Apr 16, 2004 (Friday)

Dave <omikron@orcon.net.nz> writes concerning the Latin phrase "tu delenda est" found on the secret teminal of "Welcome to the Revolution". See the Latin in Marathon section for full details. Note that the last time this section was updated was on June 11, 1999.

On the Story forum

Marathon Scenario news gets another updated

Letters to the Webmaster updated... but not up to the usual standard? Make you own mind up... click here

No REDS under the bed... but certainly on the forum. The RED Volunteers series continues

Apr 15, 2004 (Thursday)

On the Story forum Craig Hardgrove <craig@eigenhat.com> has posted links to remakes of the original Marathon soundtracks "Leela' and Swirls'. Worth a listen. There is also discusion about pattern buffers, teleportation, concept art and RED. Go check out the Story forum.

Apr 14, 2004 (Wednesday)

28 pieces of Marathon Concept Art have been unveiled at the new look bungie.net. The artwork by Reginald Dujour and Robert Mclees is from both Marathon and Marathon 2. Interesting to see some of Reg's early work on Marathon 2 before he left Bungie. The list of descriptions with each image are as follows:

Marathon 2, sketch used in ad
Syphon Tick corpse
Phfor Warrior hard death corpse
Hard death for Pfhor Enforcer
Hard death for proposed Phfor Fungal Zombie
Hard death for the Syphon Tick
Soft death for Pfhor Enforcer
Hard death for Pfhor Enforcer
Running leg animations for Fighter
Running legs for player character
Sketch of Hunter running. Animation test
Sketch of player running. Animation test
Concept stuff for Fungal Zombie
Sketch for another Terminal image
Concept sketch for Marathon 2 Compiler
Final line art for the Compiler
Animation test for Syphon Tick hard death
Final line art for unused Fungal Zombie
More final line art for unused Fungal Zombie
Components of Marathon (one) Compiler
Unused Apocalypse beast concept
Concept of the Pfhor Probe
More concept of Pfhor Probe
More concept of Apocalypse Beast
Concept of the S'pht 'Kr
Concept for Fungal Zombie
Limbs for alternate Fungal Zombie
Concept for alternate Fungal Zombie

Note that the 'Apocalypse beast' should actually be called the Armageddon Beast. See the Missing Aliens section of Facts and Puzzling Things About...

There is also new Marathon section up at bungie.net. However some of the information is of dubious nature and smacks of revisionism. But hey that's life.

Apr 13, 2004 (Tuesday)

Kudos to Raul Bonilla <scrapbook1997@hotmail.com> for updating the Marathon Scrapbook section. Raul writes:

The update address a large amount of typographic errors. At the same time, I seized the opportunity to smooth things out, as well as adding additional information to my notes.

Thanks also to Claude for uploading the file.

Many thanks to Robin Kunde <robin.kunde@freenet.de> for spotting a typo on the The "Try again" Term section of Facts and Puzzling Things About... The last time that section was updated was on Sept 30, 1999. Remember what you were doing back then?

Apr 12, 2004 (Monday)

Fixed the creation date for the Marathon demo v1.2 on the Marathon Demo v0.0 section of Facts and Puzzling Things About...

The Pathways Into Darkness page gets another update. This time we learn a little more about the possible purpose of the Red Velvet Bag.

On the Story forum:

More Marathon Walpaper

New Bungie.net... coming

Marathon Scenario news updated

Another cryptic Marathon pic to analyse

Sigma website updated

And the RED Volunteers series keeps on going. Check the Story forum for all the posts

Apr 4, 2004 (Sunday)

The Pathways Into Darkness page gets an update.

On the Story forum:

Marathon Story Forum T-shirts

Strange goings on...

Jumping Bobs?

Apr 1, 2004 (Thursday)

Calandra Witter <callie21v@hotmail.com> provides some interesting speculation on the original level names:

Could the mysterious ", ya ya ya." fragments on M2 levels have been some sort of universal placeholder name along the lines of:

Title goes here, ya ya ya.|
Curiouser and Curiouser·|.|
Bob's Big Date|, ya ya ya.|
The Big House|use|a ya ya.|
God Will Sort The Dead·|a.|
Kill Your Television|a ya.|
Fatum Iustum Stultorum|ya.|

Note that "ya ya ya" fragments appear only on single player levels for some reason.

*****

There are similar orphaned letters on a pair of Infinity levels:

Route 66|ap|
Melatonin|p|

So perhaps:

Another Map| (YAFNM?)
Unnamed Map|
New Net Map|

*****

Despite all the working titles suggested for "Naw Man He's Close," the most likely answer might have been hiding in the Vacuum Levels section:

"Naw Man He's Close ... started out life as a concept--the player free falling toward the hull of Durandal's ship ..." -- Chris Geisel

Hull of Durandal's Ship|
Naw Man He's Close|Ship|

*****

These three levels seem to have been built on top of each other:

A Converted Church in Venice, Italy|
Son of Grendel|rch in Venice, Italy|
Bagged Again|l|rch in Venice, Italy|

*****

Waldo World Arena|
Return to Waldo|a|

*****

And by way of pure guesswork:

Thrud|mpact|
Deep Impact|

This title might have been deemed unsatisfactory since you can't actually damage terrain in Marathon.

From the Story forum:

More Marathon artwork.

The best piece of Marathon fan fiction... ever?

The RED Volunteers series goes from strength to strength to... well just check out the whole Story forum for the continuing series.

Mar 31, 2004 (Wednesday)

Over the years people have noticed Marathon references in the games from Ambrosia Software. Games mentioned on the Story page have included Escape Velocity, Mars Rising and Ferazel's Wand. Now David Chandler <guerrillastylish@hotmail.com> writes concerning the Ambrosia Software game Diemos Rising:

While I was looking in the Applications folder of my iMac, I found something interesting. There was a game there called Deimos Rising, by Ambrosia Software, that I didn't remember getting. The readme says that the game is fully licensed to be included on all Apple computers, so I assume it came pre installed. The description says this:

"Deimos Rising is a vertically scrolling arcade-style game featuring 12 battle zones and a large variety of enemies to conquer. 1 or 2 people can play.

"Using alien technologies, military forces have swept back into power on Mars. This totalitarian regime must be stopped and its robotic armies destroyed. You are in charge of a VacFighter, equipped with both Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground weapons. To succesfully complete your mission you will need to master this craft and its weapons. New weapons, bonuses and surprises will be available as you progress!"

Anyway, I know your thinking that Deimos was Mars' moon that the Marathon was converted from, and this seems like a weak link, but there is a level in the game called Thermopylae.

Chlazza <chlazza@hotmail.com> writes:

I was poking around on the net looking for Marathon stuff today and stumbled across the webpage for Marathon County, Wisconsin:
http://www.co.marathon.wi.us/
I got a chuckle out of it, but then I noticed their logo in the upper left of the page (direct link: http://www.co.marathon.wi.us/images/button.gif -
sorry it isn't bigger).
I thought to myself: "Huh, that looks familiar..."
After a few minutes of searching, I found it:
http://marathon.bungie.org/story/2ndtournamentsticker.html

Maybe the site designer was a fan of Marathon, or perhaps this is just a coincidence?

Mar 27, 2004 (Saturday)

From the Story forum:

RED Volunteers begins.

Marathon Eternal a third party scenario is released.

Vote Marathon... or something.

Mar 24, 2004 (Wednesday)

First there was this guy who got his head shaved in the shape of a Marathon symbol. Remember that? Then people began to get Marathon symbol tatoos. Remember those? Morgan Roberts <nioxin@comcast.net> has that beat though with this tatoo. Perhaps we need to start a new facts and puzzling things about... section. ;-)

Mar 22, 2004 (Monday)

On the Story forum today:

The Physical Manifestation of Chaos or as they say on "Aye Mak Sicur"... ^9320wrefkddud.

Want to learn S'pht? Then you need to study the S'pht Language page.

Another update at the Marathon Fan Fiction Archive.

Mar 21, 2004 (Sunday)

Jay Faircloth (aka. Anaphiel) has put together a page for all his Marathon artwork, textures, screenshots, sketches etc. You can find it here.

For Marathon news, views, discussion, rants, etc check out the Story forum.

Mar 19, 2004 (Friday)

Jay Faircloth (aka. Anaphiel) has created another piece of classic Marathon artwork. This one, called The Pfhor, takes you back to the eerie Pfhor scoutship of the original Marathon. Study the image carefully for that deja vu detail. It will make you want to fire up Marathon again just to play... Pfhoraphobia.

The artwork keeps flowing. Jorge Salas on the Story forum posts a Marathon black desktop. Good to have for those late nights at the computer.

For Marathon discussion check the Story forum.

Mar 18, 2004 (Thursday)

Mike Leong <Shuffledna@aol.com> writes concerning some historical connections in Marathon:

11 Clans of the S'pht, with Kr being crucial in Durandal's victory. Some S'pht were freed from Pfhor captivity, but others remained enslaved. There were 11 Greek generals at Marathon. 10 were divided into a council under the leading general (polemarch). When time came to decide to engage the Persians or not, the council was split 5-5 and Callimachus, the polemarch, cast the deciding vote favoring attack, which led to victory over the Persians.

The Persians were part of a great empire that had reached its peak and headed downhill after Marathon. The Pfhor's demise starts with the return of S'pht'Kr and then leads to the destruction of the Pfhor capital by humans and S'pht.

After the Persian line broke and the Greeks assaulted the ships, they were able to secure 7.

The Greeks were defending not only against the Persians, but also against Hippias, the former tyrant of Athens. Perhaps similar to Tycho going from controlled by humanity to controlled by the Pfhor and then attacking Durandal/S'pht

See the Historical & Mythological References in Marathon section for more details.

Jay Faircloth (aka. Anaphiel) has updated his Marathon desktop pic page. Check out this Story forum post for the details.

Also on the Story forum is a link to a piece of Japanese Marathon-related comic book style art.

Mar 17, 2004 (Wednesday)

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

Mike Leong <Shuffledna@aol.com> writes concerning some interesting connections between Marathon and Dante's Divine Comedy:

KYT Term

This is very reminiscent of some scenes towards the end of Dante's Purgatorio.

I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh.
I have been called a hundred names and will be called a
thousand more before the world goes dim and cold.
I am hero. She has been nameless since our birth,
a constant adversary caring for nothing but my ruin,
a sword drenched in my blood forever, my greatest and
only love. She is the dark. O Lethe, enemy and lover, without

(Lethe is one of two rivers in Purgatory)

whom my very existence would be pathetic and vulgar!
Our relationship is complex and perhaps eternal.
(Dante is saved by Beatrice, her purpose is to draw him to Heaven, their relationship is eternal)
We met once in the garden at the beginning of the world
and, unaware of our twin destinies, we matched stares
across a dry fountain.

(Dante meets a woman in the Garden of Eden at the top of Purgatory, across the river Lethe, which springs out of a fountain, along with its companion river, Eunoe)

And I recall her smiling at me before
she devoured the lawn and trees with a translucent blue flame
and tore flagstones from the path and hurled them into the
sky, screaming my sins.

(The woman smiles at him, leading to the next cantos in which Dante is accused and repents of his sins)

I powder a granite monument in a
soundless flash, showering the grass with molten drops of
its gold inlay, sending smoking chips of stone
skipping into the fog. She splinters an ancient oak

(According to the Inferno, there is a theory that the destruction of a statue made of different materials, including stone and gold, led to the downfall of the Golden Age and the creation of Lethe)

with a force that takes my breath and hurls me to the ground.

(This woman also plunges Dante into Lethe, taking his breath away and rendering him helpless for a period of time)

She lea% [leaves?]

Perhaps references to the Purgatory are appropriate at this time in Marathon 2. You've just been through the Inferno (1 month in Phfor captivity), and are being drawn to the Jjaro and the escape of the closing of the universe by Durandal (Marathon Infinity). Dante was drawn to heaven and God by Beatrice. I know the analogy isn't perfect, but there's something to think about.

Mike goes on to talk about the numbers 3 and 7 used widely by Bungie:

-Bungie's calculations:
Carnage ratio: 1:33.33
Kills per minute: 13.73
Hmm, lots of threes and sevens...

References from Dante in Marathon

3 (Note that Dante gets this number from the trinity, but it is not unreasonable to think that Bungie got it from Dante):
-3 Canticles (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso)
-3 Main characters in comedy (Dante, Virgil, Beatrice)
-3 steps before gate of Purgatory
-3 manifestations of tree of knowledge in Purgatory
-3 Major virtues: faith, hope and love
-Satan has 3 heads
-Ingue Ferroque is made of three rings (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso?)

7
-7 Levels of purgatory
-7 Virtues prominent in purgatory (including faith, hope and love, and 4 lesser virtues)

Finally, remember PID's Lasciate Ogne Speranza, Voi Ch'intrante (Abandon hope, all ye who enter). I'd say Dante was one of Bungie's main influences in making Marathon.

On the subject of PID and pyramids in South America check out this Story forum post for some bizarre goings on. Here's a small piece courtesy of Reuters news service

TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico (Reuters) - Remnants of space dust that constantly showers the world are helping unlock the secrets of a 2,000-year-old Mexican pyramid where the rulers of a mysterious civilization may lie buried.

and

The name Teotihuacan (The Place Where Men Become Gods) was given by awed Aztecs who inhabited the area 700 years after the city was abandoned around 600 AD. The Aztecs were stunned by the monumental buildings and precise city planning.

and

The number four is a constant theme in the city, split into four different residential zones. A vessel from Teotihuacan found elsewhere shows four figures who appear to be co-rulers around a god of thunder, Teotihuacan's state deity.

Mar 16, 2004 (Tuesday)

More Marathon-inspired artwork posted to the Story forum.

Marathon references in the movie "The Sphere"? You be the judge.

Yet more Marathon artwork from Jay Faircloth (aka. Anaphiel).

Marathon Scenario News updated!

What the Government don't want YOU to know.

and much... much... more on the Story forum.

Mar 15, 2004 (Monday)

A number of people have written in requesting links to Marathon art sites. So here's a short list.

Marathon art by Craig Mullins:

Marathon Art Gallery - Craig Mullins
Marathon Art: Craig Mullins
The Art of Craig Mullins
and
Craig's home page

Marathon art by Chuck Fox.

A single excellent Marathon pic by John Wallin Liberto. You can check the rest of John Wallin Liberto's work here.

And as noted yesterday Jay Faircloth's Marathon desktops.

Mar 14, 2004 (Sunday)

More excellent Marathon artwork from Jay Faircloth (aka. Anaphiel) on the Story forum. This one's called Counterattack (136K). See here (132K) and here (150K) for slightly modified versions.

Also check out Jay's Marathon desktops. Multiple versions for all monitor sizes.

Mar 13, 2004 (Saturday)

Antoine Williasm <webmaster@the7thletter.net> sends in a link to a book called the The Seventh Letter. Here's part of the blurb for the book:

The Number 7

Why is its presence so dominant on planet earth?

What is the meaning behind the number seven -- is it God's watermark? Or is it some lucky coincidence that the number seven has a dominant presence on the planet earth? Author Jack Williams has discovered that there is more power in the number seven than we realize.

Mar 10, 2004 (Wednesday)

Check out this Marathon story forum thread for some outstanding Marathon inspired artwork. Very nice. Warning... the link opens a 202K graphic. But it's worth it. Check here for more artwork. Thanks to Anaphiel <anaphiel@earthlink.net> (aka. Jay Faircloth) for all the hard work.

Jay's Marathon artwork first came to light on the Story page back in 5 Jan 2001. Check the What's New section on this date for some details about his 'Try again' image.

He has some Halo artwork too. See http://halosn.bungie.org/miscart.html?item=69&rc=1

He also came runner up in the Gathering of Developers Oni Fan Art Contest with "Dark Future, Darker Past". Some say he should have come first... if it wasn't for the accident...