Feb 16, 2004 (Monday)

Matt Cannon <dizzy@subnova.com> points out that there is a Marathon-like logo on the PS2 network adapter. He sent in an image to prove it. You can see it here.

On the subject of Marathon-like images Sam Fletcher <deagol@mac.com> writes:

I believe the Marathon symbol is an abstraction of the Yucatan Peninsula crater. I was flipping through my astronomy text book this afternoon, and BOOM! There it was, sitting there right next to the equator -- our beloved nightmare circles! Check out some of these pics I found with a Google Image Search:

http://observe.arc.nasa.gov/nasa/ootw/1995/ootw_951206/ob951206_sm1.gif

http://www.geo.vu.nl/images/grav-3.jpg

I don't think I need to explain why it's the Yucatan crater that appeared (unwittingly, to its designers) on the Marathon, because...

"Yucatan" is seven letters long.

Observant readers of the Story page will have noticed the use of this image on the Marathon timeline section for about... seven years now. Coincidence... or...?

Feb 8, 2004 (Sunday)

Was Greg (Kirkpatrick) special? Find out on the Pathways Into Darkness page.

Check the Story Forum for the all the latest news and Marathon site updates... yes some do get updated.

Feb 4, 2004 (Wednesday)

D'oh! left the Christmas decorations up until now... just as well nobody is checking this page any more. ;-)

All the activity is on the Story Forum... so head on over.

David Chandler <guerrillastylish@hotmail.com> writes:

I was replaying Half-Life, I noticed that the suit you wear is called the Hazardous Environment (HEV) Mark IV Suit. A bit similar to the Mjolnir (Mjolnir also being the name of your armor in Halo) Mark IV cyborg. I was wondering if maybe someone from Valve is an ex-Bungie worker, or perhaps it's a small stribute, or merely coincidence?

Jamie White <jamiewhite@blueyonder.co.uk> writes:

I think someone at Nasa is a Marathon fan:

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/mars24/

Notice the red and greens? Look familiar? Interesting to note that it's only available as a Java and Mac OS X app! :-)

Another Marathon reference in EV Nova? Luke Uecker <ozamanzius@hotmail.com> writes:

Text discription of station "Nil'la Mjolnir"

"During the brief war with the Colonial Council, the Polaris were saved by the timely intervention of the Vell-os, and also through the actions of one of the Council's cyborg-soldiers. Little is known about that man, other than part of his unit designation - Mjolnir. Apparently, he destroyed a piece of new technology that would have ensured victory over the Polaris. It is worthy of note that he is the only non-Polaris soldier to have been remembered by the Polaris warrior-caste with respect, although with the destruction of the warrior caste, little more is known about the man."

Intresting thing to bump into. Maybe Durandal could enlighten the Polaris Ruling Counsil on the nature of this mystery machine-man?

Jan 7, 2004 (Wednesday)

Aaron Hee-Stacpoole <aaronheestacpoole@yahoo.com> writes to say that the Bungie Support Site is down. According to the Support site page it went down last November. Here's the text:

The Bungie Support Site that you once knew and loved is no more. Bungie Studios has always valued our relationship and commitment to our fans and it's imperative to us that quality support is available for our games. Unfortunately, the current Bungie online team does not have the resources to provide the level of support we feel is required. Since we're a part of Microsoft, our products now fall under Microsoft's robust Product Support Services. Since Take 2 Interactive owns the rights to both Oni and Myth, support for these games can be obtained at the Take 2 Interactive site listed below. We've enjoyed delivering entertaining support articles over the years but the time has finally come for us to throw in the towel and hand it off to the big boys. We will, however, carry over some of our existing files and articles to the new Bungie.net site when it launches next year. Farewell support site. We will miss thee.

If, like Aaron, you are looking for the PID or Marathon updaters you are currently out of luck.

Jan 1, 2004 (Thursday)

Happy New Year to all the Story page readers... everywhere!

Eric R <riscica@gmail.com> writes concerning the S'pht terminal on "Eat It, Vid Boi!" which refers to the red sands of the dead:

Almost all sand contains small amounts of iron. Over time, the iron oxidizes and turns red. Therefore, the age of a desert can be determined by the color of its sand. Red deserts, like those on Mars, are ancient.

So the red sand of the dead, spreading across Lh'owon may be referring to signs of age spreading across Lh'owon as time passes and the planet becomes even more ancient. So much time has passed since the carnage that the deserts have changed in color, or that more deserts are now red as a result of time passing.

The red sand of the dead, spreading across Lh'owon may also simply be metaphorical, referring to the spreading of carnage and war, and the sands being stained red by the spilled blood of the dead.

Rampant speculation may have died down lately but that doesn't stop the use the term... For example Tristan Bayless <roadbeef@hotmail.com> writes:

I'm an avid Marathon fan and have followed your webpage through all of its updates in at least the last four years. I thought you might get a kick out of the license plate; it's off of my own car. I originally planned VENTCOR and MJOLNIR, but settled on the current because.. well, its a cooler word!

Jason Parsons <arakasi@kireji.com> draws our attention to an Easter Egg in System 7 which was around at the same time as the release of Marathon and contained numerous references to the number seven:

I just stumbled across this (at http://www.mackido.com/EasterEggs/System7.html ):

System 7 has a secret about box. I'll bet you didn't know that. Not too many people do. A short time after I joined the Blue Meanies, we started making plans for a secret about box in System 7. It was my job to figure out how to trigger it, what it should contain, and how to hide it in the sources so nobody at Apple would get wise before it was too late to stop us. I talked to a few other Meanies and we came up with a pretty good scheme. The trigger was full of sevens. If there were seven windows with titles having seven letters, and a user chose the seventh menu item in a menu, and that item was currently disabled, then the secret about box would appear. Sheila Brady wrote a poem dedicated to the development team to put in the window. Darin Adler and I spent an evening implementing the triggers in the most obscure way we could devise. The code to bring up the window and the picture containing the poem were hidden in the data fork of the system file. The picture was encrypted and the decryption key was assembled in pieces by the various triggers throughout the toolbox. I did that so if someone ran across the strange looking code in the System file, they still couldn't see what was in the picture. It was cool!

Note that the trick was for Macintosh System 7 and contained 3 references to criteria requiring 7. I don't know that this has any direct relation with Bungie or their affinity for the numbers 7 and 3 in the Marathon trilogy but it's fun to imagine. :-)