Feb 23, 2012 (Thursday)   301:7:59:2

On the Story forum, Johannes Gunnar <johannesg@johannesg.com> points out that
Alexander Seropian has started up a new gaming company (his 3rd) called Industrial Toys.
Quoting from Alex's Linkedin Profile,  he writes:

"February 2012 - Present (1 month) Pasadena, CA
I have started a new company to crush mobile for core gamers."

Industrial Toys is on Facebook and Twitter (@industrialtoys). Brent Pease is the co-founder
of Industrial Toys. Some of you might remember Brent as Bungie's former Oni Project Leader.

It's not clear if this is in anyway related to the recent disappearance of Gnop from iTunes.
Gnop! was Alex's first game.

Feb 22, 2012 (Wednesday)   302:10:9:8

Phhht! Just like that...

Yesterday we reported that updated versions of Marathon and Marathon 2: Durandal for iOS
had just been released to fix the non-working switches in both games. Now treellama <wolfy@treellama.org>
reports that the update is no longer available and both games no longer appear in the iTunes app store.

Soli Deo Gloria Productions website is still up and advertising Marathon for download from iTunes.
So what's up?

Now before you dry your eyes and slip a fresh clip into your Assault Rifle... Gnop for iOS is also gone!
We drew attention to the existence of this Bungie-named game last year. Twin Peaks Media
still have it listed as one of the their iPhone games but the iTunes link no longer works.

Feb 21, 2012 (Tuesday)   303:4:37:27

treellama <wolfy@treellama.org> lets us know that ShapeFusion 0.6 has just been released.
ShapeFusion is a scenario editor for the AlephOne game engine. It can be used to modify
Shapes, Sounds and now Physics files. It is compatible with the original Marathon 2 and
Marathon Infinity engines.

Updated versions of Marathon and Marathon 2: Durandal for iOS have just been released
to fix the non-working switches in both games.

Feb 20, 2012 (Monday)   304:2:26:18

Craig Hardgrove <craig@eigenhat.com> writes to say that he has transcribed sheet
music for the Marathon Music track Swirls by Alexander Seropian. He goes on to say:

I've received a fair amount of requests for sheet music over the years so I thought
I'd finally help those out who aren't able to figure the songs out by ear. I'm hoping
to at least put together a few more of these for the more popular songs on the Marathon
soundtrack.

I'll post more when they're available on the Marathon Music blog.

Feb 18, 2012 (Saturday)   306:2:39:51

Marathon.bungie.org is looking for a budding web designer to give the main page
a makeover.

According to iTunes, a fix for the iOS version of Marathon 2: Durandal has been
submitted to Apple. An update should appear shortly. A fix for Marathon is still
outstanding.

The Pathways page continues to be updated daily and lively discussion of the game
continues on the Story forum

Feb 14, 2012 (Tuesday)   310:15:20:40   Happy Valentine's Day

Yeah right! ;-)

They're Everywhere!... PIDers that is. And they've taken over the Story forum. ;)

Feb 10, 2012 (Friday)   314:1:21:35

Updated the Release Dates section with dates for the release of both the Pathways
Into Darkness demo (A1) and the PowerPC version of the PID demo (v2.0).
Confirmation of both dates come from long forgotten comp.sys.mac.games posts.
Up to now the PID demo release date has only every been listed as July '93.
No guesses as to what date it was actually released on in July. ;)

On the subject of Pathways Into Darkness, the game has been receiving a lot of
activity on the Story forum lately. Not bad for a game that is almost 19 years old.
See the PID page for further details.

Feb 8, 2012 (Wednesday)   316:9:6:10

S'pht'Kr Unmasked? President People <presidentpeople@verizon.net> makes an interesting
discovery about the S'pht'Kr Elite Guard (Defender). See the S'pht section for details.

Also, S'pht blood - green or red... or both? mchief111 <mchief111@rising-studios.com> offers
us a plausible theory based on the S'pht descendants. Genetics 101 people. See the S'pht section
for details.

In a Story forum post poena.dare <mstorysclm@mlcsmith.com> lets us know that Alex Seropian
(co-founder of Bungie and founder of Wideload Games) has left Disney Interactive. Alex first
joined Disney Interactive in 2009 when the company acquired his Chicago-based gaming company
Wideload Games. In January 2011, in the wake of a sizable round of layoffs at the company,
Alex became Disney's SVP and general manager of core games, where he was tasked with getting
the company's struggling games business on track. However, according to this Gamasutra
news report Disney Interactive continues to report decreasing revenues and widening losses.

If you recently updated your iOS version of Marathon and Marathon 2 to version 2.3
you are going to be in a spot of bother. Apparently the three control switches on Couch Fishing
(Marathon) cannot be activated with the result that you can't leave the level. It is also
impossible to leave Eat It, Vid Boi! (Marathon 2), again because of non-funtional tag switches.
Soli Deo Gloria Productions are working on a fix. It does beg the question why these problems
are now showing up. Have changes been made to the iOS version maps?

Feb 7, 2012 (Tuesday)   317:1:17:28

Added Bungie's 1st MacWorld Stampede to the Blasts from the Past section.
Another piece of Marathon/Bungie history/lore brought out of stasis.
The Story page - preserving the past eight bits at a time.

Feb 6, 2012 (Monday)   318:1:0:41

Josh Goldberg <mchief111@rising-studios.com> has vectorised David Candland's PID panel
from his 'Ancients' poster, producing an excellent high quality version of the image.
See the Pathway Into Darkness page for details.

Feb 3, 2012 (Friday)   321:6:13:22

Added the Inside Mac Games Interview with Bungie Software from early 1995 to the Blasts from the Past
section. I had thought this was already up on the Story page but it seems to have been misdirected
to another part of the Story archive. It's of historical importance. Highlights include: waiting
for the boxes (or the true reason for the long Marathon delay), Marathon compared to Pathways,
Marathon compare to DOOM, secret cheat code, the ARA patch, a Marathon port, and the leaked
Marathon beta.

Here's one interesting piece:

IMG: Do you think a few years from now we'll still be playing games like Marathon and DOOM
or is this just a craze?

Jones: Yes, I think it's a fad. You are going to see a bunch of these games come out on the
PC and Mac. But they are definitely going to stay, they are definitely cool but people are
going to get tired of them and something new will come out. But I don't think you can beat
their simplicity, I think they'll be around for a while.

And Jason's views on Marathon's story and level design:

I realize that we still didn't do as well as we could in Marathon. The first levels in Marathon
aren't as good as the later ones, they aren't as well thought out. The geometry isn't as good,
they're sort of boring, and the monsters aren't that exciting. Also the writing in the beginning
isn't as good as the writing in the end. But I think Marathon is much more open to first time
users than Pathways was.

Parts of the interview were originally published as short movie clips located on the IMG CD.
Unfortunately I cannot locate these. If you have the original IMG CD Jan/Feb 1995 issue please
let me know as I would like to add the movie clips to the Story page. Thanks.

There's been a recent upsurgence of interest in Pathways Into Darkness over the last couple of days.
Wikipedia featured it, the PID font has been identified, and some interesting details about eating
the Easter Egg have been uncovered. See the Pathway Into Darkness page for details.

Jan 31, 2012 (Tuesday)   324:8:5:37

Josh Goldberg <mchief111@rising-studios.com> has kindly scanned in his copy of David
Candland's 'The Ancients' poster. Josh writes:

The largest scanner I could find was 12x18, so three scans it is. A lot of the fading/speckling
is actually on the poster out of the box- I can't tell if it's low quality or vintage.

The original scans are 417MB tifs. However, I've added them to the Story page as much smaller jpgs.
You can see them here.

Marathon panel (23.7MB)
PID panel (25.9MB)
Myth panel (24.5MB)

The Story page - preserving the past eight bits at a time.

On the Story forum, Earthtopus <andrew.malcovsky@gmail.com> is attempting a
zero-damage max points speedrun of Pathways Into Darkness... using Basilisk.
He's reach the Labyrinth in one hour and 45 minutes without taking any hits. Getting further
is proving difficult. If you have any advice drop by the Story forum and help him out.

Jan 30, 2012 (Monday)   325:1:28:3

It is not everyday that you find Marathon listed in a top 50 list of video games. But it
did make Complex's The 50 Most Unique Firearms in Video Games list. The emphasis
of this top 50 is on the uniqueness of the weapon rather than on how powerful it is.

Marathon's WSTE-M5 Combat Shotguns make number 42 on the list for their unique
(for the mid '90s) gun-twirling reloading animation. The loading mechanism spawned
many an alt.games.marathon thread back in 1995. The Marathon 2 manual would
eventually put us straight about its complex nature.

WSTE-M5 Combat Shotgun While going through some data I appropriated from the Marathon (looking for design notes, of course) I stumbled across a reference to a weapon used by Imperialist forces against the inserectionists during the Ares Raid; July 14, 2444. (Never heard of it? I'm not surprised!) Many years of loving craftsmanship went into the design and construction of this brutal tool of mayhem, I hope you can appreciate that. I won't waste my time trying to explain the loading mechanism to you - your primitive mind could never grasp its complex nature.

Jan 29, 2012 (Sunday)   326:4:32:24

treellama in a Story forum post points out that Aleph One 1.0.1 has been released.
This is a bug fix release, full details can be found here.

Prompted by this Story forum post I have added Beck 2 - Spår i Mörker to the
Blasts from the Past section. Beck what? :)

Jan 28, 2012 (Saturday)   327:10:8:53

If you have been keeping an eye on Josh Goldberg's Marathon artwork at Rising Studios,
you'll have noted a new piece (called Anniversary) based on David Candland's 'The Ancients'
poster. If you remember, this limited-edition, signed 33"x16" print went on sale back in July last year.
Apparently copies are still available which is somewhat suprising. It was supposedly only available
for two weeks!

Josh's rendering of the S'pht image can be seen below and comes in a range of sizes.

Definitely worth a look. Also check out the Oraculum directory.

Jan 26, 2012 (Thursday)   329:9:52:46

The Marathon Gold Hoax. Only ever spoken about in darkened corridors and sweltering mail server rooms.
But now the tru7h can be revealed. The day Bungie was hacked !!!

When was the last time you saw Robert McLees in a suit holding a rose? Never? Well not since 1996
anyways. Check out the recently unearthed Strata interview with the bold Rob. In it, he describes
how he created the S'pht'Kr Elite Guard (Defender) with paper and pencil, cones and spheres, and
something called StudioPro.

Other recent editions to the Blasts from the Past section over the last couple of weeks
(yes, the Story page never sleeps... it just grows and grows):

The Marathon 2 Charity Auction
The Marathon Christmas Card
The Mystery of the Seventh Head
Last Polygon Filled Day
Monsters in a Box
Marathon Home Videos

Updated text and pics have also been added to such sections as the Marathon Poster, Keychain and Sticker.
Check the Blasts from the Past section for details.

Jan 21, 2012 (Saturday)   334:10:57:9

Want to see the differences between the Marathon 2 Preview and the full game? Goodies that
aren't visible in the actual preview. Like the Pfhor set which is a near-complete remake of the
M1 textures. Or unfinished weapons that don't look anything like the finished M2 weapons.
Well now you can thanks to Hopper. For more details see the Marathon 2 Preview section.

Came across this... The Marathon Purity Test. Ninety-eight Marathon questions,
the more you answer 'yes', the higher the score. Of course, you have to answer
them tru7hfully. And no I didn't get a score of 98. ;)

Yet another shrink-wrapped copy of the original diskette version of Marathon for sale.
Just where do they find all these supposedly 'rare' copies?

Looking for a copy of the original Marathon 2 Demo (16 bit version)? Well you can still
find a copy online here and now also on the Story page. It's been added to the main
contents list. Scroll down to the end of the Miscellaneous section.

Looking for a copy of the very rare Marathon Demo v0.0? Almost impossible to find
online except... it wasn't too far from home. It's now been added to the main
contents list of the Story page. Scroll down to the end of the Miscellaneous section.

Josh Goldberg <mchief111@rising-studios.com> has added a lot more Marathon artwork to his
Rising Studios directory. You can see it all at http://www.rising-studios.com/Marathon/.
Worth a look.

Jan 7, 2012 (Saturday)   348:5:32:10

Josh Goldberg <mchief111@rising-studios.com> wrote to say that he had a collection of
Marathon-related wallpapers and icons he made for myself and friends, and would the
community like them on m.b.org?

Now the Story page hasn't traditionally featured third-party artwork as a rule but Josh was
kind enough to give me access to his .dir at Rising Studios. In true 'American Pickers' tradition
I went through this picking out some nice pieces of Durandal and Tycho inspired wallpapers.
They are an interesting blend of images and terminal text (so story related) and come in an
assortment of sizes. You can see them here.

Durandal 1024x768,   1280x1024 ,   1600x900,   and   1680x1050.
Tycho 1024x768,   1280x1024,   1600x900,   and   1680x1050.

But wait that's not all, tucked away in little recess of his site was a very interesting find.
It was a Marathon symbol in .svg format. That's a scalable vector graphic (to you and me)
which means that in a program like Illustrator you can resize this without losing quality.
(or some I'm told). Now Josh didn't actually make this himself but nevertheless he was
willing to share it and you can now get it here (.zip format).

Of course the story doesn't end there (hey this is the Story page right). The Marathon symbol
from Josh is similar to the one that first appeared back in August '94 and also the one used
in the Marathon Manual but not the one used in-game. Indeed, the Marathon symbol, as
officially used by Bungie, has changed over time in some subtle ways. So just how many
variations of the Marathon symbol are there? More than seven?

Jan 6, 2012 (Friday)   349:5:33:40

Numbers and Christmas.

It's the 6th January and Christmas is officially over. To mark the passing of another yuletide, President People
<presidentpeople@verizon.net> has posted a little rhyme using references from both Pathways Into Darkness
and Marathon to the tune of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'.

I've reposted it here:

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me:

Twelve golden ingots,

Eleven chosen Olders,

Ten Mjolnir cyborgs,

Nine deadly weapons,

Eight useful CAR.R.O.T.'s,

Seven glorious battles,

Six colored crystals,

5-D Space,

Four sister moons,

Three burnt wicks,

Two carnage breaks,

And A colony ship for sale, cheap!

Now if you think this is easy you'd be mistaken and some of the references are quite obscure, in true
Marathon fashion. Think you've got better relacement numbers? Then post them to the Story forum.

Jan 1, 2012 (Sunday)   354:4:25:49

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

By all accounts 2012 will be a shorter year than most. Ten days shorter to be precise, since the
world is due to end on Dec 21, 2012. Which just happens to be Marathon's coming of age party.
And in true Marathon Infinity tradition you don't even get a party hat.  Prepare to die.   ;)

Last year in review. Just some of the many highlights in 2011, in reverse chronological order
(or something like that).

Jason Jones defends the plot of Marathon in a rare, little known, Usenet post.

The mystery of the Seventh Head solved!

The complexity of Marathon Infinity distilled into one 'complex' diagram.

The first copy of Marathon 2 was produced on November 10, 1995.

The first beta build of Aleph One provided full Marathon 2 film playback support.

The infamous Monkey Boy ad... now in full technicolor glory.

Who put these there and why aren't they in the Spoiler Guide?

A rare piece of Marathon artwork by Craig Mullins, weighing in at 2500 x 2250.

Another rare piece of Marathon art from Craig Mullins.

Bungie release the Marathon Infinity source code.

Marathon 1 for iPad, or more correctly M1A1, released on Bungie Day (July 7).

Bob-B-Q opens his shrinkwrapped copy of the Marathon Trilogy Box Set .

Marathon Music tracks digitally recorded under QuickTime 2.0 by Jeremiah Morris.

The fourth beta build of Aleph One providing full Marathon Infinity film playback support.

Craig Hardgrove completes his Marathon Music remakes.

The full story behind the Battle of Brooklyn.

Old Breach (Phoenix) pics lost and found.

A Craig Mullins spot quiz.

Gnop for iOS. Ok it's not the original... but...

Gnop Gnop for Mac OS X. Obviously a popular game. ;)

Lots of Marathon Music remakes rediscovered and added to Craig Hardgrove's Marathon Music repository.

O Brave New World. A celebration of Bungie's two decade legacy... and the future.

Bungie's bedtime story... or what really went wrong at the office.

Bungie's Magical Mystery Tour of Chicago: Stops 1,   2,   3,   4,   5,   6,   and   7.

No Steve, No Mac, No Marathon.

Aleph One 1.0 released with a whole new version of M1A1 and HD graphics as used in the Xbox LIVE version of Marathon 2.

Marathon 1 and Marathon 2: Durandal for iOS released.

MrM12LRV brings us the head of Saddam Hussein.

Yes I know, I left a ton of stuff out. It was a busy year. Here's to the next. Cheers.