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Aleph One

Aleph One emulates Marathon, Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity. It reads 31 files, 12 of them required: without a required file it does not start games. A required file is needed only by the machines that use it. Each file below cites the line of source code that reads it.

About this profile
Detail Value
Type standalone
Classification Game engine
Source https://github.com/Aleph-One-Marathon/alephone
Version 1.11 (20250829)
Revision Aleph-One-Marathon/alephone@07a9c36aff40
Revision held RetroPie, the only platform that ships it, builds the release-20250829 tag at this commit (scriptmodules/ports/alephone.sh, _get_branch_alephone). Debian 10 and older get release-20250302.
Profiled 2026-10-20
Profile YAML, JSON
Cores alephone
Systems Marathon, Marathon 2, Marathon Infinity
Technical notes

Engine of Bungie's Marathon trilogy, developed from the Marathon 2 source release. Profiled at tag release-20250829 (A1_DATE_VERSION, Source_Files/Misc/alephversion.h:27-29), the release RetroPie builds on Debian 11 and later. Older systems get release-20250302 (scriptmodules/ports/alephone.sh, _get_version_alephone). RetroPie downloads the three scenario archives of the same release into $romdir/ports/alephone and starts alephone <scenario folder>.

The folder given on the command line goes on the data search path (Source_Files/shell.cpp:405-411). Every MML file under its Scripts/ is parsed at start (Source_Files/shell.cpp:1600-1610), and string set 129 there renames the data files the engine looks up. Without it the engine searches for files literally named Map, Shapes, Sounds and Images (Source_Files/Misc/DefaultStringSets.cpp:86-101). A scenario counts as present when Map, Shapes, and Images or the external resources file are found. Otherwise the engine asks for another folder (Source_Files/Files/preprocess_map_sdl.cpp:68-74, Source_Files/shell.cpp:463-480). A missing Sounds or Physics file is ignored (Source_Files/Files/preprocess_map_sdl.cpp:87-103).

Music/NN.ogg holds the level music of the Marathon 1 data, played when a level names a song index (Source_Files/Sound/Music.cpp:260-275). Plugins/ carries HUD plugins listed in the plugin menu (Source_Files/XML/Plugins.cpp:509-512). Demos/*.filA are replays played from the title screen (Source_Files/Misc/vbl.cpp:1380-1395). Fonts, the base MML and the default theme are installed with the engine from its own data/ folder. No file is hashed.

The files below are the release-20250829 scenario archives (Marathon-20250829-Data.zip, Marathon2-20250829-Data.zip, MarathonInfinity-20250829-Data.zip), distributed freely by the Aleph One project. The engine archive AlephOne-20250829-Win.zip carries none of them. RetroPie's package downloads them at install.

Files

Section titled “Files”

31 files: 12 required, 19 optional.

By kind: 31 game data.

31 rows
File Required Hash
Marathon/Scripts/Marathon.mml for Marathon SHA1 f40d598d451d
Marathon/Scripts/Default Preferences.xml no SHA1 7f91cdd48f7a
Marathon/Map.scen for Marathon SHA1 37f97bb2482a
Marathon/Shapes.shps for Marathon SHA1 0a32105b48c1
Marathon/Marathon.appl for Marathon SHA1 a7abadf86280
Marathon/Sounds.sndz no SHA1 0f4c1f1c0d11
Marathon/Physics.phys no SHA1 e5ed815c253a
Marathon/Music/ no -
Marathon/Plugins/ no -
Marathon 2/Scripts/Filenames.mml for Marathon 2 SHA1 b2d1fa9a65b2
Marathon 2/Scripts/Marathon 2.mml no SHA1 ed7726736ebc
Marathon 2/Scripts/Default Preferences.xml no SHA1 9848f63dd8a8
Marathon 2/Map.sceA for Marathon 2 SHA1 8bd51b573401
Marathon 2/Shapes.shpA for Marathon 2 SHA1 1950a0b08cf1
Marathon 2/Images.imgA for Marathon 2 SHA1 1deedb05e0db
Marathon 2/Sounds.sndA no SHA1 965423878c7a
Marathon 2/Physics Models/Standard.phyA no SHA1 64b794d5b1ce
Marathon 2/Music.ogg no SHA1 afcef78a0ff0
Marathon 2/Demos/ no -
Marathon 2/Plugins/ no -
Marathon Infinity/Scripts/Filenames.mml for Marathon Infinity SHA1 2595e19a67a4
Marathon Infinity/Scripts/Marathon Infinity.mml no SHA1 1f93c9e3f42c
Marathon Infinity/Scripts/Default Preferences.xml no SHA1 4814e1b516a4
Marathon Infinity/Map.sceA for Marathon Infinity SHA1 9cc6bc879610
Marathon Infinity/Shapes.shpA for Marathon Infinity SHA1 11398892f9d7
Marathon Infinity/Images.imgA for Marathon Infinity SHA1 e76cc2063a1d
Marathon Infinity/Sounds.sndA no SHA1 fc1c72d7dcfe
Marathon Infinity/Physics Models/Standard.phyA no SHA1 64b794d5b1ce
Marathon Infinity/Music.ogg no SHA1 aa8a88d760a4
Marathon Infinity/Demos/ no -
Marathon Infinity/Plugins/ no -

In this collection: 31 in repo and 0 missing.

Game data

Section titled “Game data”
31 files

Marathon.mml required for Marathon in repo game data

  • Path: Marathon/Scripts/Marathon.mml
  • System: Marathon
  • Names Map.scen, Shapes.shps, Sounds.sndz, Physics.phys and Marathon.appl through string set 129.

Default Preferences.xml optional in repo game data

  • Path: Marathon/Scripts/Default Preferences.xml
  • System: Marathon

Map.scen required for Marathon in repo game data

  • Path: Marathon/Map.scen
  • System: Marathon

Shapes.shps required for Marathon in repo game data

  • Path: Marathon/Shapes.shps
  • System: Marathon

Marathon.appl required for Marathon in repo game data

  • Path: Marathon/Marathon.appl
  • System: Marathon
  • External resources file standing in for Images, which the Marathon 1 data does not have.

Sounds.sndz optional in repo game data

  • Path: Marathon/Sounds.sndz
  • System: Marathon

Physics.phys optional in repo game data

  • Path: Marathon/Physics.phys
  • System: Marathon
  • Marathon 1 physics. Without it the engine runs the level with its built-in Marathon 2 physics.

Music/ optional in repo game data directory

  • Path: Marathon/Music/
  • System: Marathon
  • Level music, 00.ogg to 15.ogg.

Plugins/ optional in repo game data directory

  • Path: Marathon/Plugins/
  • System: Marathon
  • Basic M1 HUD and Enhanced HUD plugins.

Filenames.mml required for Marathon 2 in repo game data

  • Path: Marathon 2/Scripts/Filenames.mml
  • System: Marathon 2
  • Names Shapes.shpA, Sounds.sndA, Map.sceA, Physics Models/Standard.phyA, Music.ogg and Images.imgA through string set 129.

Marathon 2.mml optional in repo game data

  • Path: Marathon 2/Scripts/Marathon 2.mml
  • System: Marathon 2

Default Preferences.xml optional in repo game data

  • Path: Marathon 2/Scripts/Default Preferences.xml
  • System: Marathon 2

Map.sceA required for Marathon 2 in repo game data

Shapes.shpA required for Marathon 2 in repo game data

Images.imgA required for Marathon 2 in repo game data

Sounds.sndA optional in repo game data

Standard.phyA optional in repo game data

  • Path: Marathon 2/Physics Models/Standard.phyA
  • System: Marathon 2

Music.ogg optional in repo game data

  • Title screen music.

Demos/ optional in repo game data directory

Plugins/ optional in repo game data directory

Filenames.mml required for Marathon Infinity in repo game data

  • Names Shapes.shpA, Sounds.sndA, Map.sceA, Physics Models/Standard.phyA, Music.ogg and Images.imgA through string set 129.

Marathon Infinity.mml optional in repo game data

Default Preferences.xml optional in repo game data

Map.sceA required for Marathon Infinity in repo game data

Shapes.shpA required for Marathon Infinity in repo game data

Images.imgA required for Marathon Infinity in repo game data

Sounds.sndA optional in repo game data

Standard.phyA optional in repo game data

Music.ogg optional in repo game data

  • Title screen music.

Demos/ optional in repo game data directory

Plugins/ optional in repo game data directory

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”
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Maintained by Abdess on GitHub. Report a problem.

Packs from release v2026.10.10, .

MIT for the tooling and metadata. BIOS and firmware files are third-party system software, preserved for personal backup, archival and interoperability.