5 ms·

I still feel Marathon was at equal level, even surpassed it in several areas. And released maybe a couple of months after Doom. But it was only known by Macint

by wsc981 3y ago

I still feel Marathon was at equal level, even surpassed it in several areas. And released maybe a couple of months after Doom. But it was only known by Macintosh gamers at the time. In which ways I feel Marathon was better: - better light effects - ability to look up and down - secondary effects on various weapons - deep story (done through interactions with computer terminals) - variety in physics based on levels and weapons (e.g. grenade launcher) is affected by physics - having to deal with oxygen depletion in some levels - some AI that aids you (defense drones that support your fight against the aliens) - more variety in level objectives (e.g. prevent humans from being killed by aliens) - more comprehensive multiplayer (I believe Doom supported 4 players; Marathon supported 8 - Marathon has more types of multiplayer games than just Deathmatch). I think Jason Jones [0] was probably at an equal level as John Carmack at this point in his career. A deeper comparison between the 2 game engines can be found here: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/78805-marathon-vs-doom-article/ https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/78805-marathon-vs-doom... --- [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Jones_(programmer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Jones_(programmer)

rvba 3y ago
Sounds like an example of releasing a good product on a relatively unpopular machine.
- ngcazz 3y ago
  Marathon was better on paper, but as far as visceral gameplay experiences go it lagged behind Doom quite a bit
  - davexunit 3y ago
    Yeah, I had heard of Marathon but never watched any gameplay. Watched some stuff on YouTube and it's not nearly as entertaining as Doom, imo.
  - __david__ 3y ago
    Despite it having more or less the same graphics tech it's a very different game. It's slower paced, more atmospheric, and with more story. The story in doom was a single page of text after beating each episode. Marathon had in-game computer terminals where they drip fed the story of the Marathon and its AI that was going "rampant" (interestingly Microsoft borrowed that idea for Halo 4, the first one that Bungie didn't create).

by wsc981 3y ago

rvba 3y ago

Sounds like an example of releasing a good product on a relatively unpopular machine.

ngcazz 3y ago
Marathon was better on paper, but as far as visceral gameplay experiences go it lagged behind Doom quite a bit
- davexunit 3y ago
  Yeah, I had heard of Marathon but never watched any gameplay. Watched some stuff on YouTube and it's not nearly as entertaining as Doom, imo.
- __david__ 3y ago
  Despite it having more or less the same graphics tech it's a very different game. It's slower paced, more atmospheric, and with more story. The story in doom was a single page of text after beating each episode. Marathon had in-game computer terminals where they drip fed the story of the Marathon and its AI that was going "rampant" (interestingly Microsoft borrowed that idea for Halo 4, the first one that Bungie didn't create).