Classic Marathon coming soon to Steam

Gamernyc78

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About This Game​

Alien forces have boarded the colony ship UESC Marathon in the Tau Ceti system, in orbit around humanity’s first interstellar colony. The situation is dire, and as a security officer assigned to the Marathon, your duty is to defend the ship and its crew from the alien threat.

This classic 1994 Bungie™ FPS had a foundational influence on the genre, and is now maintained by the fan community. Experience authentic game play using the original data files, with optional widescreen HUD support, 3D filtering/perspective, positional audio, and 60+ fps interpolation, just in case the original is too authentic.

Classic Marathon is powered by the Aleph One engine, which is available under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) Version 3.
 
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thicc_girls_are_teh_best

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Are these games on PS4/PS5 yet? If not then ports for those platforms should also be coming around the time this goes to Steam. Getting players on target platforms for the new Marathon somewhat familiar with the IP ahead of that game's launch would be a good thing to do.

Though a decent remake for the first two games would probably do even better. Would imagine that being done by a non-Bungie studio though.
 
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Yurinka

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It is weird to don't see Bungie as dev and publisher. Who is Aleph One Developers?

thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
Are these games on PS4/PS5 yet? If not then ports for those platforms should also be coming around the time this goes to Steam. Getting players on target platforms for the new Marathon somewhat familiar with the IP ahead of that game's launch would be a good thing to do.

Though a decent remake for the first two games would probably do even better. Would imagine that being done by a non-Bungie studio though.
Click to expand...
I assume they should be included inside the new game. Maybe something like the Stratagem Hero of Helldivers 2 but to play ports of the original games.
 
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rinzler said:
They actually did this already back in 2012 ironically, Planetside 2.
Click to expand...

That was an MMO and they did it even earlier with EverQuest for a long time, another MMO.

The pattern being, both were MMOs and not single-player, offline MP or narrative-driven games, the stuff Sony 1P was heavily associated with on the console side.

Yurinka said:
I assume they should be included inside the new game. Maybe something like the Stratagem Hero of Helldivers 2 but to play ports of the original games.
Click to expand...

Likely so, but now PC players who just want the original game(s) for whatever reason, can simply pay $10 or less to get them off Steam, but a console player who really just wants to play the originals will have to probably pay $70 for the same privilege if it's only accessible through the new Marathon game (assuming it'll be B2P GAAS like Destiny 2).

The console player in that scenario, even if they only represent a small percentage of total players, is getting the short end of the stick in that example. And if Bungie aren't involved in the port, they still own the IP (well, SIE own the IP but I digress). Whoever's doing the port for Steam should also be required to do one for PS consoles at the very least, as part of the contract.
 
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Systemshock2023 said:
That game looks to be pretty unplayable on consoles without a significant overhaul. It's from the first system shock era.
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If it's unplayable on consoles then it's unplayable on PCs too, and any overhead uplift PC could offer it, any of the modern consoles could as well. You don't need a 3090 to push a game like OG Marathon to 60 FPS and 2x resolution.

I don't think that's a good excuse to not have a port for PS4/PS5 if there's one coming for Steam, considering who own the IP rights now.
 
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Vertigo

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Sony probably has very little to do with this listing. Bungie probably not so much either. It’s been publicly available for free for years on pc and this is most likely the same version and still free? Steam is good for exposure anyway. It’s better than only being found as a fan site google search result or the end of a bungie blog post.

Console ports would be nice with whatever necessary to make controller work well etc. Would be cool if the trilogy is unlockable in the reboot game etc but I don’t expect that.
 
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Vertigo said:
Sony probably has very little to do with this listing. Bungie probably not so much either. It’s been publicly available for free for years on pc and this is most likely the same version and still free? Steam is good for exposure anyway.

Console ports would be nice with whatever necessary to make controller work well etc. Would be cool if the trilogy is unlockable in the reboot game etc but I don’t expect that.
Click to expand...

Even if the game is free on PC, the IP is owned by SIE/Bungie. The company doing the Steam port can't legally do it without clearing things with Sony in some form. Only exception is if the deal was set between the porting company & Bungie prior to Sony acquiring them, as there'd be a pre-existing contract.

In that case though, Sony would have became aware of the port and considered adding their own consoles to it, if they cared. Which, they should. But it's hard to tell if they actually would have cared to do so, unfortunately.
 
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thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
Likely so, but now PC players who just want the original game(s) for whatever reason, can simply pay $10 or less to get them off Steam, but a console player who really just wants to play the originals will have to probably pay $70 for the same privilege if it's only accessible through the new Marathon game (assuming it'll be B2P GAAS like Destiny 2).

The console player in that scenario, even if they only represent a small percentage of total players, is getting the short end of the stick in that example. And if Bungie aren't involved in the port, they still own the IP (well, SIE own the IP but I digress). Whoever's doing the port for Steam should also be required to do one for PS consoles at the very least, as part of the contract.
Click to expand...
Yes, Sony now own all Bungie IPs. But being so old, maybe Bungie made them open source back in the time and may share it free, I have no idea.

Seems weird because Bungie (or Sony) should be the publisher but isn't the case.

Edit: seems it's a fan made macOS, Windows, and Linux open source project made with permission from Bungie https://alephone.lhowon.org/

To release something in console requires to be a PS certified dev, to buy devkits, popt the game, made console specific stuff like adapting the online, include trophies, etc. A certain amount of work and costs that I assume an open source project can't afford.
 
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Yurinka said:
Yes, Sony now own all Bungie IPs. But being so old, maybe Bungie made them open source back in the time and may share it free, I have no idea.

Seems weird because Bungie (or Sony) should be the publisher but isn't the case.

Edit: seems it's a fan made macOS, Windows, and Linux open source project made with permission from Bungie https://alephone.lhowon.org/

To release something in console requires to be a PS certified dev, to buy devkits, popt the game, made console specific stuff like adapting the online, include trophies, etc. A certain amount of work and costs that I assume an open source project can't afford.
Click to expand...

Aleph One being pub and dev pretty much makes it clear is the fan project.

If this steam listing does anything interesting with users it may perk some interest from bungie on console ports.

It would be nice. Especially at a time when Bungie’s Halo games are likely to also get PlayStation ports.
 
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