There were a number of small updates to the Bungie.net page in the last few days:

Netboy over at the hotline server of Forerunners.org pointed out that the Bungie Store is now open. And as it turns out, the story is true this time.

The store currently stocks games, wearables and merchandise, but the Halo Soundtrack still isn't available yet. There are also facilities for redeeming old Bungie Store coupons as well as Seventh Column discounts.

Deimos Fawkes has posted at Subnova that they've got four pages of scans from Edge magazine, which recently interviewed Jaime Case Griesemer of Halo and Myth fame. They pass on special thanks to Pallor for acquiring the scans.

It seems there's a new hotline site out there for BungieFen-- hl.forerunners.org. There's also a website at www.forerunners.org that states We are coming again. You thought we were finished. We are coming back, soon, very soon. It doesn't state too much else just yet, but we'll keep an eye on it.

The page features an image of the symbol shown above some of the doors in 343 Guilty Spark and on the backs of some of the Elite Covenant units. In the HTML source, the image is titled the forerunners built this thing....

Don't know if it's been mentioned anywhere yet, but the edition of Letters to the Webmaster at bungie.net is dated February 2002 and I know it was new to me.

Peter Marks of Bungie has interviewed Juan Ramirez, sculptor of the Covenant Elite statue, for Truth & Reconciliation. Check out One On One With Juan Ramirez (although the title is misleading; Ramirez's roommate Bob Standlee was there, too) for the full interview as well as several neat pictures showing his work.

Word on bungie.net is that a gathering will be held amongs its Seventh Column chapters in Santa Monica, CA on May 24, 2002. There's lots of information about the tournament your chapter can participate in as well as registration details, which, by the way, will open on Thursday, February 21. If sixteen player Halo goodness sounds appealing to you, then arrange for your chapter to participate in this undeniably cool gathering.

Xbox.com has put up an interview with Bungie's resident audio expert, Marty O'Donnell, about his role in making Halo:

Xbox.com: Ok, nuts and bolts time. How do you actually create a soundtrack like this? Was it composed and synthesized all on a computer, or was it recorded? What's the sequence of your tasks?

MO: I worked in studios that contain many keyboards, synths, and samplers as well as digital recording equipment controlled by computers. I start there, and then when needed, add live instrumental performances to those recordings. When I mix the music, I sometimes eliminate the synth/sampler track and only use the live performance. Very little of the music plays back in the game the way it was originally recorded, however. I cut and edited the music into chunks that the game audio engine could play back dynamically based on the player's actions.

Thanks to Count Zero at HBO.

Matt posted an item in HBO's forum about the impending reopening of the Bungie Store, as well as the Halo Soundtrack:

At this point we are willing to nip a few things off our opening lineup in order to reopen the doors sooner, so we may have a mere trickle of new swag right at the start rather than the raging rapids we originally planned. But we can always add new swag to the store over time.

Matt also pointed out he is currently in possession of a Halo Soundtrack CD, so hopefully that is set to arrive soon as well.

TeamXbox is reporting that the IGDA (International Game Developers Association) has announced the nominees for their 2001 Game Developers Choice Awards, which will be awarded March 19 - 23 in San Jose, CA.

Halo was nominated for Game of the Year as well as for excellence in Audio and Programming categories. Halo was conspicuously absent from the visual arts category.

Bruce Geryk at GameSpy has written the first part of a two-part series on the history of Real Time Strategy games. It covers 1989-1998, and lists the Myth series as one of the early fruits of RTS evolution . The banner graphic for the series even has a charging Zerk on the left hand side.

Myth only gets one paragraph on that page, but the praise is lavish:

The focus on unit tactics required some improvements to the standard interface of the time and the ability to manage formations (with unit placement being of the utmost importance). Myth also introduced some interesting multiplayer games, like Last Man on the Hill. With its outstanding graphics, smooth multiplayer, and tactical gameplay, Myth and its sequel, Myth II, carved out a niche in the real-time market for those more interested in combat than in resource gathering.

There's not much more Myth-related content there, but the series itself is an interesting read.

Bungie has finally opened its new Myth site, titled The Myth Vault. The content is fairly non-existant at this point, but Bungie has setup some message boards for anyone who wants to speak their mind.

One of its first items reports that the Myth II bungie.net server will be permanently offline beginning February 15, 2002. Fortunately for Myth fans, Bungie has released the raw Myth II metaserver source code so anybody with the right skills can start a server of their own. This will open the door to new and innovative ideas, but none of which will ever truly take the place of bungie.net.

The source code is already available for download at The Myth Vault. Make sure you agree to the license document before you download the code.

If you don't want to be there when the big server takes the plunge, go ahead and head over to Marius Net and register for use of its server. Marius Net has been serving Myth TFL and Myth II fans for months already and is very stable, although it isn't based on Bungie's network code.

It's Cortana Day over at www.bungie.net. The first item of interest is an interview with Jen Taylor, voice of Cortana. Head over to the Truth & Reconciliation site and you will find that the storyboards for the X60 cutscene (which feature Cortana) have been added. Finally, check out Jen Taylor's brand new voice outtakes during Halo's creation.