Apr 27, 2002 (Saturday)

The Pathways Into Darkness page gets an update.

On the Story forum:

Two Times Two Equals...
Bullet Time in PID?
Halo Cheats?
Early look at the Bungie Store
Hidden term on Phforaphobia?

Bidding seems to have slowed down on Marathon items on eBay. There's even a rare boxed copy of PID that no one have bidded on yet. Are people waiting until the last moment? Here are the current Marathon/PID items on eBay. And yes the slogon "Don't makes us kick you ass" was the Marathon credo back in 1996 according to Bungie's Electronic Catalog.

"Kick" + Halo T-shirt currently at US $15.00
Marathon opening bid US $4.99
M1 + M2 (Mac) opening bid US $5.00
PID (boxed) currently at US $9.00
M2 (Mac) currently at US $1.00
Marathon currently at US $1.25

Auction results on eBay over the last week:

Item	Description	Auction End Date	# Bids	Opening Bid Price	Closing Bid Price
Marathon	CD only	25 Apr 02	1	US $5.00	US $5.00
Marathon	CD + Manual	21 Apr 02	6	US $12.00	US $10.50
M2 (Mac)	CD only (+5 other games)	21 Apr 02	2	US $9.99	US $10.49

Apr 25, 2002 (Thursday)

On the Story forum:

Doom novels... why yes!
Don't forget Marathon GURPS
The man who knew too much
Darwin would be proud
Marathon Black
Rare boxed copy of PID on eBay
Nehahra?

Apr 24, 2002 (Wednesday)

Colin Brent, former Bungie artist, returned to the Story forum to post a very interesting piece on his work on Marathon and PID. I've reprinted the full post below:

Pathways and Marathon Trivia

Posted By: Colin Brent <csbrent@hotmail.com>
Date: 4/24/02 10:00 a.m.

In Response To: Re: Drawing Skillz and bungie history (Hamish Sinclair)

In the inital Marathon, Jason had been knocking around a couple of different ideas about having a space oriented adventure. I'm the one who came up with the idea for using Deimos ("Panic"), the smaller of Mars' two moons as a ship. In fact, I had pushed hard to get Marathon renamed Deimos, but Alex had just finished his first marathon race and was very gungho about keeping the name. I had also plotted out a sequence of events that would take you to the surface of Mars and then to the other moon Phobos in a sequel game. You were suppose to start off coming out of a deep freeze, naked, unarmed and clueless to try to deal with the problems on the ship. A lot of the elements that I contributed, such as the artwork, were in the Beta version that got scrapped. I had moved to Boston around this time (wife and grad school) and was mailing diskettes of artwork and storyline back to Chicago every couple of weeks. This eventually became untenable for Jason and Alex who decided that they needed to act like a real business by hiring real full time employees. After the semi-failure of the Mac convention they decided to bring in an in-house artist with a very different drawing style than mine. That particular Manga style was really coming into vogue then. And as I mentioned earlier, my aliens were looking a bit too alien (cross between an ugly bird and a predatory bug) for Jason and Alex. If I remember right, they eventually had to fire Reg and bar him from the office. Something about drugs and/or stealing. I'm not sure exactly what, but the relationship soured.

Now, about the artwork I did in PID. First, you will note that there are a number of floating things in the depths. They almost all use missile attacks. We found that because of the limited number of animation frames that we could run with the engine Jason had worked up, it was very difficult to get realistic walking movement. Pretty much the same thing with attacks. We couldn't just have something claw or bite you. For animation sake, it had to throw something at you. This was solved with the new engine for Marathon, but for PID we ended up designing a lot of floating monsters. I would usually just start by throwing down a few random lines on paper and then seeing what I could make of them. Then I'd go through several incarnations of a critter until I was happy. Inspiration came from several sources. I played a lot of D&D, read a lot of scifi and comics, looked at the work of numerous artists. But mostly, I just have an overactive imagination. Jason would give me some input, but was generally supportive of whatever I came up with. Alex was very hands off in this process. He handled the business end of things more than anything else (you wouldn't believe how hard it was to get people to distribute Bungie's games originally), but he did make an inspirational chili.

By the way, when we were working on Marathon, I figured Bungie wouldn't last that long (boy was I wrong and my bank account shows it), and Jason had also thought about doing something else with his life. I don't think he fully committed to a career in making games until Marathon was a hit. He is also responsible for the whacky convoluted story in PID. I desperatley tried to get him to change things around so that it would be more intelligible, but he had this idea fixed in his head. So rather than waste my time, I just stuck to the artwork. And I am not responsible for the cover artwork. A painter was commissioned to do that based on a drawing I had come up with. We were all pretty upset with the end result, but Alex was out of money and time so we had to go with what we were handed.

Hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane.

J Ross "Ebola" Keverne <JKeverne@hotmail.com> writes concerning Halo and Island Four:

Having played Halo to distraction recently and then coming across "Marathon's Story" I was more than intrigued by the crossovers, not least Cortana's letters...

But anyway... Island 4 or Installation 4 which is the offical name of the Ringworld of Halo. as mentioned by the Monitor 343 Guilty SparkÊat the end of the level "343 Guilty Spark".

Island Four was the pseudonym of Nathan Bitner, former Producer and Creative Developer of Halo. Nathan left Bungie back in Oct 1999. See the Cortana's letters section for full details.

Apr 23, 2002 (Tuesday)

Colin Brent, former Bungie artist who worked on Pathways Into Darkness and the early version of Marathon, dropped into the Story forum to pass on some words of wisdom about being an artist and also some insights into his early work on Marathon. I've reposted the full post below:

Re: Drawing Skillz and bungie history

Posted By: Colin Brent <csbrent@hotmail.com>
Date: 4/23/02 1:42 p.m.

In Response To: Drawing Skillz (Johannes Gunnar)

I did the art work for Bungie's first biggish hit Pathways before deciding to go off and get a Ph.D. My artwork at the onset wasn't great but got progressively better with each successive series of animation frames I drew (and redrew). I spent a lot of my time getting people to pose for me, looking at how animals moved (being a biologist with access to numerous species helped), and trying lots of different combinations of features before deciding on a finished product. Be prepared to go through a lot of paper, and try to think like an artist all the time, studying the world around you for ideas. Also, steal liberally from other artists. They have all done the same.

By the way, for anyone interested and who read the Bungie history recently posted, here's a slight addendum. I did the original artwork for the aliens that appeared in the beta version of Marathon (and mine were MUCH more alien looking- actually criticized by Alex and Jason as being too alien). But because it had a certain sameness about it (similar artistic style), everyone just thought of it as a sequel to Pathways. So a new artist was brought in to give it a new flavor. They also scrapped my idea of having the whole thing occur in a spherical ship with interlocking layers, thinking that might be to challenging for the more linear minded players.

Cheers.

p.s. By the way, I am quite amazed that anyone is actually interested in this stuff still, but more power to you.

Marathon Story fans are legion.

Also on the Story forum Jacke <jacob_aberg@excite.com> made this interesting discovery about the book "Decipher" by Stel Pavlou and Halo. If you've played Halo the parallels will be pretty obvious. Here's the text of the post:

Recommended reading.

Posted By: Jacke <jacob_aberg@excite.com>
Date: 4/23/02 10:56 a.m.

I recently finished the book "Decipher" by Stel Pavlou, and I must say it was thrilling read! It started off slow, but it quickly acclerated in pace... But most interesting is the plot, which points to a mysterious predecessor to the humans, building structures around the world, with the walls covered in strange symbols.

Here's a passage I find most interesting: "For suddenly, three vast and formidable columns of energy, perfectly straight, and immaculately formed, shot up into the sky. One from each of the three peaks. Like cannons aimed at the heavens, the three pyramids loosed their vicious arsenal, and screamed in primal victory. They had awakened, after millennia of slumber. And their wrath was considerable."

As if from an old, or new, dream.

See what Amazon has to say about it.

Jacke is referring to these structures which shoot a blue pulse skywards on a regular basis. You only ever find them where you initially land on Halo. Their function has yet to be determined.

Apr 22, 2002 (Monday)

Strange semi-invisible glyph like images on a cliff face in Halo. Ancient writing exposed by the tides? Left as a message by a mysterious race? But how to decipher the glyphs? :-)

Apr 20, 2002 (Saturday)

On the Story forum:

Marathon Symbol Theory
Fakes ...They're Everywhere
Whatever happened to Greg Kirkpatrick?
Marathon investments
Looking for realistic textures
The Mysterious "Forma" Scenario

Marathon items on eBay:

M2 (Mac) opening bid US $1.00
Marathon currently at US $1.00
Marathon currently at US $5.00
Marathon currently at US $4.25
M2 (Mac) + five other games currently US $9.99

Auction results on eBay over the last week:

Item	Description	Auction End Date	# Bids	Opening Bid Price	Closing Bid Price
M2 (Mac)	CD only (+ two other games)	14 Apr 02	1	US $12.99	US $14.99 (Buy It Now)
Trilogy Box Set	Shrinkwrapped	13 Apr 02	5	US $9.95	US $150.00 (Buy It Now)
Infinity	CD only	13 Apr 02	4	US $2.00	US $31.00

Apr 19, 2002 (Friday)

baugi jones <baugi@hotmail.com> points out on the Story forum that Bungie have added an interesting news story to their Tru7h and Reconcillation site called The Marathon Connection. It outlines the story behind the Marathon series for Halo fans and notes some of the similarities between Halo and Marathon. Here's a piece:

There's something you should know about AIs. Cortana on the Pillar of Autumn is a new kind of AI, a construct created from the personality of a living (or once living) human being. The AIs on the Marathon (and those ships that preceded it) were actually complicated computer systems. So complicated that they tended to have their own personalities, and sometimes this was...er, problematic.

And another:

Of course, there are more subtle similarities. For instance, both Halo and Marathon feature an AI who guides your action while never revealing all he/she/it knows. In both games, you are an elite military machine, but more importantly, something of an enigma. All three Marathon games mention Mark IV Mjolnir Cyborgs, and your HALO instruction manual informs you that as part of the Spartan II project you wear Mjolnir battle armor. Savvy players may even notice that marines occasionally point at you and exclaim, "Look! A Mark-Five!" There are other hardware similarities: the rocket launcher in both games is designated as "SPNKr."

The last line is also interesting:

Perhaps you will discover the Tru7h (and come to understand why we spell it that way) when you experience the Marathon games for yourself.

"...understand why we spell it that way"? Oddly , this is familiar to you, as if it were from an old dream, but you can't exactly remember...

Apr 16, 2002 (Tuesday)

On the Story forum:

Extra Celestial for M1A1
Halo T-shirt
Hmmm... another Halo T-shirt
Two kinds of people in this world...
Quick news about Marathon Aftermath
More Marathon firsts

Marathon items on eBay:

Marathon opening bid US $1.00
Marathon opening bid US $5.00

Recent auction results on eBay:

Item	Description	Auction End Date	# Bids	Opening Bid Price	Closing Bid Price
M2 (Mac)	CD only (+ two other games)	14 Apr 02	1	US $12.99	US $14.99 (Buy It Now)

Apr 14, 2002 (Sunday)

Recent auction results on eBay:

Item	Description	Auction End Date	# Bids	Opening Bid Price	Closing Bid Price
Trilogy Box Set	Shrinkwrapped	13 Apr 02	5	US $9.95	US $150.00 (Buy It Now)
Infinity	CD only	13 Apr 02	4	US $2.00	US $31.00

Apr 13, 2002 (Saturday)

On the Story forum:

Water elevators... whatever will they think of next?
Leela exposed!!!
Not the Marathon Movie... again
Marathon references in Oni
Warning: the Story page can damage your health

Marathon items on eBay:

M2 Mac (CD only) opening bid US $12.99 or Buy It Now (US $14.99)
Trilogy Box Set (Shrinkwrapped) opening bid US $9.95 or Buy It Now (US $150.00)
Infinity (CD only) currently at US $31.00

Auction results on eBay over the last week:

Item	Description	Auction End Date	# Bids	Opening Bid Price	Closing Bid Price
Mac Action Sack	Unopened Sack	10 Apr 02	8	US $5.00	US $51.00
Infinity	CD only	09 Apr 02	8	US $5.00	US $36.00
Trilogy Box Set	Shrinkwrapped	07 Apr 02	13	US $9.99	US $150.00
M2 (PC)	Shrinkwrapped	07 Apr 02	2	US $9.99	US $15.00
M2 (Mac)	CD only	07 Apr 02	8	US $2.00	US $15.50
M2 (Mac)	CD only	06 Apr 02	2	US $1.00	US $15.50

Apr 11, 2002 (Thursday)

Jon Chang <grind@superlink.net> writes concerning yesterday's item on a reference to the name "Durandal" in the Playstation 2 game 'Xenosaga':

I was cruising the story site today and I noticed someone mentioned the Durandal ref in Xenosaga. I beat that game a few weeks ago so I can clarify...the Durandal is a space ship in the game, that looks like a giant saber (sort of ^)^). It is a "good guys" ship but the game is only part 1 of 5 or 6(I can't remember) and at the end of the game nothing is resolved at all. There's lots of religious references in the game, just like the director's previous game Xenogears, but most of them appear to be token at this point...

Then again Xenogears built up mystery for 50 hours then the walls comes down and it comes together beautifully, so maybe at one point the story will come together and thinks will be placed into their proper perspective... but until then....

Callie21V <callie21v@hotmail.com> posted the following interesting Xenosaga tidbit on the Story forum:

Found a couple of links (in Japanese) that I was able to run through Babelfish. The _________s were untranslatable portions.

Durandal Excalibur Gram Durand dull. The horseman loran of Frank kingdom had owned, long sawed. The origin is conveyed with the sword which was made by the angel, the loran giving applied from the angel also, pushing down the giant ___________, inserted in the hand also. When is presented in one time _____________ great emperor and grants to the loran again forcing.

http://users.hoops.ne.jp/gnosia/dic_all/all_d.htm

Durand dull DURANDAL It exceeds 4000 meters in total length, Kuu mosquito it is heavy the armament which I * foundation owns warship. The non tracked type colony which is the base of foundation being possible to dock, at that time it becomes the main propulsion engine of the colony.

http://users.hoops.ne.jp/gnosia/dic_xeno/xeno1_k.htm

So besides being a sword, Durandal is some sort of massive, space-going colony ship?! That, along with the spelling, would certainly suggest an homage...

Also on the Story forum:

What if?
Saving humanity
Icelanders... They're Everywhere!
Oh... and Finns too!
It's a clue... right?
The Tru7h?

Apr 10, 2002 (Wednesday)

Simon Christensen <dchris1@bigpond.net.au> writes:

I was doing some 'light reading' on the upcoming Playstation 2 game 'Xenosaga' when I found out that the soundtrack had actually been released already. Intrigued, I went in search of reviews. While I can't say whether it's a fluke or something deep and meaningful, one of the tracks has a very interesting title.

Take a look at here:
http://www.rpgfan.com/soundtracks/xs-ost/index.html

Disc One, Track 19, is entitled 'Durandal'. I just wish I could read Japanese and could obtain the liner notes - apparently it has an explanation of each track.

If you have RealPlayer installed you can hear Track 19.

Marathon items on eBay:

Mac Action Sack (Full Sack) still at $51 (only a few hours left)
Infinity (CD only) opening bid $12.00

Recent auction results on eBay:

Item	Description	Auction End Date	# Bids	Opening Bid Price	Closing Bid Price
Infinity	CD only	09 Apr 02	8	US $5.00	US $36.00

Apr 9, 2002 (Tuesday)

Quick update Full Marathon Scrapbook transcription by Raul "REB" Bonilla <biomeca@hotmail.com>.

Visualising the W'rkncacnter. Jeff Nosanov <jeffnosanov@yahoo.com> writes:

I was reading the W'rkncacnter section and it made me think of something. Have you ever seen the movie "The Fifth Element"? The main enemy in the movie is an enormous dark black billowing ball of energy that tears through space destroying anything in its path. Sorta made me think of the way the W'rkncacnter is described, as living within or swimming on stars.

On the Story forum:

Of gas giants and moons
USS Raider is... hard!
Two are better than one
Events that changed the face of Marathon editing

Marathon items on eBay:

Infinity (CD only) up from $20.50 to $36.00
Mac Action Sack (Full Sack) still at $51
Infinity (CD only) up from $2.00 to $17.27

Apr 8, 2002 (Monday)

Finn Smith <fcs@modcult.org> writes:

A nice article by John Clute on where to start in Iain M. Banks's Culture series. Clute is the foremost SF critic around -- his level of criticism and analysis easily lives up to the rigorous standards of the Story Page.

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue193/excess.html

Well worth a read if you're a Culture fan.

Recent auction results on eBay:

Item	Description	Auction End Date	# Bids	Opening Bid Price	Closing Bid Price
Trilogy Box Set	Shrinkwrapped	07 Apr 02	13	US $9.99	US $150.00
M2 (PC)	Shrinkwrapped	07 Apr 02	2	US $9.99	US $15.00
M2 (Mac)	CD only	07 Apr 02	8	US $2.00	US $15.50

Apr 7, 2002 (Sunday)

On the Story forum:

Do computer games kill?
Some questionable family traits

Marathon items currently on eBay:

Trilogy Box Set (Shrinkwrapped) currently at $150
M2 PC (Shrinkwrapped) currently at $15.00
M2 Mac (CD only) currently at $14.86
Infinity (CD only) currently at $20.50
Mac Action Sack (Full Sack) currently at $51
Infinity (CD only) currently at $2.00

Marathon items just sold:

Item	Description	Auction End Date	# Bids	Opening Bid Price	Closing Bid Price
M2 (Mac)	CD only	06 Apr 02	2	US $1.00	US $15.50

Apr 6, 2002 (Saturday)

On the Story forum:

If it bleeds we can kill it... oh wait!
What was the first 3rd party Marathon map?
Who IS :: Beer Can :: ?

Marathon items currently on eBay. Some bargains here... get them quick though.

M2 Mac (CD only) currently at $15.50 (few hours left)
Mac Action Sack (Full Sack) currently at $51
Trilogy Box Set (Shrinkwrapped) currently at $150
M2 PC (Shrinkwrapped) currently at $9.99 BARGAIN!
M2 Mac (CD only) currently at $2.25
Infinity (CD only) currently at $20.50

Apr 5, 2002 (Friday)

Well it had to happen. Enough people have been writing in asking about the how much they would get for their copy of Marathon or asking how much would it cost to buy the Trilogy Box Set. So here are the eBay stats for the last two months. Some surprises in here. But in general the trend is that if your selling a Marathon item you're going to get a good price for it. But be warned though there are certain people out there that...

Item	Description	Auction End Date	# Bids	Opening Bid Price	Closing Bid Price
PID	Disks + Manual only	02 Apr 02	11	US $4.95	US $37.00
Infinity	CD + Manual only	30 Mar 02	11	US $1.00	US $41.00
Infinity	Shrinkwrapped	24 Mar 02	10	US $0.01	US $26.00
Trilogy Box Set	Contents no box	21 Mar 02	12	US $5.00	US $36.00
Infinity	Shrinkwrapped	21 Mar 02	14	US $5.00	US $41.00
M1, M2 (Mac), Infinity	Floppies + CDs + Manual	20 Mar 02	7	US $5.00	US $15.50
Bob Evolution T-shirt	XL, Never worn	18 Mar 02	4	US $15.00	US $20.50
Infinity	CD only	14 Mar 02	13	US $1.00	US $22.50
Infinity	Good condition with box	12 Mar 02	15	AU $1.00 (Approx US $0.53)	AU $ 27.75 (Approx US $14.75)
M2 (PC)	CD only	02 Mar 02	1	US $8.99	US $8.99 (Buy It Now)
M1, M2 (Mac), Infinity	3 CDs + manuals	02 Mar 02	19	US $5.99	US $46.00
M2 (version not stated)	CD only	01 Mar 02	6	US $5.00	US $10.50
M1	CD only	01 Mar 02	5	US $5.00	US $10.50
M2 (version not stated)	CD only	28 Feb 02	1	US $9.99	US $9.99
M2 (version not stated)	CD + Manual + Box	28 Feb 02	10	US $1.99	US $15.50
M2 (PC)	Shrinkwrapped	24 Feb 02	5	US $9.99	US $13.50
M2 (Mac)	Cd only	19 Feb 02	9	US $1.00	US $10.50
Infinity	Shrinkwrapped	12 Feb 02	10	US $1.99	US $15.49
M2 (PC)	CD only	10 Feb 02	6	US $2.00	US $28.00
PID + Hintbook	Disks + manuals + box	10 Feb 02	7	US $3.00	US $19.25
Trilogy Box Set	CD & Docs	06 Feb 02	8	US $0.99	US $12.50
Infinity	CD & Manual	01 Feb 02	5	US $5.00	US $20.50

Apr 4, 2002 (Thursday)

On the Story forum:

Map of the Month?
Marathon Script... Thanks God it's...
The Sack is back!
Marathon Trilogy Box Set for sale... not cheap!
Marathon Gallery back up
What is 5D space?
Halo in 18 months
To know or not to know...
PID Hintbook... have you got one?

Apr 2, 2002 (Tuesday)

Master Chief = Marathon Marine? A number of people were curious to know if yesterday's item on Alex Seropian was an April Fool's joke. Actually no... and it's not even new news according to Claude Errera <errera@bungie.org>. The article and quote were discussed on the HBO forum about a week ago. Matt Soell cleared up the mess with this remark:

I discussed this quote with Alex just a moment ago, and he provided some additional insight: "I don't really know the truth about anything. I was just talking out my ass."

So nothing new here folks.

Moral of the story... actually there are two... keep your a$$ shut and it pays to read the HBO forum. Now if only someone would pay me. ;-)

Apr 1, 2002 (Easter Monday)

Quick update Caity Bliss <tragluk84@hotmail.com> writes: Marathon tidbit in XBN April issue (Halo article) Might be old news, but in the April issue of XBN they have an article on how Halo came about. "How Combat Evolved"... pretty good read, overall. There's quite a bit of background on Marathon, but there's quite a revelation about the Halo marine buried inside. Quoted from the article; "Beginnings You want to know how it all started. By the end of your visit you will learn that Halo had many beginnings, depending on who you talk to. But for Seropian it all starts with Marathon. While you were playing Doom, a lot of other people were quietly raving about it. They talked feverishly about the plot, the depth of its world, the weapons, and sense of being involved in something...epic. Not the kind of language you'd associate with with Id's violent little number. What they didn't know is that the character they were playing was the very first incarnation of the Master Chief - Halo's hard-as-nails hero. "I don't think you ever find that out, but it's the same character." says Seropian. "God, we've never said that before, but it's completely obvious. Cortana isn't in Marathon, but there are three AI's in there that came from the same stylistic storyline.""

No April Fool's pranks on the Story page today folks... no sir... no time for that this year. But we do have news of an Arnold Schwarzenegger Marathon Movie from a December 1990/January 1991 script. Did Bungie rip off the Writer's Guild of America? As Arnold would have said "Fhrog Vlazt Da Bent Korr!".

Oh and the Story forum is full of April Fool's pranks. Some folks have a lot of time on their hands.

Mar 31, 2002 (Easter Sunday)

Timothy Collett <tcollett@hamilton.edu> writes:

I was looking for some Irish monsters with cool names when I stumbled upon this. I don't know if this particular place has shown up before on the Story page. The page is http://kldp.org/Translations/html/NetHack_Guide-KLDP/c241.html.

I believe the site is about weapons in the Roguelike game Nethack (fun game, but Angband's better). I don't think there are any other Marathon-related references there...correct me if I'm wrong. Oh, and if anyone knows about any cool Irish monsters (besides Balor and other Myth references), let me know!

Irish monsters with... cool names? Hmmm...

Much of the discussion on the Story forum over the last few days has been on the fate of Fileball's Lh'owon Ar'Kives. However we've also got EV Nova's Mjolnir system text,   halo='space zombies'? and is Miguel's little puzzle almost solved?

Mar 29, 2002 (Good Friday)

So just how good is the Colt .45? Find out on the PID page today.

There is a long thread on the Story forum concerning the troubles over at Fileball which carries the Lh'owon Ar'Kives. Worth a read.

Mar 28, 2002 (Thursday)

The elusive seven bullet clip and other mysteries... on the PID page today. Oh and you did see the first EVER Bungie T-shirt right?

Mar 27, 2002 (Wednesday)

The Story forum never sleeps:

Forum abuse?
And some serious Abuse!
Weekend Warrior... who bought it?
Memories of Marathon
Shadows and dust
Ducking and jumping in Marathon?
Grunt Box?
Athens Outpost for M1A1
Is this the 7th Marathon T-shirt?
A handcrafted service
It's a test!

Mar 23, 2002 (Saturday)

The old hardcore Bungie fans haven't all died away. Muhsin Miski <mxm909@psu.edu> writes concerning yesterday's Bungie nostalgia question:

I know what thees Quakes iz! I know!!

The "What ees thees "Quakes"?" quote was made by Doug Zartman when asked in an interview what he thought about Quake. I'm not quite sure where it was located or what the interview was focusing on, but I clearly remember questions asked to Bungie employees on what their influences on Marathon was and what Doug thought about the latest games at the time (Quake being one of 'em). IIRC, there were also a few pictures of various comic books on the webpage that were favorites of some Bungie employees. But I may be wrong on that.

Yes indeed... it was a Doug Zartman reply to a question about Quake. Now before I give away the whole answer can you name the interview? It has been mentioned on the Story page before. ***listens to the sound of search engines being started***

Mar 22, 2002 (Friday)

Quick update Regarding the quote "What ees thees "Quakes"?" I used below to flag a forum post can you name what Bungie person used this in an online interview and what was the interview? Indeed what was the question? Now... no going to Matt Soell for help I doubt he'll even know. :-)

Wow no updates since the 17th... never fear the Story forum is here:

Siege of Nor'Korh walkthrough needed
OMG!... it's...
Oh dead indeed!
Music to my ears
Ah memories...
What ees thees "Quakes"?
Halo inspired by Mullin's badge?
Alex Seropian rates Halo last in his developer's top 5 games list?
Infinity and beyond... shrinkwrapped
How many Marathon symbols in Halo?
Halo teapot... we just need a party
For naked Bobs only

Mar 17, 2002 (Sunday)

Quick update Wrock <wrock@madrigalcc.net> kindly posted a pic of his Pathways Into Darkness T-shirt mentioned earlier today.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all Story page readers... everywhere!

When's a Bungie T-shirt not a Marathon T-shirt? In a Story forum post Wrock <wrock@madrigalcc.net> noted that the "Carnage for the rest of us" and the "Don't make us kick your ass" didn't appear to be Marathon T-shirts but rather Bungie T-shirts. Never one to leave a mystery unsolved a quick search of the Story page's 7GB Archive revealed the following about the "Carnage" and "Kick" T-shirts.

In Bungie's Electronic Catalog dated September 1, 1996 the "Carnage" T-shirt is listed as follows:

Marathon T-Shirt Item #26
Phrase "Carnage for the rest of us" on the
front. Exploding body parts warning sign
on the back.

In the same catalog the "Kick" T-shirt is described as:

Bungie T-Shirt Item #25
Bungie logo on the front,
Marathon credo, "Don't Mak [sic] us kick your
ass" on the back.

So the "Carnage" T-shirt was sold as a Marathon item and the phrase "Don't make us kick your ass" was originally the Marathon credo. Note: this later became the Bungie motto "Non Facete Nobis Calcitrare Vestrvm Perinævm" on their coat of arms. The phrase "Don't make us kick your ass" also appears as an acronym (DMUKYA) on the Marathon box. You could buy the "Kick" T-shirt at the Bungie booth at Macworld Boston (August 1994). You could also buy Marathon... but that's another story. ;-)

The typo in the above credo is interesting. Shades of Aye Mak Sicur? ;-)

In an earlier Bungie Electronic Catalog dated April 4, 1995 you can see a picture of the "Just Vid It" Marathon T-shirt. The T-shirt is described as follows:

Marathon T-Shirt Item #881
Marathon title, logo, and player
(shooting double fisted) on the front,
Marathon credo, "Just Vid It." on the back.

The "Kick" T-shirt is also listed but the description is different:

Bungie T-Shirt Item #25
Bungie logo on the front, phrase "Don't make
us kick your ass." on back

So the Marathon credo in April 1995 was "Just Vid It" but in September 1996 it was "Don't make us kick your ass"? All very odd.

The April 1995 Catalog also has a picture of the very rare Minotaur T-shirt with the phrase "Kill your enemies, Kill your friends' enemies, Kill your friends." on the back. This was later re-used for Myth.

Wrock also made reference to a Pathways Into Darkness T-shirt which he describes as follows:

Well, when I bought my copy of PID, there was this neat little sticker on the box saying there was a T-shirt inside. When I opened it, sure enough there was a nice white (size-large) shirt with the picture from the box on the front, and a ComputerCity logo on the back.
I suppose I could try to get a picture of it.

Mar 14, 2002 (Thursday)

T-Shirts R-Us. In a Story forum post Callie21V <callie21v@hotmail.com> found images of five of Bungie's Marathon T-shirts:

The Evolution of Bob
http://web.archive.org/web/19970306202926/www.bungie.com/store/images/FreeT.big.gif

Carnage for the Rest of Us
http://web.archive.org/web/19970210022451/www.bungie.com/store/images/Carnage.gif

Guns Don't Kill People, Pfhor Do.
http://web.archive.org/web/19970210022433/www.bungie.com/store/images/GunsKill.gif

My BOB Is Bigger Than Your BOB!
http://web.archive.org/web/19970210022505/www.bungie.com/store/images/MyBob.gif

Don't Make Us Kick Your Ass.
http://web.archive.org/web/19970306202956/www.bungie.com/store/images/KickAss.gif

But wait! Mark Levin <haveblue@mac.com> in another Story forum post claims that there is one missing. Mark writes:

There is actually one missing here... On the front it had the Marine firing dual pistols in front of a giant Marathon logo, and on the back it had "Just Vid It".

Have you got this shirt? And who will find the seventh Marathon T-shirt?

Also on the Story Forum over the last few days:

ZPC on eBay
Damage Incorporated on eBay
Marathon Bob Evolution t-shirt on eBay
Who is slacking?
How old is Marathon?
Sexy Leela
Someone say ZPC?
ZPC demo Mac version is here
Update the FAQ?
How many Bungie games?
What the?!!!... Bonus mystery games?!!! Where are they?
M1A1 3rd Party Levels Poll
Matt says don't worry

Mar 9, 2002 (Saturday)

On the Pathways Into Darkness page today. Matt Soell (Bungie Studios) tells us about:

Expectorus Decapitus, what happens when you snort Zombie dust, Sequel Justification, Jason's home phone number, what Bungie really get off on, Greed, Malice, and Deceit.

Matthew Lewis Carroll Smith (aka poena.dare #CP#) <mstory> has put up a web page for the Seven Errors in Scrapbook Competition. Good to have a record of this.

On the Story Forum:

Buy Excalibur Morgana's Revenge
5D space in Halo?
GURPS Marathon updates its guns
Pursuing Thrashedness
More Scrapbook pages please
MY car doesn't have one
Trace running

Mar 6, 2002 (Wednesday)

Quick update Curiouser and curiouser...

To JE and Emilie Sinclair thanks. But I'm totally stumped. Who are you?

Raul "REB" Bonilla transcribes the final pages of the Marathon Scrapbook. Here's a complete list of the pages transcribed by Raul:

1-2
3-4
9-10
11-12
13-14
15-16
17-18
19-22
23-26
27-31

Matt Soell <matt@bungie.com> (Bungie Studios) says he's still looking for the original Marathon Scrapbook files to make a PDF version and also the unused Marathon 3 plot treatment. He also made a surprise discovery of the unedited text for the Pathways Into Darkness Official Hint Book. Check the details here. If you ever want to see this fire off an email to Matt NOW BEFORE HE MISPLACES IT!!! ;-)

Daniel <team_7hr33@mac.com> writes:

While watching one of the older Halo films (gameplay on the Silent Cartographer) I noticed that on the level select screen (0:45s), 2 levels are available to be selected. The first is the level now known as "Halo" and the second is now known as "The Silent Cartographer". The oddity is that "Halo" is there called "Manufacturing Facility" and even more interesting is that "The Silent Cartographer" is plainly titled "Blaspheme Quarantine".

On the Story Forum:

New stuff at the Marathon Archives
Mini Bobs?
More Marathon fan fiction
A game called Mosaic
Infinity down under
Ling Lung?

Mar 4, 2002 (Monday)

More Marathon Scrapbook transcribing from Raul "REB" Bonilla. Check out pages:

15-16
17-18
19-22

The man is on a roll. :-)

Mar 2, 2002 (Saturday)

Island Four is no more? Yes according to this post on Rampancy. Thanks to Claude Errera <errera@bungie.org> for the heads up.

Marathon Scrapbook round up. Pages already transcribed by Raul "REB" Bonilla can be found here:

1-2
3-4
9-10
11-12
13-14

And while you're checking out pages 11-12 note this piece:

Note: "...Early revisions featured an icon of the player's body..." This icon can be seen on one of Marathon's textures. On Blaspheme Quarantine, in the room labeled Q4 in the overhead map, there's one wall with this texture - it's the only one that's not green.

See if you can find it.

Mar 1, 2002 (Friday)

Pages 13-14 of the Marathon Scrapbook transcribed by Raul "REB" Bonilla <biomeca@hotmail.com> on the Story Forum.

Also on the Story Forum:

Matt Soell does some detective work
Trooper art... but where's the Marathon Art Gallery?
Sold... lousmith74 snaps up M1 and M2
More Damage Inc. info