Pathways into Darkness is an first-person shooter/adventure game developed and published by Bungie Software in 1993, for the Apple Macintosh computer line on the progenitor of the Marathon engine.
Plot[]
Millions of years ago, an asteroid crashed into Earth and exterminated the dinosaurs. Now, in 1994, a transmission from the Jjaro alien race warns us that the asteroid was in fact a godlike, reality-bending creature. It has been sleeping since the impact, but in five days it will wake up, which will bring the destruction of the whole planet. It is up to an US Army Special Forces team to go as close to it as possible - the deepest level of a mysterious pyramid, in the middle of the Yucatán's jungle - to detonate a nuclear bomb and keep it asleep until the Jjaro can arrive and provide a more permanent solution.
However, a parachute problem separates you from the team. When you finally get to the pyramid, you find them - all dead. So it is you alone against all the horrors that the alien god has dreamt.
It is implied that PID and the Marathon Trilogy take place in the same universe.[1]
Development[]
The game was at first planned as a 3D remake of Bungie's previous game, multiplayer dungeon crawler Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete. Soon the idea was abandoned because its top-down gameplay would not translate well into first person, and its reliance on network (still uncommon at the time) limited sales. So it was decided that the game would be single-player with a new plot. [2]
Gameplay[]
Pathways Into Darkness is presented in four windows: the soldier's view, a life/power/stats window, a notification window, and an inventory window.
The game is well-known for its brutal difficulty. The soldier moves far more slowly than a typical FPS. Ammunition and items are extremely limited, so he must use the knife whenever possible. He can sleep to recover energy, but this consumes time and any enemies remaining in the level can wander in and get the drop on him.
Releases[]
The game was originally released in floppy disks, for the "classic" Macintosh operating system. In 1997, it was included in the Marathon Trilogy Box Set compilation for the same system.
In 2013, a port for modern macOS was developed by Man Up Time and released for free on Apple's app store.
A port to Windows, PID Rewritten, was attempted, but it is in a very early prototype state (no enemies, no wall collision) and has not been updated since 2009.
A conversion to the Aleph One engine (the open-source version of the Marathon engine) is in active development as of 2019, and in a far more complete state.