Dec 24, 2011 (Saturday)   362:12:52:4   Home Pfhor the Holidays

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

Just in time for Christmas, Lieutenant MrM12LRV has taken Baghdad and destroyed the head of Saddam Hussein.
Yeah, and you thought it was the 1-22 Battalion of the U.S. Pfhourth Infantry Division but how wrong
could you be?

The proof.

Confused? What has this got to do with Marathon?

Well nothing really other than the fact that Lieutenant MrM12LRV has been playing through
Bungie's Operation: Desert Storm and reporting his progress in a Story forum thread.

If you want to re-live that heroic moment without the pain of the previous 19 sand-filled
mine-infested levels then you can thanks to his saved game for the final 20th level.
You can grab it here. See his final win screen here.

Also on the Story forum, Private Document provides some intel on two of the Desert Storm levels.
Valuable information if your fingers get an itching this Chrstmas and you want to take a break
from playing Marathon. :)

Happy Holidays!

Dec 22, 2011 (Thursday)   364:8:7:51

Make someone (or yourself) happy this Christmas with a Marathon-Retro Gift ™.

There are shrinkwrapped copies of Marathon and Marathon 2 (PC) for sale on eBay.
Sure you probably can't play them (you have Aleph One for that) put that's not the point...
these go on a shelf for all to see that you're a proud Marathon fan. :)

Alternatively, you can grab this opened Trilogy Box Set and send the Marathon Scrapbook to your
favourite Marathon/Bungie obsessed cousin (or niece) for Christmas. Though you'd probably keep
it for yourself and send socks instead. ;)

Both Marathon 1 and Marathon 2 for iOS get updates to v2.2 to fix visual glitches.

Dec 21, 2011 (Wednesday)   365:11:5:15

Happy Marathon release day! :)

This day, 17 years ago, Marathon shipped. But would it arrive before Christmas? What was going to
happen to Doug Zartman if it didn't? Who didn't get a bok [sic]? And the Marathon puzzle that stumped
many. These answers and more on the updated Blasts from the Past section.

Never one to sleep until a mystery is solved, the Story page now brings you the tru7h behind
'last polygon filled' day.

Marathon is finished. We've slept <10 hours over the last
four days. We all put our hearts into this, not to mention
the 14 hour days for months on end, so we hope you like it.

Last polygon filled 6:05 PM Saturday, December 14.
Carnage ensued closely thereafter. Er, I mean sleep.

Er, no... it was 6:05 PM Saturday, December 17.

The proof?  Two comp.sys.mac.games posts from that era. The first by Dan Meltz, a good friend of
Jason Jones and author of the Pathways Into Darkness Hint book. His post on Friday 16 December 1994
indicates that Bungie were still working hard to get Marathon out the door. The second post by
Tuncer Deniz, founder of Inside Mac Games and a regular visitor at Bungie's office during those
hectic months. His post on Monday 19 December 1994 indicates that Marathon was now finished and in
duplication. So Saturday 17 December 1994 at 6.05pm looks about right to be 'last polygon filled' day.

So there you have it... another Marathon mystery solved after 17 years. ;)

Dec 17, 2011 (Saturday)   369:11:59:31

Is today... 'last polygon filled' day? It certainly wasn't Saturday, 14 December 1994.

Resource management in Marathon? On the Story forum Doument poses an interesting challenge.
Can you complete one of the Marathon games on Total Carnage using weapons only (no fists) without
running out of ammo? Killing everything of course. Run out of ammo and you fail. Can it be done?
Is it easy? Do you have to make every shot count? Have you got what it takes to resource manage
in Marathon?

Marathon in Brussels? pi p <piposorus@hotmail.com> sends in this link to a Marathon art gallery
on deviantart. Good to see people still creating Marathon-related artwork... 17 years on.

Dec 16, 2011 (Friday)   370:4:47:4

It's quite hard to find videos of original Marathon gameplay. Most use M1A1. One walkthrough I did
find by hecatomb uses the original Marathon levels up to Smells Like Napalm, Tastes Like Chicken!.
He then gets a new computer and continues on using M1A1, presumably because the new computer is
running OS X. The original Marathon levels are used up to Part 6 in his walkthrough.

Here's an interesting YouTube site devoted to converting the original Marathon Vidmaster films to video.
If you want to see Jason Jones, Miha or Degu in action on the original Marathon levels this is
probably your best shot (unless you can play the original Marathon films from the Vidmaster page).

Dec 15, 2011 (Thursday)   371:14:28:44

Marathon 2: Durandal for iOS has been released. Thanks to Diedrich <dfundermann@yahoo.com> for pointing out in a Story forum post that Marathon 2: Durandal has been released for iOS (iPhone, iPod and iPad). It's free with in-app purchases available for high-resolution textures, the Master Chief Mode cheat options, and a new custom reticule (crosshairs) pack.

Marathon 1 for iOS has been updated. The update (to version 2.1) provides universal support, bug fixes, and a new UI theme. Now you can play Marathon on your iPhone and iPod as well. If you already have this app you should get an automatic update reminder.

Dec 10, 2011 (Saturday)   376:6:43:31

Jeff Nosanov <jeffnosanov@gmail.com> writes:

I just beat Gears of War 3 and during the credits there are some images of the developers alongside
short quotes. One of the quote (I didn't catch who said it) was "tu ne cede malis." No way to know
if it's a Marathon reference... but it could be.

A quick Google search reveals that this is quite a common motto and means "do not give in to evil".

According to Chris Geisel (Double Aught Software) the origin on the level name 'Ne Cede Malis' is a
mystical ring that has been in Greg Kirkpatrick's family for years. The ring has a picture of an
elephant with a snake coiled around its trunk and an inscription that reads 'Ne Cede Malis',
which means roughly: Don't Give in to Misfortune. (See the What's in a Name section).

Now don't be mistaken in thinking that this is the Kirkpatrick family crest and motto.
No elephants or snakes in the Kirkpatrick crest and the motto is 'I Make Sure' (Aye Mak Sicur).
So where does this ring come from? What does the image of an elephant and a snake coiled around
its trunk mean? And why did Chris describe Greg's ring as 'mystical'?

Questions... questions... questions. Know the answers then post them to the Story forum.

On the Story forum :

Johannes Gunnar <johannesg@johannesg.com> is on a mission to identify and
find as many of the original Marathon sounds as possible.

Looking for those elusive Pfhor and S'pht fonts? Then look no further than here.

Tired of playing Marathon? Then watch someone else play it. ;)

Dec 8, 2011 (Thursday)   378:7:14:51

Yet another old Bungie interview from Matthew Lewis Carroll Smith <mlcsmith@gmail.com>.
The one is with Jay Barry. Story page readers may remember that Jay was famous (or infamous)
for starting the whole Who is The Bungie Webmaster? search. Back in 1997, it was revealed that
he was Bungie's website/network guy. Of course we quickly learnt that he was actually the tech guy
behind the scenes and not 'The Third Most Evil Man In The World'. In the interview Jay reveals all
when he says:

Of course I wasn't the Bungie Webmaster. I was the schlep who worked on the servers,
but never the website. Getting near the Webmaster meant enduring the smell. Plus he
was always hitting me up for money.

Yes, more clues to the identity of The Bungie Webmaster. ;)

Jay went on to help create some excellent Myth: The Fallen Lords levels. The full interview has
been added to the Blasts from the Past section.

Dec 7, 2011 (Wednesday)   379:7:14:42

Matthew Lewis Carroll Smith <mlcsmith@gmail.com> sent in this little tidbit from an interview
he did with former Bungie employee Jonas Eneroth back in 2003. Jonas worked on the port of
Marathon 2: Durandal to Windows 95. Here is the relevant piece from the interview:

If memory serves me right, I had the good fortune to be employee number 7
as well as the then replacement for Greg Kirkpatrick after he left for
NYC, I think my first designation was Content Engineer or something like
that... worked on the ill fated Super Marathon and the aborted Playstation
conversion... and had the painful honour of trying to do the Japanese and
Korean localizations of M:tFL.

Now while Super Marathon is well know to Marathon fans, the 'aborted Playstation conversion' may
not be so well know.

Related to this is a recent Story forum post by mnemesis <mnemesis@bungie.org> on the subject of the
SPMLOAS box acronym. I've reprinted it below:

I got to have a chat with Max Hoberman at E3 this year, and he had some interesting things to say
about a couple of the old, unsolved acronyms.

For instance, SPMLOAS: The conventional wisdom is that "Single-Player Myth, Loads (or Lots) Of
Additional Shit (or Stuff)" is the answer. Every part of that guess is completely wrong. The correct
solution has a name in it, and that name pertains to a failed business venture back in Bungie's history.

So could the P in the acronym SPMLOAS refer to the aborted Playstation version of Marathon?
Hazard a guess at the rest? Then post it to the Story forum.

Dec 6, 2011 (Tuesday)   380:7:12:29

Thanks to Matthew Lewis Carroll Smith <mlcsmith@gmail.com> for sending in an old interview he
did with Alain Roy (programmer on PID and Marathon) back in 2003. It originally appeared at
Bungie Sightings (and still does) but he wanted to have it hosted here for posterity (or something).
Lots of Marathon tidbits in this interview, including another error in the Marathon Scrapbook.
What's new I hear you say. The interview has been added to the Blasts from the Past section.

Harry Al-Shakarchi <tomeone@bungie.org> writes to point that he was reading an article about Halo 4
and noted that 343 Industries are developing the concept of Rampancy further. He writes:

Read an article about Halo 4 today, thought this bit was cute:

And Cortana? Like Master Chief, she's been through some changes since we saw her in the last Halo,
and in her case they're not for the better. "Seven years is the lifespan for a smart AI before it
enters a state called rampancy," O'Connor says.

"Cortana was getting close to the end of her natural lifespan at the end of Halo 3 but she has been
exposed to far more information than any other AI in existence. She's going to develop some muscle
from that process but it also contributes to her rampancy - that much information makes things worse."

(From http://www.computerandvideogames.com/328204/features/halo-4-why-the-trilogy-ends-on-next-gen/)

Seven years eh? Not sure how this fits in to what we know about Rampancy from the Defend THIS! terminal.

Dec 1, 2011 (Thursday)   385:7:7:23

Christmas has come early to Marathon land. :)

On the Story forum treellama lets us know that Aleph One 1.0 has been released. Now there is a lot
in this release, including a whole new version of M1A1 and HD graphics as used in the Xbox LIVE
version of Marathon 2. Full details can be found in the release notes and you can grab all
three games in all-in-one apps for the Mac or all-in-one zip files for Windows here.

Nov 23, 2011 (Wednesday)   393:3:43:34

Happy Marathon Demo v0.0 day. :)

Exactly 17 years ago to this day the Marathon Demo v0.0 was released. And if you missed it there is
a whole section devoted to this rare entity.

On the Story forum, you can grab yourself a shrink-wrapped copy of Marathon... three copies in fact.
Thanks to Nordevai <nordevai@hotmail.com> for the heads up.

Oh and... just how old was the elusive Bernard Strauss?

Nov 16, 2011 (Wednesday)   400:4:15:8

Seven days from today the Marathon Demo was released 17 years ago. One day before Thanksgiving.
What will you be doing this Thanksgiving? ;)

One of the oldest sections on the Story page, Count Roland (last updated on Nov 10, 1995) gets an update
16 years on thanks to Benjamin Confino <benconfino@googlemail.com>. See the Count Roland
section for details.

In a Story forum post, Vadam930 <vadam930@hotmail.com> points out that Durandal and Tycho
both had ID numbers but what was Leela's number? The question raises an interesting issue.
In Marathon, Durandal's ID number is given as 837.1010, yet in Marathon 2 his ID is 1707.
Why the change?

Bruce Morrison <bruce@ngmoco.com> writes concerning the numbering of the Electic Sheep levels.
See the Dream Levels and Failed Timelines section for details.