Fusion Bobs and Rocket Troopers

The Shapes and Sounds patches and Physics Model included here add weapons and an expanded vocabulary to the Bobs in Marathon1.  In addition, the usual grenade equipped troopers are replaced by rocket equipped troopers.   These changes are listed below in more detail.   Note that to use the Physics Model, you must use the patched Shapes file (if you don't, Marathon will crash).  The patches do not change any of the existing graphics or sounds in the original Marathon files, but instead add two new graphics collections and some additional Bob sounds.  This means that you will get normal Bobs and troopers when you use the patched Shapes and Sounds files without the Physics Model.

FusionBob/RT Physics Model

original                                                 new weapon/color
civilian crew/ green Bobs:             			fusion pistol; violet with black vest
civilian science/yellow                        rocket launcher; violet with black vest
civilian security/blue                          fusion pistol; violet with black vest
civilian engineering/orange                 changed to green; no weapon

trooper 1/green trooper                      rocket; red
trooper 2/purple                                 rocket; blue

other changes
player rocket speed 0.25                     player rocket speed 0.4

unused 3/armaggedon 1                        original trooper 1/green trooper                   
unused 4/armaggedon 2                        original trooper 2/purple trooper


A few hints:
The armed Bobs do attack the aliens, but normally they do not attack the player(s).   However, they do not take kindly to being shot or punched.   Do watch out around the rocket armed Bobs:  they are a little unclear on the concept of blast radius.   The red troopers are not too accurate at long range, but watch out for the blue ones.  The original troopers are included as two of the unused alien types, so it is possible to have all types of troopers on a map.


To use the patches and Physics Model:
Use the Shapes installer and the Sounds installer to modify your original Marathon Shapes and Sounds.  Although these files should be fine for standard Marathon games with the original Bobs, etc. (when used without the Physics Models), you should keep a backup copy of each file.  The patched files must have the same names as the originals, and the originals must be kept in a different folder than the Marathon application.

For a solo game, include the patched Shapes, patched Sounds, and the Physics Model in the same folder as Marathon, and start.

For a network game, each player needs the modified Shapes file, the modified Sounds file, and the Physics Model file in the same folder as Marathon (with the original names; store the original files elsewhere).  For network games without the fusion Bobs, etc. (i.e., without the Physics Model), it is a good idea to use identical Shapes/Sounds files (all patched or none patched) for all the machines in the game.

An alternative way to keep track of the patched files and the Physics Models  is to use MaraOS1.0d3.  This is a great little utility by Harry Hahn that lets you organize and run your Marathon files as sets.   It requires only a few minutes to set up (most of the set up time is renaming your files), and it works very well.   It's available at AMUG or the Marathon Hyperarchive Northwest.  

The patched files and Physics Model should work with any map that contains Bobs and/or troopers. 


Acknowledgements:
Shapes were edited with Pfhred 1.3.  Thanks to Br'fin (Jeremy Parsons) for creating Pfhred.  The new Bob shapes were modified from Bungie's originals with Canvas 3.5.3 (Deneba Software).  ResEdit was used to add two "unused" graphics collections to the Shapes file.  The Shapes installer was created with the Marathon Shape Shuttle by Randy Reddig.

The Physics Model was made with Michael Hanson's Physics Model Editor v1.1 and  HexEdit1.0.5 by Jim Bumgardner.

The Sounds installer was created with the Marathon Sounds Transporter, by Aurelian Software.

Have fun.  If you find any bugs, please let me know:  dturner@fred.fhcrc.org.


Dave Turner

