*** The Bungie Newsletter ****
Vol 1 Issue 1
October 15th, 1996
Have a comment about the Bungie Newsletter, question for Techboy Bob, suggestion
for our Bungie Newsletter? Email news@bungie.com
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Table of Contents
1. Marathon Infinity ships!
2. Abuse to ship October 25th
3. New Abuse Demo
4. A great deal, really!
5. The Marathon Infinity Map Making Contest
6. Weekend Warrior announced
7. What's next from Bungie?
8. A few letters from our readers
9. Techboy Bob Answers
10. Bungie Employee profile
11. How to subscribe to the Bungie Mail List
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1. Marathon Infinity Ships!
That's right, Marathon Infinity has just shipped! You're kidding, right? No, Joe,
we ship, really! In fact, it is shipping today. If you ordered Marathon Infinity
through our web site, you should be receiving Marathon Infinity shortly.
Marathon Infinity is the most ambitious Marathon yet. The brand new Blood Tides
of Lh'owon scenario delves deeper into the Marathon saga and promises a few
surprises here and there. In Marathon Infinity you'll also find over 20 new net
levels to waste your friends with.
For the creative types, Marathon Infinity comes with Forge and Anvil. With Forge
you can easily create your own custom levels and share them with friends on the
'net. And with Anvil you can create and edit shapes, physics, and sounds. The
possibilities are endless!
If you haven't ordered your copy of Marathon Infinity.....well, then, what are
you waiting for? Marathon Infinity is available through the Bungie web site for
just $34.99 (plus shipping and handling).
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2. Abuse to ship October 25th
Following in the steps of Marathon Infinity, Abuse for the Macintosh will be
unleashed on October 25th. Abuse features fantastic 360 degrees of side-scrolling
action. Run, jump, fall and fly in any direction - through industrial corridors,
caverns and sewers. Destroy enemies in any direction with grenade launchers,
rocket launchers, napalm and nova spheres! Avoid deadly traps with jet packs and
turbo boost!
Abuse for the Macintosh features cool arsenal like Napalm Bombs, Nova Spheres
and the Death Saber, 8-player networking, enhanced Mac graphics, a level editor,
and a new streamlined Macintosh interface.
Get your Abuse for just $34.99 via the Bungie Web Site today!
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3. New Abuse Demo
We've released a new demo of Abuse. Abuse Demo 1.01 now works under System 7.1 and
offers other minor enhancements. If you haven't checked out the Abuse demo, you can
grab it off the Bungie ftp site at ftp.bungie.com or on online services like America
Online.
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4. A great deal, really!
So, you've heard about Marathon Infinity and Abuse, and you want to get both of them.
Well, we've come up with a special offer, just for you! For a limited time (probably
until the turn of the century), you can order Marathon Infinity and Abuse for just
$64.99 (plus shipping and handling). Order the Infinity/Abuse bundle via the Bungie
web site at www.bungie.com.
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5. The Marathon Infinity Map Making Contest
Okay, okay, enough with the sales pitch, that should make the boss happy. Let's
move on to something that won't cost you a dime. In fact, we're going to give you
stuff. Yeah, yeah, free stuff rules!
With Forge and Anvil you now have in hand the best tools for making Marathon
maps, and once you get into it you'll be amazed at how much fun it is, and how
much finesse it can take to make a map that is both great looking and fun to play.
Outstanding maps deserve to be recognized, so enter your best in the Marathon Map
Making Contest, and we'll shower you with fame and prizes! All maps submitted will
be judged by a select panel of Bungie Map Designers (whose identities will remain
secret to protect their families) and the top three entrants will win prizes and
be posted on our website. Check our the Marathon Infinity MapMaking Contest web
page at <http://www.bungie.com/mapcontest.html> for contest rules and a list of
prizes.
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6. Weekend Warrior announced
Our next Bungie release will be Weekend Warrior, a cool new completely 3D "third
person" game created by Pangea Software, makers of Power Pete. Weekend Warrior
puts the player in a game show, where the contestants are everyday characters,
including the Mailman, Butcher, Sports Fan and Bag Lady among others, who meet
in a variety of challenging, multi-elevation arenas and pummel each other to win
wads of cash and fabulous prizes. With a wisecracking host providing a running
commentary on the action, players must solve puzzles, escape traps and beat their
opponents into submission in order to go home a winner.
Designed to take advantage of 3D hardware, a raft of technologies come together
to create an atmosphere of immersive realism: a lifelike physics model, inverse
kinetics for smooth movement, free-floating external camera angles, beautifully
texture-mapped polygonal objects and characters, a rich soundtrack and live
audio commentary. The game can be played single-player or networked for up to
6 people.
To check out some Weekend Warrior screenshots, check out
<http://www.bungie.com/weekendwarrior.html>
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7. What's next from Bungie?
So you're probably wondering what we're working on? Another Marathon? A racing game
(that's been rumored on the 'net)? A 3D Tic-Tac-Toe game? Well, to put it bluntly,
no, we aren't working on any of those games. We are, however, working on something
very cool. And no, it won't be a first-person perspective game like Marathon.
So, what is it? Well, I can't tell you just yet. The boss says I can't say a word
about it. You see, the boys in the lab have been working hard since early 1996 on
"the new game". Heck, they didn't even want to show us marketing dweebs what it
was (until recently).
Anyway, keep an eye out, we'll be announcing the new game soon. Ohh, ohh, I used
the "soon" word, I'm in trouble now....
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8. A few letters from our readers
One of our most popular features on the Bungie Web Site is our letters to the
webmaster. Here's a few samples, to check out more visit
<http://www.bungie.com/letters.html>.
What exactly does Frog Blast the Vent Core Mean?? - Rob, FHShort@cris.com
Rob - "Frog Blast The Vent Core!" is actually the punchline to a really dirty joke.
Those of you out there who've heard it will know why we can't print it here.
Why is Forge not Pfhorge? - Morgan Catha, mcatha@slc.shorelin.wednet.edu
Morgan - We've seen pfhar too many Pfhysics and Map pfhiles pfhilled with that
"pfh" gag, and pfhrankly we pfheel it's a bit much. Everyone thinks it's pfhunny
at pfhirst, but after the pfhourth or pfhifth iteration one pfhinds it pfhairly
pfhormulaic.
Why did you guys release Marathon 2 on the Windows 95 Platform? My friends and
I feel dirty and violated. - Justin Taber, masterzor@earthlink.net
Justin - We released Marathon 2 for Windows 95 because a good number of Windows
95 users were clamoring for it.
As for you and your friends feeling dirty and violated, there's not much we can
do to help. The only advice I can give you is to avoid people who fantasize about
being spanked by a Hulk.
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9. Techboy Bob Answers (Marathon 2 for Windows 95)
Q: Help! When I place the CD-ROM into my computer, AutoPlay does not
come up? How do I install the game?
A: First off, you should make sure that you have the option to AutoPlay the disc.
If you right click on the CD drive in your "My Computer" window, you ought to see
an option to start AutoPlay. If you do, choose it and the AutoPlay window will
appear.
If not, you're probably using a 16-bit CD-ROM driver, and it cannot read the
installation files off of the CD-ROM. You'll want to get a Windows 95 driver
from the CD drive's manufacturer.
Q: Hey! When I start the game my sound/video sucks/is garbled/is all black/cuts
on and off periodically. How can I fix this?
A: Again, this is likely a driver related problem. Not all hardware for audio and
video is supported by DirectX 2's drivers, and you may need to obtain updated
drivers from your hardware vendor. You can check this by running the DirectX 2
installation utility that comes on your Marathon 2: Durandal CD-ROM. From the
AutoPlay screen, select "Explore this CD-ROM" and open up the folder named
"Install". Inside that folder is another folder called "DirectX". In there is
a file called 'DXSETUP.EXE" - double click on that to run it.
You will see a list of DirectX components, the driver version numbers, and a
notation as to whether or not the driver is certified. If your Audio and/or video
driver is not certified, you'll need to get an updated one.
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10. Bungie Employee profile
So who are these Bungie guys anyway? What makes them tick? Do they really just
sit around and play Marathon all day? Is that why Marathon Infinity is shipping
so late?
To find out, I decided to do a profile on one of Bungie's own, Doug Zartman. Doug,
as you may know, is Bungie's Public Relations director (although these days he
calls himself a Director of Publicity Engineering). His job is to make sure all
those magazines out there cover Bungie and its many products. Ahh, but Doug does
more than just kiss the magazine's booty to get us coverage. He also works on
Bungie's games. In Marathon he was the voice of Bob and was heavily involved
in play-testing Marathon until his fingers bled.
Q: When did you join Bungie?
A: May of '94. I was Bungie's first full-time employee, hired as a combination
PR guy/customer support/tech support/order fulfillment/copy editor, etc. (There's
always been a lot of "job creep" here; everyone here is originally hired for a
specific job which then slowly evolves into a vastly broader and more complex
suite of duties as we get busier.) I started by doing tech support for Pathways
Into Darkness the summer that we were creating Marathon.
Q: What's it like working for Bungie?
A: It's...uh, really nice... sir. Seriously, it's fantastic. There's a level
of creativity and involvement in this work that I never dreamed I would have
in a job. Everyone here gets along well, so it's a fun atmosphere. It can be
a LOT of work, all night, weekends, months without a break...and it's still
worth it.
Q: Is it true that Bungie employees just sit around and play Marathon all day?
A: Heh, heh, yeah, that's right. Just playin' Marathon, all stinkin' day long.
Hey, the games make and market themselves! No, when you make games, you play
them before they're finished. Once they are finished, and the public's just
beginning to play, you've usually moved on to the next one. So we were playing
a lot of Infinity the last few months, and still play netgames pretty regularly
after hours, but now we're starting to play with the new project.
Q: Why do you think Marathon was so popular?
A: The obvious answers are awesome graphics and sound, realistic physics,
networking, etc., but the truth is it was designed well, with balanced
gameplay. People sometimes write us about how they wish you could save at
any time in the game, or how there should be type-in codes to get invincible
shields. What they don't realize is that the game is more fun without them.
If you don't challenge the player, they won't be playing it very long and
designing the challenge is the real art.
Q: Rare, Medium, or Well Done?
A: Medium-rare.
(pause)
What did I win?
Q: Why won't Bungie tell their fans what they're working on next?
A: Because if I told the truth (that we're working on a combination racing
and soccer game), people would drive us nuts with suggestions that aren't
relevant, criticism that's mistaken, questions that are inane. You want people
to be excited about the new game, but you don't want them to judge it based on
rumor or a leaked beta version, because then their judgement will be wrong.
Q: What your current favorite game (not from Bungie, please)?
A: I love them all equally. Lately I've been playing a lot of Virtual Pool,
Warcraft II, played Mechwarrior 2 to death, A-10 Cuba... lot of good games
out there. Lot of entertaining shareware as well - support 'em!
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Until next time,
Tuncer Deniz
Editor-at-Large
Bungie Software
news@bungie.com
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