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Many devoted Mac gamers no doubt smile when someone mentions Marathon, Bungie's venerable first-person shooter. One of the first 3D action titles for the Mac, this title spawned two sequels and inspired a legion of fans to take advantage of its Mac-only modification tools.

In homage to this title, Jesse Simko, maintainer of the Marathon Open Source: Aleph One website, has written up an article for idevgames.com. Titled "Marathon is Back," Simko goes into the history and development of Marathon and its engines, culminating up to the release and modifications of the current Aleph One engine.

Here's a clip from Simko's early recollections of Marathon:

On the Macintosh platform, Bungie was one of the first A-title developers to release their source code. When Bungie released the Marathon source code to the public I immediately realized that this was a potentially great thing for Mac gaming. As one of the few Mac-first 3D action games, Marathon has always held a special place in the minds of Macintosh gamers. Unlike the majority of A-title games that started on the PC and were later ported to the Mac, Marathon was a game that Mac users could point to and say "Mac first".

Anyone who still has a soft spot for Marathon should definitely give Simko's article a read - it's a great trip down memory lane for early adopters of Marathon, an interesting look at its current permutation, and a good example of just how far an engine can come when worked at.

Marathon Open Source: Aleph One

idevgames.com - Marathon is Back

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