This is a how-to for installing Marathon on your Ubuntu computer.
First, a little history. Marathon was the most advanced game of it’s time. It had network play, voice chat, and intelligent AI, all 12 years ago. Marathon is a trilogy, with three releases: Marathon 1, 2, and Infinity. Marathon was produced by Bungie Studios, the same folks who produced the now classic trilogy Halo (see a pattern?).
If you don’t want to shell out $400+ for Halo and an Xbox 360, then this is the game for you. It’s Open Source… and did I mention fun?
During gameplay, you will see many similarities (similarities that are no coincidence) between Marathon and Halo, with items such as the Fusion pistol (Plasma Pistol) and even an image in a terminal of a soldier in full body armor, looking almost just like (the graphics weren’t what they are today…) Master Chief. Trust me, if you have played Halo, this game will send a chill down your spine.
Alright, now that you know some more about the game, let’s get installing!
First, you need to go to http://source.bungie.org/ and download both aleph one for Linux, as well as a scenario. Extrace both folders into the desktop. Drag the Aleph One folder into the scenario folder.
Next, install the dependencies:
Install the build files:
sudo aptitude install build-essential
Install the SDL requirements:
sudo aptitude install libsdl1.2debian-all libsdl1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2 libsdl-image1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2 libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-0 libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libsdl-gfx1.2-4 libsdl-gfx1.2-dev libsdl-net1.2 libsdl-net1.2-dev libsdl-sound1.2 libsdl-sound1.2-dev
Next, install the liboost data:
sudo aptitude install libboost-date-time1.33.1 libboost-date-time-dev libboost-dev libboost-filesystem1.33.1 libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-iostreams1.33.1 libboost-iostreams-dev libboost-program-options1.33.1 libboost-program-options-dev libboost-regex1.33.1 libboost-regex-dev libboost-signals1.33.1 libboost-signals-dev libboost-test1.33.1 libboost-test-dev libboost-thread1.33.1 libboost-thread-dev
Install the Lua requirements:
sudo aptitude install lua50 liblua50 liblua50-dev
For voice chat, install:
sudo aptitude install libspeex1 libspeex-dev
Next, open a terminal to begin the installation:
cd Desktoptar -xjf *copy-and-paste-name-of-aleph-one-folder-here.tar.bz2*cd AlephOne-20060701sudo ./configuresudo makesudo make install
Now it should be installed — but you’re not done yet!
If you type “alephone” into the terminal, you will get an error telling you some files are missing (Map, Sounds, Images, etc.) You can get these files from:
http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/
These files are from Marathon 2 and Infinity. Make sure to use the “Windows” files, because they are in zip form, while the Mac files are .sit file. For Marathon 1, the files should be in the Marathon 1 scenario file, with odd file types. They may work, but I have not tested them; I have only tested the Marathon 2 & Infinity files.
Download the individual files, and extract them to the desktop.
Run in a terminal:
cd Desktop
sudo mv Map /usr/local/share/AlephOne
Use this command, and change out “Map” with the name of the files. You should now be able to run Marathon by typing “alephone” in the terminal. You can also add an entry into the game folder with your own icon, to make it easier to start.
Enjoy!
Thanks goes to ubuntuforums.org, and a little of my own trial-and-error!
