Marathon (1994)

• Caveat lēctor: I do not have a fast way to verify the accuracy of the Marathon 1 data at the moment; once I get a stable emulator setup working, I’ll double-check it.

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Marathon 2: Durandal (1995)

• In most versions of the map, all levels use three monster collections except for “For Carnage, Apply Within”, which only uses Compilers and Enforcers. The third column is hence left blank for that level.
• The Windows 95 version adds one additional exception, “Waterloo Waterpark”, as explained in the endnotes (you can also just hover over the level name, or click the link after the level name).

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Marathon Infinity (1996)

• Owing to custom monster physics, the monster placements in Marathon Infinity’s levels often don’t match the expected shapes collections. Barring potential errors, this list takes that into account.
• Infinity levels range from using no monster collections at all (“Two for the Price of One”) to using five (“One Thousand Thousand Slimy Things”). Blank columns signify that a level used fewer collections than that.
• I’m also not counting the Items collection, which always loads for every level; Infinity’s Items collection contains the “ambient wildlife” that the shapes file names Grendel (small creatures seen hopping about on the ground), Potato Anus (blue and orange spherical creatures seen wandering in all kinds of liquids), and Mothrid (translucent flying octopodes). Names of levels that use any of these monsters are italicized.
• Since most of Marathon Infinity’s levels actually have Marathon 2-formatted physics models merged in, the physics for monsters in the VacBob slots aren’t set in stone (nor are the behaviours of the SMG and its projectiles). This is rarely consequential in the former case (most “VacBobs” you see in Marathon Infinity levels actually use the “Bob” slots), but there’s a spawn for a Security VacBob in the northwest corner of “A Converted Church in Venice, Italy” that could be something completely different if you’d loaded a physics model that reassigned the Security VacBob before loading “A Converted Church”. This list assumes the default physics for such cases.

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…why put this together?

Two primary reasons:

1. I think the techniques developers used to conserve memory in the ’80s and ’90s deserve much more attention than they’ve received. Frankly, modern developers could learn a lot from the efficiency of ’80s and early ’90s games. This is just a small microcosm of that tendency.
2. I’ve long held that most third-party scenarios place monsters too indiscriminately. If every level uses every monster type, then the combat throughout the game becomes effectively interchangeable. Restricting monsters to a few types per level results in each level’s combat feeling far more unique. Seeing everything laid out like this may help drive home how restricted the monster placement in the original trilogy was.

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