Aleph One (computer game)
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| Aleph One | |
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| Developer(s) | The Marathon Open Source Project |
| Publisher(s) | The Marathon Open Source Project |
| Release date(s) | February 26, 2006 (version 2006.06.26) |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player Multiplayer (cooperative) Multiplayer (deathmatch) |
| Platform(s) | Mac OS, Mac OS X, Linux, Windows, RISC OS |
| Media | Download only |
| Input | Keyboard, mouse |
Aleph One (also known as the Marathon Open Source Project) is an open source first-person shooter engine based on the source code of Bungie Studios' Marathon 2: Durandal, the second game in a popular Macintosh computer game series called the Marathon Trilogy.
The project commenced in 2000 when Bungie Studios released the source code of the Marathon 2 engine to Macintosh users shortly before being acquired by Microsoft. After this, many fans created their own applications and began projects to augment the capabilities of the game. Since the release of the source code, Aleph One has been the most developed and supported. Originally called "Marathon Open Source", the name Aleph One was eventually chosen. This number is larger than infinity (assumed to be aleph-null) as a testament to Marathon Infinity, the third and final game in the Marathon Trilogy.
Originally, Aleph One was only compatible with the Classic Macintosh operating system but was Carbonized for use with Mac OS X in 2001. Versions coded with the Simple Direct Media Layer, or SDL, were produced to allow for compatibility with Linux, Windows, Amiga OS and RISC OS (though a PC version of Marathon 2 was made, Bungie, a then-Macintosh developer only released the Macintosh source code) and a number of other (mostly open source) operating systems. Though development has ceased, a Sega Dreamcast version was produced, playable with a specially-designed keyboard.
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[edit] Enhancements
A number of aesthetic additions to Marathon Infinity have been developed. In early 2000, OpenGL rendering support was added, which at the preference of the user could smooth walls, landscapes, monsters, items and weapons to give them less of a pixelated appearance. Additional features using OpenGL include translucent media (allowing for translucent liquids) and colored fog. As time progressed, anisotropic filtering replaced smoothing and the addition of z-buffer increased game performance. Aleph One supports higher screen resolutions than Marathon Infinity and can use external background tracks in MP3 format. Though not heavily emphasized, there is support for three-dimensional models.
Though many of the changes are sensory, some involve greater engine capabilities. More than twice as many polygons can be drawn on the screen at a single time as Marathon Infinity and viewing distances can be far larger. Lighting effects can be more advanced and more polygons with transparent edges can be viewed in a single frame, allowing for structures such as pyramids and incredibly tall staircases. Though it is currently not supported, early versions of Aleph One were able to accomplish truly three-dimensional polygons, allowing for real bridges and balconies as opposed to just creating illusory 3D with overlapping polygons.The maximum number of creatures a level can hold is three hundred and the sprite-drawing capabilities of Aleph One are far superior to those of Marathon Infinity. Controls have been slightly expanded as well. Aleph One has an option that allows interchanged running and walking, as well as sinking and swimming in liquids. The mouse can be used more effectively and its sensitivity can be set. If desired, weapon switching may be disabled.
In 2000, support for a markup language which would eventually be called the Marathon Markup Language or MML for short was added. Able to be stored internally inside map files as resource forks or in a "Scripts" folder in the Aleph One directory, MML files can set things such as file names, weapons order, the colors of the automap feature, transparency of certain sprites and other things. One of the most frequent uses of this language is for installing high-resolution wall and weapon textures for play. While MML can only change various attributes of Marathon, users have been able to use Lua scripting to drastically alter the mechanics of gameplay. Scripts usually contain "triggers" which will execute certain tasks when certain events take place, such as the saving of a game, the death of a player or the passing of a 30th of a second. Commands include teleporting players to certain locations, forcing them to select a certain weapon, adding or removing items from inventories, killing monsters, setting the heights of structures and a wealth of other things. Lua scripts are often used in multiplayer games to display or alter scores, announce killings, and in some instances, to create new gametypes. Unlike MML scripts, Lua scripts must be stored as resources inside a map file.
[edit] Multiplayer
One of the most important aspects of Marathon to many players across time has been the multiplayer game. Aleph One has expanded the technologies of this mode in many ways. A 2003 build of Aleph One allowed players to host multiplayer games of Marathon Infinity over an IP address as opposed to just a LAN network. While it was technically already the case, in 2004 a server browser was added to Aleph One and allowed players to play Marathon over the Internet for the first time.
Despite this achievement, many players have claimed that hosting and joining a network game played online is a difficult process. Since this aspect of Aleph One is still in its infancy, firewalls have prevented players from being able to host, or in rare cases, join games. Overcoming this involves opening a port for data to come through and doing so has been a difficult procedure. The most recent build of Aleph One eased this problem with built-in software bypassing the firewalls, but many users still report difficulties. It is possible that the software is incomplete. Another major difficulty many users claim to have with online play is that different router speeds of participants in a game have caused latency in data transfer, as well as poor synchronization in some cases.
Aleph One has added three new multiplayer gametypes to Marathon[1]. These three gametypes are not played as much as the gametypes Bungie designed due to the relatively small number of compatible maps and tools with which to create them as well as the often lack of a sufficient number of players. They are:
- Defense: The "Slate" team defends a Hill from the other teams, who must stay on the Hill for half of the duration of the game to win.
- Capture the Flag: Players steal flags (which are actually skulls) of other teams and take them to their own bases to score points.
- Rugby: In this game, players must take the red skull to another team's base to score points.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Aleph One (Marathon: Open Source) Main project's website.
- Marathon Open Source Project: news, artwork, and developer resources.
- The Trilogy Release: site holding free, legal downloads of the entire Marathon Trilogy that can be used with Aleph One.
- The Aleph One Quick Start Guide: Contains information for Linux, Mac and PC users including networking, graphics and scenarios.
- Marathon Aleph One: SourceForge project home.
