ck on infinity

"...is an excerpt from a story by Jorge Luis Borges"

First... if you have never seen 'ck on infinity' then go here.

On March 31, 1997 the Story page noted the following post on alt.games.marathon from Colin Kawakami (aka lilbuddha) who worked on Marathon Infinity and who was also responsable for 'ck on infinity' on the Double Aught website.

From: colink@inch.com (colink)
Newsgroups: alt.games.marathon
Subject: Re: What's www.duality.net
Date: 30 Mar 1997 21:45:30 GMT
Organization: Digital Telemedia Inc.
Lines: 41
Message-ID: <colink-3003971649440001@dyna214.dialup.dti.net>
References: <333C8EE4.30AA@flash.net> <333D45D1.165B@mcleod.net>
<Pfhusion's_not-2903972244380001@spk-76.cet.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: dyna214.dialup.dti.net


> But what's the point of CK on infinity? It's a bunch of pfhunky writing.
> What for?
> 
> -- 

I perpetrated ck on infinity, and was responsible for alot of the alien
terminal graphics that were visited upon the player throughout the course
of the game...

As for the point, you might as well ask what the point of the whole
doubleaught site is, or the point of the whole web for that matter...

It's pretty much just a bunch of pretty pictures and text.

although I'll be the first to admit that nothing about ck on infinity is
informative, i think that it's worth a download...

As for duality... hehe. I'm not employed by doubleaught, so you can't take
my word for anything... but as a third party (ie no one is paying me) I
can say that what I've seen concerning duality so far makes my mouth water
in anticipation.

oh, and I'm making a collection of films, made in the home that ydnar of
doubleaught and i share, called "Ydnar's Most Embarrassing Moments". Randy
ranks easily in the top fifteen marathon players in the world, and
routinely kicks my bottom up and down the convex polygons of our favorite
virtual worlds, but when I manage to sneak a win in... I save it like gold
in a petty fashion.

If anyone would like to see these films of me kicking the torso-twisting
little brat's butt, then... well my email doesn't work, but I check this
newsgroup fairly frequently, so just ask.

--colin
"lilbuddha" & "ckwon"
...after death he proceeds to the next world
bearing in mind the subtle impressions of his deeds;
and after reaping the harvest of his deeds,
he returneth to this world of action. Thus he who
hath desire continueth subject to rebirth.

On April 29, 1997 I wrote on the Story page:

For those of you who have enquired about the subliminal message, or should I say messages (apparently there are a few), on the CK on Infinity page at the Double Aught Software site I have taken the liberty of extracting the one I was referring to and slowing it down. You can see it here. Somewhere in the heavens...

On April 30, 1997 Kenneth Schalk wrote concerning the subliminal message on the "ck on infinity" page:

I noticed the one you put up the first time I watched CK's page. After you mentioned it, I went back and watched some more. I spotted one in the image which is at:

http://www.doubleaught.com/ckinfinity/Images/4layer.gif

Going through it frame by frame, there seem to be three blocks of text. One across the top which reads (in all caps):

The recollection was like this. Another boy had insulted him an run to his father and told him about it. His father let him talk a were not listening or he did not understand; and he took down

This definitely seems to be broken at the end of each of the three lines, but does seem to be fragments of one piece of text.

The second plock of text in in the lower left and reads (in large print):

joy!peff

The third block of text in in the lower right and reads (somewhat garbeled, and of questionable translation in a few places):

~ANOTHER~US~ONe
waTcHes WHeN FArwaits
10r0~Endit~for tImeAn
AND~GO~ENqO~don'tdieE

As the animation approaches the end of it's loop, all but the "don'tdie" fades away.

Here is the 4layer.gif referred to by Kenneth Schalk:

On May 3, 1997 Colin Kawakami wrote:

The quote on ck on infinity... that goes like: "he ran to his father and told him about it..." is an excerpt from a story by Jorge Luis Borges. Kudos to the person who can figure out which story.

Colin continued:

the joy!peff is the first line of text you read if you open up the duality beta.

Also on May 3, 1997 Sean Desmond <sean@mesklin.demon.co.uk> pointed out:

As far as I'm aware, the data fork of every PowerPC-native application starts with the sequence "joy!peffpwpc".

24 years... later        <insert lone Loon sound here> 

On May 21, 2021 President People wrote in a Story forum post:

Regarding the ck on infinity page: The Jorge Luis Borges excerpt appears to be taken from his story "The Maker", and can be found in "The Dreamtigers", a partial collection of his works.

Yes indeed...

The Maker (El hacedor, in the original Spanish) is a 1960 collection of short essays and poems by the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges. The stories are typically less than 1000 words. It was first translated into English by Mildred Boyer and Harold Morland in 1964 under the title Dreamtigers.

The lines used in "ck on infinity" are from a short essay called The Maker (El hacedor) which is the same as the title of the original Spanish book.

The story is a very personal one as it deals with the author's realisation and struggle with the onset of blindness at the age of 55.

Gradually now the beautiful universe was slipping away from him. A stubborn mist erased the 
outline of his hand, the night was no longer peopled by stars, the earth beneath his feet
was unsure. Everything was growing distant and blurred.

Eventually accepting his fate he begins to recall a memory from his childhood.

Then he descended into his memory, which seemed to him endless, and up from that vertigo  
he succeeded in bringing forth a forgotten recollection that shone like a coin under the rain,  
perhaps because he had never looked at it, unless in a dream.

He continues:

The recollection was like this. Another boy had insulted him and he had run to his father and told him about it.
His father let him talk as if he were not listening or did not understand; and he took down from the wall a 
bronze dagger, beautiful and charged with power, which the boy had secretly coveted. Now he had it in his 
hands and the surprise of possession obliterated the affront he had suffered. But his father's voice was 
saying, "Let someone know you are a man," and there was a command in his voice. The night blotted out the 
paths; clutching the dagger, in which he felt the foreboding of a magic power, he descended the rough hillside 
that surrounded the house and ran to the seashore, dreaming he was Ajax and Perseus and peopling the salty 
darkness with battles and wounds. The exact taste of that moment was what he was seeking now; the rest did 
not matter: the insults of the duel, the rude combat, the return home with the bloody blade.

Oddly, this is familiar to you, as if it were from an old dream, but you can't exactly remember...

Now, you fall into your old habit, and begin to daydream about your childhood on Mars, your father's death when you were seven, and his last words to you, "Make me proud. Never lose your honor."
Marathon manual (Page 4)

Gheritt had known hatred on that schoolyard. His beater had laughed at their bloody faces, a laugh which now echoed through his ears, rhythmically blocking out the other voice in the cell.
Never Burn Money (Terminal 3)

Your father told you as a child to always fight with honor, but to always fight.
Habe Quiddam (Terminal 1)

"Nice knife," repeats some snot nosed little brat.

I look into his face, and he sniffles. Those eyes look like a cat's eyes holding either universal understanding or nothing, whichever I decide. Right now his eyes hold nothing.
Eat the Path (Terminal 6)

Page maintained by Hamish Sinclair
Hamish.Sinclair123@gmail.com
Last updated May 22, 2021