So who still plays around these parts?

[Flippant Sol]

Well, I'm not that new. I started making stuff around a month or two ago. I'm mainly concerned with the preservation of Marathon as a video game. That's why I made xBR Monsters for M1, seeing as how it was the only game in the series to not have HD Monsters, aside pfhrom the third-party scenarios.

If I had to rank all of the Marathon games, it would go something like:
Marathon 1 > Marathon 2 > Tempus Irae > Pathways Into Darkness > Rubicon > Infinity > Phoenix > et cetera
Truth be told, I don't like Marathon: Infinity as much as the pfhirst two, for me, it was kinda lacking the humor that made the pfhirst two enjoyable. The level designs to me pfhelt over-designed, and based off of speedrun pfhootage (aperturegrillz), It looks like it's too damn long. I don't pfheel like getting past the pfhourth or pfhifth level, and that is with the Electric Sheep jumps. The drive to pfhinish some of the third party scenarios like Rubicon and Phoenix are shared as well. I think Phoenix is the best Marathon game in terms of gunplay, but other than that, it's Marathon schlock. Rubicon is the 3rd prettiest Marathon game, the 2nd being Eternal, and the 1st being... well, Marathon. That said, it isn't and never was and never will be Marathon IV. I could go on and on about how I pfheel about every Marathon game, but we would be here pfhorever.

Reading 'pfh' probably gets annoying. So, as someone who wants to preserve and "modernize" Marathon, what should I do next?

I could always make more xBR stuff. My algorithm and process still works. I was thinking about taking every texture in Tempus Irae and running it through. Then I would also have xBR Weapons for MInf AND xBR Monsters for MInf. The issue here is simply demand.

That, or I could do "xBR Sounds". It's always bothered me how the people who think sound design in a video game is sacrosanct are the same people who download and play with HD textures. I always wanted if I could to make an "HD Sounds.sndz" file for M1. I realize that nothing like that has ever been tried before, and when I'm gone, it probably will never be tried again. The issue isn't finding a good source of the sounds, it's making new sounds that are respectful towards the originals and follow the same vision as the original creators had in mind. And then putting them into a package that doesn't give you blue outlines.

I dunno. I'll probably be too lazy to do either. Anyways, do people here have a scheduled playdate every month? I used to be part of FCAW, but that is dead. It saddens me that netplay is probably gone forever because no one wants to get online and play, or rather, no one wants to get online and tell ME that they want to play. LOL. If I could just play netplay one more time, I'd be a happy man.

[Wrkncacnter]

People don't generally schedule games like that. At this point if you really want to play, you join the meatserver and wait around for a couple hours and hope someone else that wants to play shows up. Probably 8-12 EST is the most active, even though activity is still pretty rare at those times.

[Flowers]

If I had to rank all of the Marathon games, it would go something like:
Marathon 1 > Marathon 2 > Tempus Irae > Pathways Into Darkness > Rubicon > Infinity > Phoenix > et cetera
Truth be told, I don't like Marathon: Infinity as much as the pfhirst two, for me, it was kinda lacking the humor that made the pfhirst two enjoyable.

After my second paythrough of Marathon 1 I always thought Marathon 1 levels felt too basic, and Infinity maps could sometimes feel too complex or non-linear, or maybe you didn't have a clear idea of what to do (I'm looking at you Thing What Kicks). Durandal was a perfect balance for me though. I'm surprised you ranked Rubicon over Infinity, I'm playing through Rubicon for the first time myself and navigating the maps can be very difficult at times for me and I often get lost rather easily.

If I could just play netplay one more time, I'd be a happy man.

I used to find a lot of multiplayer activity back in 2011...when I played on the xbox 360, oddly enough. Although I think half of the time I found a lobby was when I accidentally joined a FCAW game without knowing it. Sometimes I randomly join the netplay lobby now days (on AO now, of course) and there's usually a few people hanging around still. I wouldn't imagine it'd be too hard to get in some multiplayer games but I wouldn't actually know :/

[Flippant Sol]

After my second paythrough of Marathon 1 I always thought Marathon 1 levels felt too basic, and Infinity maps could sometimes feel too complex or non-linear, or maybe you didn't have a clear idea of what to do (I'm looking at you Thing What Kicks). Durandal was a perfect balance for me though. I'm surprised you ranked Rubicon over Infinity, I'm playing through Rubicon for the first time myself and navigating the maps can be very difficult at times for me and I often get lost rather easily.

It's funny that you say that, because Marathon was the first time I had ever played a """""""""""""""""""2.5D FPS""""""""""""""""""" and for me the level design was daunting. You have to know, I wasn't a person who lived when these games were relevant in the mid 1990's, I found these games retroactively by playing Halo. Hell, I could barely walk out of Waterloo Waterpark, and it took me a good week to navigate the maintenance shafts of Arrival. But No Cede Malis? I couldn't get out of the sewage for like a year because I just gave up and played the vidmaster levels instead.
Part of the fun that came with Marathon: Infinity was switching up the physics and sounds and shapes. The idea that I could digitize my fist and turn it into a weapon in the game blow my 13 year old mind. Yeah yeah, there were many PC games that could do the same stuff, but this was a Mac game being played on a low end PC and it was open source.

So why do I like Tempus Irae so much? I dunno.

[Flowers]

To be completely honest, there's still a good amount of levels in Infinity I'm not familiar with all too well. Every playthrough of Post Naval Trauma is a nightmare. So is one thousand slimy things, Foe Hammer and to a lesser extent By Committee. I'm not sure what it is about these levels, but I just don't "get" them and my brain cannot be familiarized with them at all. But I'm proud to exclaim that at the very least I know every M2 level by heart. Marathon 2 was the first Marathon game I ever played. I too played Marathon retroactively, just much, much later on. I played the demo for the Xbox live arcade version and my god it messed with me. Not only was it my first experience with 2.5D, but I think the ecks bawks version might have been 60 FPS as well, so I had constant motion sickness when playing it and got frequent headaches too. It was fun though! Fun enough to pick up the series again in full years later.

So why do I like Tempus Irae so much? I dunno.

I love Tempus irae. I'm only 2/3rd through it but it's been a lot of fun, definitely my personal favorite scenario so far. I can't put my finger on it but everything feels very natural and fun, while sometimes in other scenarios it feels like the creator was trying too hard to think of something interesting. Just my two cents.

[Awup]

I like netplay, I played matches with two different players yesterday. If you have discord, join the Marathon discord and highlight me when you want to play. We will figure something out!

[General-RADIX]

I only hop on the Meatserver once in a blue moon, but I can talk at length about story/scenario stuff any time (well, any time I check my inbox or the Story Forum).

wrt: Tempus Irae, I personally like it for its unique premise (in the context of Marathon scenarios); it's my second-favourite scenario behind Rubicon and Eternal, which I feel both have some of the best stories of any scenario I've played thus far. Following that would be Phoenix (still haven't completed it, but the level design is excellent), RED (distinctive art direction and atmosphere, plus an interesting tonal shift from the Trilogy), and Pfh'Joueur (odd direct fan-sequel to M2 with an at-times melancholy mood). EVIL plays alright, but the story's a jumbled mess with a side order of Errand Boy Syndrome.