The Pfhorums

Is there a way to play this game in a more vanilla fashion? Or rather, something like a Chocolate Marathon?
(As in, a modern version designed to play like the original "vanilla" version with changes only made for compatibility and controls.)

This is pretty sweet to be able to play this game again, but I'm fairly sure that the original version I played on my Macintosh Performa back in the 90's didn't have such high resolution textures with all these detail textures in them. I'm fairly sure the HUD was a little more cumbersome too.
It's been a long time since I played this game, so it wouldn't surprise me if there were other changes made to this that I'm not picking up on. But mostly I'm just thinking that I'd like to see the textures and sprites as they originally were.

Is that an option? Is there a way to see Aleph One run looking like the original?

Yep! First go into plugins (in preferences / environment), and turn off basically all the plugins. If you are running original Marathon, you will still need the classic HUD plugin enabled.

Next go to graphics preferences. You still want to use OpenGL, but turn off bloom, and change all the near and distant texture filters to "None".

With those settings, you should get a close-to-vanilla experience. The save terminals work a little differently, and there are minor bugs fixed here and there (like sliding on descending platforms). Some of the fader effects don't quite match the original, and of course the UI is different because we don't have the Macintosh toolbox. So, French vanilla?

Hey, that's what I was looking for! Honestly I feel like half of those high-res textures look kinda cheap and amateurish.

While we're going over settings to make the game look more like its classic self, what about the graphics options for fog, static effect, transparent liquids, and color effects? Each of those potentially could have been possible on the classic hardware, so I'm not completely sure if they were in the original. Conceivably, they could have been optional to help the game run on weaker machines, but I honestly just don't know.
Were those options available in the original, or is this a modern enhancement?

Also, what does the "color effects" even do? I don't see a difference.

And... not related to the subject, but is there a way to assign multiple key bindings? I know this sounds unusual, but I would like to assign the "use" key to both the E key and the spacebar. I don't mind editing some sort of system file to do it, but of course it has to be an option first.

The original could not do fog or transparent liquids. Static and color effects were always enabled in the original.

Color effects change the screen when you pick up ammo, or get hit by a compiler bolt, for example. They are approximated in OpenGL; a future version will feature more authentic faders.

There's no way to assign multiple keys to the same action in either the original or Aleph One.

Ah, thank you!

When Aleph One 1.3 comes out (or if you use the latest beta release), I recommend using Software mode over OpenGL. Set the resolution to 640x480, but you can leave it in fullscreen.

Eventually, I'd like to add a "Classic" vs. "Enhanced" choice when you first run a scenario, to make the setup easier.

You can just do what I did and have two builds for each main game with their own preferences.
I'm sure there's a more efficient way of doing this, but I can't be bothered.