My Old Marathon TC

[Gamenerd64]

This is an old project I used to work on a while ago, it's basically like ZBlood, but instead of being based off of Blood it was based off of Marathon. I worked 100% on my own for this project for a while until I started to work less and less on it. Eventually I decided to stop working on it altogether and possibly pick up later. I didn't. I had forgotten about this mod for over a year. What made me remember this mod was a friend (Darklord) showed me the forum for TwelveEyes's Marathon Gameplay Wad. I instantly remembered my wad. Luckily I kept the wad and didn't delete it. I will now post it here for you guys, if anybody wants me to continue this wad (or if you want to continue it yourself) then just say so and I'll consider it. Keep in mind this wad was no where near completion and may be in a bit of a mess in terms of design. This wad was designed for Skulltag (will work with Zandronum if you load it with skulltag_actors.pk3).

Here's what I've done so far:
-The mod has the first 9 levels pretty much completed and a start on the 10th level, nothing else.
-The mod has the terminal text from the original games set up the same way as Strife's conversations. (However once you read it once you cannot read it again, I forgot how to fix this)
-The Fullscreen HUD is very cluttered I know. I wanted to recreate the HUD from the original 1994 mac version but since the screen isn't quite centered on that one I modified the HUD for the screen to be centered.
-The mod was to contain a bonus: The map used in the alpha version of Marathon (Very Wolf3d / Pathways into Darkness styled at this point in it's development) which was totally different from the released game. It was to even feature the weapons and monster (there was only 1) in the alpha as well.
-The mod contains all of the weapons, and they reload similar to the original game, however you can reload at any time with the altfire key but any ammo still loaded in the weapon would be lost. (Like I said this wad is a bit unpolished.)
-The mod contains all of the enemies you would normally encounter in the first 9 maps. (Some enemies I never got a chance to make, although the monster from the alpha version is in the mod.)
-If the scripting is half-assed I apologize. Although I tried to thoroughly test everything somethings may not work quite right. (Especially in multiplayer)
-This mod was going to include the Deathmatch levels as well but I never got around to mapping them. (And they were going to have monsters on them, as the originals did)

Screenshots:

Screenshot of the first level

Attacking Fighters (and being a crap shot...)

Punching a Fighter. (The run-punch from the original works in this mod as well)

Download:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8146245/MTC_alpha1.wad

[TheShadsy]

This thread got lost in the shuffle, but I really greatly enjoyed it! It's fun to see the differences between the two engines when the product is faithfully recreated.

[Ravick]

Well, thak you for "bumping" it, hehe.
Downloading.

[RV-007]

You got to tell me what editors you used to extract marathon scenario resources. I tried to extract marathon red w/ ShapeFusion, but that didn't work out so well. I am making custom marathon monsters. link

I don't know about the weapon and monsters, but I would probably use the classes from TwelveEyes's Marathon wad (link). I really like the match w/ the original Marathon levels. I was dismayed to see that the player start didn't start in that weird cave. I was more concerned about the computer interface, which didn't have any preference of unique AI personalities. The last gripe would be the code in Skulltag. Other than that, I like how the levels turn out.

I noticed that you had a Pathway to Darkness monster. Is there by any chance you can recreate those levels? I never played Pathway into Darkness, but I know it's somewhat related to the Marathon titles.

[Kinsie]

I'm, uh, pretty sure he was only trying to recreate the original game. Not any mods.

As for the PiD monster, he mentions that in the first post: It's from a very early alpha build of Marathon that he was going to include a recreation of as a secret level.

[Machalite]

Is there by any chance you can recreate those levels? I never played Pathway into Darkness, but I know it's somewhat related to the Marathon titles.

That would be exceptionally difficult, because a way to access PiD's resources was never released. To recreate the levels would mean working exclusively by memory of playing the game yourself, or by screenshots and video recordings. You'd have a hard enough time getting the proportions correct that way. Considering this also means there are no source ports of PiD, you'd either have to emulate it, or have a Mac computer to even get that far. At least, this has been my understanding of the situation.

[Kinsie]

There's also the small issue of the speak-to-the-dead mechanic - either you'd have to simplify your choices in order to port it to Strife's dialog system, or you'd have to write a text parser in ACS. Neither are attractive options.

[Gamenerd64]

PiD's level design would be extremely easy to remake though, seeing as it's set up similarly to Wolfenstein 3D's block-based levels. There's a PiD conversion for Aleph One which I can use that to extract resources the same way I did the original Marathon, but the colors are screwed up in that mod. They don't match the originals.

[RV-007]

There's also the small issue of the speak-to-the-dead mechanic - either you'd have to simplify your choices in order to port it to Strife's dialog system, or you'd have to write a text parser in ACS. Neither are attractive options.

Ah, that dialogue interface, no!!!!

[Machalite]

No one is trying to discourage you from trying. I know I'd be interested to see what you could achieve. The level design is one thing, and getting the color palette right would be simple enough, but it's easy to forget all the gameplay mechanics that PiD has that you would have to recreate. We're just laying out the facts of why no one has attempted to do so (it's more work than your average conversion project), but apparently I would be wrong about that, because...

There's a PiD conversion for Aleph One

I just so happen to have been checking out Aleph One for the past couple of months, but I haven't seen evidence of this anywhere. Can you point me to it? I'm curious now.

[President People]

There's a PiD conversion for Aleph One which I can use that to extract resources the same way I did the original Marathon, but the colors are screwed up in that mod. They don't match the originals.

Here you are, sir. The original PiD sprites with the original colors. This guy's a wiz.


EDIT:

I just so happen to have been checking out Aleph One for the past couple of months, but I haven't seen evidence of this anywhere. Can you point me to it? I'm curious now.

And here you are, sir.

[Gamenerd64]

The PiD conversion for Aleph One really didn't do the original game justice, the talk-to-the-dead scenes were set up the same way as the terminals in Marathon, and it didn't feature the awesome RPG-style inventory that PiD had (2 of the 'crystals' were made into actual weapons).

As for those PiD sprites, President People you're a life saver.

[RV-007]

Hooray!
I like the grey whale, caveman, fat snake man, red ghost, booger man/fiend (my favorite), white snake man ghost, spider, weapons, and the corpses in PID_Shapes_set1.shpA. They might be included in my custom marathon monsters wad.

[Gamenerd64]

Their correct names are (in the order they appear in the archive) Nightmare, Headless, Phantasm, Ghoul, Zombie, Shocking Sphere, Greed, Malice, Deceit, Ooze, Wraith, Sentinel, and Skitter.

[President People]

Their correct names are (in the order they appear in the archive) Nightmare, Headless, Phantasm, Ghoul, Zombie, Shocking Sphere, Greed, Malice, Deceit, Ooze, Wraith, Sentinel, and Skitter.

Correct. Other names for Greed, Malice and Deceit are The Big Blue Meanie, Giant Purple Mutant Hellbeast (a.k.a. Barney on Steroids), and the Flaming Smokey Dude, respectively. The Blue Meanie is my favorite monster from this game. :)

Also, some monsters have more advanced forms with different color tables and behaviors, some wildly different. There's the Greater Nightmare, Ghast (Zombie), an invincible variation of the Ooze, and Venomous Skitter. There's also an unused Headless color table, and yet another Ooze variation, the Stalker, found only in one of the two demos (and thus, the corresponding Shapes file). I rather like the Stalkers.