Marathon system requirements?

[Roderick Usher]

A friend of mine is thinking about filling his basement with older Macs for networked Marathon play - but I'm having a devil of a time finding system requirements.

So far we've got a slot-loading iMac G3 running OS 9. What older models should we be looking at? Power Mac 6000 series? We'll probably be getting this stuff off eBay and would like to spend as little money as possible.

 

[beige matchbox]

i'l pretty sure i used to play it on a performa 6200, with it's 75Mhz 603e

And i defiantly played on my performa 5400, 180Mhz 603e in that one afik


*looks at Marathon Trilogy Box Set*

it says

68040 or faster
8bit moniter (256 colour)
System 7 or later
4Mb ram
CD drive

and it is accelerated for Power Macintosh

 

[Roderick Usher]

What about networking? I'm not quite clear on when Macs started having built-in Ethernet... or should I just try LocalTalk or ARA?

 

[mkrishnan]

It seems like the iMacs would be much more creature comfortable, and also easier to get rid of, if you decide against the project? But maybe I'm wrong?

Apple-history.com suggests that the PM 6200s did not have networking hardware built-in, but the 7200 and above had AAUI and 10BaseT.

 

[Roderick Usher]

It seems like the iMacs would be much more creature comfortable, and also easier to get rid of, if you decide against the project? But maybe I'm wrong?

Apple-history.com suggests that the PM 6200s did not have networking hardware built-in, but the 7200 and above had AAUI and 10BaseT.

Yeah, I guess you're right - I think we'll just go with G3 iMacs, they seem to be available pretty cheaply, and just generally less fuss.

 

[beige matchbox]

Apple-history.com suggests that the PM 6200s did not have networking hardware built-in, but the 7200 and above had AAUI and 10BaseT.

Ahh yes, didn't think of that, we used local talk via a box that plugged into the serial port, wouldn't work with an ethernet network. It does have a Nu-Bus slot though, and 10Mbps cards do pop up every so often

 

[Jim Campbell]

A friend of mine is thinking about filling his basement with older Macs for networked Marathon play - but I'm having a devil of a time finding system requirements.

So far we've got a slot-loading iMac G3 running OS 9. What older models should we be looking at? Power Mac 6000 series? We'll probably be getting this stuff off eBay and would like to spend as little money as possible.

Whoa ... blast from the past. Dunno if this is any help but all three Marathon games played just fine on my Performa 6400 and -- if memory serves -- we certainly networked Marathon II quite happily using Ethernet and PowerMac 7200s.

I would suspect, therefore, that any flavour of G3 processor will cope just fine.

Cheers!

Jim

 

[cluthz]

Marathon Infinity requires a 68030 to run. That means all macs from Mac IIx and up can run it, although it run like a dog on everything except really highend 68040s and PowerMacs.

Any Power Mac will run it very good.

 

[topgunn]

Marathon Infinity requires a 68030 to run. That means all macs from Mac IIx and up can run it, although it run like a dog on everything except really highend 68040s and PowerMacs.

Any Power Mac will run it very good.

You mean PowerPC, right?

 

[topicolo]

You mean PowerPC, right?

The power macs all had PowerPC processors.

 

[applekid]

I remember playing the three demos on a Quadra 650 when I was 10... good times...

Marathon 2 is coming to Xbox Live Arcade sometime in the future with updated graphics. Just an FYI.

 

[Antares]

I remember playing the three demos on a Quadra 650 when I was 10... good times...

Marathon 2 is coming to Xbox Live Arcade sometime in the future with updated graphics. Just an FYI.

There's also an OSX build of Marathon with updated textures, weapons, etc. available...Aleph One. Bungie released the source code for the Marathon games and the open source community has updated everything. It plays great on my Core Duo iMac.

 

[topgunn]

The power macs all had PowerPC processors.

Correct but it would also run fine on all of the other non Power Mac PowerPC's like the Powerbook, iBook, iMac, eMac, Mac mini, Cube, All-in-One, most Performas.