Super Marathon

***Super Marathon*** is a CD-ROM-based first-person shooter video game for Pippin consoles. It was developed by Bungie and distributed by Bandai Digital Entertainment in late 1996.

## Features

*Super Marathon* bundles Pippin versions of the first *Marathon* and its sequel *Marathon 2: Durandal*. The player can select which of the two games to play upon launch. The real-time 3D graphics push the capabilities of the Pippin hardware, with the first *Marathon* producing higher frame rates with the tradeoff of a smaller interface window at a lower resolution setting. Some of the levels in *Marathon 2* were modified to conform with maps from the Windows release. The font size used by terminal screens was increased to improve legiblity on television.

However, the first *Marathon* is unable to reproduce the music tracks from the original Macintosh release as QuickTime is not included on the CD-ROM due to memory limitations; Quicktime 2.0 or 2.1 was required for MIDI support to work correctly in *Marathon*. Both games also lack the multi-player functionality of their original respective releases.

## Development

Jason Regier, a senior programmer at Bungie, was responsible for most of the porting work. Even with reduced features, the game barely fit into the Pippin's default memory configuration and a memory leak in the Pippin OS would cause the console to restart instead of returning to the launch screen. Adding a memory module to the console enables features which are not available by default, such as additional sounds in *Marathon 2: Durandal*.

Alexander Rosenberg stated that Bungie was interested in adding Japanese support, but was unable to do so because the company received "zero technical support" from Bandai and never received a Japanese keyboard despite repeated requests. According to Rosenberg, the Bungie staff relied on personal contacts at Apple for assistance. The CD-ROM relies on an early AppleJack input device driver that predates Apple's InputSprocket API, preventing it from being able to run on a Macintosh.

## Releases

*Super Marathon* became available in the United States through Cyberian Outpost with the launch of the Pippin @WORLD console. However, according to Matt Soell, director of customer support, Bungie themselves only had copies on hand for archival purposes and never received quantities for their own web store.

In Japan, demo versions of *Marathon* and *Marathon 2* were included with the Pioneer MPC-LX200 series, which was released on July 1, 1996. Pioneer, like Bandai, was among the few Japanese companies that obtained a license from Apple Computer to build Macintosh-compatible systems. Using an updated open-source version of its game engine, called Aleph One, the entire *Marathon Trilogy* was later ported to iOS.

## Collectibility

Because Bungie went on to develop a sizeable following for its *Halo* series of games on the Xbox platform, the Pippin @WORLD version of *Super Marathon* has become a sought-after item for retro game collectors. A specimen with the original blue box can fetch hundreds of dollars at auction sites.

## References

1. ↑ @WORLD Software - Games, Bandai Digital Entertainment USA. Archived 1997-04-04.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Super Marathon (Pippin) by Die-Hard Gamer, YouTube. 2010-12-12.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Video Game Bible 1985-2002, p.61.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Marathon's Story - Subject: Re: super marathon by Alexander M. Rosenberg, Bungie.org. 1998-08-03.
5. ↑ Marathon's Story - July 27, 2011 (Wednesday) by Hamish Sinclair, Bungie.org. 2011-07-27.
6. ↑ Adding Memory to the Pippin (French) by Pierre Dandumont, Journal du Lapin. 2016-07-30.
7. ↑ Bandai Digital Entertainment (Pippin @World): Super Marathon by Cyberian Outpost, Marathon's Story. 2012-05-19.
8. ↑ LX200発売 (Japanese), Pioneer. Archived 1997-01-29.
9. ↑ ‘Aleph One’ – The ‘Marathon’ Trilogy Is Headed for the iPad by Blake Patterson, TouchArcade. 2011-02-05.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Super Marathon, aussi sur iOS (French) by Pierre Dandumont, Journal du Lapin. 2019-04-21.
11. ↑ The original Bungie Trilogy: A Marathon retrospective by Brittany Vincent, Shacknews. 2014-09-19.
12. ↑ Re: Super Marathon for Sale, Cheap by Godot, Marathon's Story Forum. 2012-05-19.

## External links

* Blasts from the Past: *Super Marathon* at Bungie.org
* Bandai Pippin ATMARK \ @WORLD - Games & Emulation at Video Game Console Library
* Nouveauté Apple / Bandai Pippin : *Super Marathon* at Rhod's Collection Blog (French, 2012-12-28)
* *Super Marathon* at Bungiepedia
* *Super Marathon* at GameFAQs
* *Super Marathon* at Giant Bomb
* *Super Marathon* (Pippin) at MobyGames
* *Super Marathon* at Pfhorpedia, the Marathon Wiki
* *Super Marathon* at Universal Videogames List
* *Super Marathon* at Video Game Data Base (Portuguese)