(Jan-Feb 1998)

Feb 28, 1998
Many thanks for all the kind feedback concerning the new site for the Story page at

http://smd033.smd.tcd.ie

Please feel free to pass on the URL to those who may not have heard of it. Speed reviews have been mixed but the real test will come on Monday and the start of a new working week. If you have problems let me know.

I would like to point out this site is presently temporary until such time as I can access www.marathon.org. and update the Story page there.

Another mystery submission to the Story page. The 'nameless one' writes concerning the unformatted message on the Marathon 2 level "Kill Your Television". See the The Unformatted KYT Term. Message section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Steve Campbell, maintainer of Marathon Hyperarchive Midwest, has an interesting graphic on his Daily Marathon News page. You can also see it at the Story page here. It was distributed by Bungie but where and what does it show? Could this be the legendery Mosaic editor? All theories, essays, and dissertations should be directed to Steve Campbell <campbell@okla.net>. The winner will receive a grand prize. ;-)

Feb 27, 1998
Thanks to Todd Bangerter <tabanger@fas.harvard.edu> for sending in a scan of the controversial Macworld Marathon 2 review. See the Blasts from the Past section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details. The mystery of the Marathon 2 update patch is also revealed.

Jonas Eneroth has departed Bungie Software for the greener pastures of London, England. The Story page wishes him well in his new endeavours.

Eidos sued by software rival over Myth game is a scan (153K) of an interesting article from the The Sunday Times 15th Feb '98, page 2 of the Business Section (The Sunday Times is the Sunday edition of The Times, London). If you have any info on the original fantasy game called Myth by System 3 please pass it on to the Story page. Thanks.

Some of you might have missed this but Tuncer Deniz posted the following reply to alt.games.myth in an effort to dispell rumors that Bungie had a patch to allow Marathon play on bungie.net:

Subject:      Re: Upset at Bungie
From:         tuncer@bungie.nospam.com (Tuncer Deniz)
Date:         1998/02/04
Message-ID:   <tuncer-ya02408000R0502981055060001@news1.il.home.net>
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
References:   <34d269da.22566869@news.elcocomp.com> 
<6ats2k$3tv@bgtnsc02.worldnet.att.net> 
<forrestDELETE-THIS!-3101980036550001@term3-13.vta.west.net> 
<6avoc1$1js@bgtnsc02.worldnet.att.net> 
<kwaltd-ya02408000R3101981752440001@snews.zippo.com> 
<6b17i2$6u6@bgtnsc03.worldnet.att.net> 
<see-below-0102980102010001@dynamic41.pm07.mv.best.com> 
<6b2cqm$t6b@bgtnsc02.worldnet.att.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Organization: Bungie Software
Newsgroups:   alt.games.myth
[Fewer Headers]


In article <6b2cqm$t6b@bgtnsc02.worldnet.att.net>, "Dorian Ouer"
<d.ouer@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

> I only know what was insinuated by Max (who's the admin laison.)  He said
> that perhaps Bungie.net would be expanded to include Marathon 1-3 net play
> as well once they have a new network guy to pul it off and make Bungie.net
> more stable.  This is very "iffy" right now though, so I wouldn't hold your
> breath. =)

Dorian,

Ummm, just want to smash any rumors before they get started. Marathon 1-3
will not be touched and will not be available through bungie.net.

Tuncer
Bungie

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuncer Deniz                                
Production Manager guy or something
Bungie Software
http://www.bungie.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------

No earth shattering news here except for the fact that Bungie have begun referring to Marathon Infinity as Marathon 3, something they wholeheartedly avoided when it was initially released for obvious reasons.

Rumors of a new Bungie project codenamed "Equus" abound... but the Story page will bring you the tru7h... soon.

Todd Keating <cxtdk@ux1.cts.eiu.edu> has released an update to his Advanced Grenade Jumping Tutorial called "The Marathon Hang Time Guide". You can find it at his Marathon Hang Time Page. Todd's efforts in advancing the art of jumping and climbing has brought an extra dimension to Marathon game play.

Kristofer Osegard <Kjetil@aol.com> writes:

In sitting through a sometimes torturous two-hours of the movie Krull, I discovered that the evil warriors in said movie (known as Slayers), bear a striking resemblance to the Pfhor. Perhaps these are the Pfhor's ancestors, and after the Beast is killed (by the Power of Love, no less), they take over his galactic empire. On the other hand, the Pfhor could be the ancestors of the Slayers. In any case the Pfhor and the Slayers are clearly related in some way.

If you have a picture of a Slayer please send it in to the Story page. Thanks. Check the Marathon & The Micronaut Influence? section for possible Pfhor influences.

Michael Nelson <mnelson1282@earthlink.net> writes concerning the original level names. See the Original Level Names section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Kieran Wheeler <kieran_wheeler@hotmail.com> writes concerning about the similarities between the Marathon level "Arrival" and the Infinity level "Ne Cede Malis". See the Official Marathon Screenshots section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Justin Cook <halcyon@ragh.dyn.ml.org> writes:

In his latest sequel - 3001 - Clarke reveals that Hal and the human in the monolith have somewhat merged processes, and near the end of the book are given the task of destroying the Europa monolith with a virus before it can destroy Sol in a supernova. A pretty generic sci-fi thread, but parallel to Marathon Infinity's ending.

Feb 5, 1998
Sometime this week, the server hosting www.marathon.org will be shut down for an 'upgrade' from BSD Unix to Windows NT. The expectation is that Marathon Central will still be hosted at this site once the upgrade is complete, but even if we continue here, the existing cgi's will not work under NT (i.e., no text searches). We're attempting to find a solution to the situation - if the Story page becomes unavailable, details will be posted to the alt.games.marathon newsgroup.
Cheers
Hamish

Chadd Nervig <drmemory@gte.net> writes concerning the unformatted KYT terminal. See The Unformatted KYT Term. Message section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Chadd Nervig also writes concerning the number seven. See The Number Seven section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Feb 4, 1998
Charles Srstka <csrstka@earthlink.net> writes concerning the binary string #101111011110111100001# is is a '7'. See The 10th military Mjolnir Mark IV cyborg section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Matthew Payne <sfeira@pacbell.net> points out that Mac Secrets, edition 4, page 772 contains an entry from Sean Mahan about the invisible folder named "old marathons" in the Holiday Marathon Music folder on the original Marathon CD.

Feb 3, 1998
And yet another Marathon 2 promotional poster ad from Jonas Eneroth (Bungie Software). See the Bungie's Marathon Ads section of Facts and puzzling things about... .

Gabe Rosenkoetter <gabe@colby.tjs.org> writes concerning Double Aught's "secret" page:

I presume you've noticed the update.

Gone are the dual headers and (most of) the secret messages.

There's a bit added to the story and engine pages, but folks can read that for themselves.

Interesting to note that index.html (what used to be the Duality animated gif with the silhouette running across it) and index2.html (what used to be the static main page) are now seemingly identical.

Only seemingly, though.

At the bottom of index.html, we find yet another of CK's cryptic comments:

<!--That's word, B, I'll leave my diapers on your girl's knee-->

This is absent from index2.html.

The screenshots tree remains unchanged (double headers and all included still.)

Also interesting to note that all the old text-.gifs have _not_ been deleted - they're still in the /Main/Images/ directory.

Good to see that the Double Aught folks haven't fled the universe on us.

Yes indeed...

Feb 2, 1998
Todd Bangerter <tabanger@fas.harvard.edu> kindly sent in another Hound screenshot this time from Macworld magazine. See Bungie's Marathon Ads section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Feb 1, 1998
Many thanks to Jonas Eneroth (Bungie Software) for sending in this rare Wayward Spleen Marathon 2 Ad. See the Bungie's Marathon Ads section of Facts and puzzling things about... .

Jan 31, 1998
It was mentioned on...

Aug 6, 1996

and on...

Oct 31, 1996

and again on...

Apr 3, 1997

and yet again more recently this month. The pieces of the Marathon jigsaw are slowly beginning to be pieced together...

Todd Bangerter <tabanger@fas.harvard.edu> writes:

Did you know that the monoliths were actually just extremely complex machines left behind to facilitate the agenda of a sophisticated, ancient race that seeded intelligent life throughout the universe? True facts from the little-read 2061: Odyssey Three . . .

That's why the primitive man-apes were stimulated to think and evolve by the monoliths in 2001. It's also why the monolith caused Jupiter to go nova and form a new sun (Lucifer) that would provide light and heat to nourish the new flourishing life on Jupiter's moon, Europa.

Jan 30, 1998
Mark Tomczak <mtomczak@mindspring.com> writes:

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but I believe I can discern the origin of The Plans, if it hasn't already been covered. One of the first 3D shoot-em-up games was, of course, Wolfenstein 3D. Now, what many do not know is that Wolfenstein 3D was predated by an earlier Apple IIc game, Castle Wolfenstein (where stuff actually killed you with one shot andyou had to try to escape the castle WITHOUT alerting the guards....*sigh*, memories...). In the original Castle Wolfenstein, your primary goal was to escape, but you could score better by escaping with....The Plans! Perhaps The Plans is an inside reference to one of the best strategy games for the IIc, so callously converted into a blind, pointless shoot-em-up.

Ah yes! Interestingly enough a search of the Story page's 7GB archive uncovered this early post on comp.sys.mac.games which mentioned "The Plans".

From: russotto@wanda.pond.com (Matthew Russotto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Marathon Wave Motion Cannon
Date: 29 Jan 1995 11:22:10 -0500
Organization: FishNet
Lines: 27
Message-ID: <3ggfbi$7dd@wanda.pond.com>
References: <3gb6vr$9t4@apakabar.cc.columbia.edu> <armD33o9B.D7B@netcom.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: wanda.pond.com
Keywords: Marathon Resource Weapons

In article <armD33o9B.D7B@netcom.com>, Alex Morando <arm@netcom.com> wrote:
}In article <3gb6vr$9t4@apakabar.cc.columbia.edu>,
}Tomas Dylan Clark <tdc8@inibara.cc.columbia.edu> wrote:
}>
}>      Has anyone found the Wave Motion Cannon anywhere in Marathon?
}>      It's mentioned in the resource fork of the application itself,
}>I believe, just beneath "Alien Energy Converter." I have a feeling this
}>might be a Bungie joke... because, wasn't the gigantic gun at the front
}>of the Yamato in Star Blazers also called the Wave Motion Cannon?
}>      But it would be nice if there was another weapon.
}>      There's another object too, beneath that: "The Plans." Does anyone
}>know anything about either of these?
}>
}"The Plans" may be a tribute to Castle Wolfenstein, from which came
}Wolf3D, Doom, and now Marathon.

You're probably rights, seeing as you agree with me :-).  The Alien
Weapon may contain another tribute to the old Apple II:  0xFDED is
COUT-- the main character output routine-- in the Apple II ROM.  And
clearly there's a problem outputting the name of the Alien Weapon.

But maybe I'm reading too much into the game-- Philip K. Dick
references, Wolfenstein references, Apple II machine language
references...

Reading too much into the game eh? God forbid! ;-)

But could these be Apple II references? Jason Jones when asked about how he first started programming in an Inside Mac Games magazine interview (Oct '93) replied:

Like a lot of programmers my age, I started way back on the Apple II when I was in high school. I first learned Applesoft Basic and then 6502 Assembly. As soon as Apple came out with the Macs my family got a Macintosh 128k, but I never did any development on that machine, except in Microsoft Basic 1.0, which was really awful. After high school my family bought a Mac II and I got a job programming in C for a CAD/CAM company on PCs. Needless to say, I didn't go to college for a year. During this year off, I bought MPW for the Macintosh and started doing Mac development on the side. All I ever did on the Apple II was write games, and it seemed logical to continue that on the Mac. Honestly, it's the only good use of computers that I can think of. The first thing I did on the Mac was to port a modem game I'd written called Minotaur from 6502 Assembly on the Apple II into MPW C on the Mac. I was still finishing that when I came to college. By that time, I knew I wanted to write games. So I guess it all goes back to the Apple II.

Jan 29, 1998
Aaron Freed <aaron@packet.net> writes:

Napalm Units... They're Everywhere!

No, they're not.

The one on "Sorry Don't Make It So" was the Flamethrower that Kieran Wheeler was referring to. There is _no_ flamethrower on "For Carnage, Apply Within." None whatsoever. I checked both versions with Forge. It doesn't exist.

Which would go a good deal towards explaining why it isn't in the spoiler guide.

Good to see that somebody is awake around here. ;-)

Prompted by a number of recent submissions on the decoding of the mysterious binary string #101111011110111100001# is is a '7' on the exit terminal of "Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!" I have added some discussion on this to The 10th military Mjolnir Mark IV cyborg section of Facts and puzzling things about... . As Jason Miller <rjam@magi.com> rightly observed there is NO discussion on subject at the Story page. Why?

Jan 28, 1998
Napalm Units... They're Everywhere!

Concerning the recent discussion about the number of Tozt-7 Napalm Units before "The Big House" Steven Mast <DMast007@aol.com> writes:

There is another flamethrower before THE BIGHOUSE.It's on SORRY DON'T MAKE IT SO in the river of alien goo.It's to the right,were you first jump in.

Ah yes!... the secret Tozt under the lava on "Sorry Don't Make it So". How could we forget that one? My mind is going. I can feel it.... I can feel it. My mind is going... there is no question about it.

Of course we might reasonably ask ourselves whose bright idea it was to teleport these in... under lava! Rampancy holds no bounds!

Jan 27, 1998
Added the first of a number of rare Marathon 2 promotional posters to the Bungie's Marathon Ads section. This was kindly sent in by Jonas Eneroth (Bungie Software).

Jan 26, 1998
Many thanks to Jonas Eneroth (Bungie Software) for sending the Marathon's Story page a number of never seen before Marathon Ad posters. We'll be scanning these in and uploading them soon. Watch this space. :-)

Jonas also kindly sent in a black and white pre-production print of that somewhat controversial Marathon 2 for Windows 95 Ad. You know... the one all that fuss was about. ;-)

Anyway it has now been scanned in and added to the Bungie's Marathon Ads section of Facts and puzzling things about... . Now you can make your own mind up. Are you prepared for the tru7h?

Gabe Rosenkoetter <gabe@colby.tjs.org> writes concerning the missing 2nd shotgun ammo slot in Marathon. See the Weapons in Marathon section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Gabe also writes concerning the number seven. See The Number Seven section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Ah old age!... the neurons in your brain begin to breakdown... and you tend to forget things... like...

Kieran Wheeler <kieran_wheeler@hotmail.com> writes:

Ummm, you _do_ know about the other flamethrower, right?

The one I'm talking about is still before The Big House. Remember now?

No, huh? Okay, here we go. On "For Carnage, Apply Within," there is a certain maze of plazma that requires speedy "Island Hopping." Off to the right, there is an area without islands (a large purple lagoon, if you will). Hidden within its flamey depths is a flamethrower, only acessable with skill. Succesfully grabbing it requires some fast footwork, and I know of noone who can do it every time on TC 'cause its removal awakens some compiler chappies.

Oh, in case you were wondering, this sucker ain't in the spoiler guide. Anyway, the reason I mention it is that getting zillions of cannisters of napalm the level after receiving the TOZT-7 makes more sense than putting them in to compliment a TOZT received about seven (yup thats right) levels earlier. IMHO, the rocket-launcher and flamethrower on Vid boi are there merely as extras. You can't do much with them until much later on, and for the most part stay in your inventory unused.

Check out the Marathon Vidmasters' page for films of getting the napalm unit on this level on Total Carnage.

Jan 25, 1998
Concerning the existence of a secret napalm unit and rocket launcher at the beginning of "Eat It Vid Boi!" Jonathan Longstaff <manawydan@worldnet.att.net> writes:

...you CAN see the napalm gun if you walk all the way to the other side and press up against the opposite wall.

Ah yes indeed... you can just make out the top.

Jonathan notes that the existence of the napalm unit on this level explains why we are given napalm cannisters before "The Big House". Thus we are not just lugging them around for the fun of it.

Of course you have to get to the napalm unit and rocket launcher first. Now just who do think would have put all those goodies way up there? :-)

Jadin Hanson <kermit@cp.duluth.mn.us> writes concerning the number seven. See The Number Seven section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jan 24, 1998
Many thanks to all the people who responded about the similarities between the Marathon 2 (for Macintosh) and Infinity boxes. The general concensus is that the screenshots are in fact identical leading a number of people to speculate that the Infinity box is a preproduction mock up based on the Marathon 2 box.

Questions still remain though. What are the screenshots on the 2nd Marathon 2 box? Were they ever released? What do they reveal about early Marathon 2 development? And why are these seemingly non-existent boxes still being used to advertise Marathon?

John Gendreau <gendreau@bu.edu> writes concerning the unformatted KYT terminal and a seemingly garbage terminal on "Never Burn Money". See The Unformatted KYT Term. Message section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Ian James <ian@darkside.eemsd.wustl.edu> writes concerning the missing 2nd shotgun ammo slot in Marathon. See the Weapons in Marathon section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Aaron Freed <aaron@packet.net> writes concerning the number seven. See The Number Seven section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jan 23, 1998
Ok I confess... I lied!

"What's new?" I hear you cry!

Actually it's more of an error. On The Breakable Panel on We're Everywhere page I said that it was possible to blast yourself up to a raised "ammo cache" alcove using an overloaded fusion pistol. Well that bit was true. Unfortunately you die in the process. Yeah... so I left out that minor detail. ;-)

Thanks to Frode Henriksen <frodeh@eunet.no> for making me aware of my little faux pas.

Graham Benedict <mark.benedict@snet.net> writes:

Included with Marathon Infinity was a little flyer, Bungie's very own little Newspaper, Bungievision. If you look at the 2nd to last page (on the inside) and take a look at the picture of Marathon Infinity's box, you will see that the pattern on it is very different, Also, the "Accelerated for Power Macintosh" sticker is positioned on the bottom, instead of the top, as it was on Marathon 2's box. And although it is kind of hard to tell, I think the screenshots are positioned differently on it. Don't you think that, considering that this copy of Bungievision shipped with infinity, that they could get the picture of the box right? And where did this box design come from? Are there any other Infinity ads that have this?

Interesting observation. But the mystery doesn't end there.

The Infinity box displayed on Bungie's Marathon Infinity page has the "Accelerated for Power Macintosh" sticker at the top right as Graham indicates. This is the box I have as well. Yet the Infinity box shot at Cyberian Outpost's page has the "Accelerated for Power Macintosh" sticker at the bottom and clearly has different screenshots as Graham indicates

But note this. There are also two versions of the Marathon 2 for Macintosh box. Again one with the "Accelerated for Power Macintosh" sticker at the top right and one with it at the bottom. The screenshots on the former box are the same as those displayed on Bungie's M2 screenshot page. The latter box has different screenshots WHICH look remarkably like those on the Infintiy box. Confused? Well you can see the differences AND similarities here.

What are the screenshots on the 2nd version of the Marathon 2 (for Macintosh) and Infinity boxes?

Jan 22, 1998
David Martin <dkm125@psu.edu> writes concerning the shotgun in Marathon. See the Weapons in Marathon section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Brandon Gupton <TraxusIV@AOL.com> writes concerning the number seven. See The Number Seven section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

"Manus Celer Dei" or "Manus Celeris Dei"? Kieran Wheeler <kieran_wheeler@hotmail.com> discusses why many ships are given feminine names. See the Latin in Marathon 2 section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jan 21, 1998
Jonathan Merriman <jmerrima@ix.netcom.com> makes an interesting observation about the alien weapon in Marathon. See the Weapons in Marathon section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Aaron Freed <aaron@packet.net> writes concerning the number seven and three. See The Number Seven section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jan 20, 1998
Good news for Marathon fans. It appears that Marathon Central is set to rise from the ashes under new management. Steve Campbell has put out a call for maintainers of "active" Marathon sites to send him their URLs. You can check the details at Steve's Daily Marathon News page:

http://www.pullmyfinger.com/marathon/daily.news.html

Things are looking up in the Marathon world. Hey!... even the Marathon Vidmasters' page has been updated!

Aaron Freed <aaron@packet.net> writes concerning the music in Marathon. See the Marathon Music section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jan 19, 1998
Chadd Nervig <drmemory@gte.net> writes concerning the fate of Leela. See the Leela section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jan 17, 1998
Ernest Tomlinson <etomlins@rohan.sdsu.edu> writes concerning the level name "Neither High nor Low". See the What's in a Name? section for details.

Max Lieberman <Lieb6@aol.com> writes concerning the fate of Leela. See the Leela section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jan 16, 1998
Aaron Freed <aaron@packet.net> writes concerning the Marathon level credits. See the Level Credits section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Mike Phillips <venom@silcon.com> writes concerning the use of Latin in Marathon 2. See the Latin in Marathon 2 section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jan 15, 1998
2001: A Space Odyssey.

Three...

It is three days after HAL 9000's first birthday. HAL became operational at the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois, on the 12th January, 1997... or was it 1992?... he couldn't exactly remember.

Three...

Three years and three days before Hal's "birth" Bungie had just finished showing their up-coming game Marathon at the San Francisco Macworld Expo '94.

Three...

Thirteen months before the launch date of the Discovery's covert mission to Jupiter, on April 12th, 2001, the first evidence for intelligent life outside the Earth was discovered. It was found buried on the moon in the Tycho crater. At 11 feet tall, 5 feet wide and 1 1/4 feet thick, the monolith was built to a ratio of 1 to 4 to 9; the squares of the first three integers (1,2,3...)

Three...

It is just one day over three years and one month to this day that Marathon's last polygon was filled and still the Marathon Story defies persistent interpretation.

Three...

Forrest Cameranesi <forrest@west.net> writes concerning the Jjaro. See The Jjaro section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Ernest Tomlinson <etomlins@rohan.sdsu.edu> writes concerning the use of Latin in Marathon 2. See the Latin in Marathon 2 section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jan 14, 1998
Thanks to Todd Keating <cxtdk@ux1.cts.eiu.edu> the Marathon's Story page has finally obtained one of seven items of most wanted early Marathon memorabilia. See Bungie's Marathon Ads section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jan 13, 1998
Added a new section to discuss the Marathon level credits. See the new Level Credits section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Gabe Rosenkoetter <gabe@colby.tjs.org> writes concerning the Marathon level credits. See the Level Credits section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Gabe Rosenkoetter <gabe@colby.tjs.org> writes concerning the Jjaro and the W'rkncacnter. See The Jjaro section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Forrest Cameranesi <forrest@west.net> also writes concerning the Jjaro and the W'rkncacnter. See The Jjaro section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Gabe Rosenkoetter also notes an odd thing on Double Aught's Duality page:

I noticed something interesting... except for index.html and index2.html, all of the pages (screenshots.html, story.html, and engine.html) have the following at the top:

<HEAD>
<TITLE>D U A L I T Y</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>D U A L I T Y</TITLE>
</HEAD>

That's right, they have two heads and two titles. The same thing. Twice.

If it happened once, I'd chalk it up to error on lilbuddha's part, but all three pages?

Seems like a reference to the title to me...

Jan 12, 1998
Brendan Ebner <bebner@srv.net> writes concerning the Jjaro and the W'rkncacnter. See The Jjaro section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Aaron Freed <aaron@packet.net> points out that on the logoff screen of the final terminal of "Aye Mak Sicur":

Por.Fin is "At Last" in Spanish

Aaron also writes:

It's unfortunate that we don't have a complete list of level credits, but I'm going to try to create a list of levels whose creators we do know:

Never Burn Money - Greg Kirkpatrick
The Rose - Greg Kirkpatrick
G4 Sunbathing - Greg Kirkpatrick
Bob-B-Q - Jason Jones
Shake Before Using - Alex Seropian
Colony Ship for Sale, Cheap - Jason Jones
Habe Quiddam - Jason Jomes
No Artificial Colors - Tuncer Deniz / Greg Kirkpatrick
Ingue Ferroque - Jason Jones

Mars Needs Women - Jason Jones
Carnage Palace Deluxe - Jason Jones
You don't need to see my ID - Alex Seropian
Arena - Alex Seropian
What Goes Up, Must Come Down - Tuncer Deniz
Waldo World Arena - Tuncer Deniz

We don't know which of the Pfhor ship levels wasn't created by Reginald Dujour, but I'm guessing it's Pfhor Your Eyes Only. The reason for this is that "Sorry Don't Make It So" was based on this level, and Reg is not listed in "Scenario Design" for Marathon 2.

Come and Take your Medicine - Greg Kirkpatrick
We're Everywhere - Greg Kirkpatrick / Retextured by Jason Jones
Ex Cathedra - Doug Zartman
The Hard Stuff Rules - Greg Kirkpatrick
If I Had A Rocket Launcher, I'd Make Somebody Pay - Greg Kirkpatrick
Begging for Mercy Makes Me Angry - Jason Jones
My Own Private Thermopylae - Greg Kirkpatrick
Kill Your Television - Jason Jones
All Roads Lead to Sol - Jason Jones

Ne Cede Malis - Randy Reddig
Poor Yorick - Greg / Chris / Randy
Monsters in Dreams - Greg Kirkpatrick
Acme Station - Greg Kirkpatrick
Whatever You Please - Randy Reddig
Naw Man He's Close - Chris Geisel / Greg Kirkpatrick
Foe Hammer - Chris Geisel / Randy Reddig
By Committee - Greg / Chris / Randy (suggested by name)?
Slimy Things - Chris Geisel / Greg Kirkpatrick
A Converted Church in Venice, Italy - Randy Reddig (?)
Aye Mak Sicur - Randy Reddig
Aie Mak Sicur - Randy Reddig
Carroll Street Station - Randy Reddig
You're Wormfood, Dude - Randy Reddig

YAFNM - Tuncer Deniz
Beyond Thunderdome - Tuncer Deniz House of Pain - Tuncer Deniz
King of Pain - Randall Shaw
La Cosa Nostra - Randall Shaw
Dead Fields - Randall Shaw
Route 66 - Randy Reddig
Vulcan - Randy Reddig / Tuncer Deniz

Are there any more levels known? are any wrong?

Jan 11, 1998
Candace Sherriff <shebob@mail.bc.rogers.wave.ca> writes:

Good news for Durandal

Err... why?

Candace passes on the following news item.

Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The "big bang" won't be followed by the "big crunch." That's the conclusion of five teams of astronomers who used different techniques to gather evidence on the future of the universe. Based on those results, said Ruth Daly, a Princeton University astronomer, "it is quite clear now that the universe will expand forever." The astronomy teams, in effect, were trying to determine if there's enough matter in the universe to force it to one day stop its current expansion and to start collapsing inward. Their findings, presented Thursday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, support the idea that there'll never be a grand crunch. Most astronomers now accept the idea that the universe began with a "big bang," a moment about 15 billion years ago when a superdense point exploded in the most gigantic bang imaginable. It's believed that since that moment all matter in the universe has been expanding outward. The controversy among astronomers is whether the universe is "closed" or "open." In a closed universe, the expansion would continue until gravity from the mass of matter cancelled the outward force and the motion reversed directions. In effect, the idea went, the universe would then collapse inward and come back together until it was all crammed into a single point of unimaginable density. Hence, "the big crunch." But astronomers from Princeton, Yale, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Institute reported Thursday that all of their studies show the universe is "open." In effect, they found that the universe will continue to expand, and even accelerate, forever and ever. Neta Bahcall, working with a second Princeton team, said her studies of the largest structures in the universe - immense clusters of hundreds of galaxies, each with billions of stars - show the universe is too lightweight to ever "crunch." "It has only about 20 per cent of the mass needed to close," she said. Peter Garnavich of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, Saul Perlmutter of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Bradley Schaefer of Yale studied supernovae, which are exploding stars, to measure the rate of expansion of the universe. By looking very, very deep into the universe, the astronomers were able to measure the rate of expansion early in the universe's history. Speed of the expansion over time is essential for estimating the density of matter in the universe and, thus, determining if the expansion will continue. Garnavich said his team is at least 95 per cent certain now that "the density of matter is insufficient to halt the expansion of the universe." Daly used still another system, measuring the distance and motion of radio "hot spots," intense sources of natural radio signals that emit from very hot stars. She said her data, using this independent measure, agreed with the others: The universe is open and will expand forever. That, however, doesn't mean nothing will change, said Daly. She said that eventually all the fuel in the stars will burn out and the universe will become cold and dark "with nothing left but rocks." But relax, said Schaefer. That frozen future won't happen for another 100 billion years, give or take a few billion.

Of course all this depends on what timeline you are in. ;-)

Aaron Freed <aaron@packet.net> writes concerning the possibility that "Ne Cede Malis" is a version of "Aye Mak Sicur". See the Official Marathon Screenshots section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jan 10, 1998
Max Lieberman <Lieb6@aol.com> writes concerning the legendary Wave Motion Canon. See the Weapons in Marathon section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Kieran Wheeler <kieran_wheeler@hotmail.com>, Charles Srstka <csrstka@earthlink.net>, Michael Dawe <dawe@frontiernet.net>, and Aaron Freed <aaron@packet.net> all write concerning the presence of a fusion gun in an underwater Marathon 2 screenshot. See the Official Marathon Screenshots section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Aaron Freed <aaron@packet.net> writes concerning the absence of certain screenshots. See the Official Marathon Screenshots section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

John Bousfield <bousfields@cityscape.co.uk> writes:

Just noticed something on Eylon Caspi's Macworld report from the Story page: Bungie now numbers approximately 25 people.

And 2+5=... naa, must be a coincidence...

Jan 9, 1998
John Zero <jzero@onramp.net> writes concerning the possibility that Thoth was Yrro. See the Thoth section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Mark Bassett <markb@iisc.co.uk> also writes concerning the possibility that Thoth was Yrro. See the Thoth section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

On a similar theme Gabe Rosenkoetter <gabe@colby.tjs.org> speculates on who the Jjaro were. See The Jjaro section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Dan Rudolph <rudolph.family@mcleod.net> writes concerning the presence of a fusion gun in an underwater Marathon 2 screenshot. See the Official Marathon Screenshots section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Richard Williams <opus@world.std.com> writes concerning the weapons in Marathon. See the Weapons in Marathon section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jan 8, 1998
Many thanks to Eylon Caspi <eylon@cs.berkeley.edu> for sending in a report from this year's San Francisco Macworld Expo. Some interesting tidbits from the Bungie booth. Check out Eylon Caspi's San Francisco Macworld Expo '98 Report. Eylon's report from last year's SF Macworld Expo can be found here

Kieran Wheeler <kieran_wheeler@hotmail.com> writes concerning the presence of a fusion gun in an underwater Marathon 2 screenshot. See the Official Marathon Screenshots section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jan 7, 1998
The Latin inscription Cave Canem featured prominently on the doors of many houses during the time of the Roman Empire. Brandon Gupton <TraxusIV@aol.com> writes about dogs and such. See the Blasts from the Past section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Marathon screenshots. Why are they so different from the final game and do they reveal story clues? Aaron Freed <aaron@packet.net> goes in search and makes some interesting discoveries. See the new Official Marathon Screenshots section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jan 6, 1998
Max Lieberman <Lieb6@aol.com> writes concerning the uplink chip on Hang Brain. See The Uplink Chip on Hang Brain section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Max also writes concerning the suggestion that Thoth was Yrro. See the Thoth section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jan 5, 1998
Good news for Marathon fans. Steve Campbell's Daily News page is back up and regularly updated at

http://www.pullmyfinger.com/marathon/daily.news.html

Hopefully Steve will keep us update with Marathon news, views, and gossip from around the world.

Mark Bassett <markb@iisc.co.uk> writes concerning the uplink chip on Hang Brain. See The Uplink Chip on Hang Brain section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jan 4, 1998
This day three years ago the first Marathon Macworld Tournament was held. See the Blasts from the Past section of Facts and puzzling things about... for the gory details.

Michael Dawe <dawe@frontiernet.net> writes concerning the fate of the uplink chip on Hang Brain. See The Uplink Chip on Hang Brain section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jim Mitchell <James.Mitchell@valley.net> writes concerning the merging of Durandal and Thoth on "Strange Eons". See The Uplink Chip on Hang Brain section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

William Spencer <williamspencer@hotmail.com> writes concerning weapons and vaccum. See the Weapons in Marathon section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Will Craig <chill@sunset.net> writes concerning the Ticks in Marathon 2:

Actually, the tick in m2 does work. When I first attempted map making in m2. I converted a map from m1 to m2 and all the phfor fighter became ticks. when I walked up to one, tentacles came out of it sucking my energy (I'm not making this up). When it was killed, it floated upward and stayed dead in the air. Very Weird stuff.

Matthew Payne <sfeira@pacbell.net> writes:

Bungie's booth # for the San Francisco Macworld Expo in January is 3761.

3 7 6+1=7

It all adds up :)

And if you thought that was weird see the Blasts from the Past section above.

Jan 3, 1998
And we have a winner. Will Craig <chill@sunset.net> writes concerning the mystery Marathon pic above.

About the January mystery pic. It originally appeared on Bungie's web site with the orange background and stuff. Back when Bungie had the m2 demo on and the navigational bar that looked like the inventory window and motion sensor.
About the actually alien, of course it's a cyborg, and probably originally appeared in the m2 preview, or the betas before that.

Yes the cyborg animation first appeared on Bungie's 2nd web page back in Oct '95 when the Marathon 2 Demo was released. Who remembers the What idiot designed Bungie's web site? thread on comp.sys.mac.games.action? We'll be having a full expose on that at some stage in the future never fear. The cyborg animation could be found on the Guestbook page. Who remembers filling that one in? I wonder if Will remembers this entry in Bungie's Guestbook? ;-)

Will Craig
Date: Sunday, 10 March 1996
Email: Chill@chicobbs.com
URL: http://www.geocities.com/WallStreet/2131/ChillMain.html
Comments: Marathon 1 and 2 ROCKS!!!!!!!

Anyway I digress.

The cyborg in the above animation is interesting in that it's a version that never made it into the final game. This early cyborg is shooting a weapon similar to our assault rifle. You'll find the same cyborg on the cover of the July/Aug '95 edition of Inside Mac Games magazine. Nice picture too. Just another interesting Marathon fact.

How many references to the number seven are hidden in Marathon? Can the true number ever be found using the gematria, the notarikon, and the temurah? And if found what will it reveal? Some have warned against this cabalistic approach to the Marathon Story... concerned that what is secret should remain secret. Sometimes the tru7h is best left hidden they argue. But now help is at hand. Thanks to Marc Philipp Weber <055161688-0001@t-online.de> the process of finding the hidden sevens should be made easier. See The Number Seven section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Yet another Marathon-like symbol this time found by Jadin Hanson <kermit@cp.duluth.mn.us>. See the That Marathon Symbol section for details.

Jan 2, 1998
Mystery pic is up. What is it and where did it first appear? Shouldn't be too hard. Alot of people visited the site and the relevant page. Anyone also care to mention where similar pictures of this alien have appeared? Sorry about the background color of the pic but that's how it originally appeared.

Steve Campbell <midwest@okla.net> writes concerning the breakable panel on "We're Everywhere" See The Breakable Panel on We're Everywhere section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Jim Mitchell <James.Mitchell@valley.net> writes:

On Thing What Kicks. . . check out the log out text of terminal 4: 1st message. If pronounced and worded correctly it forms a rather unusual message ;-)

So it does! :-)

Aaron Freed <aaron@packet.net> writes concerning Ticks:

Replaying "A Converted Church in Venice, Italy", I noticed that the Kamikaze Tick's dying and dead sprites don't match up. When dying, the Tick is a heap of burning flesh, but when dead all the pieces seem to fall back to the normal Tick sprites. And something occured to me concerning the ticks.

Why would Bungie waste three monster spots in M2 for a monster that doesn't do anything and is entirely defenseless? In Forge the monster names are "Tick Energy", "Tick Oxygen", and "Tick Kamikazi". Two things about this. First, it's "Kamikaze" not "Kamikazi." Second, "Tick Energy" and "Tick Oxygen" suggest the monsters would suck up energy and oxygen, yet it's only the Kamikaze tick who can attack.

In the Physics model there are spots for "Energy Drain", "Major Energy Drain", and "Oxygen Drain." These do not account for the player's loss of energy - you can replace them without any effect on the game, although the Kamikaze Tick attacks with the Energy Drain. The Tick Energy and Oxygen (who are marked as Minor and Major, respectively, in Anvil) have _every_ monster class marked as friend, although like the defenseless BoBs in Marathon 1, whether the monster is Friend or Enemy doesn't matter since they can't attack. Furthermore, the Kamikaze Tick has every monster marked as enemy. The Kamikaze Tick doesn't really fit into the story at all, and the regular Ticks aren't marked as anything at all. While these could be considered ambient creatures like Grendel, Mothrid, and some other in Marathon Infinity, their large size suggests they had some other role intended originally.

The Ticks appear in M2 in the following levels:
Charon Doesn't Make Change
The Hard Stuff Rules
Six Thousand Feet Under
Kill Your Television

In all cases the Ticks were marked as "Energy Tick". Their name "tick" suggests some annoying, swarming parasite that slowly eats up your health and is difficult to swat away. But they don't do anything like it. The presence of the Energy and Oxygen Ticks and Energy and Oxygen Drains suggest that Bungie were intending for them to be parasitic creatures, but couldn't make them behave like real parasites.

Another thing: "Oxygen Drain" _doesn't_ affect oxygen, as far as I've been able to determine from my attempts. It's energy-related like everything else. Maybe Bungie had been intending for every monster to have oxygen levels originally, but it became too complicated.

If you mark the "Marine" in the physics model immune to "Suffocation", the player still can die from oxygen loss. This seems to be a wasted damage slot. If you mark the player immune to "Oxygen Drain" the player still loses oxygen underwater or in vacuum SO WHAT ARE THEY THERE FOR?

Anyway, back to the mystery: Why the Oxygen and Energy Drains? Why are they "Tick Energy" and "Tick Oxygen"? Did Bungie originally intend for the Ticks to be blood-sucking parasites?

Interesting stuff. Anyone have an answer?