Hangar Ninety Six
I'm back in the hangar again...
I'm back in the hangar again...
Hello, this is poena.dare here... I've managed to hack into the Marathon's Story site and now I'm trapped! (No doubt I was by something Hamish designed just for such an occasion.) It's lonely here and to keep myself busy I've started to clean up a few things. One of the things I've come across is the hidden level that in Marathon Infinity. Yes, if you are an experienced Marathon player then you probably already know about this level, but since it's never been properly documented, I though I'd give it a shot. Maybe, one day, Hamish will find this page and give it his blessing...
The first encounter one would have with this level are the 'hex' terms found in be Ne Cede Malis and Aye Mak Sicur.
Also there are these grainy pictures of a room (Hangar Ninety Six) that can been seen in:
Where are monsters in dreams
Whatever You Please
Eat the Path
How to Reconstitute the Map Hats off to Eight Nineteen
Randy Reddig, otherwise known as ydnar (and variants of that) was one of the Double Aught team, the group that brought you Marathon Infinity. In a fit of insanity, he created an easter egg which was inserted into the Infinity scenario, for anyone to find.
N Revenge (nrevenge@aol.com) found it. I don't know how he thought to do the things he had to do to find it... but he did. Here are the steps, for those who want to try it themselves:
- Copy the hexadecimal code out of the secret terms of the first and last solo levels of Infinity. (Those would be Ne Cede Malis and Aye Mak Sicur, if you're lazy. Not to be confused with Aie Mak Sicur, of course.)
- Combine those two blocks of text (in order, of course) in a text editor, one after the other.
- Copy the whole mess, and paste it into the hex side of a random resource in ResEdit. (I say random, because it doesn't matter what kind of resource you use... just be sure that if you have a template for the resource you choose, that you open it with the Hex editor instead of using the template).
- If this paste went well, you should see garbage-looking stuff on the ascii side, starting with SIT.
- Copy the ascii side, paste it into a new text document, and drop that document on the latest version of Stuffit Expander. The first runthrough will provide you with a Stuffit document. The second one will unstuff a map... which may or may not look familiar.
If all of this seems too difficult, the map can be found here: .sit or .zip.
Look it over, marvel at the sick mind that would go to these lengths to hide an easter egg, marvel at the sicker mind that would look for it.
And always, enjoy.
Claude Errera
10/21/96
And inside this netmap is a terminal, the contents of which can be found here.
The one question that remains is what is the meaning of the level name? A clue can be found in this log of a chat between Chad_ (Chad Poland) and ydnar (Randy Reddig).
Unfortunately, even the entry on the What's in a Name page doesn't shed much light on the tru7h.
Oh, well. While I ponder this, I'm going to do some more cleaning up around here...
| Dec 24, 1996 |
Dan Rudolph <rudolph.family@mcleod.net> writes:
"Hats Off to 819, the MInf secret level, has something interesting in the title. If you look in the physics using Anvil, you will find that most of the characters are 819 units tall."
| Jan 15, 1997 |
Steve Wood <smwood@ccs.neu.edu> writes concerning the text in the secret map "Hats Off to Eight Nineteen":
"..."the autocrat's tale" sounds an awful lot like Stanislaw Lem's stories. I haven't found the story in particular, but we read a collection of Lem stories entitled "Mortal Engines" and the 819 term sounds very much like these stories. In particular, the non-human main character (3 meters tall, with four arms), the invented words ("autocrat", "pistola") and fairy-tale like quality of the story are Lem's trademarks."
| Feb 6, 1997 |
| May 13, 1997 |
Every wondered what the story in the secret Infinity net map Hats Off To Eight Nineteen was all about? Well wonder no longer. Thanks to Kazem Edmond <Kazem_Edmond@bbns.org> we now know. Kazem, ever the curious one, wrote to Chris Geisel of Double Aught Software asking about the story. This is the reply he got.
From: chrisg <chrisg@doubleaught.com>
Subject: Re:
Date: Mon, 12 May 97 18:55:35 -0400
dear kazem,
the story in 819 is a very early short story that i did set in the world of the next game that double aught is working on, Duality. since then, the ideas for the game and story have changed pretty radically, but some of the characters in the story--namely the autocrat, the factor, and the poly, do appear in a slightly different form. you'll have to wait until the game comes out to find out more about them, but check our site in a few weeks for some hints... :)
the story is about a the young member of a prominent family who has discovered, with the help of a criminal poly, that the plagues that periodically wrack the cities where he lives are spread intentionally by the factors, a priestly order. he plans to use the information to gain protection for his family, and for political power. unfortunately, the factor local to the area discovers his plans, and kills him. the same factor decides to torture the poly to make sure that the secret dies with him. the entire vignette takes place on an asteroid (hence the low-g) orbiting within a large torus of breathable air.
hope that's of interest.
later,
chris
p.s. the characters in Duality only have 2 arms--not four as i originally planned.
----------------------
Chris Geisel
chrisg@doubleaught.comDesigner
Double Aught, Inc
www.doubleaught.com
----------------------
So there you have it. Hidden within Marathon Infinity were the clues to Double Aught's next game Duality.
Duality can also be found in reverse writing on the first terminal
of Ne Cede Malis.
| Sept 15, 1998 |
Ben Fisher <ben@fisher.enterprise-plc.com> writes concerning the secret Marathon Infinity net map "Hat Off To Eight Nineteen":
The file size of 'Hats of to 819' is 31750 bytes
3+1+7+5=16
1+6=7
| Dec 10, 1998 |
don't know if I'm the first, but here's what I found in the main document source code:<! -- design by smudge, code by shiner (altho he'll deny it if asked)>
<! -- major props to 193 and 819>Nothing similar in any of the other pages I looked at, AFAIK.
Who are the mysterious 193 and 819? What other secrets lie buried in those Duality pages?
They're out there!
| Dec 11, 1998 |
Finn Smith <fcsmith@cs.brown.edu> writes:
About the duality.net code: Anyone who remembers Hats Off To 819 and the irc transcript with ydnar's explanation of the name should have no problem deciphering this:193
819
19 3
8 19
s c
h s
Steve Campbell
Hamish SinclairAll too easy.
The IRC transcript Finn refers to can be found in the What's in a Name section... look for the meaning of the "Hats Off to Eight Nineteen" map name.
Nathaniel Krell <nkrell@abc-xyz.com> writes:
Just looking for confirmation of a theory:
If we use 819 as a precedent, would 193 possibly be Steve Campbell?
19=S 3=C
Claude Errera <errera@grapevine2.com> writes:
Well, I don't know what other secrets lie out there (haven't had time to peruse the pages carefully ;) ), but 193 and 819 are obviously you and Steve Campbell. ;)
John Zero <jzero@onramp.net> writes:
I believe that '193 and 819' would be 'SC and HS'. Steve Campbell and Hamish Sinclair. Major props to you guys, indeed.That would have to be the Duality code, as originally seen in the famous "Hats off the Eight Nineteen", with both its cryptic name and Duality prelude terminal message.
Yours,
1026
John Zero
Well the tru7h is out... or is it?
Harry Al-Shakarchi <harry.al-shakarchi@vienna.at> wrote to Greg Kirkpatrick
of Double Aught concerning the mysterious Duality Code. In his reply Greg pointed out
that 193 was also the address of his old appartment. However he would not reveal
what was behind door #819. ;-)
| Jan 13, 1999 |
Following the in Duality.net's page source, bungie.org gives props too:<!--------Major props to 819, 1016, 35, 719-------->
819 is the hidden Infinity map, but what are the other numbers?
Who can say! ;-)
| Apr 27, 2001 (Friday) |
Muhsin Miski <mmiski@macpunk.com> writes concerning Randy "ydnar" Reddig's Shaderlab site:
Ydnar's page appears to be under some transition. Check it out: http://shaderlab.com/whiteout/Notice any strange symbols on the robot's head? :)
On the same subject Ben Fisher <zudo@bubblebath.co.uk> writes:
Look what i found at http://shaderlab.com/old/?Friends/(the old refers to the fact that the site is undergoing a redesign, so the link may not be there come may)
Marathon's Story
Hamish Sinclair's mother of all game sites. Hats off to you, 819.
:-)
| June 4, 2001 (Monday) |
Strange days. Matt Soell <matt@bungie.com> writes:
Subject: Believe It Or Not
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2001 10:49:58 -0700
x-sender: matt@mail.bungie.com
From: Matt Soell <matt@bungie.com>
To: "Hamish Sinclair" <Hamish.Sinclair@tcd.ie>I must admit I wasn't completely surprised when the odometer on my car rolled over to 7777 and the trip odometer read 177.7, for a total of seven sevens.
However, the fact that this occurred at 8:19 AM gave me pause for thought.
-Matt
Matthew Soell
Community Guy / Keeper of the Bungie Way
Bungie Studios
matt@bungie.com
819... Hmmm... ;-)
| Feb 15, 2003 (Saturday) |
Numbers are funny. Michael Treiman <minimalteacher42@hotmail.com> writes conerning the name of the Master Chief in Halo "John-117":
...the number 819 in the secret easter egg level in Marathin Infinity 'Hats Off To Eight Nineteen' is 117*7.
Coincidence or... ?
| Feb 22, 2003 (Saturday) |
117 also appears on a terminal in Smells Like Napalm, Tastes Like Chicken!---
....n 15 ~~~~~~Be~rn border of the Roman Empire to the Danube
River. During a skirmish with barbarians in Raetiain the
mountains near the borof modern France and Switzerland), 117
men under Gaius Licinius MarcW#&I~?f/f/xxfxfff`~~~
THM@#%!@#
---Seems to be a pretty important number to Bungie.
| Jan 30, 2006 (Monday) |
Today at 0820 hours, the Marathon came under surprise attack from unknown hostile forces.