Aleph One (game engine)

Marathon
The cover box of the Marathon Trilogy Box set
Genres	First-person shooter
Developers	Bungie Software Products Corporation
Publishers	Bungie Software Products Corporation
Creators	Jason Jones, Alex Seropian, Greg Kirkpatrick
Platforms	Mac OS, Pippin, Windows (Marathon 2 only); OS X, Linux, iOS (iPhone) and Windows (whole trilogy) through Aleph One project
First release	Marathon December 21, 1994

The Marathon Trilogy is a science fiction first-person shooter video game series from Bungie, originally released for Mac OS. The name Marathon is derived from the giant interstellar colony ship that provides the setting for the first game; the ship is constructed out of what used to be the Martian satellite Deimos. The three games in the series—Marathon (1994), Marathon 2: Durandal (1995), and Marathon Infinity (1996)—are widely regarded as spiritual predecessors of Bungie's Halo series.

Throughout the games the player accesses computer terminals through which he communicates with artificial intelligences, receives mission data, and gets teleported to other levels via “Jump Pads”. Though contact with computers is how they are primarily utilized, they are a fundamental storytelling element; some terminals contain civilian/alien reports or diaries, database articles, conversations between artificial intelligences and even stories or poems. Messages may change depending on a player's progress in a certain level. The ultimate goal of most levels is not to merely reach the end but to complete the type(s) of objective(s) specified: extermination of all or specific creatures, exploration of a level or locating an area in the level, retrieving one or more items, hitting a certain “repair” switch, or preventing half of the civilians from being killed (a mission only present in two levels in the first game).

Most levels contain platforms, defined as anything able to change its height. Though it is generally used to describe lifts, doors are included in this category. Doors may or may not show up on the player's automap and are usually opened with the action key. In cases where they are damaged or locked they can be opened by special designated triggers or switches. Switches control various functions such as lifts, doors and lighting and come in the form of manual switches that can be toggled with the action key, stations for computer chips or breakable circuitry. Some switches are “tag” switches that execute multiple functions at once or those that must be activated as part of “repair” missions. Another notable level feature is teleporters, able to send players who use them to different parts of a level or to other levels. Aliens are unable to use them.