Lots of things going on at Bungie.net this week; more themes and avatars for Groups, requests for fan strategy tips from SketchFactor, and Stosh's birthday.

New Bungie fans who wanted to experience Bungie's earlier science fiction shooter classic, Marathon, up until now were out of luck. The vast majority of stores simply didn't have it for sale, and only a few copies turned up now and then on Ebay. And although a marvelous new project, Aleph One, would allow the game to run on modern operating systems, you still needed the data files from a retail copy of the game to make them work, and only the files from Marathon 1 were available online, in the form of the M1A1 scenario download.

Now, Bungie has officially sanctioned the free (as in beer, not speech) release of the entire Marathon Trilogy, and Bungie.org is hosting the files. So far only the Mac versions are up, but a method for creating files that Windows users can use with their copies of Aleph One is being developed. Go to the site to get the files, or just read the FAQ. The Aleph One page today also notes that the Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity files from the Trilogy Release site are fully compatible with Aleph One; and if there's another Marathon file or scenario you want to see online, you can email them at trilogyrelease@bungie.org.

... that there aren't more items in a day than we have minutes (to say nothing of hours) to post them. So here's what happened when I wasn't looking:

• Mindquirk Software released Xbox Live Friends 0.5, a Mac OS X application that produces a little buddy list showing your Xbox Live friends and their online/offline status. (I've tested this myself, it's neat-- you can see who is online, but of course you can't message them or do anything else --Ed.)
• thesoffish found and transcribed a short interview with Marty "The Elder" O'Donnell in a 2005 GDC flyer; Marty and Jay Weinland will be giving a talk on game audio at the conference this year.
• Santaduck has announced that the first portion of a three-part total conversion for PC and Mac Halo entitled Open Rebellion and headed by SiliconX is now in beta. Open Rebellion creates a complete Covenant campaign from the levels of the original game, and unlike most mods, will work with Mac Halo. The latest patch for Mac Halo broke Silent Cartographer, which is causing a delay; in the meantime the mod has a forum and there are links to some screenshots there. Thanks Louis Wu at HBO.
• Halo 2 model injector h2x has been updated to 1.5 (it's Alpha software). Thanks again VerdaFolio.

Frankie bursts this bubble right off the bat, as well as giving an update on technical and administrative progress in curbing online cheating, in the latest What's What Update at Bungie.net. The Rumor Control column at GameSpot turned out to be right; they considered this rumor bogus.

At the Halo Story Page, Mnemesis interviewed Bungie's Joe Staten on the Halo storyline, setting to rest some old debates, such as who really released the Flood, where the other SPARTANs are and whether or not it's important, the relationship between the Forerunners and the Flood, and time travel. Joe also adds some information about the HSP Timeline. A must-read. (Also worth note: according to Staten, the I Love Bees storyline is not canon. Excuse me, I think I have a bet to collect on now --Ed.)

TeamXbox has an editorial up on how Bungie implemented stat-tracking, leaderboards, and RSS feeds for Halo 2, and why more gaming companies don't use XML.

The guys at TeamXbox have delivered Bungie their first major defeat from a wholly external group in a Humpday Challenge; read all about the suffering at Bungie.net.

Vector40 notes the winners of the Bungie Tribute Poetry Contest over at The Junkyard; kudos to DarkTyrant, Murph MacManus and Raven3509, the #1, #2 and #3 winners, respectively.

Mjolnir Mark IV has submitted the Marathon's tenth anniversary to the games section of Slashdot, with links to the Marathon Story Page, the Halo Story Page's area on Marathon connections, and Aleph One. So if any of those sites go down today... you'll know why.

Between Marathon's tenth anniversary and this Christmas thing coming up, there's lots to do, necessitating Yet Another News Roundup:

• 1Up has an interview with Bungie Studio Manager Pete Parsons. It was conducted in early November prior to release of the game. Thanks MLG.
• Halo 2 has now sold over five million copies, reaching a milestone it took the first game two years in only three weeks. Including the PC version, total Halo franchise sales now top 11 million. Thanks Eurogamer.
• Sector7 points out entries for a Halo 2 movie due out in 2006 listed at IMDB and Movies.com; apparently IMDB is calling this now "announced" and the projected director is Ridley Scott, who has "been approached". File as rumor for now --Ed. HBO also notes this rumor, mentioning that it's even hit the front page of Variety magazine.
• Halo 2 did, indeed, win Game of the Year for 2004 from GameSpy. I have to chuckle a bit at crediting Bungie for the "innovation" of dual wielding in Halo 2, given that I was just recently reminded of the fact that Marathon 2 had dual wielding back in 1996 --Ed.
• HBO has opened a Cutscene Library with downloadable versions of Halo 2's cutscenes for convenient viewing. So far it's up to Home Field Advantage on Cairo Station. The Dialogue Databank also sees an expansion today.

[image:8947 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0] December 21, 2004 marks the tenth anniversary of the release of Marathon, the first in a series of three science fiction first person shooters published by Bungie in the 1990s. The games were primarily made for the Macintosh platform, despite a port of Marathon 2: Durandal for Windows and the ill-fated Super Marathon port for the even more ill-fated Mac-based console by Bandai called the Pippin. Bungie also published Marathon Infinity, a scenario by Double Aught that used the Marathon 2 engine to continue the story of the nameless security guard protagonist. Later the Marathon 2 engine's source code was opened, paving the way for the development of the Aleph One project, which has ported the engine to modern operating systems including OS X, Linux, and Windows, allowing users to play the full series of games using current hardware. The History of Bungie, part of the Icons series run by G4TechTV, features a bit on Marathon, the game that gave Bungie its reputation among Mac gamers and Mac users and is, in many ways, the progenitor of and inspiration for Halo and Halo 2. HBO is making this show available for download now that it is off G4TechTV's broadcast schedule.

If you've never played the games, check them out, either by playing Aleph One or just by reading the excellent and compendious Marathon Story Page maintained by Hamish Sinclair.

If you're already a Marathon fan and want to find a unique way to celebrate this occasion, check out the Marathon anniversary wallpaper done by Jay "Anaphiel" Faircloth, who has also done digital artwork for M1A1, the conversion of the Marathon 1 scenario for the Aleph One engine, and Marathon: Resurrection, a Marathon-themed mod for the Unreal engine, as well as other Marathon wallpapers.

UPDATE: Anaphiel has updated his site with a broader selection of designs and sizes of his Marathon Anniversary Desktop.

Chris Butcher talks about the difference between synchronous and asynchronous network schemes with regards to Marathon, Halo 1 and Halo 2 at How Stuff Works. Thanks HBO.

Although the top honor of Game of the Year went to GTA: San Andreas, Halo 2 and Bungie did pick up two wins at the Spike TV VGA ceremony. Halo 2 won Best First Person Action game and Jason Jones won Designer of the Year. Thanks EyesNoMore at EvilAvatar.

1UP has an interview with Tyson "Ferrex" Green about Halo 2, including his involvement in The Library level from the original game, and the tongue-in-cheek homage to it in Halo 2:

The Library was actually the first mission I was put on when I came here. But the thing that keeps me sane at night is that the library was mostly designed when I got here, so I don't blame myself for that.

Early in development I wanted to...I've got this cross to bear, a desire to say, hey, all you guys making fun of me, I'm gonna poke back. The idea is that we're sort of paying homage, and also being a little self-conscious. We recognize that [the Library] wasn't the best level ever, we're conscious of the mistake that we made. But [I wanted to address it] not just where I say that in an interview, but in a way that shows, hey, look, here's the ghost of our past, we're not going to hide, we're looking back, and it's not a grueling level like the Library was.

Thanks VoodooExtreme.

According to Voodoo Extreme, Halo 2 was the #1 best-selling console title in November. Oh, and the #2 title? Halo 2's Limited Edition. GTA San Andreas, despite the huge installed base of the PlayStation, ranked third.