You can find more maps made by several other people at the Marathon Map Archive, as well as tools and texts to help you make your own Marathon maps.

All of these maps have been created with Pfhorte, the excellent map editor created by Steve Israelson ( steve_israelson@mindlink.net). All maps have been tested on a PowerPC Mac, and should work with no problems on 68k-based machines. However, some maps may prove to be sluggish on 68k machines (such as "V8").

All maps are stored as Stuff'ed and Binhex'ed files. If you don't have anything to expand either type of compression, then make sure you download the free Stuffit Expander, available from any Info-Mac mirror near you. Also, you may wish to just download all the maps placed into one map file. [126k]

All these maps were made for network play. However, my "map-building" philosophy is that network maps can also be used as practice for solo maps. Therefore, I generally tend to add more aliens than required for network play. Thus, if you don't like it, you can either edit the object placement data for the map, or just switch off 'Aliens' in the network setup panel.

1. Not much killing. More of a stategy level.
2. Some killing. Mabye a rocket launcher or two.
3. A good amount of killing. Weapons aplenty, and lots of ambush/sniping spots.
4. Much killing. Mass death weapons flurish at every corner. Shoot at everything that moves.
5. LOTS of killing. Average Death Per Minute ratios can exceed 30! (Not for the faint of heart!)

• Suggested Number Of Players: 2-4. Its a small map. Any more might be too congested.
• Suggested Play Mode: Man-on-Man. Also, 2 teams work well (Try to keep one team out of the central room).
• Weapons and Availability: MA-75's, Plasma Pistols, and SPNKR's.
• Aliens: Fighters and Projectile Fighters
• "Carnage" rating (from 1-5): 4

WARNING: This level may be slow on a 68k machine due to the moving platforms.

• Suggested Number Of Players: 2-8
• Suggested Play Mode: Man-on-Man
• Weapons and Availability: MA-75's, Plasma Pistols, SPNKRs
• Aliens: Fighters, Projectile Fighters, and Compilers
• "Carnage" rating (from 1-5): 5

• Suggested Number Of Players: 2-8
• Suggested Play Mode: Man-To-Man
• Weapons and Availability: MA-75's, Plasma Pistols. Rare SPNRK's and TOZT-R's.
• Aliens: Fighters, Projectile Fighters
• "Carnage" rating (from 1-5): 3

• Suggested Number Of Players: 2-8
• Suggested Play Mode: 2 Teams
• Weapons and Availability: MA-75's, Plasma Pistols, SPNRK's
• Aliens: Fighters and Projectile Fighters
• "Carnage" rating (from 1-5): 3

WARNING: This level may be too large for some machines, and may crash both Marathon and your system. Use with your own risk.

• Suggested Number Of Players: 3-8 (a bit large for 2 players)
• Suggested Play Mode: Man-To-Man and Teams
• Weapons and Availability: Everything!
• Aliens: Almost all of them (excluding the Juggernaut)
• "Carnage" rating (from 1-5): 3

• Suggested Number Of Players: 2-8
• Suggested Play Mode: Man-To-Man
• Weapons and Availability: MA-75's and SPNKR's
• Aliens: None
• "Carnage" rating (from 1-5): 5

• Suggested Number Of Players: 2-8
• Suggested Play Mode: Man-To-Man
• Weapons and Availability: MA-75's, Plasma Pistols. Infrequent SPNKR's and TOZT-R's.
• Aliens: Fighters and Projectile Fighters
• "Carnage" rating (from 1-5): 4

• Suggested Number Of Players: 2-8
• Suggested Play Mode: Man-To-Man
• Weapons and Availability: MA-75's, Plasma Pistols, SPNRK's
• Aliens: Fighters and Projectile Fighters
• "Carnage" rating (from 1-5): 3

• Suggested Number Of Players: 2-4 (too many can be tight)
• Suggested Play Mode: Man-To-Man
• Weapons and Availability: MA-75's, Plasma pistols. Infrequent SPNKR's and TOZT-R's.
• Aliens: Fighters, Projectile Fighters, Compilers, Hunters, and Troopers, oh my!
• "Carnage" rating (from 1-5): 4

• Suggested Number Of Players: 4-8 (2-3 players wouldn't be very effective on this level)
• Suggested Play Mode: Man-To-Man
• Weapons and Availability: MA-75's, Plasma Pistols. Rare SPNKR's and Alien Guns.
• Aliens: Fighters, Projectile Fighters, and Compilers.
• "Carnage" rating (from 1-5): 4

• Suggested Number Of Players: 2-8
• Suggested Play Mode: Man-To-Man
• Weapons and Availability: MA-75's, Plasma Pistols. Rare SPNKR's and Alien Guns.
• Aliens: Fighters, Projectile Fighters, Compilers
• "Carnage" rating (from 1-5): 4

• Suggested Number Of Players: 2-8
• Suggested Play Mode: Man-To-Man
• Weapons and Availability: MA-75's, Plasma Pistols. Infrequent SPNKR's and Alien Guns.
• Aliens: Fighters, Projectile Fighters, and Compilers
• "Carnage" rating (from 1-5): 3

• Suggested Number Of Players: 2-8
• Suggested Play Mode: Man-To-Man
• Weapons and Availability: MA-75's, Plasma Pistols. Infrequent SPNKR's.
• Aliens: Fighters, Projectile Fighters, Compilers, Troopers, and Bobs
• "Carnage" rating (from 1-5): 4

• Suggested Number Of Players: 2-8
• Suggested Play Mode: Man-To-Man
• Weapons and Availability: MA-75's, Plasma Pistols. Infrequent SPNKR's and Alien Guns.
• Aliens: Fighters, Projectile Fighters, and Compilers
• "Carnage" rating (from 1-5): 4

• Suggested Number Of Players: 2-8
• Suggested Play Mode: Man-To-Man or 2 Teams
• Weapons and Availability: MA-75's, Plasma Pistols. Infrequent SPNKR's and Alien Guns.
• Aliens: Fighters, Projectile Fighters, Compilers, Troopers, and Bobs.
• "Carnage" rating (from 1-5): 4

Thanks to the original author of this map, whose name I cannot find right now.

• Suggested Number Of Players: 2-8
• Suggested Play Mode: Man-To-Man
• Weapons and Availability: MA-75', Plasma Pistols
• Aliens: None
• "Carnage" rating (from 1-5): 4

Tips on Making Maps

• Have an idea of what type of carnage you want on your map before you begin. Do you want high rates of death? Then make a smaller arena with fewer areas, or include more SPNRK's, TOZT-R's or Alien Guns. If you make too large an arena, then people won't be able to find each other. On the other hand, if you are making a strategy or team play map, making a small arena may defeat the purpose of the map, as well as having too many good weapons lying about.
• Always place weapons and ammo for an 8-player game, unless the map is specifically made for less than that number. For example, in my moderate carnage maps, I have a minimum of 4 MA-75's and 4 Plasma Pistols. In an eight player game, this averages out to that 6 people will have one of the two, while two others may just have the handgun. (Remember that you can have more than a given number of weapons as well). However, if I go from 8 players to 4, the weapon numbers are still acceptable: although the players may have a harder time of finding themselves, they will all have both a MA-75 and a pistol. This is still enjoyable, and doesn't make for players to be scrounging around for weapons.
• Always use '-1' for 'Random Count' in the object placement data. I have yet to see a net map that uses a fix number of weapons and objects to a great extent. I'm sure there could be a good use for it, but I have yet to find one. In the meantime, make sure you set this field properly so that an infinite number of items are possible.
• Avoid Shield and Oxygen Panels in net maps. Otherwise, the game comes down to holding down the panel for yourself or teammates. Not that this can be fun in a fun map, but it generally spoils a serious net map. The same goes for Oxygen panels. This is not to say that a vacuum level is bad: this will force a player to die after such-and-such a time frame, which can be a great handicapper.
• Always place at least 8 player objects on the map. There's a great fun network map called 'King of the Mountain', which takes place in low gravity, and has tons of TOZT-R's, rockets, and Alien Guns, and with these, one can fly around, and then toast enemies from above. However the map has one major problem: there's only 1 player object. Thus, even after the game gets started, one player can grab a rocket launcher and stand facing the player object, such that he can kill the fresh people immediately. Definitely not fun for the fresh player.
• Use power-ups sparingly. I find that powerup disrupt the game too much: usually the player that gets them tends to win the game. In most of my maps, I avoid the infra-red chip, the invincibility powerup, and the fish-eye view chip, and use the invisibility powerup with a min of 0, max of 1, frequency of 1000. If I use any of the others, then the frequency is lower than this. This is not to say to don't use powerups at all, as without them, a lowly player may never win a game, but don't use them like, say, handgun ammo.
• Stick with symetrical or simple-to-learn maps. I have found that the best maps that I have played are quick and easy to learn. This is apparent by the types of maps that I have produced (as shown above).

Credits

• Ken Wong (kenw@engin.umich.edu)
• Mike Africa (mae@umich.edu)

Michael K. Neylon / MKN / September 26, 1995