Marathon

Freeware

The game was released as freeware along with the rest of the Marathon trilogy (see Links/Searches).

Halo

Halo can in many ways be seen as a spiritual successor to the Marathon series; a way of bringing their Marathon innovations to a bigger crowd. The following Halo features stem directly from the Marathon series: * Dual wielded weapons with dual firing modes * Weapon clips * The alien pistol, SPNKR rocket launcher, Needler, magnum megaclass and assault rifle are all direct descendants of Marathon weapons, right down to the names. * Rogue/Rampant AI constructs * Alien technology not even the aliens know what is (The Forerunner in Halo; The Jjaro in Marathon) * "Releasing an ancient terror from the stars upon the universe by activation of ancient alien artifact" (The Wr'knkacnter for Marathon, the Flood for Halo) * The UNSC in Halo is a redux of the UESC of Marathon's United Earth Space Council / United Nations Space Council * Also the Marathon logo is used repeatedly in Halo

Innovations

Marathon is the first first-person shooter released to incorporate a number of features, such as the ability to look and aim up and down, rooms over rooms (though no true bridges), dual-trigger weapons, 4D space, health recharges which were fixed into walls and activated rather than picked up, eight-player deathmatch, the ability to see your opponents' weapons in multiplayer, voice communication and an easy way to save recordings of any game.

Awards

• Computer Gaming World
  • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) - #64 overall among the “150 Best Games of All Time” list
• GameSpy
  • 2001 – #44 Top Game of All Time

Information also contributed by Ace of Sevens, Andreas JS and PCGamer77