Background - networks only!

Because of the popularity of Marathon Atlantis, the small group of mapmakers decided to make another scenario map pack. Lacking a real name, forum users on the Internet dubbed them the Atlantis Crew. Dark Rose became the next project but it had a twist. Instead of a typical single-player scenario, this one asks the question of what would it be like to have a cooperative-only scenario? Taking advantage of the Marathon/Aleph engine's Co-Op multiplayer feature, Dark Rose's 6 scenario levels require you and a networked friend on a second computer to team up and solve its puzzles. Also included are 12 network deathmatch levels. This is on a very short list of co-operative-only scenarios. Fire up your network and grab a friend- It's required.

It's 2032. An alien spacecraft has been discovered in the south Pacific that's over 14,000 years old. When the U.S. Government sees it's potential, they begin to create an exact duplicate of the ship to learn and gain advances in technology. The original ship, which is dubbed Dark Rose because of it's dark blood color, is thought to be dead. Unsalvageable. But, beneath the surface, deep in the back corners of the computer networks, lurks the ship's true purpose. The ship was purposely crashed here by a lonely alien race as a kind of probe. An artificial intelligence is learning about the humans around it, and their intentions with the newly gained technology. When it learns we're using it for weapons against ourselves and not for peace, it goes home. When it get's back, it has a new mission- destroy the human species.

Storyline - duplication investigation

In the year 14,324 BC, an alien spacecraft crashed into the South Pacific. After thousands of years of plant growth, the tip of the craft has become a coral island, which today is called Rose Island, and is part of the American Samoa island chain of the South Pacific.

In 2019, a manned boat runs against an exposed part of the crashed space ship. The US government is soon involved. In an attempt to back-engineer the craft and learn as much as possible about the technology, construction on a duplication of the craft began. While doing checks on vast computer system, a giant energy stream is recorded to leave the craft at an incredible speed.

The duplication is completed two years later, and the new ship is launched into space. Once assembled, the new duplication, dubbed "Dark Rose," lands on the moon and becomes a space station. In 2031, the duplicate picks up another energy stream, and suddenly an artificial intelligence immediately interacts with the crew. It was, unbeknownst to everyone, originally on and running silently for 14 thousands years on the original alien craft. When humans came on board, it started gathering information about us, and who we are. When it had learned enough, it left in the form of a giant energy stream to go back to its home planet and tell them about us. When it came back, it told the stunned crewmembers that humanity had been using the technology given to them in the form of this ship not to better us, but to destroy and kill each other. This angered the people who gave humanity the technology, and it was decided to kill of the race and destroy the planet using the duplicate Dark Rose and the AI at the helm. The AI has assumed the name Rose, after what we called it's ship.

Project Milestones

2004:
   June 10 - "Dark Rose" Version 3 for use with Dusk Textures Released
   May 9 - "Dark Rose" Version 3 for use with Infinity Textures Released

1999:
   May - Included on "Mac Addict" Magazine's Cover CD (Issue 33)
   January 1 - "Dark Rose" Version 2 released

1998:
   October 31 - "Dark Rose" released
   September 28 - "Dark Rose" Trailer released
   May 31 - "Dark Rose" is announced

If you do not want to deal with installing the Dusk Texture set, download the version of Dark Rose that has been made for use with the original Marathon Infinity textures. You may use either the original Infinity engine or the open source Aleph One engine to play.