The story begins... In the Marathon Scrapbook (page 23) there is short piece about Mark Bernal redoing the Marathon 2 textures and hiding his initials in one of the switch textures. The Scrapbook states: Mark revamped and created a large portion of the textures, making them not only useful individually but also as a unified group. (He managed to hide his initials in one of the switch textures.) The search was on... Some four years after the release of the Marathon Trilogy Box Set the following post appeared on the Story forum. Mark's initials Posted By: The Tiny Toad <zorkar@yahoo.com> Date: 5/27/01 5:45 a.m. It says in the Marathon Scrapbook that "Mark managed to hide his initials in one of the switch textures." (M2) I suppose they mean Mark Bernal. But I've examined all the switch textures pixel by pixel with a magnifying glass, and I still can't find his initials! In fact, I can't find any initials! Am I blind, or are they just very well hidden? I assume the b.org guys own multiple copies of the trilogy box, so they have surely read this in the scrapbook and found the initials, so please, somebody tell me where they are! (I won't be able to sleep until I see them. Really.) Thomas, then at Duke University, responded: Re: Mark's initials Posted By: Thomas <twf@duke.edu> Date: 5/27/01 8:17 a.m. In Response To: Mark's initials (The Tiny Toad) I don't know, but perhaps looking pixel by pixel is the wrong approach. Hiding something on an almost microscopic level is more the hallmark of a programmer. An artist, or at least someone with artistic leanings, tends to be more flamboyant, more daring, and tends to hide things subtly in plain view. There's always been something about that one alien "pull" switch (the P switch) that's bothered me. If you look closely at the active P switch, there's a very clear outline of the lower part of a B. Sure enough, to the left, the sort of yellow mucusy bind of the handle forms the very sharp "V" part of the M. The intervening period could be one of many letters, or no letters, and since I don't know Mark's middle initial I can't say. Oh, if anyone is interested, one nice way to search the story page even if it doesn't have a search option is to go to Google, and put as one of the terms "site:marathon.bungie.org". It'll include the other pages as well, but of course most of the site is dominated by the story tome. Unfortunately the search does not always seem to be complete, but it's an imperfect world. By this method I did not find any previous mention of this, though I'm _positive_ someone a few years ago remarked on this switch. (I don't know if they were talking about MB in particular.) Does anyone recall what I'm talking about? Below is an image I worked up in Photoshop. Once it occurs to you that it's there, the MB really leaps out at you. However, I realize that I'm probably seeing something that's not really there... if we're to interpret the switch as hiding letters, I'm sure there are hundreds of different combinations of letters people could contrive from their own imaginations and paranoia. Even though this is probably the wrong answer, maybe it'll be enough to give you some rest? :) Unfortunately the link to the Photoshop image no longer works and I unfortunately never kept a copy of it.   <--- bad robot However here are the two images Thomas refers too. The inactive (left) and active (right) Pfhor pull switch. The active one contains the letters M B. Exactly seven (yes seven, no kidding) months later Mark Bernal posted: Re: Mark's initials Posted By: Mark Bernal Date: 12/26/01 1:39 p.m. In Response To: Re: Mark's initials (Thomas) Thomas, you are indeed correct. Mark So there you have it. But the story doesn't end there... The Marathon Scrapbook went on to say: Mark also contributed a fair share of terminal art, including a caricature of Jason, Greg and Rob as Bobs on the level "Come and Take Your Medicine." "POCAhontas? I hardly know her!" Mark Bernal provided more background on his hidden initials in a chat on the Fourth Curtain Discord. He wrote on April 29, 2023. "Yes, the switches used on the alien levels form my initials "MB" when they are switched on. During the many long hours of texture art drawing you find ways to amuse yourself and keep it interesting. At the time I was the "noob" at the company. I didn't mention to anyone that the switch looked that way for a reason. They all knew the switch had to look alien and strange. Once I finished it I believe I showed it to Jason. I think I remember him tilting his head and giving me that "Yeah, Oookay!" look that is Jason. Then I knew he was fine with it. After that I probably showed it to others." Mark would also go on to update his personal "The Agents of Cool" pic from 1996. He wrote on July 5, 2023: "A long time ago there was a website called "The Agents of Cool". A few of us Bungie "Grizzled Ancients" were featured on the site one week. We each submitted a picture to the site to appear with the Q & A (mine appears below). I was working on "Marathon 2: Durandal" at the time. I decided to make an updated version of me with the face paint design I had in that photo so long ago."