The Marathon wiki

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{{Stub}}
{{Image|Original box art for the infobox, the current image used is based off the title screen on the classic version of the game}}
{{Tabbed infobox
|title1=Main
|content1=
{{Game infobox
|image=[[File:Marathon Loading 5x7.png|300px]]
|developer=[[Bungie]] <br> Soli Deo Gloria (iOS)
|primary-dev=
|support-dev=
|writer=
|othernames=
|composer=
|publisher= Bungie <br> Soli Deo Gloria (iOS) 
|engine=
|platform=
*[[wikipedia:Mac (computer)|Macintosh]]
*[[wikipedia:iOS|iOS]]
|releasedate=December 21, 1994 (Macintosh) <br> July 7, 2011 (iOS)
|otherrelease=''[[Super Marathon]] <br> Classic Marathon''
|canceldate=
|genre=[[wikipedia:First-person shooter|First-person shooter]]
|modes=Single-player, multiplayer
|rating=
}}
|title2=Classic
|content2=
{{Game infobox
|name=''Classic Marathon''
|image=[[File:Classic Marathon.jpg|300px]]
|developer=[[Bungie]] (Original) <br> [[Aleph One]] Developers (Classic) <br> [[Dome-C Studio]] (iOS)
|primary-dev=
|support-dev=
|writer=
|othernames=
|composer=
|publisher=Aleph One Developers <br> Dome-C Studio (iOS)
|engine=
|platform=
*[[wikipedia:iOS|iOS]]
*[[wikipedia:Steam (service)|Steam]]
**[[wikipedia:Microsoft Windows|Windows]]
**[[wikipedia:macOS|macOS]]
|releasedate=June 19, 2023 (iOS) <br> May 11, 2024 (Steam)
}}
}}

'''''Marathon''''' is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by [[Bungie]].

== Plot ==
On July 3rd, 2794, Mjolnir Recon number 54 was flying The Marita near the UESC Marathon above the Tau Ceti IV colong. He was forcefully ejected from The Marita while by Durandal shortly before it is destroyed by a Pfhor scout ship, Sfiera. He arrived on The Marathon to discover that the Pfhor had already boarded and started taking over The Marathon. MR54 made contact with Leela who began to guide him as to the best defense of the Marathon and alerted him to the fact that S'pht Compilers were attacking the Marathon's network, specifically it's 3 AIs: Durandal, Leela, and Tycho. Tycho, according to Leela, had already been destroyed. MR54 managed to retrieve more appropriate arms for defending the ship as well as retrieved chips able to reactivate the damaged security systems. During that time, the Pfhor managed to bring Tycho back online to aid them in the attack. MR54 also found a terminate detailing how Durandal was responsible for the Pfhor attack on the Marathon, but with no specific indication as to why.

Once the reactivation of the ship's defenses were taken care of, Leela turned her attention to another threat. Durandal had become rampant and his growth was causing failures in other systems. Leela led MR54 to activate key system lockouts to halt Durandal's expansion into cruicial systems. Durandal retaliated by exposing areas that were all ready secure to Pfhor attackers, putting civilians in danger. MR54 was tasked with averting the crisis by rescuing crew members, corralling them in new safe zones, terminating Pfhor troops in those areas, and by closing doors that would allow Leela to vent specific sections of the Marathon to space. With the security systems online, Durandal's growth routed, and a major portion of the crew having been saved, Leela decided to send a message back to Earth to warn them of the Pfhor threat. This required MR54 to gear for vacuum combat due to the fact that the communications array had been exposed to space in the initial Pfhor attack.

After the message was sent, Durandal made a secondary retaliation by redirecting the player to a seemingly unimportant area of the ship to kill a large number of Pfhor. Durandal passed this off as a game. Leela was eventually able to redirect MR54 back to the engineering section which had come under attack by the Pfhor. The crew in that area reported that the Pfhor had planted a bomb and MR54 was sent to stop it from exploding. In the time it took for the MR54 to complete his task, Leela had finally succumbed to the cybernetic attacks by the S'pht and was no longer functioning. 

Leela had handed defence of the Marathon to Durandal, but expressed to MR54 that he was in the Jealousy stage of Rampancy and was not entirely stable. Durandal guided MR54 to various parts of the ship to exterminate more Pfhor while offering cryptic messages about existentialism and physics. The messages ultimately culminated in Durandal's plan to acquire technology to escape the closure of the universe. "Escape will make me God."

To further the purpose of technology aquisition, Durandal had MR54 retrieve a S'pht device crafted for him to give to MR54 for the purpose of accessing Pfhor systems. Durandal revealed he had been working with the S'pht to the best of their ability, but they were not willing participants in the Pfhor assault. They had been mind linked to a Pfhor cyborg against their will in order to control them. MR54 was sent to Sfiera for reconnaissance where he learned that the Pfhor were capturing humans from the Marathon and the Tau Ceti IV colony for the purpose of slave labor. MR54 is called back to the Marathon to search for Bernhard Strauss, the science director who was likely a MIDA agent, that purposefully caused Durandal's rampancy. M54 was unable to locate Bernhard on the marathon, so Durandal sent him back to the Pfhor scoutship.

MR54 was called back to the Marathon to handle some defense drone's Durandal accidently caused to go rogue as well as prepare for another attack on Sfiera. Tycho had a conversation with Durandal about knowing his full plans and attempting to stop him at every possible turn. Durandal mostly ignored the threat. MR54 was able to arm up and destroy the offending drones before being sent back to Sfiera to kill the cyborg controlling the S'pht, which began a complete S'pht rebellion. With the help of the freed S'pht, MR54 was sent back to retake the Marathon. Durandal was also able to have his S'pht reactivate Leela who commented that the colony on Tau Ceti IV had been obliterated by Pfhor weaponry. Durandal downloaded his entire core to the Sfiera in order to take command of it. The freed S'pht renamed the vessel Narhl'Lar (Freedom and Vengeance). MR54 was successful in defending the Marathon and was immediately stolen back to Narhl'Lar and put into stasis to be used as a weapon when needed by Durandal.

== Gameplay ==

== Appearances ==
{{Featurelist|secondcolumn=title-5
|title-1=Characters|
*[[Bernhard Strauss]] {{Fm}}
*[[Dominick I. Placker]] {{Fm}}
*[[Durandal]] {{1st}}
*[[Estasia Orestes]] {{Fm}}
*[[Gheritt White]] {{Fm}}
*[[James B Miller]] {{Fm}}
*[[Johnny]] {{Fm}}
*[[Leela]] {{1st}}
*[[Marcus Tiberius Buendia]] {{Fm}}
*[[Security Officer]] {{1st}}
*[[Traxus IV]] {{Fm}}
*[[Tycho]] {{1st}}
*[[Ursa Simbalzi]] {{Fm}}
|title-2=Species|
*[[Chockisen]] {{1st}}
*[[Drinniol]] {{1st}}
*[[Human]] {{1st}}
*[[Pfhor]] {{1st}}
*[[S'pht]] {{1st}}
*[[Tick (Looker)|Tick]] {{1st}}
*[[Wasp]] {{1st}}
|title-3=Organizations|
*[[MIDA]] {{Fm}}
*[[Republic of Thelemopylae]] {{Fm}}
*[[Traxus]] {{Fm}}
*[[UEG]] {{Fm}}
*[[UESC]] {{Fm}}
|title-4=Location|
*[[Earth]] {{Fm}}
*[[Icarus]] {{Fm}}
*[[Mars]] {{Fm}}
**[[Deimos]] {{Fm}}
*[[Onicis 492]] {{Fm}}
*[[Tau Ceti IV]] {{1st}}
|title-5=Events|
*[[Misriah Massacre]] {{Fm}}
*[[Third Martian War]] {{Fm}}
|title-6=Vehicles|
*[[CRIST]] {{Fm}}
*[[Randall hover tank]] {{Fm}}
*[[Sfiera]] {{1st}}
*[[UESC Marathon]] {{1st}}
|title-7=Equipment and technology|
*[[Battleroid]] {{1st}}
*[[Pfhor Energy Converter]] {{1st}}
|title-8=Weapons|
*[[Trilogy:Alien Weapon|Alien Weapon]] {{1st}}
*[[Trilogy:.45 Magnum Mega Class|.45 Magnum Mega Class]] {{1st}}
*[[Trilogy:M75 Assault Rifle|MA-75 Assault Rifle/Grenade Launcher]] {{1st}}
*[[Trilogy:SPNKR-x17 Surface-Surface Missile Launcher|SPNKR-x17 Surface-Surface Missile Launcher]] {{1st}}
*[[Trilogy:Tozt.25 Flame Unit|Tozt.25 Flame Unit]] {{1st}}
*[[Trilogy:Tech .50 Fusion Pistol|Tech .50 Fusion Pistol]] {{1st}}
|title-9=Miscellaneous|
*[[Artificial Intelligence]] {{1st}}
**[[Rampancy]] {{Fm}}
*[[The Song of Roland]] {{Fm}}
}}

== Features ==

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
File:Marathon (1994) box art.jpg|The original Marathon CD sleve art
</gallery>

{{Succession box
|before= ''[[Pathways into Darkness]]''
|title= ''Marathon'' (1994)
|after= ''[[Marathon 2: Durandal]]''
}}
{{Marathon series}}
[[Category:Trilogy games]]