0: Marathon Trilogy Book Presentation

Marathon Triogy Book Presentation. Hey check it out! Now, This isn't an ordinary run and gun scenario, actually this is just the running part actually. You'll be running from Terminal to Terminal, going through the presentation. The map has enemies, but they wont bother you, I hope this doesn't disappoint you. I could have put the presentation all in one Terminal, but experience tells me that long terminals lead to impatience and irritability. And seeing as this is a persuasive presentation, irritability is the last thing I'm going for. So take a break whenever you feel like it. (((2 TERMINAL SECTIONS)))

Now when your reading through the Terminals 1. Read for understanding. If impatience sets in, take a break, you only got forever. 2. When reading, The voice you read with shouldn't be that of a fan... Instead, think of a person that you deeply respect reading the presentaion to you. I have high self-esteem but a fan is a fan. And are fans really taken seriously? 3. Be open minded. (Note: I didn't quite learn Forge well enough to have the teleporter in the center of the map activate after your done. DONT STAND ON IT UNTIL YOUR DONE WITH THE PRESENTATION.)

When the Presentation is done, head to the central teleporter that will take you to the Decision Room. Doog will instruct you when you get there. Intro: 2 TERMINAL SECTIONS. Intro cont: 3 TERMINAL SECTIONS. MTBP Start: 1 TERMINAL SECTIONS. MTBP Term1: 10 TERMINAL SECTIONS. MTBP Term2: 16 TERMINAL SECTIONS. MTBP Term3: TERMINAL SECTIONS. MTBP Term4: TERMINAL SECTIONS. DecRoom: TERMINAL SECTIONS. Oh, to relieve the stress of guessing when long terminals are going to end, I've given the numbers above.

Run clockwise around the Map. This may technically be a game but the content in these terminals are entirely proffesional and factual based on its sources. I'll be straight forward with this. Telling you what I'm telling you now may be the one unproffesional thing in this presentation. I've made this presentation to try and convince you into making a Marathon Trilogy Book. OR Into creating a book that takes place after Infinity. Now dont turn this off until you've heard the presention, I believe its got some persuasive stuff in it.

Marathon It started and came out in 1994 and was a great FPS for its time, though I only found out about it until late 2004, a full 10 years after its release. I found that unlike its Doom counterpart, Marathon had a very fluent story that was moved on by Terminals liberally placed around the levels. The story of Marathon is a great one, and playing through it is like sitting down reading a story, except your shooting aliens. So I guess creating Marathon made you the story teller and your fans like me the children intently listening, all of you around a campfire.

... Well maybe that was a bit too dramatic, kill all Pfhor bastards.

Marathon 2: Durandal A continuation after the events aboard the Marathon where Durandal took control of the Pfhor ship and took you, the spht, and an army of former colonists, to the Spht homeworld where you seek out the Spht'Kr a lost clan of Spht hopefully capable of destroying the Pfhor. In the end it comes to a victory, the Pfhor on and around the planet are routed, the Spht'Kr take revenge, Blake and his men escape, and Tycho dies. As for the Player and Durandal, I dont really know, Durandal tells know one of what he learned remember?

Then it ended...

Now if I'm right, all the Marathon fans at the time thought it was over. It wasn't, later Marathon Infinity came out.

Marathon: Infinity Hard to tell what the story is, if you have the time, you can correct any discrepancies in my interpretation of the story. (spelling too) Soon after everyone left, things went awry. The Pfhor, with the help of Tycho, a former Marathon A.I. set a trap for Durandal. After forcing Durandal to flee, the Pfhor used the Trih'xeem. This unleashed the W'rkcacnter, an ancient chaos entity. So you go dimension hopping, killing humans, Pfhor, and whatever else your told to kill until you reach a dimension a few minutes before the release of the W'rkcacnter.

Then it ended... After a VERY confusing monologue by who I think was Durandal. ... Eh?

Now, I dont really know for sure,--nor does anyone else but you guys--know if the end of Marathon Infinity conflicts with that of Marathon 2. I found, like I said earlier that playing through the Marathon Trilogy was like that of reading a book. Only this book had not a few holes but deep canyons in the story, questions arise from these crevices such as "What happened to the Player?" Dont Focus on this question, there are much more important questions.

Jason Jones once said "The really hard thing about the story is there are so many different ways to tell a story, there are so many different good stories. Telling a story in a game is different from telling a story in a book because a huge part of the story in a game is just, leaning flavor to the times when your playing it. With a book you can cover all the stories in Marathon! Well, Maybe not all, But maybe all the significant ones that we'd just love to hear about!

That is why I think that a Marathon Trilogy Book would be a benifit to all of us who love Marathon. Now your probably thinking "well what about us?" The answer is complicated and will be covered in the second part of this presentation. Please hurry this terminal is the first of four, and with every passing moment, your chance to create a book is fading. Go.

These statistics are based off of the Halo copies sold in comparison to the Halo book copies sold. Now how many Marathon Downloads/Copies Sold have there been since the release of Marathon up until 2005? Searching through Bungie Forums I got "Alot" for an answer. Well the number is got to be big, And now seeing as you've released the Marathon Trilogy as a free download, Its not hard to see that this may very well the LAST time the Popularity of Marathon peaks as far as its ever been in a long time. If theres been a good time, this is it!

Problems, Snags, whatever you call them are ever present in book writing, And I'd be biased if I didn't tell you of all that I am aware of. 1. Who will write it? A: Well, you guys are busy with your next project so unless you got him working on a Halo 2/3 book for Halo, you should call on Eric Nylund, he's my favorite book author, he depicted the covenant perfectly, have him do the same for the Pfhor! But for the love of god dont get William C. Dietz to do it. I'm sorry if you liked him, but I dont like the way he depicted the Aliens in "The Flood" If not Nylund, get some other guy, just not Dietz. Yayap? Zuka? Augh.

2. Who will clarify the story? A: I dont know if your guys' schedules are a problem, but if its not, then who other than Jason Jones or Greg Kirkpatrick to do the job? They made the original Trilogy's story, shouldn't they be the ones to Finish it? 3. Do they have the time? Are they even available? A: I dont know if you guys have the time but as for Availability...

Jason Jones, Your obviously available. I again dont know if you have the time to clarify the accuracy of the author's depiction of the story, unless you yourself were to write it. But I doubt you have THAT sort of time.

Greg Kirkpatrick,

errr...

Hmmm I couldn't get any information to asertain the availability of Greg, whatever he's doing, if he ever wants to he could be the Author, or at least clarify the Author on his story if not. NOTE: Oh, and by "clarify" I mean that you can actually tell them what happens, then clarify, not just have the Author make stuff up. C'mon, you guys HAD to have had thoughts on how everything happened, I always told myself that the story was out there. In the creator's minds of course.

4. What will the Author write about? Theres a Huge answer to this question, I'm sure you know or knew the answer to this already but I've gone over a few us fans would really like to see! Or read. NOTE: The Possible, most Popular stories are assorted in the 3rd Terminal of this Presentation. But there are still some issues that need to be covered here.

5. Too many new characters too fast. A problem that could occur would be if you develop new characters into the story that are not mentioned or not in a group mentioned in the games, this is only bad if not done smoothly. This was evident in the second Halo book, The Flood Too many new characters too fast. In First Strike, the new characters seemed to fit some how. It was done smoothly. I guess the new guys in The Flood were put in to abruptly because there was no clue of there existence. In First Strike however, you could relate to the new characters. I cant explain why.

In short, only have characters in the book that were mentioned or in a group mentioned specifically in the games. Like Mckay and Silva, in The Flood, we all know Marines are a group in Halo but Mckay and Silva weren't specifically mentioned. Perhaps they were just too important in the story. Like introducing a new character that saves us all in the final moments of Halo 3. This would be bad. Thats how I felt about reading The Flood, introducing new characters that are too influential is bad. I think thats what I meant. I'm really sorry if that was confusing. Back to the Presentation.

I guess a good example would be the Spartans in The Fall of Reach the other Spartans, though un-named, were mentioned in the manual of Halo. So in Marathon, "Fusion Unit Alpha" mentioned in the Infinity Terminal at the end of the level "Naw man he's close" would be an acceptable group of characters to name. But in The Flood There were a few MAJOR characters that bothered me, two officers; Lieutenant McKay, and Major Silva. Both were completely devoid of any clues to there existence, especially that AI Wellsey or whatever, he shouldn't have existed at all.

Pfhor Personalities, I wouldn't like this, not done straight out anyway. For example: "Isna 'Nosolee held his breath" "Are you the one called Yayap?" "Enough, We're running late, lets get on with it Zuka 'Zammamee comes before the council seeking special dispersion..." "all humans look alike and all are equally annoying" "Now this is a battle" said the elite as his freind's head got blown away. This is unacceptable, the Covies aren't human. But seeing as Halo 2 set the bar that they could speak english I wont say no more. What I will clarify is that Pfhor CANT speak English and thats final. I dont know about other aliens, but I have a solution if you need an alien to speak...

A good way to have alien speech critical to the story spoken, is to do what you did in the Games. The player got to see a Pfhor written Terminal at times, the Terminal was TRANSLATED to english. Do that in the book. Also, Blake sometimes told the Player what the spht told him. But there was never any time when a spht went out and spoke to the player in english. There must be an alternative to aliens speaking english. Have the human characters be reading off of alien written terminals through a translator. Note: I'm sorry to be over suggestive but I find that people didnt like the personification of the Aliens in The Flood.

STORY FORMAT I believe the best course of action would be to just look at the short stories you gave us in the manual of each game. However, 1st game was from 1st person perspective, 2nd game was from 3rd person perspective, 3rd game was from Pfhor perspective, ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ be careful with this perspective as already suggested. All in all, I'll leave making the book 1st or 3rd person completely up to you guys.

Some of these "Problems really aren't problems at all, just specifications that I think will prevent any problems. An "I think I speak for everyone when" kind of thing. Anyhoo, Dont name the character. Thats the bottom line. Not that you would, but unlike Master Cheif whose name is John 117, I dont think theres a good name for the main character in Marathon. One of the third party scenarios named him Marcus... I just wasn't right. You know what I mean?

Any other Economic question is covered in the beggining of the terminal. I may have... I missed alot of potential problems, mostly because I'm unaware of them, so I'm sorry. Other than that, after all I've said, I hope you cant answer the question of "why not make a Marathon Trilogy book. If not, there are 2 more terminals. The next terminal will go over all the stories we'd like to see, and some that could simply fill up pages to make it a "novel". NOTE: All major must-be-told stories are in bold lettering. The fillers are not.

Remember this? 4. What will the Author write about? Theres a Huge answer to this question, I'm sure you know or knew the answer to this already but I've gone over a few us fans would really like to see! Or read. Well this terminal will cover everything we'd all like to see. In my opinion. Add any under the likely event I am wrong or have missed any.

Ok, What will the Book have? This is really entirely up to you guys. As in making the book at all is too. Anyway, this is what us Marathoners would like to see if you decide to make a book. Add more as I'm sure I've missed a few. NOTE: Remember Titles in Bold are the most popular and are pretty much required in my opinion, Underlined means they can be required if you think its nessecary.

The Fall of Tau Ceti IV I think it would be interesting if we could know the story of the Tau Ceti invasion ON Tau Ceti. We can play through the Marathon Invasion, but not on Tau Ceti. It was made clear that 9 out of the 10 Mjolnr Cyborgs that turned the tide of the Pfhor ground assault, then later them and the rest of the Colony were nuked down to nothing. Though they were nuked, it doesn't mean the colony wasn't hit by yet another ground assault before they were bombarded. Think Matrix Revolutions, or maybe more like the Animatrix, Only with Cyborgs, Rallying colonists, all with MA5B's.

Yeah, Animatrix "The second Renaissance Part II" I'm only assuming you've seen it. And then a Matrix Revolutions battle for Blake and his men, just before the Spht'Kr intervene. If stuff like that happened. I'll be over suggestive, but I want to keep it Factual Marathon wise. So ignore me if I suggest something totally out of what you thought happened, then ignore me, Otherwise it'll be a fanfic and thats not what I want. I want to know what happened.

On the way to Lh'owon (or in search of) This to me would generally be a filler if the book still needs thickening, Durandal, the Spht, they had to have some kind of adventure hopping about the galaxy for 17 years, teaching the UESC how to make Warp Capable Fusion Missles, the Battle over Lh'owon just before the events of Marathon 2 etc.

M2 - MI mix. This I dont really know how to explain, I'm assuming that some events-- if not all -- events in Marathon Infinity occured in Marathon 2, we just didn't see it in Marathon 2 such as Acme Station' from Marathon Infinity. You know the ones where you work for Durandal... If the events correspond, maybe they should be specified somehow to give Marathon players a better of not full understanding about the events on Lh'owon.

Blake and his Men. This, ultimately could make a book all it's own. Dont you agree? If the author thinks the story's plot is dulling out, he/she can just use Blake to bring action back to the story. Perhaps there could be a Matrix Revolutions battle as Blake and his men make a last stand just before the Spht'Kr come. Perhaps on Blake's Odyssey home, him and his men have an untold adventure that makes Earth a better place as they return. Ignore that if thats not how it happened. But speaking of Earth...

Earth So hows it going on Earth in the 28th Century? I'd just like to know. You know, how did the events of Marathon effect Earth? Or maybe a Prologue that depicts Earth before Marathon.

High Technology Races They were only mentioned once during the Original Marathon on the Level "Try Again" "extensive use of subservient client races for man``u`~~~al labor at home and as soldiers abroad. Most of their slaves are takenee from low-technology worlds~~~~~~~l1p, often by the hundreds of U*^*ILJEHJ~~~~~~~asfgk]86 87;o hairless light-skinned bipeds, nearly two meters in height, with three red eyes arranged in a triangular patter\];POP"" ];R+IP+2441`4` thousands at a tim`~~~e, usually for sale to high-technology races."

The evidence of High Technology races is among scattered jibberish, but from what I can tell, the Pfhor rose to Prominance by selling slaves to high technology races, therefore if the Pfhor are our Enemy, so must be those high technology races. And I believe the Fall of the Pfhor empire would undermine those High Technology races and cause unrest perhaps even war between themselves. So either they destroy each other, or the UESC will soon have to deal with them wont they?

The Three AIs Self explanitory right? Does Tycho ever really die? What happened to Leela? Did Durandal manage to escape the closure of the universe? and if so How?

Like already stated earlier, "There are so many good stories." If I missed any include them if you'd like. This is all assuming if you will even want to create a book. On the Marathon Story page, their is a quote from Leela; "There are obviously many things which we do not understand, and may never be able to." This what I want to change. We just know so little... If the book doesn't prove Leela wrong, it'll at least change the word "many" into "few."

Well, we've covered info, statistics, stories, now for more reasons why a book would be good. This next terminal will cover that, and another thing that compelled me to look for the Tru7h in Marathon. So much so that I wasted 24 hours trying to get presentation software just to learn the cost was over $100, then realizing I could use the Marathon Map Editor as Presentation software. (I hope this doesn't offend you.) Then I had to learn how to get Forge running on PC then how to work the accursed thing, then writing terminals and learning how to put them in my map, then Polishing it. 24 hours of work over a 5 month period. Slow.

The last Bungie created Marathon was Marathon Infinity. "Infinity" refering to that Infinite pattern stated at the end of the game, Infinity also refers to the infinite story endings you can make up with the map making softwate that came with Marathon Infinity. Thats the same software I used to make this. "Infinite" was the word.

So many variations came out, they were good for a time. Clean and pure. But as time went on they got bigger, and as time went on, they got Bizarre. But the biggest ones so far are: Marathon Rubicon Marathon Eternal Marathon EVIL Marathon Trojan etc.

Some of these seemed like perfect sequels to Infinity. Some however, should not be called Marathon. Such as Tempus Irae or Eternal. These and others either mutilate the story line, or have such bizarre storylines and imagery that you forget the past original Marathons. As games they were great. But as Marathon games, they were bad. They were some twisted deformed deterioration of what used to be Marathon. I believe that these games are a symbol of whats happening. Like cloning, the more clones you make, the less identical to the original they are. (This theory comes from "Farscape" a Sci-Fi Original Series.)

If you disagree with me, compare some 3rd party scenarios to the originals and you'll see how good, yet un-marathon they are. Although, they could be considered legitiment, the Marathon Infinity Infinite pattern has every sort of story, like the old TIME TUNNEL shows, or SLIDERS, another Sci-Fi channel series. I didn't like Sliders, but its a good example of what I am talking about. An infinite amount of worlds. And there always trying to get back to there own dimension. Thats kind of what I'm trying to do. In other words, if there are an infinite number of endings, where is yours?

Not to mention that if you do release a book, the life expectancy of Marathon shall increase dramatically. How? You have over a million fans of Marathon, they'll buy the books, more importantly the 3rd party map makers will now know the story and scenarios will be soon to follow! This will make scenarios more factual, and give more Marathonish feel to 3rd party scenarios. No more Gothic or Psychotic scenarios! or at least alot less. NOTE: Again, its not that the more bizarre marathon scenarios are bad games, there just not Marathon! I hope you know where (I'm coming from.)

The rest of the presentation will be "reminders/other" part of the information I give to you. So what its really saying is that in a persuasive perspective I'm running out of ammunition. So all in all, I hope you can make a book for all of us marathon fans. Notify us in advance, and we'll buy the book. Make a big enough deal out of it and even the Halo fans will come, put an advertisement in the Halo 2/3 book if ones coming. There are connections in Halo to Marathon that I've already mentioned in the beggining. They'll have to see what your so proud of!

One final thing to the Author, if you decide to make a book. ------------------------------------------- There is a Strategy to keeping things Marathonish that Map makers shared with me. The strategy is to play the chapter screens of the Marathon game your sequeling every 20 minutes until done. They really set the mood. I didn't apply this here but it still gives you a clue on how the player (or reader) should feel as he goes through your project. All together, just give it feeling as you apply content to the story that covers what we'd all like to know.

"Marathon, Marathon 2: Durandal, and Marathon Infinity are more than just excellent games for the Mac OS and Windows 95 (Marathon 2 only), they tell a 'story'. It is a complex story revealed in a novel way through a series of computer interface terminals." This is a quote from the Marathon Story page. It is like a Novel, so what could be the harm in making one?

Clarifying Statement: If I were to be direct I'd go out and say... "I want you to make a book about Marathon that covers everything we didn't see in the games. That was the objective of this entire presentation, I read the entire presentation and got just a little bit so I thought I'd clarify my objective.

The book is not a question of "why?" Its a question of "why the hell not?"

Now that the Marathon Trilogy is FreeWare, this may be the last time interest in Marathon peaks to its highest ever again. Time isn't short, but its now or never.

We know you guys value Marathon, its all over halo and halo 2. Dont deny it. The Marathon Symbol is everywhere in Halo. Johnson says "You think your big time? Your gonna die big time." in Halo 2. Halo 2 level subtitles like "Delusions and Grandeur" like of that Marathon MP map. If your proud of it, help it live longer and happier! ... I dont know about the happy part, but help it live anyways.

Its time for you to go to the Decision Room Do as you wish, but tell me yes or no and why at MTRUPPE@Hotmail.com I just hope, as said earlier. You'll be able to look at this and say "thats the most amount of sense I've heard all day. ... Or not, it made sense to me anyway.

Lets make this quick... Quick because the speech I originally made for this Terminal got erased in a horrible event with my Mac Emulator. Anyway, quickly. Are you going to make a book? You dont have to make a book immidiately, just eventually. Please make something happen, alot of time was put into this. Left Terminal "NO". Right Terminal "YES". Go Right! The "right" way.

DAMN.

Good for you!