopher Lishka ([e-mail])
--
Aapo Puskala, [e-mail] *** University of Helsinki, Finland
Kirjatyontekijankatu 6 B 36, 00170 Helsinki, Finland, tel. [phone]
  A conclusion is simply the place where someone got tired of thinking.