Dec 25, 2003 (Thursday)

Merry Christmas to all Story page readers... everywhere!

Worried about the lack of updates here? Never fear head over to the Story forum for the action.

And because it's that time of year again here is the traditional Christmas Aboard the Marathon from the Battle Cat.

Oct 27, 2003 (Monday)

Mike Abell <mtm84@yahoo.com> writes:

why is the space holder for the cheat codes the 56'th "link" on the list? Of course, 56 = 8 * tru7th.

too bad theres no page56.html... that I could find anyways.

Sept 20, 2003 (Saturday)

Do you know what kind of hat I'm wearing?

As noted in this Story forum post the Marathon's Story Page turned eight yesterday. Did you miss the party?

Sept 11, 2003 (Thursday)

Matt Fernandez <neut@mafmods.com> kindly sent in two Marathon themed destops which he created. You can get them below. Drop him a line if you like them.

Durandal (445K)
Marine (136K)

Tony Smith <tony.smith@theregister.co.uk> writes:

Here's an interesting thing: Iron Maiden's new album, Dance of Death, has a track called New Frontier, which contains the lines:

'Bleeding you dry from the start, the sum of my parts
You give it away, new life in a day Some new frankenstein, damned for all time'

and

'out beyond the new frontier, playing god without mercy, without fear
create a beast made a man without a soul...'

and

'neverending, forever searching. Chasing dreams, the dreams of your heart
always seeking, always asking, questions right from the start'

'...recycled again a lifetime of pain
the spawn of a man. the devil has planned'

Maybe it's me, but I can't help reading a Marathon (particularly Infinity) influence into it.

Best of all, it's track seven...

Gabriel Rosenkoetter <gr@eclipsed.net> writes:

Ever read John Crowley's "Ægypt"? The book's about a small college professor who gets onto various vaguely occult history books that lead him on a way to a mythical (maybe?) land called Ægypt, that's sort of like Egypt, but not quite the same place, and that's where Gypsies (get it, GYPsies?) come from, which is, apparently, why people think that Gypsies can tell the future (they're from some vague, no-longer-extant land that was shattered apart).

Well, on page 187 of the edition I'm reading (a Bantam softcover from 1989; same pagination as the hardcover from April 1987, looks like), we have this:

"Sometime in the 1460s, a Greek monk brought to Florence a collection of manuscripts in Greek which caused a lot of excitement there. What they purported to be were Greek versions of ancient Egyptian writings--religious speculations, philosophy, magical recipes--that had been composed by an ancient sage or priest of Egypt, Hermes Trismegistus: Hermes the Three Times Very Great, you could translate it. Hermes is the Greek god, of course; the Greeks had made an equivalence between their Hermes, god of language, and the Egyptian god Thoth or Theuth, who invented writing. From various classical sources they had--Cicero, Lactintius, Plato--the Renaissance scholars who first got a look at these new manuscripts could find out that the author was a cousin of Atlas, the brother of Prometheus (the Rennaissance believed that these were real ancient people) and that he was not a god but a man, a man of great antiquity, who lived before Plato and Pythagoras and maybe even before Moses; and that these writings were therefore as old as any in the history of mankind. [...]

Sept 9, 2003 (Tuesday)

Steve Wood <smwood1974@hotmail.com> kindly sent in a screenshot of the Marathon line "Frog blast the vent core!" in the game Tron 2.0. You can see it here. Nice one.

Should be a few other references too. See if you can find them.

Sept 7, 2003 (Sunday)

Steve Wood <smwood1974@hotmail.com> writes:

I had a burst of nostalgia while playing Tron 2.0 this weekend. (Besides the nostalgia for the Tron movie.)

There's a level where you're on a corrupted server, and the system messages are all gibberish and scrambled. Attached is the graphic of one of the quotes- "Frog blast the vent core!"

Strange how seeing an odd quote like that can be so heartwarming!

Aug 10, 2003 (Sunday)

Henry Fok <85xj6@dallasdrivers.org> provides some more interesting weapon tidbits. See the Weapons in Marathon section for full details.

Aug 9, 2003 (Saturday)

More discussion about weapons of mass destruction (MDAWOMD). See the Weapons in Marathon section for full details. This section has also been fully updated with earlier Story page submissions.

July 12, 2003 (Saturday)

Ben Grabow <darklink_21@hotmail.com> writes:

I was reading through my new copy of Scientific American (8/03) when I stubled across an article about an Oracle from ancient Greece. This particular Oracle was an apparantly random woman from local society who inhaled gases from a geological crevice in the bowels of one of Apollo's temples and gave predictions in the trance-like state thereby induced. Interestingly enough, the name given to any such Oracle was Pythia, a group of which were called the Pythia. Given the common reference to Greek mythology in Bungie games, I can't ignore the likeness this name has to the Pthia associated with the S'pht/Jjaro mythology in Marathon.

I suspect that (the) Pthia (perhaps like W'rkncacnter, can be used as both plural or singular) could have been some sort of Oracle to the S'pht race and possibly to Yrro, providing a source of knowledge or intelligence. If Yrro in fact was acting independently from the Jjaro race, an Oracle would have been particularly useful in the absence of the Jjaro support by helping him avoid a possible backlash from the Jjaro race or from other dangers to his fledgling race.

The Yrro/Pthia relationship could be similar to the god/oracle relationship Apollo would have had with the Pythia in that Pythia/Pthia were connections to the people of a race that Apollo/Yrro presided over. The explanation of Yrro's grief over the loss off Pthia could be explained by his loss of connection to his people through such an oracle, and because of this loss of communication, decides to abandon the S'pht race and let them fend for themselves after the destruction of Pthia. With the seemingly religiousĘstatus of Yrro the S'pht seem to hold, an oracle for the purpose of communication would not seem unlikely. Given Bungie's history of Greek mythological allegory in their games, such a parallel could be likely.

June 20, 2003 (Friday)

Andrew Wyatt <Ajwyatt@cox.net> writes concerning the Marathon Infinity assault rifle:

.75 HAS to refer to calibre. What else can it be?? Note that the Magnum is .44 calibre also. And yet, the SMG is listed as being 10mm, with the flechette projectile itself having a 4mm cross-section. I'm unsure now if this is a strange discrepancy(sp?) in measurement types or if we're talking about two different things.

Very often, (especially with single projectile flechettes) Flechettes are smaller than the actual bore size, and shims are placed around them to fill up the space around the flechette so there's no freebore (or empty space around the projectile). The shims collectively are called a Sabot, and the sabot separates from the projectile as it leaves the muzzle. With saboted flechettes, you gain the advantage of high velocity(since the projectile and sabot is light for caliber.), and high sectional density (since the flechette is long and pointy, and reasonably heavy for it's non saboted diameter.) this makes it great for penetrating armor, but not so great for disrupting flesh, since it just kinda keeps going without deforming or stopping in tissue, like a gummy bear getting stabbed with a needle.

Anyway, 10mm would be the bore size, and 5mm would be the flechette size. the 5mm flechette would have a sabot around it which would make its outside diameter match the inside diameter of the bore.

As for the .75 referring to caliber, anything with a . in front of it is caliber, not millimeters.

Unless the .44 Magnum doesn't use Real life .44 magnum ammunition, it's most likely actually .429 caliber, since that's the actual bullet diameter of a .44 Magnum. (almost nothing of a specific caliber is actually that caliber, espeially pistol rounds. .38 is actually .35, and whatnot.)

I hope that was a relatively clear and/or concise explanation.

Tyrant343 <Tyrant343@aol.com> asks:

I have a question. The 3d image you have above the title in the Jjaro section, what is it and who made it?

Answers please on the Story forum.

June 18, 2003 (Wednesday)

Ryan Tansey <rtansey@ups.edu> writes:

Something Awful has a Marathon reference in their Comedy Goldmine today. The theme is video game mixups, and this picture has a nice Tron-Marathon mix.

June 3, 2003 (Tuesday)

Devin O'Reilly <oreilld@cc.wwu.edu> writes:

I was reminiscing over Myth:TFL today, scrolling through the journal entries at myth.bungie.org, looking at the unused pregame pictures, when i saw http://myth.bungie.org/legends/images/pregame/iparty2.GIF that picture at http://myth.bungie.org/legends/journal/j18_long_awaited.html that page. Look familiar to you at all? Reverse the picture and swap out the dwarves for Nar...

Devin is referring to the Nar graphic displayed on the opening terminal of "Curiouser and Curiouser..."

Apr 26, 2003 (Saturday)

Matt Soell calls it quits!

Yesterday Matt Soell posted the following to the HBO forum.

Come in Number 7, Your Time is Up.
Posted By: Matt <matt@bungie.com>
Date: 4/25/03 4:00 p.m.

Even with eight years' experience in the fine art of Damage and Spin, I'm having a hard time figuring out a good way of saying this. Might as well just say it: today is my last day at Bungie.

Before the juicy conspiracy theories start, I'd like to state for the record that there's no intrigue or drama behind this decision. No political machinations, no long-simmering rivalries, no epic struggle between the forces of light and dark. My reasons for leaving are pretty mundane. It's just time for me to do something different.

The rest of the community team will be picking up my slack, and they're committed to doing cool stuff for you guys. With any luck, you won't even realize I'm gone.

Working at Bungie is probably the best thing that's happened to me. I've learned a lot and enjoyed myself immensely. I've had the honor of working with some of the most intelligent, creative, fun people on the planet. I got to contribute (in my own tiny way) to a great company's products and culture. I'll always be proud of the work we've done. Not too many people get to say that about their jobs, ever.

When I started at Bungie, my job title was The Man in the Online Asbestos Suit. Now I'm the Community Guy. Things have changed. Getting paid to watch them change is nice work if you can get it. Working at Bungie wouldn't be half as cool if we didn't have a fan community with such dedication, energy, imagination and wit. You honor us with your presence. Thank you for making my job so much fun.

"We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when..."

-Matt Soell
Community Guy/Keeper of the Bungie Way
1/16/95 - 4/25/03

Three days before his announcement Matt was observed on the Bungie Webcam holding up a very rare copy of the Marathon keychain. Perhaps a final salute to Bungie fans.

Apr 8, 2003 (Tuesday)

Matthew Lewis Carroll Smith (aka poena.dare) <mlcs@mlcsmith.com> writes:

Bungie Sightings is proud to have an exclusive interview with Alain Roy, former Bungie networking coder. In the interview we have a revealing talk about the ancient Bungie, coding Marathon, and what may or may not be on the horizon for distributed computing and games. Be sure to alert your readers to this stimulating and intriguing interview.

Bungie Sightings - http://bs.bungie.org/

Aaron Gaponoff <eaten_by_fungus@lycos.com> writes concerning an Iraqi war picture:

Saw a picture in the NY Times today, that immediately reminded me of the Garrison chapter screen. Just like to share. Heh, maybe Craig Mullins is a war photographer on his spare time?

Eric Peterson <FreeZeR147@charter.net> writes:

I read through 'The Number Seven' page yesterday and started to play around with weapon timing. If I counted correctly, get a fully loaded AR (bullets and grenades) and simply hold down both primary and secondary fire.

Open the third primary reload, the secondary reloads also.

Coincidence, considering all of the other 7s and 3s that went into this weapon?

Try it and see...

Mar 20, 2003 (Thursday)

Mike Yocom <pfhreak@mac.com> writes:

Concerning the discussion on Marathon's Story about firing weapons in a vacuum:

http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocketl.html

"A conventional bullet has oxidizer inside the shell, it does not require atmospheric oxygen in order to fire. However, conventional handgun lubrication oil will boil away in vacuum, leaving a gummy mess. Unless special lubrication is used, the handgun is likely to jam."

Some caveats on the following rambling: I haven't checked on whether or not this statement is true, but I have found everything else on this site to be pretty accurate. Also, I'm no firearms expert, so I don't know if rifles need lubrication oil or not, but I can't see any reason why not. I'm also not sure if it would need special oil, or could use the same oil as a pistol. So this may all be in the same vein as claiming the world is flat...

Maybe not all human weapons have vacuum-friendly oil. It would make sense to put such oil in the .44/.45 Magnum, the standard firearm for the crew of a space ship. The KKV-7 having such oil would also make sense because that would give the crew a fully automatic weapon to use in space if they needed it, if it was on the Marathon. (Did the KKV-7's inclusion in Infinity ever get explained? I know the manual entry for the shotgun mentions that Durandal found its design specs in the Marathon's computer)

Maybe vacuum-friendly oil is expensive enough that it wasn't included on all weapons, including the MA-75, a "... toy designed to impress aging pompous generals."

Colin Ferguson <fearlessson@yahoo.com> writes:

I noticed that the song from the Halo Sound track "On a Pale Horse" is also the name of a Piers Anthony novel. In that novel there is a line "Death is dead, long live death." This is similar to Bungie's official response to Phoenix questions: "Phoenix is dead, long live Phoenix." I also noted that in the novel, in a Latin American civil war zone, there is a soldier claiming that he is hunting "Seventh Communists." Sounds a bit like "Seventh Columnists," does it not? I asked Marty O'Donnell about this and have made a copy of my question and his reply:

------------------------------------------

3/18/2003 11:51 PM PST, by Fearless Son
Q Maestro in Chief, sir,

Fact: There is a track on the Halo Sound track called "On a Pale Horse," sir.

Fact: The official response to direct questions about Phoenix is "Phoenix is dead, long live Phoenix," sir.

Are these references to the first book in Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series, sir? More importantly, does that series have any plot or inspirational references that would send people (like me) on the Marathon's/Halo's Story pages into a rabid reading frenzy as we feverishly and painstakingly search the collected works of Piers Anthony looking for the slightest connection with Bungie games, sir?

A Marty the Elder says: Piers Anthony...hmmm it appears that what was once hidden has been exposed, what was lost is now found...

------------------------------------------

Could Bungie be drawing some serious inspiration from Piers Anthony? We better find out...

Mar 17, 2003 (Monday)

Well it was 7 days since the last Story page update and now it's the 17th of the 3rd month. Happy St. Patrick's Day to ye all! Have a good one. Green chips... delicious chips...

Mar 10, 2003 (Monday)

Secrets still in Marathon Infinity? Well maybe not a totally new secret but certainly one that is not well documented. Check this post in the Story forum today.

Get your Marathon manuals here. At last all four Marathon manuals in PDF format. For your viewing pleasure.

I want my TBS.

What's in a name? Oh wait... we did this a long time ago.

And someone wants to know the ultimate question.

Feb 23, 2003 (Sunday)

Duality stickers anyone? Chad Poland (aka shiner), former PR guy at Double Aught Software, in this Story forum post let us know that he has a small pile of rare Duality stickers. If you want one email him at <cgpoland@proedge.net> and he'll send you an address you can send a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope (SASE) to get one. And if you want to see what the sticker actually looks like check this old E3 '98 page by Freewill.

Feb 22, 2003 (Saturday)

So "John-117" just happens to be 819 divided by 7. Now Matthew Fernandez <matt_fernandez@excite.com> writes concerning the number 117:

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.

Coincidence or... ?

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... ?

S'pht in Halo 2? Muhsin Miski <mmiski@ycp.edu> writes:

Straight from bungie.net's Halo: Truth and Reconcilation section.

http://www.bungie.net/images/site/halo/concept/halo2/sketch_072.jpg

Look familiar?

Jan 29, 2003 (Wednesday)

A name no human throat will ever learn to pronounce? Michael Austin <entropy2016@yahoo.com> writes:

Behold, the proper way to pronounce "W'rkncacnter" has been discovered!

Go to http://www.naturalvoices.att.com/demos/ and type it in.

Brian Hannan <bhannan@mac.com> writes:

I've always wondered what Halo 2 would be like if it began from this perspective.

Maybe you'll get a smile or two out of it.

:-)

Jan 26, 2003 (Sunday)

A week in review on the Story forum:

The Infinity Screens are nearly up.
Pick up a copy of Marathon by D. Alexander Smith
Or a rare copy of Marathon : The Official Strategy Guide by Tuncer Deniz
The S'pht in the Stargate universe
The Bungie Webmaster answered Rincewind's letter
Find out who is a Spazeroid
How Fark.com nearly overloaded Bungie.org
Some inspire writing in this Marathon Webjournal
Thoughts on Never Burn Money
Some details on Pfhactory N'Utopia
A long offtopic thread on music
Marathon in Wiki online Encyclopedia
PiD 10th anniversary!... soon(TM)

Jan 19, 2003 (Sunday)

Blast from the past! Here's the list of items available for sale from Bungie's "More things from Bungie to waste your money on Spring 1995' catalog:

Minotaur: Minotaur hand logo on the front, phrase "Kill your enemies, Kill your friends' enemies, Kill your friends" on the back.
Pathways: Gas beast on the front.
Marathon (A): Marathon Logo on the front, Marathon and Bungie Logos on the back.
Marathon (B): Marathon Logo on the Front, Phfor [sic] character on the back with phrase, "Guns don't kill people, Phfor [sic] do."
Bungie (A): Bungie logo on front, phrase "Don't make us kick your ass." on back.
Bungie (B): Phfor[sic] character on front in slam dunk pose, Bungie Credo "Just Vid It" on the back.

Note the mispelling of Pfhor. Each item was $14.00. Hmmm... more sevens.

I don't believe there are pictures of either the Pathways T-shirt or the Marathon (A) T-shirt.

Check out the Story page on Mar 14, 2002 and Mar 17, 2002 for more discussion about Marathon T-shirts. So perhaps there really was a seventh Marathon T-shirt.

Jan 18, 2003 (Saturday)

The Story forum goes from strength to strength:

Rare copy of the PID Hint Book on eBay
7.73
New Letters to the Webmaster
Duality again
Dear Dave
This man needs help
Past Infinity speculation
Water in space

Jan 12, 2003 (Sunday)

Another page of Marathon inspired art. Jay Faircloth's digital art portfolio. Jay's work has graced the opening page of the Marathon's Story page at www.marathon.org since early 2001. You can also see a bigger version here along with some comment's from Jay. Check this thread in the Story forum for some recent discussion of Jay's work.

Jan 11, 2003 (Saturday)

Some interesting stuff on the Story forum:

Durandal's first return to earth
Page 177
Marathon timeline discussion
More art inspiration
Trilogy Box Sets in the American Midwest
Unimplimented Features
A Tale of Three AIs and One Mad Scientist
A theory about Leela

Jan 5, 2003 (Sunday)

Lots of activity on the Story forum over the last few days:

GURPS Marathon finished
Another Marathon Keychain located
What really happened to Marathon mapmaking
The Mother of All Prequels
PID source code... it's out there!
A Marathon-Terminal themed Kaleidoscope scheme?
My God!...it's full of numbers
Nice Marathon Keychain pic

And the Pathways Into Darkness page has been updated over the last few days.

Jan 1, 2003 (Wednesday)

Quick update Another Marathon Keychain revealed. Nice.

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

On the Story forum:

OMG they hacked the PID Shapes file!!!
S'pht & Pfhor languages
The little Esperanto of Bungie fans
S'pht numbers
The language of the...S'pht
Hunter weapon... left or right?
Marathon 4?!!!... oh no!

Want a copy of Marathon then check the Story forum for a bunch of eBay links.

Also on eBay you'll find an enterprising chap selling a CD of Marathon Infinity solo and network levels. You can buy it for $1.00. Only five CDs available. Might start a trend.

Blast from the Past. A Guide to Vid-Mastery. Why on Sol am I highlighting this?