Dad, Get Me Out of This 1.0

A Map For Marathon 2 By Tony Smith (bone@luna.co.uk)


What's It All About?

As the combined forces of the UESC and the S'pht'kr began their final assault on the Pfhor homeworld, the task of subduing the slavers' many colony worlds could commence in earnest. Planet after planet was surveyed for signs of Pfhor habitation or industrial installations. Where they were found, the surrender of the colony's garrison was demanded. If that was not obtained - and since most Pfhor forces had by then received and obeyed their High Council's final order to resist all such operations - UESC 'pacification' squads were sent in.

Which is where you come in. Ten hours ago, Tthe fleet's scanners picked up a small subterranean power complex on the fourth planet of the Beta Eridaniae system. The surrender request was sent but no answer received. The scans revealed a medium-sized installation, enough for a single marine to handle. Unusually, it's devoid of life. This is surprising: Pfhor resistance has been heavy in this sector. However, the fleet's co-ordinating AI, Maelgwn, predicts there only a 22% chance of a trap. So only one marine is being sent in: you.

The survey shows the complex to comprise three sections, linked by a central hub. Unfortunately, the entrance appears blacked - probably deliberately - so you'll have to be beamed in directly to the hub. There's a standard S'pht-designed hyperspatial beam-out point in the third section - when you've mapped the plant and confirmed that it has been abandoned, make your way their and the fleet's S'pht'kr technicians will bring you back. You may have to destroy the complex's security circuits to gain access to some parts of it.

One final point: the installation is buried beneath miles of rock. Normally this isn't a problem, but this time the survey detected high concentrations of paleolithium. This won't affect the transmission of organic matter - ie. you - but it may scramble the transmission of your equipment. So if your kit isn't where you expect it, don't worry - it's down there somewhere. Don't forget that all weaponry issued to you is the property of the UESC - if you don't bring back what you don't use, the cost of its replacement will be taken from next month's pay. And if you don't come back, we'll bill your folks...

Now get planetside, soldier.

What's The Second Level All About?

Level Two is there solely to give you somewhere to beam out to when you've finished Dad, Get Me Out of This. It's required because you can't end the game by beaming out of a level without setting up a game computer terminal to do so, and currently, Pforte doesn't allow you to do so.

Why Isn't There Any Gee-Whizz Lighting FX?

Simple - I'm damned if I can get the lighting system to work. I copy the numbers from the original Marathon 2 levels, but they never seem to work in mine. Perhaps this is a bug in Pfhorte; maybe my system's on the blink. Either way, I don't know. If anyone thinks they can explain it to me, please feel free to try.

I Love This Map! You Doing Any More?

Yes.

Bugger Me, This Map's Tough

Good. That's the whole point. Dad, Get Me Out of This was designed to be difficult on the Normal setting. I normally play Marathon 2 on Total Carnage, and can vouch that it's do-able on that setting. As the guys at Bungie say, if you keep getting zapped, practice, practice and practice again.

Any Advice On How To Finish Dad, Get Me Out of This?

Just the usual: dive into the melee; wield superior firepower; endure.

Installation

Just drop the file called Dad, Get Me Out of This into your Marathon 2 folder. Fire up Marathon and click on the Preferences button when you see the menu screen. Select Environment from the drop-down menu, and select Dad, Get Me Out of This in the Map drop-down menu. Click on OK, and select New Game from the menu screen.

System

Dad, Get Me Out of This was written on a Power Mac running Pfhorte 2.0a9. If you're running Marathon on a 680x0-based machine, you'll need a copy of Ignore Zero Divides. This application must be run on your Mac before you try to play Dad, Get Me Out of This. If you don't, you'll just get a Type -4 error. Don't ask me why - it just is. Ignore Zero Divides' Read Me reveals all.

Bear in mind too, that it's a big map, not so much in terms of the number of elements, but the sheer size of the second second section and the number of nasties running about. This may cause performance problems on low-power Macs. The only solution is to buy a Power Mac, or do what I did and win one by beating Apple UK at network Marathon.

Legal Stuff

Marathon is © Bungie Software. Pfhorte is © Steve Israelson. Dad, Get Me Out of This is © 1996 Tony Smith. Please feel free to pass it on to friends, relations, enemies, whoever. However, it must be distributed with this read me file. Inclusion of Dad, Get Me Out of This on any commercial and/or cover-mount CD-ROM and/or floppy disk(s) without the written permission of the author is expressly forbidden. If you plan to ask on behalf of MacFormat magazine, don't bother - I don't intend to give permission. Dad, Get Me Out of This may not be used as the basis of any other new level.

A special credit ought to go to... ah, but here's the problem: I don't know the guy's name. The chap in question wrote a Doom 2 level called, I think, Skyscraper. The second section in Dad, Get Me Out of This was inspired by this level in the sense that it too has lots of very high columns with monsters on top, and some really nasty ones roaming around at ground level (if only the big blue Hunters were as tough as Cyberdemons). There the similarity ends.

In case you were wondering, and have got this far through the file in order to find out, the map's name is a line from the song Lawyers, Guns and Money by Warren Zevon. Heck, if Bungie can do it, so can I.