The most recent Preferred Player column over at Xbox.com, penned by KP, is on Freeverse's XBLA port of Marathon: Durandal; specifically, an XBL cooperative game of Marathon the author played with yours truly and other notable Bungiefen Geary11 and ZuP101.
I've been playing the heck out of Freeverse's Marathon: Durandal on Xbox Live. As it's an "old school" shooter missing a lot of the technical features found in more modern games, I had always assumed that the majority of its players would be old-time Bungie fans like myself.
When I saw SniperStealth atop the single-player leaderboard with over thirty million points, I felt here must surely be an old Marathon hand who knows every twist and turn of each level without even glancing at the map.
That's not true, as it turns out. SniperStealth only had a chance to play the original briefly before diving into M:D on XBLA, but that can only be good news for Freeverse if more Bungie fans who haven't played Marathon check in to see where the roots of Halo came from.
SniperStealth was kind enough to spend a few moments to answer my questions about what drew him to this classic game.
Click "read more" from the front page for the transcript of Rampancy's interview with SniperStealth, the leading Marathon: Durandal campaign player.
Marathon 2 logo, provided as a gamerpic with the Citadel achievement in Marathon: Durandal for Xbox Live Arcade.
Bruce "Hippieman" Morrison at Freeverse, the developer that brought Bungie's Marathon: Durandal to Xbox Live Arcade, has been working on a walkthrough of the game. While of course there is always the Marathon Spoiler Guide, which covers all three games, Marathon, Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon: Infinity, Hippieman's walkthrough includes screenshots of environments, whereas the Spoiler Guide features only maps.
In French, the phrase "syndrome de la page blanche", or white page syndrome, is intended as an expression of writer's block; the inability to begin a project faced with an empty page.
Myself, I always viewed it as an expression of the usefulness of limitations, boundaries, and direction: one of the reasons why so many works are derivatives and combinations is because it is easier to start with what you know and then change it than trying to tilt at the windmill of creating something truly unique. When faced with a boundary or limitation, you are teased into approaching it and testing its strength. If one was truly free to do or say truly anything without limit, it seems likely one would find nothing to say.
It is this thought that runs through my head while playing Freeverse's Xbox Live Arcade conversion of Marathon: Durandal. One is given to wonder if there is any value in such an object beyond nostalgia; a chance for those who played the game a decade ago to relive that experience. For some, a chance to recapture youth, or a chance to remember good times.
However, it is a good deal more than that; and comparing it to other games in the genre that make better use of the modern hardware in today's console provides an object lesson on the usefulness of limitations and boundaries.
Some of us senior citizens are having a blast now that Marathon: Durandal is out for Xbox Live Arcade. I'll post later in greater length about how this adaptation is simultaneously absolutely faithful to the original while still timely and fun, and how its design teaches lessons still relevant a decade after its release.
However, many Halo fans have never played Marathon. Many may not have heard of it until now. Some, as ridiculous as this sounds, were not even born when it was released. Is Marathon still for them?
It sure is. But before playing, it's best just to do some fair warnings about some quirks in Marathon's design that might frustrate a player whose only exposure to Bungie so far is the Halo series.
Major Nelson says that Marathon Durandal is one of two games that will hit Xbox Live Arcade this week; specifically, on Wednesday, when XBLA gets its weekly update.
Durandal wll cost 800 points. For more information and screenshots, check the Marathon Durandal page at Xbox.com.
Luke Smith has posted an interview with Freeverse's Bruce Morrison over at Bungie.net to explain how and why Marathon is coming to the Xbox and the role that the Bungie community played in it:
Ok, this time it is for real, because it's from the horse's mouth, which is certainly the most trustworthy orifice on a horse. Bungie.net says that Marathon: Durandal is being brought to XBLA by none other than Mac game developer Freeverse. They have a page on Marathon: Durandal at their site.
It will include single player, eight player cooperative play, and multiplayer.
Eight player coop? Zang!
Kotaku is liveblogging the Microsoft press event at E3 Lite, and Brian Crecente has Marathon on his list of XBLA titles being mentioned. Stay tuned while we confirm.
Rumors of such a port have been floating around for some time, and recently a German ratings board had the title appear briefly in its database according to a German gaming site.
No, I don't mean an XBLA release of Marathon, as it seems that is not to be; but rather, what was thought to be a long-dormant project to make a total conversion of Marathon 1 for the Unreal Tournament engine-- Marathon Resurrection-- has finally been released as a Final Candidate.
If you find the open source version of Marathon, Aleph One, still too low-tech for your tastes, but still want to sample Bungie's pre-Halo SF trilogy, have a look.
According to XBLArcade.com, German website xbox-arkiv says that the German ratings board, the USK, has been asked to rate Marathon 2: Durandal, indicating that a port of the Bungie shooter classic, already open sourced and available as Aleph One will be making its way to Xbox Live Arcade sometime in the future.
This is a transcription of Thomas Barth's remix of Fat Man, a Marathon track. The remixed version is part of the new soundtrack for the AlephOne version of Marathon, named Fat Man2. It is almost impossible to play both hands together, but if you can just learn the right hand by itself it still sounds cool.
