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Marathon: Istoria is a single-player RPG scenario set in the Marathon universe and designed for the Aleph One engine. It pushes the engine to its limits by using advanced character progression, combat, and storytelling.

Customize your character by choosing from seven different player classes, each with their own unique active and passive abilities. Decide which conventional weapons you want to specialize in, and make use of a brand new arsenal of spells. Explore Istoria while discovering its secrets and how you fit in the world through a combination of terminals and communicating with the recently deceased. Istoria features an original soundtrack by Jon Irons.

Notes for version 1.1:

• Redesigned boss fight.
• New spells sounds to replace some of the weaker sounds from the previous version.
• New spherical mapped landscapes are available.
• Spells can now be accessed using a hotkey while holding down the aux trigger.
• MOAHs can fit in smaller spaces and are a new color.
• The game will automatically be saved upon completion, so you can easily reload to see your score.
• Uses class activations instead of body dialogue in score calculation.
• Black holes will no longer throw dead bodies around, which was especially dangerous for MOAHs. Terminals should display correctly in unusual aspect ratios.
• Various bug fixes and typo corrections.
• Overhead map filtering performance optimizations.
• Option to replace included soundtrack files with high-quality Bandcamp versions.
• Minor probability tweaks for "roaming" soundtrack event.
• Survival levels now let you choose Random for your class, and the game will choose for you.

1,575 downloads, 5 reviews, 6 screenshots, 5.0 rating

NOW UPDATED FOR ULTRAWIDE AND 16:10!

Experience the authentic 1994 jank of Marathon 1's classic HUD as if it were made for your monitor!

This plugin takes the classic HUD and extends it to fill modern 16:9, 16:10, and Ultrawide displays.

The same plugin covers widescreen monitors whether it is 16:9, 16:10, or 21:9. It automatically adapts to your chosen resolution.

With the extra space, additional inventory pages are displayed. In Solo games, weapons and ammo are displayed. In Netgames, the scoreboard is always displayed.

Based on the Default M1 HUD plugin included with Aleph One's M1 release.

For a more minimal but still classic style HUD, check out my Widescreen Marathon 2 HUD plugin, which includes a specially modified variant for Marathon 1.

Wide Marathon 2 & Marathon Infinity HUD here.

Notes for version 2.611:

v2.611 - just a re-zip since the plugin wasn't in a folder, sorry

v2.610 - Added 16:10 version for Steam Deck and Mac players. Updated to newer Default M1 HUD script.

v2.19 - Added 21:9 Ultrawide support

1,854 downloads, 2 reviews, 5 screenshots, 5.0 rating

A GUI theme for Aleph One inspired by Apple's System 7.5, as seen in Marathon's original preferences dialogs. Based on an earlier (now obsolete) theme by Christian Bauer.

Notes for version 1.3:

Version 1.3 uses the public-domain ChicagoFLF font instead of Apple's proprietary Chicago font.

3,494 downloads, 4 reviews, 3 screenshots, 5.0 rating

This is a slightly modified version of Hopper's M1A1 HUD. It moves the HUD to the lower left corner of the screen and allows for fullscreen mode without any black bar. This should work for any Aleph One scenario, including M1.

I also made a few small edits to the HUD itself for aesthetics and transparency.

Thanks to wrkncacnter for the additional scripting.

Notes for version 1.1:

Fixed margins so the lua console can be viewed. Thanks to Terin in the Marathon Discord for fixing this!

2,484 downloads, 1 review, 4 screenshots, 5.0 rating

A 35-level single player major conversion.

This scenario is difficult and action-packed; it features a full arsenal of new, powerful weapons, and more threatening enemies than you could ever want.

1.4 has new Lua features like a performance overlay, weapon buffs, a lot of little bug fixes; it also applies ammo capacity limits on Total Carnage. Requires Aleph One 1.5 or newer, probably!

Notes for version 1.4.2:

Adds graphics plugins by W'rkncacnter to improve weapons in hand and landscapes. On the linked webpage you can also find a download just for the plugins, which you should be able to drop into an existing 1.4.1 installation.

21,563 downloads, 41 reviews, 21 screenshots, 4.5 rating

A work-in-progress update of Hopper & Ares Ex Machina’s texturing plugin Vasara (which itself is based on treellama & Jon Irons’ Visual Mode.lua), with several new features:

• Support for Aleph One 1.7’s new 2x, 4x, and reverse slide transfer modes
• Vastly more control over texture alignment, including:
  • Options to decouple X and Y snaps
  • Options to align textures to the center, right, bottom, north, west, south, or east
  • 19 more grid sizes.
• A “decouple transparent sides” option that allows you to apply different textures, alignments, and lights to each transparent side of a line.
• Options to apply only the texture or only the transfer mode rather than both.
• A toggle for the “realign textures when retexturing” option.
• Overlays that show what you’re looking at (useful if you want to use Lua scripts on part of the level).

It also fixes several bugs, including:

• The Lua error spam that happened whenever you had “apply texture” and “apply light” selected with a light value above 55.
• “Must Be Explored” polygons being reset to “Normal”.
• “Align adjacent” failing to work with many textures placed on empty lines. (Some transparent textures still won’t align properly; “decouple transparent sides” may mitigate this issue somewhat.)

To install:

• Visit the GitHub site.
• Click “Code”.
• Click “Download ZIP”.
• Save to the “Plugins” directory for the scenario you want to use it with. If one doesn’t exist, make one. Mac users may need to make one here instead: https://github.com/Aleph-One-Marathon/alephone/wiki/File-Locations#mac-os-x-1
• Set it up in Weland. Windows and Mac users can refer to https://aaronfreed.github.io/mapmaking101.html#welandsetup if this proves challenging. (One of these days I’ll write a guide for Linux.)

This remains a work in progress, and updates may be slow, as Vasara’s code is sparsely documented and frequently quite dense, but I intend to continue working on it. I welcome constructive suggestions (best delivered through GitHub or Discord) and will attempt to implement them as time permits.

Enjoy!

Notes for version 1.0b:

Work in progress beta.

648 downloads, 0 reviews, 4 screenshots

The Pfhor have captured our dear Hero, and now the Hero must fight through the legendary commanders in the gladiatorial arena to earn freedom!

Lua scripting gives each boss phase a different flavor.

Aleph One v1.7+ recommended.

Notes for version 1.01:

Tweaked balance slightly. Replays should work now. Fixed a couple bugs.

See Read-Me for more details.

816 downloads, 0 reviews, 2 screenshots

In this new NEFX scenario shell for Marathon Aleph One, travel around a corn maze to get to the exit without a map. If you try to use a map, you'll die, because that's cheating. So really use your navigational skills, prowess, memory, etc. You'll become a better person if you persevere through this.

Notes for version 2023-10-29:

Today I added one new map for Marathon: Corn Maze, "The Weight of Cumulative Collective Memory". This can be downloaded individually or with the scenario itself at the provided link.

680 downloads, 1 review, 1 screenshot, 5.0 rating

In this Aleph One Marathon scenario shell by NEFX, survive as long as you can and rack up as much time and score as you can fighting against intensifying waves of Pathways Into Darkness enemies with Pathways Into Darkness weapons. Like with Marathon: Machina, every level is open-ended, and there is nothing particularly won or lost except your competition with yourself and anyone else who dares to take on the Underrealm challenge and share their exploits. Good luck, endless fighter! There may well be more levels to come to be experienced in any order desired.

656 downloads, 0 reviews, 2 screenshots

Simplici7y is a file sharing web application for the Aleph One community. Originally written in with Ruby on Rails 1.0 and hosted alongside The Pfhorums, Simplici7y is now a Django 4 Application deployed to Heroku from Github.

The project is named after a 7-polygon mapping challenge, which focuses on doing more with less.

When Fileball suffered downtime in early 2007, Jon Irons saw the need to fill the gap as soon as possible. He came to me with his idea for a new project. Jon's support was fundamental to the development and successful launch of Simplici7y, and I consider this project his as much as it is mine.

Simplici7y came online on the second anniversary of The Pfhorums. After Fileball was destroyed in a fire, S7 became the de facto place to publish. In the 16 years it has been online, there have been over 12 million downloads, 600 items and 1,400 reviews.

Notes for version 2.0.0:

On our 16th anniversary, 2.0.0 is a complete rewrite of the original Ruby on Rails application into Python / Django 4. This also includes:

• Moved to modern hosting (Heroku / AWS) which means no more downtime!
• Much faster file download and page load times
• Better permissions and data validation (10,000 star feature)
• Higher resolution thumbnails
• Automatic deploys from git main branch for quick and easy development or bug fixes
• An automatic admin backend for easy moderation
• Trigram search for misspellings
• Much more search-engine optimized with redirects from bad URLs and mobile-friendly CSS
• All of this and more in 4k lines of code vs the previous 33k!

Feature development is now much easier, so head over to Github to submit requests or report any bugs you find.

4,635 downloads, 3 reviews, 4 screenshots, 2.3 rating

First off, I want to make something abundantly clear: This is not a conventional remix album – I categorise it as an arrangement album. Anyone expecting these songs to preserve the originals’ mood and atmosphere is in for a severe disappointment, though I do have a much older set of remixes¹ that might be more to your taste. I also strongly recommend against using this album for your first playthrough; it’ll substantially alter the game’s atmosphere, which is one of its most memorable qualities. It would (hopefully) still be enjoyable, but it wouldn’t really be Marathon.

That said, these intricate, dense, yet dynamic mixes are brimming with retro synths, arpeggiation, musical cross-references, reverb, and entirely new instrument parts and melodies: where the OST runs for forty minutes, these run for seventy-eight. They’re Marathon’s OST by way of ’70s progressive rock songwriting and arrangement, ’80s pop production, and ’90s Japanese games’ atmosphere, with secondary influences from genres as disparate as jazz, blues, disco, ambient, post-rock, classical, electronic music, Krautrock, and metal.

I’ve included both a lossless FLAC version of this album and an Ogg Vorbis version suitable for in-game use. The Vorbis versions are mostly based on the FLAC files. The sole exception is “Flowers in Heaven”, which loops infinitely² in-game. Thus, the FLAC version in the album simply fades out after completing a loop.

The album also comes with a 16-page PDF featuring additional album artwork and my commentary on each individual song and the album as a whole.

My complete discography, including some works in progress, is available here: https://aaronfreed.github.io/discography.html

I also have these on YouTube, although I strongly encourage use of an adblocker, since YouTube has decided to take the liberty of running ads that I do not want on my videos and do not make a single cent from. There’s no copyright claim on the video, so this is just Google violating its erstwhile mantra of “don’t be evil”. https://youtu.be/bRiDh3PziWU

Plus, I’ve posted videos of “Cool Fusion” and “Bob-B-Q” showing how, respectively, “Flowers in Heaven” and “What About Bob?” play in-game.

“Cool Fusion”: https://youtu.be/QfF01WLolgM

“Bob-B-Q”: https://youtu.be/mj_Jy5HMxRc

—

¹You can get my older remixes at https://1drv.ms/u/s!AuD0MykSsmaRpiobXz51kqObAIqH?e=WogGPt

²Explanation of how looping works pre-Aleph One 1.7: https://aaronfreed.github.io/marathonlooper.html

1,122 downloads, 0 reviews, 1 screenshot

An entire soundtracked 50-level pack by NEFX for the 1998 Marathon-engine-based game Wheels! by RJ Cooper. Much thanks to the original Wheels! creators and to W'rkncacnter/Douchetower for help with the bundling. To play:

1. Copy the Wheels! files into the directory.

2. Open the graphics/shapes file in ShapeFusion and apply the contained shapes patch to it.

3. Put Aleph One in the directory and launch it.

4. Stop.

5. Bend.

6. Lean.

7. Kiss ass goodbye.

822 downloads, 1 review, 5 screenshots, 5.0 rating

This fixes the issues from the original 2019 upload, meaning it doesn't have anyone else's plugin or any version of Aleph One in it. This was a joke made in response to Meerjel01's proposed scenario Marathon: Green. It's an extermination level, so return to the starting platform after killing everything. In the meantime, deal with all the green.

Notes for version 2:

Doesn't have anyone else's plugin or any earlier version of Aleph One in it. I used a custom texture to create the green this time, and it's easier and better to navigate this way anyway.

888 downloads, 0 reviews, 0 screenshots

NOTE: As of 2024-04-25, Rubicon X now integrates these fixes. If your Rubicon X Scripts folder has a “monsterlimits.mml” file, and its items, landscapes, scenery, walls, and weapons scripts show “last modified” dates in September 2022, you already have these fixes and don’t need this plugin, but I’m leaving it up because people who got Rubicon X before then may not want to re-download a 124 MiB scenario to get 14,100 bytes of fixes.

Original Description

Rubicon X was released a long time ago, when Aleph One didn’t have bloom and when its monster activation limits were, by default, much higher than they are now. It hasn’t been updated since, so running it out of the box with no changes has several problems: monsters will randomly deactivate on several levels, and the bloom looks horrible because it defaults to overpoweringly high levels. I’ve created this plugin as an “all-in-one” fix for both these issues. It restores the monster activation limits to their intended values, and it makes the game look decent with bloom.

To run this, just put it in your Rubicon X plugins folder. (If you don’t have one, make a new “Plugins” folder in the “Rubicon X” folder – NOT the “Rubicon Data” folder – and stick this in it.) If you currently have Rubicon X running, you’ll need to quit the app and reload it.

Notes for version 1.0:

First release.

1,150 downloads, 1 review, 4 screenshots, 5.0 rating

Marathon 1984 is a custom 3 map scenario for Marathon Infinity, created in 1997 by Frank 'Elk' Rooke and distributed in the MacAddict issue No. 13 cover CD.

This file contains the Marathon 1984 map file and a patched shapes file in MacBinary II format, compatible with Aleph One, as well as the original installer for classic MacOS also in MacBinary II format.

Contents of the Marathon 1984 original readme file:

Marathon-1984 Scenario

Level construction, textures and terminal art: Frank 'Elk' Rooke Many thanks to Devon Belcher (UESC Marine terminal pict by Devon)

Final merge: 6-16-97

1984 consists of three levels to be played as solo maps only and using Marathon Infinity.

Send your comments or questions to: kfrooke@earthlink.net.

1,007 downloads, 1 review, 7 screenshots, 4.0 rating

Shared with Dr Sumner’s permission. These are his exhaustively detailed spoiler guides for every level of the original releases of Tempus Irae and Tempus Irae 2: The Lost Levels; they’re also accurate for the 2006 Aleph One conversion, but there will be notable differences in the upcoming Redux release (which will hopefully appear later this year).

These guides contain exhaustive walkthroughs of each level in both games with detailed information on their contents, including any bugs Dr Sumner encountered and information on every accessible terminal in each level, including images of each terminal screen and information on where to find them and when they are active. He also notes how he did in his playthrough.

These guides are attuned specifically to his play style: play on Total Carnage; use as little ammo as possible; collect all possible secrets and ammo; and defeat every enemy when practical – in short, one of the most challenging possible approaches to the game (especially since many levels provide limited shield recharges).

They’re also unbelievably comprehensive; the original Nardo spoiler guides, though admirable efforts, pale in comparison. Dr Sumner’s guides have provided us a wealth of useful information on bugs to correct for Redux (for instance, he notes monsters and items that don’t spawn in).

There’s much more where this came from, by the way. I’ll upload more of his guides soon enough.

Edit: I’m hosting several of his spoiler guides on my OneDrive for the time being (currently, Marathon 1, Marathon 2, Tempus Irae, The Lost Levels, Rubicon X, Phoenix 1.3, and Pfh’Joueur). You can find them at https://1drv.ms/u/s!AuD0MykSsmaRmx_NxpRgTRM69vgn?e=fgVHbX

791 downloads, 0 reviews, 0 screenshots

Version 1.0

by Gregory Ewing greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz

This is a set of Ruby plug-in scripts for Google Sketchup to export a model as a Marathon map file that can be played with the Aleph One game engine.

A tutorial is included which demonstrates what's been implemented so far. Start at Tutorial/index.html.

If you have used a previous version of MarathUp, see CHANGES.txt for a summary of added features, and have a look at the new sections in the tutorial.

Licence

This is free software. Share and enjoy.

Notes for version 1.0.1:

This is a working version of the script the Professor helped me fix over email.

Luckily it was found in system files of old computer. It is now safe and sound.

737 downloads, 0 reviews, 1 screenshot

Note: I didn’t create this; Dr Mike Trinder did. All I did was to convert it to a format compatible with modern Aleph One.

Gemini Station (first complete release: July 9, 1997) is a partial conversion for Marathon Infinity with 12 total levels, though players may not see them all every time they play it. Two are secrets and three are brief exposition levels, so it has seven proper levels, of which six are very long. Seriously, they’re huge.

I haven’t played through the whole thing in a while, but it was extremely impressive when it came out; as far as I know, it was the first scenario to incorporate several mapmaking tricks like airlocks and programmable teleporters. I last replayed it two or three years ago and felt it still held up.

As far as I’m aware, the only versions previously available were incomplete conversions that came with a shapes patcher that only ran on MacOS (and I’m not even sure they ran with modern releases). This version includes the patched shapes file, so you don’t have to bother patching the shapes. All you need to do is select the map and the shapes in Marathon Infinity and you’re good. (Make sure to select the shapes!)

Apart from patching the shapes and converting the map to MacBinary format, I haven’t modified any of these files at all; the readmes are even still in Mac OS Roman. Hopefully Dr Trinder won’t mind me making his scenario accessible to modern players; several people have asked for it on Discord over the years, so I figured I’d save people the trouble in the future.

In any case, I strongly recommend this, especially if you haven’t played it. It’s probably in my top 10 Marathon scenarios of all time, and the only things keeping it out of the top 5 are its short length and its relative lack of original assets (there are no new sounds and not many new graphics). However, it still looks phenomenal, and its map design would probably still seem inventive today. The writing is also fantastic.

Note: Screenshots incorporate Goran Svensson’s HD walls & landscapes, Freeverse’s HD weapons, and in some cases W’rkncacnter’s BRUTAL MARATHON plugin. I only spent about twenty minutes on these – they’re probably nowhere near the best sights Gemini Station has to offer. (Also, you probably shouldn’t actually use these plugins with it – certain game functionality is highly likely to break or not look as intended.)

Notes for version 2.0:

Converted from archives.bungie.org upload to formats Aleph One can read on Windows and Linux.

922 downloads, 3 reviews, 4 screenshots, 2.3 rating

Dissent scenario by Thomas Reed. Modified for Aleph One by Mark (no last name).

Website

Notes for version v1.2:

from the readme:

Users must have Aleph One 0.16 or higher. "Marathon Dissent.bin" in the read me folder can be decoded (.bin file) and used with the the decoded (.bin) Image and Map files in classic. The look and feel of the game should be the same. The mml scripts are for text strings and opengl code.

1,256 downloads, 2 reviews, 3 screenshots, 3.0 rating

HD graphics replacements for Aleph One: Pathways Into Darkness

AOPID can be found here: http://simplici7y.com/items/aleph-one-pathways-into-darkness

Notes for version 1.1:

Significantly improved weapons in hand and monsters using an updated model and better processing.

2,016 downloads, 1 review, 7 screenshots, 3.0 rating