Ken Levine was actually inspired by Marathon in the shock series: While System Shock 1's Marathon similarities are just a coincidence, Ken deliberately had the sequel take place on a colony ship (of sorts) around one of Tau Ceti's planets (Tau Ceti f as opposed to Marathon's Tau Ceti e) which had: Terminals, pattern buffers that unlike Marathon weren't Shadow the Hedgehog checkpoints in disguise, health stations, a rampant AI who's basically Durandal with Tycho's angst, monsters who are basically a polite if morally misguided version of the Flood and a reverse engineered Jjaro TARDIS from Infinity & Eternal which is used as an FTL drive. Bioshock Infinite is a love letter to Infinity specifically and it takes the time travel themes, an impending apocalypse our hero must prevent via said time travel, cryptic benefactors who help us along the way (in this case the more relatable Lutece twins) and an existential ending which unlike Marathon Infinity's one wasn't total dogshit. On another note, the W'rkncacnter is the same species as the dreaming god from Pathways into Darkness except unlike PID we don't see its avatar (PID's weak as balls final boss) and unlike that game nor Eternal we never fight its nightmare "ayakashi/kamala" monsters. However, only people who played PID before Marathon could join the dots (the dreaming god's name is meant to be unpronounceable and the longer it's awake on Earth, the stronger it will become) so those like me who played PID later (after Eternal no less!) were left in the dark.
System shock 2 I believe was just as revolutionary as Half Life, with far less love than it deserves. The choppy melee mechanics were my only complaint with the game. Otherwise, if you look at doom 3 it damn near took the whole concept and made a Hellified verion of SS2 with the PDA audio logs, terminals, keycodes and all that.
@@collinschubert6940 Doom 3 was basically a weird hybrid of Doom crossed with the story, certain locations & premise of Half Life but the slower paced combat, PDA, logs & emails and body horror meat growth of System Shock 2. I used to think the Icon of Sin was the source of the hellgrowth & there may one day be a boss version where we go inside it to kill it from within after blowing open its head, with the John Romero head being the “heart” so to speak. Both Quake 1.5’s new Shub Niggurath fight & System Shock 2’s Body of the Many came close to what I imagined right down to how you’d escape. It was only Doom 4 & Doom Eternal that confirmed it was a Titan ala BDED with the hellgrowth being a different thing.
15:50 Fun story, Infinity was originally just supposed to be an expansion of M2, but the story was one of the first things that Greg Kirkpatrick, creative lead for the game, wrote for the game.
Spoiler: / / / / / / / / / It's you. The "poetic terminals" is your brain, and the "electric sheep" nightmare levels are you obtaining conscience. Like Durendal: You yourself are going through rampancy. In-fact as the game progresses, many have come to the conclusion that several of the late-game terminals are actually YOU giving yourself instructions. The chapters also are based on the stages of rampancy: Despair, Rage, and Envy. For the majority of the series thus far it's highly suggested, if not flat-out stated, that you are a cyborg. That your behavior of following orders may, or may not be, voluntary. And if you are the cyborg, that means you were built with Jjaro tech, and that tech when unlocked allows you to travel through reality and time. Each time you fail at changing the outcome you go back in-time at a different point, trying to find the right combination that will defeat the.... *Thing that has a name that reads like someone slammed their head against a keyboard*. And I really love this idea in-theory because it works thematically with the entire series. The Marathon trilogy is essentially a story of you and Durendal and your relationship. When you meet in the first game he's this looming antagonist presence that has little to no equal. In the second game you become his equal, his weapon and at are working side-by-side. In the third you surpass him: You become his literal motivation, not bound by the collapse of the universe. It's quite profound when you think about it- But man-oh-man was this type of story painfully ahead of it's time. The terminals just don't communicate the complexity of what's happening enough, and that's a damn shame because what's happening is probably the most interesting thing in the series. Not only that, but the meta-component that the in-lore now allows community expansions and mods be basically about anything and thus are all cannon sequels: Because the cyborg can travel anywhere. You have to try Marathon Rubicon because it essentially does what Infinity does without the experimental story-telling bend.
@@ThommyofThenn Np. And I understand. The structure of Marathon Infinity's plot is so ahead of it's time, even today 27 years later since it's release, I feel obligated to do that. Infinity is the type of game that hit's that rare place of cult-classic and being part of the series that inspired Halo: Historically known, that I think it requires still to this day people to pause before talking about it's finer details. The trilogy technically and mechanically may have aged not as well as other titles, but what Infinity is trying to do plot-wise deserves a vacuum to those who are adventurous to attempt a deep dive.
@@nickblomgren I got stuck on "Colony Ship for Sale!" puzzle my first time playing. however, I just re-downloaded aleph a few weeks ago. i think the other two games are included
YESSSS! Nobody ever talks about this game. I totally remember playing this at my BFFs on their MAC. I always loved this game but no one ever knew what I was talking about. Awesome for posting this. I'm going to watch your previous videos on this game. And HOLY SHYT! I never knew Bungie made this game.. I can 100% see it now.. that's awesome!
I just re-watched your other Marathon videos today and I'm happy to see you're still uploading. If anyone wants at least one comprehensive but easy to digest perspective of the Marathon story line I recommend this playlist from The Examined Life of Gaming ua-cam.com/play/PLzqQqTZGYi1b6SBlFWhgr38sPrJygI9La.html
Hey Rufus. I really think you're so underrated and deserve at least 1 mil subs. I was just gonna ask if you'll ever cover blood or shadow warrior?, as they are both fairly forgotten fps games. thanks dude
If you want to do a video covering Eternal and Redux sometime, I've got a sort of in character text LP on my log. I tried posting links to each part of the playthrough, but youtube autodeletes my comment if I include links so you'll need to google my tumblr yourself and look in the archive. It's under 2019 for Eternal and 2020 for Redux. Happy reading. :) Be careful as the Eternal LP gets a bit weird and nonsensical at times too like Infinity, including most of Episode 4 part 2 being a long shout out to a Doom gag the Rampancy boys did in their Marathon 1 LP.
I'd love to see you make more game reviews. Your stuff was pretty good - concise and humorous reviews made by someone who genuinely enjoys playing the game. What happened to the year-end blooper videos btw? Why did you delete them?
I decided to scrap the fuckup reels, they're difficult to edit together and don't get a lot of views. I'm surprised anyone noticed! The good news is that I finally have time to make more videos now - just dropped a new one: ua-cam.com/video/saqjlG2QsiY/v-deo.html
Thanks for explaining. I played #2 and really enjoyed it and then I got #3 and thought wtf is this? It's like they took the previous one and put it in a blender. And why am I fighting both good guys and bad guys? And why no new cool guns except for that goofy one that requires a mag dump to kill one guy?
So I downloaded the games and the aleph one engine, but whenever I play the games, there are green horizontal lines that cover the screen. I don't know how to fix this, I'm playing on a powerful computer too so I can't imagine it's because of the computer itself. I can't find any online help. if anyone can help it would be much appreciated!
I could never get into this game due to its slow moving mac shooter graphics. Old ass mac games or versions of games always have this graphically "Im smoother than DOS but my physics suck" thing going on. Look at Wolfenstein 3D. The enemy sprites look wayyy better than the OG DOS version. But that version of the game sucks ass if you ask me...
Like actually what the fuck is this channel, im binging all the videos. I think that you are massively underrated, you pump out way to high quality content for the amount of views and subs, insane. Keep grinding im sure youll blow up big time some time soon. I also don't give a flying fuck about old video games, and that says a lot.
Hey well atleast we have never new age marathon which will probably take longer than I will live since I'm 37 and probably won't live another 6-8 years 🤔
Hey man hope you come back soon you're criminally underrated and definitely deserve more exposure.
This series making me actually wanna play retro fps games
There are some gems that are fantastic even by todays standards
@@TurockX3Correct. That and many new "retro style" fps coming out even now
Aleph 1 and Good Ol' Games
Ken Levine was actually inspired by Marathon in the shock series: While System Shock 1's Marathon similarities are just a coincidence, Ken deliberately had the sequel take place on a colony ship (of sorts) around one of Tau Ceti's planets (Tau Ceti f as opposed to Marathon's Tau Ceti e) which had:
Terminals, pattern buffers that unlike Marathon weren't Shadow the Hedgehog checkpoints in disguise, health stations, a rampant AI who's basically Durandal with Tycho's angst, monsters who are basically a polite if morally misguided version of the Flood and a reverse engineered Jjaro TARDIS from Infinity & Eternal which is used as an FTL drive.
Bioshock Infinite is a love letter to Infinity specifically and it takes the time travel themes, an impending apocalypse our hero must prevent via said time travel, cryptic benefactors who help us along the way (in this case the more relatable Lutece twins) and an existential ending which unlike Marathon Infinity's one wasn't total dogshit.
On another note, the W'rkncacnter is the same species as the dreaming god from Pathways into Darkness except unlike PID we don't see its avatar (PID's weak as balls final boss) and unlike that game nor Eternal we never fight its nightmare "ayakashi/kamala" monsters. However, only people who played PID before Marathon could join the dots (the dreaming god's name is meant to be unpronounceable and the longer it's awake on Earth, the stronger it will become) so those like me who played PID later (after Eternal no less!) were left in the dark.
System shock 2 I believe was just as revolutionary as Half Life, with far less love than it deserves. The choppy melee mechanics were my only complaint with the game. Otherwise, if you look at doom 3 it damn near took the whole concept and made a Hellified verion of SS2 with the PDA audio logs, terminals, keycodes and all that.
@@collinschubert6940 Doom 3 was basically a weird hybrid of Doom crossed with the story, certain locations & premise of Half Life but the slower paced combat, PDA, logs & emails and body horror meat growth of System Shock 2. I used to think the Icon of Sin was the source of the hellgrowth & there may one day be a boss version where we go inside it to kill it from within after blowing open its head, with the John Romero head being the “heart” so to speak. Both Quake 1.5’s new Shub Niggurath fight & System Shock 2’s Body of the Many came close to what I imagined right down to how you’d escape. It was only Doom 4 & Doom Eternal that confirmed it was a Titan ala BDED with the hellgrowth being a different thing.
15:50 Fun story, Infinity was originally just supposed to be an expansion of M2, but the story was one of the first things that Greg Kirkpatrick, creative lead for the game, wrote for the game.
Huh??
Spoiler:
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
It's you. The "poetic terminals" is your brain, and the "electric sheep" nightmare levels are you obtaining conscience. Like Durendal: You yourself are going through rampancy. In-fact as the game progresses, many have come to the conclusion that several of the late-game terminals are actually YOU giving yourself instructions. The chapters also are based on the stages of rampancy: Despair, Rage, and Envy. For the majority of the series thus far it's highly suggested, if not flat-out stated, that you are a cyborg. That your behavior of following orders may, or may not be, voluntary. And if you are the cyborg, that means you were built with Jjaro tech, and that tech when unlocked allows you to travel through reality and time. Each time you fail at changing the outcome you go back in-time at a different point, trying to find the right combination that will defeat the.... *Thing that has a name that reads like someone slammed their head against a keyboard*.
And I really love this idea in-theory because it works thematically with the entire series. The Marathon trilogy is essentially a story of you and Durendal and your relationship. When you meet in the first game he's this looming antagonist presence that has little to no equal. In the second game you become his equal, his weapon and at are working side-by-side. In the third you surpass him: You become his literal motivation, not bound by the collapse of the universe. It's quite profound when you think about it- But man-oh-man was this type of story painfully ahead of it's time. The terminals just don't communicate the complexity of what's happening enough, and that's a damn shame because what's happening is probably the most interesting thing in the series. Not only that, but the meta-component that the in-lore now allows community expansions and mods be basically about anything and thus are all cannon sequels: Because the cyborg can travel anywhere. You have to try Marathon Rubicon because it essentially does what Infinity does without the experimental story-telling bend.
I know it's a year later but hiding spoilers correctly is timeless. Thanks
@@ThommyofThenn Np. And I understand.
The structure of Marathon Infinity's plot is so ahead of it's time, even today 27 years later since it's release, I feel obligated to do that. Infinity is the type of game that hit's that rare place of cult-classic and being part of the series that inspired Halo: Historically known, that I think it requires still to this day people to pause before talking about it's finer details. The trilogy technically and mechanically may have aged not as well as other titles, but what Infinity is trying to do plot-wise deserves a vacuum to those who are adventurous to attempt a deep dive.
@@nickblomgren I got stuck on "Colony Ship for Sale!" puzzle my first time playing. however, I just re-downloaded aleph a few weeks ago. i think the other two games are included
Makes the evening a little better, thanks Rufus
YESSSS! Nobody ever talks about this game. I totally remember playing this at my BFFs on their MAC. I always loved this game but no one ever knew what I was talking about. Awesome for posting this. I'm going to watch your previous videos on this game.
And HOLY SHYT! I never knew Bungie made this game.. I can 100% see it now.. that's awesome!
I just re-watched your other Marathon videos today and I'm happy to see you're still uploading.
If anyone wants at least one comprehensive but easy to digest perspective of the Marathon story line I recommend this playlist from The Examined Life of Gaming
ua-cam.com/play/PLzqQqTZGYi1b6SBlFWhgr38sPrJygI9La.html
I was just about to post on the last video if you're ever going to upload again. XD
Just discovered your channel, and all I can say is that your content is incredible (and bingable!). Hope to see more from you!
Hey Rufus. I really think you're so underrated and deserve at least 1 mil subs. I was just gonna ask if you'll ever cover blood or shadow warrior?, as they are both fairly forgotten fps games. thanks dude
Thanks mate! Yes, definitely planning to do both. No spoilers but next one up is another Build Engine game ;)
@@RUFUSsVideoGameGraveyard Nice. Can't wait dude
Hopefully someday we get a Marathon 4.
Happy new year rufus! I hope you're doing well, keep up the good content! Your channel is still so underrated
Never knew anything about those game & how much depth there was in the story, holy shit. The crash course in the beginning was awesome btw!
subscribed bro love smaller channels like yours keep it up
Kept us waiting, huh?
Love you, rufus.
If you want to do a video covering Eternal and Redux sometime, I've got a sort of in character text LP on my log. I tried posting links to each part of the playthrough, but youtube autodeletes my comment if I include links so you'll need to google my tumblr yourself and look in the archive. It's under 2019 for Eternal and 2020 for Redux.
Happy reading. :) Be careful as the Eternal LP gets a bit weird and nonsensical at times too like Infinity, including most of Episode 4 part 2 being a long shout out to a Doom gag the Rampancy boys did in their Marathon 1 LP.
It’s already been 6 months goober
just realized you uploaded a month ago lol, happy to see youre still uploading, great channel
Fantastic content as always
Genuinely yelled in excitement when i saw this upload! I'm definitely one of those weirdos who still plays netgames :D
2nd: been waiting for this one!
FROG BLAST THE VENT CORE!
1:40 and 1:46 I cant get over that pronunciation.
I just found out this channel and it sadly doesnt upload anymore. Anyone know why?
HAHA, you gave it a score of SEVEN! Perfect.
Rufus will you do a video review on bungie’s oni?
It's on my list!
new marathon game coming !!!!!
Fucking missed you dude, contet is great, keep up the good work
please, upload more. I love your content.
the reason they changed some of the vaccum levels back to normal is because it was frustrating lol.
Game got rebooted
I'd love to see you make more game reviews. Your stuff was pretty good - concise and humorous reviews made by someone who genuinely enjoys playing the game.
What happened to the year-end blooper videos btw? Why did you delete them?
I decided to scrap the fuckup reels, they're difficult to edit together and don't get a lot of views. I'm surprised anyone noticed!
The good news is that I finally have time to make more videos now - just dropped a new one:
ua-cam.com/video/saqjlG2QsiY/v-deo.html
Plz make a original Deus Ex review!
Thanks for explaining. I played #2 and really enjoyed it and then I got #3 and thought wtf is this? It's like they took the previous one and put it in a blender. And why am I fighting both good guys and bad guys? And why no new cool guns except for that goofy one that requires a mag dump to kill one guy?
So I downloaded the games and the aleph one engine, but whenever I play the games, there are green horizontal lines that cover the screen. I don't know how to fix this, I'm playing on a powerful computer too so I can't imagine it's because of the computer itself. I can't find any online help. if anyone can help it would be much appreciated!
Where do i purchase the trilogy?
No need to purchase, they have been released for free and can be downloaded here:
alephone.lhowon.org/
How do you only have 2k subs =/
Pfhuckin' Pfhors
Its been six months and my cunny is waiting.
777 views.
Love youre shit bro
Marathon Infinity
Halo Infinite
HMMMMMMMMM
First
Goddammit
I could never get into this game due to its slow moving mac shooter graphics. Old ass mac games or versions of games always have this graphically "Im smoother than DOS but my physics suck" thing going on.
Look at Wolfenstein 3D. The enemy sprites look wayyy better than the OG DOS version. But that version of the game sucks ass if you ask me...
Fird
Like actually what the fuck is this channel, im binging all the videos. I think that you are massively underrated, you pump out way to high quality content for the amount of views and subs, insane. Keep grinding im sure youll blow up big time some time soon. I also don't give a flying fuck about old video games, and that says a lot.
Hey well atleast we have never new age marathon which will probably take longer than I will live since I'm 37 and probably won't live another 6-8 years 🤔