Last updated on January 17th, 2026 at 12:44 pm
Classic Marathon – Adventure Game Review
Classic Marathon is a Adventure/Action game from Dome-C Studio LLC, first launched in 7th July 2011.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 620+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Classic Marathon Stand Out
Classic Marathon® is the first in the original epic trilogy of first person shooter games that defined the genre. Experience the pulse-pounding action as you defend the Marathon from the alien Pfhor.
Play with your friends and enemies in Every Man for Himself, Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, Cooperative, or Kill the Man With the Ball.
ENHANCEMENTS
• High frame rate support
• Updated HD Sprite set
• 3D positional sound with HRTF
• Texture parallax mapping
• Multiplayer cross-play with Linux, Mac, PC, and Steam
FEATURES
• 27 levels divided into six chapters.
• LAN-based multiplayer with up to 8 players.
• Missions include exploration, puzzles and extermination.
• Console-quality gameplay.
• MFi controller support.
• 3D Touch and haptic feedback.
• Dynamic reticle and High-resolution textures.
• 7 unique weapons including:
.45 Magnum Mega Class pistol
M.75 Assault Rifle/Grenade Launcher
Zeus Class Fusion Pistol
TOZT-7 flamethrower
… and the devastating SPNKR-X17 rocket launcher
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"Being naked in space stinks. Lucky for you, Mr. Security officer, you are dressed in active military uniform, complete with a Cyberheadª helmet. Your Cyberhead device is your interface to your surrounding environment."
STORY
• Defend the UESC Marathon colony ship against the aggressive Pfhor
• Play the role of the cyborg security officer
• Witness the rampancy of Durandal, the ship-board A.I.
• Uncover the surprising secrets of the Pfhor and the UESC Marathon
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"Carnage is as easy as point and shoot. Different weapons are characterized with different dynamics. It is unwise, for example, to use the rocket launcher in close combat."
Visit us at http://www.marathon-ios.com
Follow us on twitter http://www.twitter.com/blezek
Source code for this app is also licensed under the GNU General Public License (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html). See http://www.marathon-ios.com for details.
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"Move fast, seize the initiative, wield superior firepower, dive into the melee, anticipate enemy movements, slaughter the defenseless, endure."
BUNGIE™, MARATHON® and the Bungie and Marathon logos are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Bungie, Inc., used with permission.
This Adventure game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Classic Marathon is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 6th September 2025
Recent improvements include:
• Update to engine 1.11 compatibility
• Audio engine fixes
• Fix game discovery
• Restore iOS 15 compatibility
• Multiplayer performance improvements
• Auto-fire fixes for multiplayer
Download & Availability
Classic Marathon is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Classic Marathon on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Bringing forward such a classic game will naturally have challenges, and this developer has done an admirable job with a substantial legacy. To cross-platform the game into a touch-screen interface, too, requires finesse and a sense of style that the author has achieved admirably. As with any app, however, there are two modes of thought in the developer community regarding audio. This game doesnt give players the annoying choice between the developers sounds or Total. Silence., but neither does it let user-driven audio be the dominant/only noise. There is no volume control in game at all. Apart from that, this remains the paragon of early fps games, faithfully made playable in the modern world. Neither DOOM, nor Quake, this was the bridge between 2-D and 3-D engines that paved the way for COD, CS, UT, and most directly Halo. Im so glad this got made. :-).
You got to play this game it is amazing but the controls are awful.
Beautifully done, amazing graphics and gameplay, actually like playing on a console. Well done and THANK YOUUUU! 90s video game nerds love youuuu.
Id love to contact whoever is maintaining this project on the AppStore. Great job.
We can't believe that the people that made halo made this game haw.
After extensive play we can say we really like this. Its fun. Except that dumb option where releasing from the movement control or really just using the movement control activates terminals or interacts with the environment. EVEN WHEN YOU HAVE THAT OPTION DISABLED! On top of that we hate the auto-fire and wish for there to be an option to turn that off too. Its weird when you start firing, but its not you and suddenly you have less ammo than when you started. Also, added customization for buttons would be nice because the trigger buttons are annoying to use with how small they are. When youre just trying to fire bullets from the assault rifle sometimes its real easy to slip into the middle and grenade yourself. One more thing to mention, sometimes after start up when entering a mission everything is plastered in a green or turquoise tint. We know its a port, so despite all of that, its still a really good game we recommend playing.
We keep trying to join an online game and we get 5 bots and we cant even start the game.
We wish there was the supported 120fps as modern devices support it; fixing missing ammo bug; fixing the bobs killed on missions without bobs; fixing the auto-center with a toggle on and off; fixing the biggest bug for us, enemies end up going down in ranks on the next level even on total carnage, as if we took too long on a level. Other than all of that, we think there is MASSIVE potential for Aleph Source Code and you devs! Cheers.
Please add 120hz support. Our iPhone and iPad support it. Also, where is the inverted aim.
Love 2.5 d games this one is pretty sweet and has a good story from what Ive heard the first night be hard to get through so maybe a guide would help.
This is the most playable vintage FPS game on iOS. We originally bought/downloaded this in like 2013 to try out on our then-new iPod Touch. Im currently moving and our Xbox and gaming Pc are packed away, so we started digging through our iOS library and saw that this title had not only made it through the infamous 32-64 bit app purge, but has been updated to an incredible degree! The HD textures / weapons stay absolutely true to the original intent and look fantastic, and the new bloom/glow lighting looks beautiful. But the most impressive upgrade is the integration of gyro controls. We generally cannot stand playing FPS games on our phone, but the combination of gyro controls for fine adjustments with swipe-look controls is just perfect. It took us about 10 minutes to place the on-screen buttons to our liking and adjust to the controls, and am now just as accurate as we are with an actual controller. We had a power Mac 6800 as a child, and our whole 5th and 6th grade years were spent playing Marathon (and Forge / Anvil) and its great to see so much love poured into the mobile version of this game / trilogy by the entire Aleph One dev community. If we had any requests, it would be to have an option to separate the main/alt fire buttons into individual buttons instead of the single hybrid button as it now, but again Ive gotten used to it so its just a nitpick request. The other would be to release it on Apple TV. Keep up the great work! Grants stop job.
Great port but there is a bug for the HD visuals where your weapons become large black rectangles, using Iphone 11 with ios 16.4.1.
Very good game but our screen kept shaking without ourselves moving the camera.
We like the music, and most of the gameplay but the touch control movement paired with the floatey movement can have you flying all over. This is a major issue cause of the required platforming that you have no jump for.
Not a bad game, never played the original, but we played some original Doom, which we enjoy but dont want to pay for, but the global positioning is not a favorite of ours, so, logically, turned it to swipe which decided to be annoying, couldnt get through the first level, couldnt even open a door, first time we tried, the area would mess with the looking around, you could only turn left, but it seems very well made, perhaps it was just that we were using a phone, genuinely disappointed it didnt work.
Love a real FPS for iPhone, there are so few. To make the movement perfect head bob needs to be turned off, and the ability to touch the fire button and drag so you can change your aim while firing. Very close! Thanks.
This is an absolutely wonderful, amazing faithful remaster of the original game. Most people dont know that this is Bungies precursor to Halo, and we rarely get to play it. The fact we can also go BACK to the original graphics is such an underrated thing. You play as personnel on a ship called the Marathon recalling almost nothing. Your ship is under attack. Only one voice reaches out to communicate with you, and right now that voice is helping you stay alive. Unravel the events leading up to the attack on the Marathon, and learn more about the factions that attacked you. Fend off the invasion and save.. Anyone you can.
This one brings us back, we burned many hours playing this on our Power Mac. A classic video game from the golden age of gaming before Wall Street took over.
Not only are you godly for making this free without ads, but you have updated this as recent as 6 months ago as of this review. Awesome dev.
A classic 90s shooter game in our phone. What more could we ask for? Your able to change the controls and button layout to your liking which is very convenient. And its a great and fun game. Iv looked at the reviews for the mobile DOOM and lets just say it looks like Marathons controls are significantly better than DOOMs. 5 stars, totally download.
We especially love the atmosphere of this game. Especially the landing song. The music is what makes this game what it is and we love it so much.
Ive been playing this off and on for about 2 years or so as a way to pass time, and the way the devs worked around the touch screen problems is great. Its awesome to see so many classics being ported onto new devices.
We used to play Marathon on our Mac, then the developers previous port on ios with our ipad 2 in high school. We played it so much on ios and loved every second of the portable Marathon experience! We were really sad to see it delisted from the app store, but this new version with controller support made our day, and convinced us to get an iphone again. Thank you so much Daniel, Alephone, and Bungie.
Really good port. Two issues: Sometimes the weapon sprite is replaced by a black box, and its really distracting. It happens often. Some additional cheat options would be appreciated (beyond the ones already there.) Like invincible mode and it would be fun to have one where the aliens couldnt see you at all. The black box thing is our only real complaint.
This is a fantastic game, however its not currently working with Backbone controllers.
We use a rotor riot controller to play this game. When we move the thumbsticks just a little, there's a lot of deadzone. Please add an option to adjust deadzones. We don't know much about whether deadzones come from controllers or games or both. Thank you for working on this game btw please respond back if you can.
The roots of Halo and Destiny are prominent in this game. Bungie should reboot this series.
Great job. You should work on converting this to virtual reality like other titles such as doom, half life 1 and 2, etc.
Great port, no complaints at all.
Just downloaded this game and played this classic for the first time and the game is pretty good so far and we would really love it if you guys would team up with Bungie to port all three games to the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox series X, PS4, PS5 and PC. Because this game deserves to be more recognized to a wider range of gamers who played bungie games and other first person shooters. It would even be cooler to see a reboot of the series just like Doom. We would buy all three in a heartbeat if you guys made this happen.
How do we joins peoples games and make a game in multiplayer its very complicated. We hope the devs respond to this.
We played Marathon on 040-based Macs in the 90s, and its even better now. Controller support, graphics, and updated features make Marathon a treat for new and old gamers alike. A labor of love.
New weapons models…. Who would have thought 30 years ago this classic would still be enjoyed in a hand held device.
Originally played this on a Mac Performa 6200. Now injiying the much better graphics that are supported on iOS devices.
We first tried it on our iPhone, and couldnt get past lvl 2 because touch controls were to difficult to get use to, im sure if we had triad longer we would eventually end up getting used to, but then we read in reddit it had controller support and had a blast playing it, but now that iPadOS has keyboard and mouse/trackpad support for games, so why no add it, so people can have the option to play it as back in the day in macOS, thx and nice work : ).
- This is a nock of of quake 2. Buggy.
Almost everything we want in a phone port, no real stuttering or lag, has controller support, only real issues are the lack of an option for original graphics and turning off the aim returning to the horizon.
Ive always lived this game and have been waiting for it to become available in iOS. That said there are some serious flaws to fix. NO sound! Im using an iPad. And second, no way to change aiming controls. We would like to be able to aim with the left finger and fire with the right. Or vise versa.
Crashes after the Aleph one title card.
- Wont load our saved gamejust goes back to the main menu… – …So, we tried to start a NEW gamethe game just CRASHED. We STRONGLY request this problem to be fixed. Like really, whats the point of all this.
Have loved this series since its release on the Macintosh back in the 90s. Glad it has been ported to mobile.
We cant turn off gyro controls. Its totally a missing option in control preference, says its optional in the controls description… Im confused. Ohhh finally found it, realized you can scroll down further in preferences. Also IMO one should definitely turn off (lift movement button to activate). We were constantly activating terminals in the middle of a firefight or unintentionally. We assume this helps with certain sections involving timed doors/puzzles but ya Im keeping this toggled off. There are some more options for controls in the ios settings under the app itself, tailor to your liking… Now all we wonder is what does the Master Chief toggle do? Guess Ill find out, we cant keep that one unchecked.
Preserves the action, puzzles, and horror, and a fantastic port of an already great game, one question: since this is made with the aleph one port, would you ever consider to make a pathways into darkness port? Or marathon red? Or, since youve got the port, and the only difference is the ROM, a software for people to make ports? Thank you.
We love the old school Marathon games.
Its just fun. Gave our brother PTSD of switches.
These 3 games (Marathon, Durandal, and Infinity) were so central to our childhood in the mid 90s. Our friends and we would bring our PowerMacs (6100, 6400, 5500) in one place using wheelbarrows, because they were so big, link them with AppleTalk cables, and play for hours together. We looked at emulators and was about to spend time refurbishing our 1997 PowerMac 6400 to play these games. Dustin brought them in enhanced form to iOS. Thank you. One thing: touchscreen controls are hard. Is there an off the shelf game controller that works with this game.
Played this and its sequels since they came out on 68k classic Macs in the mid nineties, along with a few of the several fan made scenarios later on, of which Rubicon and Eternal come highly recommended. Only gripe we have for iOS version would be the controls, but Im not going to pin that on the dev. Nature of the device. Other than that, great work on bringing a hidden gem, groundbreaking game, and the 64th best game ever (according to Computer Gaming World) to the iPhone and iPad. May the best sentience win.
This is the best game we have played on our iPhone 14+! (Besides Happy Wheels) But, its amazing! [If you wont or dont add this feature, then its fine. Im just asking] Could you possibly add a load feature in the pause menu.
We keep accidentally hitting the guns health and shield buttons when trying to save and then messing up our save file. Please add an option in the preferences menu to remove those buttons from the pause menu. Otherwise awesome game.
We loved this game when it came out, and now we can share it with our kids.
User feedback from Apple App Store
- Wont load our saved gamejust goes back to the main menu… – …So, we tried to start a NEW gamethe game just CRASHED. We STRONGLY request this problem to be fixed. Like really, whats the point of all this.
App Details
- Version: 6.7
- Size: 124.82 MB
- iOS: 15.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Realistic Violence, Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: Dome-C Studio LLC
Last updated: 6th September 2025 | Genre: Adventure, Action | Developer: Dome-C Studio LLC