Dec 24, 2012 (Monday)   Home Pfhor the Holidays

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

And to get you into that festive Marathon spirit here are some cool yule tidings from
ghosts of Christmas past:

President People's The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Ben Wigler's Jingle Bells.

poena.dare's The White Christmas Term.

And last but not least the perennial Battle Cat's Christmas Aboard the Marathon
and The Twelve Days of Marathon Christmas.

Dec 21, 2012 (Friday)   0:0:00:00     Happy Birthday Marathon

Dec 19, 2012 (Wednesday)   1:3:42:43

Nicholas Stone <stone.nicholasc@gmail.com> writes:

Tau Ceti IV probably exists, is probably rocky, and is probably in the habitable zone.
The original (technical) scientific article is here:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1212.4277v1.pdf
and a good summary is here:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23021-nearby-tau-ceti-may-host-two-planets-suited-to-life.html

Unfortunately, since Tau Ceti IV ("Tau Ceti e") has been discovered through the
"radial velocity" method rather than the "transit" method, all we have is an uncertain
estimate for its mass, and no estimate for its radius (which would let us constrain things
like composition). Which of course means we'd better strap a Bussard ramscoop on Deimos
and go find out!

Tony Stvartak <stvartakt@gmail.com> also sends in this link to the Tau Ceti news and writes:

If the Dreaming God fails to awaken and destroy us all on 21 December, we'll be well on
our way to a Marathon future!

And in a Story forum post Orihaus <orihaus@gmail.com> writes:

"Astronomers have discovered what may be five planets orbiting Tau Ceti, the closest
single star beyond our solar system whose temperature and luminosity nearly match the
sun's. If the planets are there, one of them is about the right distance from the star
to sport mild temperatures, oceans of liquid water, and even life."

"It's the fourth planet—planet e—that the scientists suggest might be another life-bearing
world, even though it's about four times as massive as Earth."

From: http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/12/another-earth-just-12-light-year.html?ref=hp

Life imitates fiction, huh?

Dec 18, 2012 (Tuesday)   2:12:58:19

paul mark <augustone72@gmail.com> sends in the following image and writes:

It's called a Lingling o. It's a medallion that is commonly crafted in a place called
Benguet. The craft of making the lingling o has always been with an ethnic tribe from
Benguet that's called Ifugaos & Igorots.

Please research on the origins of the Lingling o & the Ifugaos. It leads to a Lake.
The Lingling o itself symbolizes fertility.

What is the ring? I would rather leave that to your own makings of it.

Ooo... cryptic. A little known lake, a mysterious ring, Ling Ling and a Marathon-like symbol.
Whatever next?

Amanda Nelson <amanda.nelson512@gmail.com> kindly sends in a new link to fix a
broken link to the work of George A. Miller. Yes the Magical Number Seven is back. Not
to be mistaken with the work of James B. Miller (aka Mr. Rampancy).

Dec 17, 2012 (Monday)   3:0:23:14

Happy Last Polygon Filled Day... nuff said.

Dec 13, 2012 (Thursday)   7:5:29:39

Ever wanted to read (re-read) those old copies of Marathon Magazine (aka MaraMag)?
Well now you can thanks to Hopper <hopper@whpress.com>. He writes in a Story forum post

My DOCMaker Library converts DOCMaker files into HTML, with varying degrees
of success. The output is usually not pretty (most of the formatting relied on very specific
font metrics), and sometimes the PICTs fail to convert, but it provides a starting point
for anyone wanting to extract the content.

I posted all the MaraMags from BattleCat's site. The Trilogy disc also has the issue TBC
reported as lost, and the second issue of the Durandal Map Makers' Club magazine; both
of those are posted too. The supplemental material isn't on this site, just the magazines.
(Note that the Trilogy disc has some of the missing supplemental material too.)

Go re-live the nostalgia. :)

Seven days... and counting. Are you ready?

Dec 7, 2012 (Friday)   13:6:23:15

Greg Kirkpatrick is alive and well !!! :)

Greg contacted the Story page to pass on his best wishes to all its die-hard readers. He still
gets a chuckle from reading the Story forum and our efforts at deciphering the story.
Concerning this post he writes:

I still don't really know the origin of the ring but it must be some really secret
society that doesn't want anyone to know about it.

Yes... ever the elusive one. Indeed he wishes to stay off the grid for the moment.
What's he up to? Well that's another story. ;)

If you've been living under a rock, bugging out, or on route to Tau Ceti you probably
missed the news that information about Bungie's next game 'Destiny' was leaked.
Bungie had this to say on the subject:

Well, that just happened... again.

Go ahead. Take a peek. It's alright. We weren't quite ready, but we will be soon, and
we can't wait to finally show you what we've really been up to.

Stick around, we haven't even started yet.

The reference to 'again' relates to the fact that information about Destiny was revealed
back in May of this year in the Los Angeles Times.

So what's Destiny about? Well according to the leaked documents:

Our story begins seven hundred years from now in the Last City on Earth, in a Solar System
littered with the ruins of man's Golden Age.

A massive, mysterious alien ship hangs overhead like a second Moon. No one knows where it
came from or what it's here for, but only that it's our protector.

Meanwhile, strange, alien monsters creep in from, the edge of the universe, determined to
take Earth and the Last City.

We are young 'knights' tasked with defending the remains of humanity, discovering the source
of these monsters and - eventually - overcoming it.

According to IGN the massive alien ship is referred to as "the Traveler" in Bungie's documentation.

The leaked concept art is by Craig Mullins, who first cut his teeth on Marathon back in early 1995.
As always his work is powerful and imaginative.

Bungie co-founder Jason Jones is quoted as saying:

"Destiny is designed for your inner seven year old. We want to make it feel like a mythic adventure."

Hmmm... seven. :)

Sept 19, 2012 (Wednesday)   92:1:42:42

Happy Marathon's Story Page day. :)

This day seventeen years ago the Story page went live... and some people have never been the same since.

19 of the 9th... or 919... depending on your location.

Thanks to poena.dare <mstorysclm@mlcsmith.com> and his amazing screw-on encyclopaedic head
for remembering.

Sept 1, 2012 (Saturday)   110:6:33:41

If you missed out on the last two months here is quick review of some of the highlights:

Bungie day (7th July) saw the release of Doc Hopper's original Marathon Classic HUD.
Old-timers need only install.

Mickey <mickeywember@gmail.com> posts the video portion of the IMG interview with
Bungie Software from Jan/Feb 1995 on YouTube. You can read that particular interview here.

Crosshairs in Marathon? Oh yes indeed. Official ones too. President People made the discovery.

In retro mood, nay retro mode... Doc Hopper extracts the contents of the Marathon alpha Shapes
file to reveal the largest lunar landscape panorama... ever.

A fitting epitaph for Doug Zartman? Orihaus has the low down. (Please note Doug is still alive)

Those extractions keep coming... Doc Hopper does the Marathon betas.

Rebus? A new word of the day on the Story page. But what does it mean... come to think
of it what does B.U mean?

Philtron reanimated the Volunteers series with the largest Story forum post... ever!

Who put those cryo-storage units WAY up there?

The Marathon Infinity Map Making Contest in all its gory glory.

Memories of Traxus? Philtron speculates that we had and the Marathon's Story just got
that little bit more intriguing... 17 years on. :)

A missing date on the Marathon Timeline section? Oh yes indeed! Who's trying to hide
the tru7h here?

Bungie hides stuff on their CDs?  Who would have guessed.

An old unearthed Bungie webpage called  Going Once, Going Twice...SOLD! created
by Matt Soell.

Bungie hides stuff on their web site and gives stuff away for free. Yeah right... and hippos can fly. ;)