Magnum Farce 1.0

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


The Story So Far...

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 fight to the death -- UESC 'pacification' squads were sent in. You are the UESC's top Pacification Officer, stationed on board the starship UESC Imbroglio.

What's It All About?

It seemed a regular mission: beam in to the Pfhor base, take out the garrison, surveying the station as you go, and then beam out again. Simple.

But no soon do you materialise than the worse news you could hope to hear crackles across the ether: "Hi there! Sorry to ruin your day, but we've had an itsy-bitsy transporter malfunction. As soon as you were sent through, the transverse rectifier diode blew and, well, your equipment pod is currently floating in space in very small bits. According to the instruments, all that got through was some ammo, and a couple of handguns: a Magnum and a Zeus. You have your sidearm already, so that makes three. 

"We won't be able to get kit to you for at least 24 hours, so you'll have to manage with what you've got. Look for a Pfhor beam-out point -- we'll pick up the signal and divert you here. Oh yes.

"Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. See ya starside!"

What's The Second Level All About?

Level Two is there solely to give you somewhere to beam out to when you've finished Magnum Farce. 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 that.

I Love This Map! You Doing Any More?

Probably. Already available are Rescue Bob!, Dad, Get Me Out of This and Pure of Heart, Brown of Trouser.

Bugger Me, This Map's Tough

Good. That's the whole point. Magnum Farce 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 (just) 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 Magnum Farce?

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

Installation

Just drop the file called Magnum Farce 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 Magnum Farce in the Map drop-down menu. Click on OK, and select New Game from the menu screen.

System

Magnum Farce was written on a Power Mac running Pfhorte 2.0a10. 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 Magnum Farce. If you don't, you may get nothing but a Type -4 error. Don't ask me why -- it just is. Ignore Zero Divides' Read Me reveals all.

The only real solution is to buy a Power Mac, or do what I did and win one by beating Apple UK at network Marathon.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Randall Shaw, whose excellent Pfhorte2.0a9 Map Maker's Guide helped me finally suss out how Marathon 2's lighting system works. All that's left are those wretched terminals...

Legal Stuff

Marathon is © Bungie Software. Pfhorte is © Steve Israelson. Magnum Farce 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 Magnum Farce 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. Magnum Farce may not be used as the basis of any other new level.