(Nov-Dec 1998)
Dec 31, 1998
Well a new year is almost upon us. Time to look back... or forward? What better way than to visit
the newly updated Page 2401. The largest
list of Marathon links in the Sol system. Alot of dead pages
have been weeded out and some new ones added. If you think Marathon is dying on the web
then think again. A New Era of Marathon is approaching... will you be ready?
Happy New Year to all the Story page readers... everywhere!
Dec 30, 1998
James Pillar (aka RuGGeR) of RuGGeR's Tavern
is going to Macworld SF and is looking to join up with other hardened Marathon marines
for an assault on the Bungie booth. You can't miss James since he's 6 foot 8 and built like
a rugby player (hence the nick). You can contact James for "The Plans"
at <Tavern@buyamac.com&lgt;. I wouldn't want to be in the Bungie booth when James and the
gang arrive.
Miguel Chavez (aka Freewill) <JMChavez@aol.com> will also be there reporting on events at
the Bungie booth. Hopefully he'll land a scoop
like he did at E3 earlier this year. We'll be watching.
This interesting fact was passed on to me by Colin James <cjames@henninger.com>. It relates
to the Double Aught net map pack Coriolis Loop.
Colin points out that the level name "Controlled by Gamma Light" comes from the chorus in the
song "Earth People" by Dr. Octagon. The level was created by Randy Reddig and
according to Colin Kawakami who also worked at Double Aught Software this was some of the music
Randy listened to while working on the Coriolis Loop levels. The song "Earth People" has a
curious ending. It features part of a conversation between a doctor and a number of observers at
a post-mortem. The text is as follows:
Observer 1: What's your theory Doctor?Doctor: Strangulation! By horrifically powerful hands!
Observer 1: But is it not curious that this left deltoid muscle should be missing.
Observer 2: It's been torn right out!
Doctor: Gentlemen it wasn't torn. This is...
The Coriolis Loop map pack contains a total of 18 levels listed as follows:
Carnage Soccer
Carnage Soccer
Controlled by Gamma Light
Corpus Swinus
Hats off to Eight Nineteen
Grendel's Happy Cookie
House of Monkey
Mime Target
My Rod?
Reason with the Sky - Fast
Reason with the Sky More Complex)
Sand Serif Fast)
Sand Serif Good Looking)
Tour de Carnáge
sybau
Shadows of Brooklyn
UN Attack
Ways and Means 2
Most of the levels were created shortly after Double Aught completed the Infinity scenario "Blood Tides of Lh'owon". Building on this experience Double Aught created some of the most innovative and aesthetically pleasing net levels available.
The Coriolis Loop levels played host to the now famous Battle of Brooklyn (BoB) series. Check the FAQ section for details on this.
Dec 29, 1998
Michael Park <macgamer@ohana.com> writes:
All right, in one of the sections of your webpage, there was mention as to why you're called a "science officer" when you are more or less like a security officer. In response to this, someone at Bungie says that "in the future, science and security is the same".Ok, so that makes some sense. But what about the Science and Security Bob crews in Marathon 1? If the officers were the same, wouldn't that apply to the Marathon Bobs? If you compare their stats in the physics, you will see that Science Bobs are weaker than the Security ones.
But as I've said, if Science and Security were the same, why have two sets of Bobs instead of one Bob doing both?
Ah yes this was Matt Soell (Bungie Software) back in Apr 23, 1996. Long story to this one. Back in Apr 6, 1996 Bungie updated their home page with Marathon info that was clearly out-of-date. The page maintained that we played the part of a "science officer" in the game rather than a security officer. This info was in fact based on an early press release for Marathon dating from July '94. The disturbing thing about all this was the fact that Bungie's page was actually updated with this old info in the first place. Not good. Matt Soell in Bungie's defence remarked at the time:
In the future, science and security will be one and the same.
Matt did go on to say however:
Actually, the character was originally supposed to be a science officer. It was changed rather capriciously in the Marathon manual. Someday someone will get around to that page of the site and change it so that it complies with future history as we know it. ;)
Of course if Matt hadn't been joking he would of had to explain the apparent difference between Science Bobs and Security Bobs. ;-)
Dec 28, 1998
Aaron Davies <agd12@columbia.edu> writes concerning Bruce Morrison's
comments below:
Re the terminal browser in M1, if you look at the DITL associated with DLOG 132, DITL 139, you can see the entire browser box, options, scatological buttons, and all. Now we just need to figure out what CODE calls DITL 139. :-)
Dan Rudolph <rudolph.family@mcleod.net> writes:
Happy Puppy did a review of Myth II in which they acknowledged Mac gaming and gave it credit where it was due. After all the examples of PC gamer ignorance I've seen lately, this was a welcome change. http://www.happypuppy.com/
Good news for 1999 perhaps?
Dec 24, 1998
T'was the night before Christmas, and all through the ship,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a S'pht...CAUSE YA KILLED THEM ALL!
Merry Christmas to all Story page readers... everywhere!
The Marathon's Story page will be closed for three days over the Christmas period.
Next update will be on the 28th December. Have a great Christmas and don't forget
to check out what happens to those greyed out network game options on the 25th. ;-)
AT LAST... secret Marathon level 00 "A Good Way To Die..." revealed. Check the
Blasts from the Past section for full details.
An amusing seasonal post appeared on alt.games.marathon from that infamous
rogue Gary Simmons (aka Battle Cat). In case you missed it I've taken the opportunity
to reprint it below. Thanks Gary!
From: "Gary L. Simmons"Newsgroups: alt.games.marathon Subject: Christmas on board the Marathon Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 10:22:07 -0800 Organization: EarthLink Network, Inc. Mime-Version: 1.0 Reply-To: gsimmons@SPAMearthlink.net Message-ID: <368134CC.38525D41@SPAMearthlink.net> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 (Macintosh; I; PPC) Lines: 25 As usual around Christmas time when there is a war, the soldiers will sometime lay down their arms and come together for a moment in warmth and peace. Such a thing happened on board the Marathon today. Silent Night was playing over the intercom system during a lull in the fighting. I happened upon a squad of Pfhor projectile fighters led by a Purple Trooper. An odd thing happened, we just looked at each other, no one powered up their weapons. I slowly took my hand from the grip of my holstered .44 Magnum. The Trooper stepped forward and offered his hand saying gently, "Uhh er uhh ahhhh". This was an awkward moment for us both. Soon we were all singing carols and sipping eggnog. I reached into a side flap of an ammo pouch, found my lucky Bhanta foot and gave it to the Trooper. In kind he gave me a small cylinder with a blinking light. It was magical, and as he turned to rejoin his squad of blue fighters, a tear started to well up in my eye and I thought, "What the HELL is going on here?!?" I planted a rack of SPNKRs into the Trooper's stinking butt crack and took out the rest of his squad with my MA-75B Battle Rifle. Merry Christmas everyone and happy CARNAGE in the new year! Gary Simmons the Battle Cat
What... no fists?!!! Just Vid It - With Style! ;-)
Dec 23, 1998
Sriranga Veeraraghavan <tranga@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU> writes concerning
one the Thoth terminals on the Marathon 2 level "Kill Your Television".
See the Thoth section
of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.
Bruce Morrison <wimorrison@FTC-I.NET> writes:
hey It's apparent the Story page has several answers to questions, so my question is: how do you access the built in term. browser in marathon?what key combination is it?
To help illustrate what I'm talking about check out the DLOGs Box from the ResEdit file of the Marathon Application, script 132. do you know what the key combination is?
Odd stuff. While the Story page has lots of answers to questions it doesn't have an answer for this one. Anyone out there have an answer?
Dec 22, 1998
Back in Dec 4, 1998 Sylith Senjak <durandal2_@hotmail.com> and John Zero <jzero@onramp.net>
both wrote concerning the possibility that Rolend's sword "Durendal" originally belonged to the Trojan
hero "Hector" but the actual evidence for this was apparently lacking. Now Sylith Senjak writes again:
I found the backup evidence I was looking for.In _The Story of Roland_, a story version written by James Baldwin, it says that when Roland is given the sword, written on the blade are the words "I am Durendal, which Trojan Hector wore".
In _The Iliad_ as translated by Alston Hurd Chase and William G. Perry, Jr., it says that after Achilles slew Hector, he stripped Hector of his arms and armors(page 343), though nothing is said about a sword.
Interesting stuff. More to follow on this. And page 343 no less! Coincidence or...
Marathon is now 4 years old, alive and kicking. Fans worldwide are still making maps and playing the game. Others
are researching the story and unearthing facts and puzzling things about the game on a daily basis. Why? Why does Marathon
still generate so much interest? This question is posed on RuGGeR's Tavern news section at
http://164.58.172.183/tavern/news.html.
RuGGeR asks:
To what do you attribute Marathon's prolonged success in the gaming community?
If you have an answer then fill in the on-line form so that a concensus view can be obtained. Remember... the answers are out there!
Dec 21, 1998
This day four years ago Marathon was released. Party on!
Bruce Morrison <wimorrison@FTC-I.NET> writes:
I was actually watching Star Gate SG-1 and I noticed that the staffs the Egyptian/Aliens use look a lot like Pfhor Staff, infact after looking through the Star Gate web page, www.stargate-sg1.com I noticed a lot of Marathonish pictures mostly in the concept art like unevolved Craig Mullins pieces.
If you check the Behind the Scenes section at www.stargate-sg1.com/behind/index.html you'll find some familiar looking graphics for the episode called "The Enemy Within".
Steve Rogers has posted a 6.2 meg Marathon song called "Durandal" at
http://www.thebeast.demon.co.uk/music/index.html
Worth a listen. Great electric guitar sound unfortunately it's a .mov file rather than an MP3 so the quality is rather poor.
More Marathon Links you should know about.
The Marathon Player's Guild of Japan at
http://mars.ru.u-tokai.ac.jp/
A great set of links to some interesting Japanese Marathon pages containing maps, utilities, vidmaster films,
spoiler info, and even a Marathon comic.
Dec 20, 1998
Following up on Michael Zannetou's recent comments regarding
a free copy of Prime Target on this month's Macworld (UK) cover CD I managed to get my hands
on a copy. Hey a free game is a free game. Anyway it was interesting to note the Game Hall of Fame
section which also appeared in the US version of Macworld. The article written by Cameron Crotty is
essentially the same in both versions of Macworld except for the scoring. The US version of Macworld uses
"mice" icons the UK version uses "stars" plus a numerical score. The odd thing about this
is the actual differences between the US and UK scores. Here are just some of games and
their scores.
US Macworld
Tomb Raider (4 mice) |
UK Macworld
Tomb Raider (5 stars/9.2) |
So why does the US version of Macworld give the Marathon Trilogy Box Set 4 mice placing it below games such as Unreal, Myst, and Riven while the UK version gives it 4 stars/8.8 placing it above these games? Conspiracy or something more?
Nathaniel Krell <nkrell@mail.valueweb.net> writes:
A few years ago, I seem to remember that Bungie had a set of "Marathon Christmas Greeting Card" images availible on their website (i.e. S'pht decorated as Christmas Tree while Pfhor open presents or something like that). I neglected to save these when I had the chance, and completely forgot about them until last month.Yes, it's been almost 2 or 3 years since it occurred to me to look for these again. Mea culpa.
Would you have any idea where I could possibly find these files? Thank you for your time.
Hey this is the Marathon's Story page where ELSE would you find this type of
Marathon memorabilia? :-)
If I remember correctly there was only one card, the Marathon Holiday Greeting Card.
On the back were the words "Home Pfhor The Holidays", Mark Bernal. The card looked
like this. Enjoy.
Mark Levin <mglevin@uiuc.edu> writes:
The other day I saw a mention of an Asimov story involving "a 'Big Computer' that becomes so powerful it eventually BECOMES God. " (This was a comment on a news item about claims that Earth technology has been stolen from aliens.) The story turned out to be "The Last Question", which has been put on the web at
http://www.math.ethz.ch/~mberthou/art/asimov4.html.
It's a good read (aside from Asimov's usual dated tech). I won't ruin the plot, but it seems very familiar, as if from an old dream...
Adam "Rabbit" Rose <rosegang@earthlink.net> writes:
Since you have been dealing out addresses for alternative Marathon sites to the downed marathon.org, we'd like to add another to your list. It's Rabbit's Marathon Page (Maybe you've heard of it, we don't think you have...) and we're spreading a little Christmas Cheer. On Christmas Day 1999 (Or sooner), we're gonna release a Christmas Novelty Map Pack featuring all kinds of novelties geared around carnage at the holidays. We'd also like to collect maps from anyone with a Christmas related map. Well, over the next week, there will be more details at the site about this new project.Here's the site-
http://home.earthlink.net/~rosegang/rabbit/marathon/index.html
Check RuGGeR's Tavern at http://164.58.172.183/tavern/ for a growing list of 3rd party scenario links.
Dec 18, 1998
The Marathon Vidmasters' Page is BACK. Thought lost in the purge of '98 the Vid-files
were secretly unearthed from the ashes and dusted off. The URL for the new Vidmasters' page is now
http://164.58.172.183/marathon/vidmaster/
The page has been updated with the Marathon Trilogy Vidmaster Pack. All 88 solo levels completed on Total Carnage by Jim "BobJam" Mitchell. This film pack first appeared on the Marathon Trilogy Box Set CD.
Want a free copy of Prime Target? Michael Zannetou <mzannetou@dial.pipex.com> writes:
It might be interesting to note that the UK issue of macworld is giving away full versions of Prime Target this month. First Damage Inc. now Prime Target, whatever next? Are they trying to put MacSoft out of business??
For those not aware of the fact - Prime Target is one of three games which uses the Marathon 2 engine. Back in Oct 17, 1998 the Story page reported that Macworld UK were giving away a full free version of Damage Incorporated on their cover CD. As Michael points out... whatever next! ZPC perhaps?
For those of you looking for Bryan Mendoza's "The 10th Warrior" movie (QuickTime) you can now get it directly
from the Story page. Two formats are available .mov and .sit for your convenience.
the_10th_Warrior.mov (28591K).
the_10th_Warrior.mov.sit (27026K).
The film, a homage to Marathon netplay, features the music of Underworld ("Cowgirl") coupled with rapidfire editing of netplay films and chapter screen and other artwork stills. The movie is BIG but well worth the download time. Make someone happy this Christmas... show them the movie! Hats off to Bryan for this superb job.
Vidmastery in Myth? Forrest Cameranesi <forrest@west.net> writes:
Thought you might want to take a peek at something. Dunno if you're really into Myth or not, but being the co-maintainer of the Marathon Vidmasters' Page, I thought you might like to check out the new Myth Vidmasters' Page at Myth Nontoxic. Feedback is warmly welcome. The URL ishttp://myth.nontoxic.org/legends/vidmaster/
Thanks, have fun.
First the Vid page's resurrection and now a Myth Vidmastery page?!!! Coincidence or...?
Dec 17, 1998
A number of people have commented upon the odd fact that Claude Errera stopped updating the
Alt.Games.Marathon FAQ after version 1.7 (note the .Seven).
Coincidence or... ?!!!
Marathoner's rally to the cause. Many people concerned with the recent loss of Marathon Central
have expressed support in different forms ranging from offers of server space to resurrecting their old
map pages as download sites. All very much appreciated. Offers of support, donations, suggestions, etc.
should be made directly to:
Steve "Midwest" Campbell <campbell@okla.net> and James "RuGGeR" Piller <tavern@buyamac.com>
The rumor-mill reports that something big is on the way. In the mean time you can help out by pointing people to the Marathon resources which are still presently available on-line.
Take note of the links posted over the last few days. And here are just a few more containing helpful info.