Something ive been supposed to try for long: http://source.bungie.org/

The Marathon trilogy. Has anyone played these on PC? Any idea how long these games are?

It's a mac classic. I remember it hard as nails, although I was quite young when I was playing it. I don't know if it aged well, but the atmosphere was really unsettling.

I've never played the Marathon games myself, but I've heard a lot of good things about them.

i think it should be on some level comparable to doom. But perhaps even bit more advanced in certain ways. Been awhile since ive last read about it though.

yes, play them. They are good classical FPS's.

I tried it back when Aleph One first came out, I found them to be quite mediocre and not nearly as good as the Doom series. But still, free acceptable FPS' aren't all that common and since they are free it's easier and faster to just try them yourself.

I played Marathon on a friend's mac... even before I played Doom. Was hooked on computer games from that point on. Amazing series, way ahead of its time.

I thought by reading the title it was actually a game about running a marathon.
Are there any games like that? :p

Sure there is, it's called QWOP. But I don't recommend it.

Thats not marathon, its masochism...

Decathlon on the C64 - not quite a marathon but the 1500m was a killer!
'Milk Race' too for something similar but on a bike!

The gameplay is solid but not terribly exciting, to be honest, but I really like the story and the exposition. That's a rare thing to say of any FPS, let alone one of the Doom era.

EDIT: Hard to say about length, mind. My recollections on that front are poor, but suffice to say that FPS's of the time were hardly comparable to Baldur's Gate.

I'd take (esp.) Marathon 2 over any Doom game, any day; and considering the Trilogy available for free these days -- can't really go wrong, can you. :)

As for how long each of the games are, my memory is weak on this point, but this should give some indication:
http://www.howlongtobeat.com/search.php?t=games&s=marathon

Spent hundreds of hours playing with friends back in the day. Awesome games (at the time), ahead of their time for sure. Don't remember too much of the single-player other than I really enjoyed the first 2. Networked with friends, creating custom levels it was freaking awesome. Loved making level designs. Did once called Circular Death that was a big ring of ambush points around a central core.

Will they measure up to today's games? Depends on you I think but they were excellent back then. Far better than Doom. Thanks for this, btw, I didn't know it was still possible to play.

Anyway the price sure is right!

thanks!
well, any c64 sports games, especially winter olympics, is kinda sweaty business...

I think c64 sports games could make new debut in form of weight control :D