The Juggernougat

Marathon

The experience with Pathways into Darkness had taught Bungie two important lessons: One is that without a story a game is a lesser thing and secondly, that it's a lot easier to tell a story with convincing graphics. Roll these two elements together and you've got what's arguably the greatest Macintosh game ever: Marathon.

Although begun as a sequel to Pathways, Marathon was reworked dramatically, both aesthetically and creatively. Set on a starship hurtling through the void in a distant future, you play a lone security guard on the UESC Marathon, fighting off a boarding party of alien slavers. Marathon would introduce elements that would become recurring themes in the Bungie experience – networked play, full 3D movement, state of the art graphics, and advanced, disembodied AI characters that aided the player…

Marathon was released in late 1994, and picked up a number of awards in 1995. It was an unqualified success. Not only did it go toe to toe graphically with PC games like Doom and Descent, it bettered them at every turn with network play, compelling story and sheer energetic originality. The game even supported voice communication using the Mac microphone. It changed Bungie from boutique developer to leading Mac publisher almost overnight.