Some parts of this Elite model-- such as the equine like forelegs, are recognizable-- as is the plasma rifle. Other parts, such as the chest, arms and neck, appear quite different from the final versions.

One of the early weapons was a gatling gun. It's not clear whether this gun was eliminated when the Master Chief model changed, or perhaps at a later stage.

A scene from the MWNY trailer. Marines flee in a Warthog and are pursued by Ghosts, one of which crests a ridge and overturns.

Originally, the human arsenal was to have a machete in it as a foil (pun intended) to the Covenant energy sword. The original press release mentioned "composite swords" and most assumed this was what Bungie meant. It never made it into the shipping game, and in Halo 1 even the Covenant plasma swords were not usable by the player.

The cover of Computer Gaming World was one of Halo's first cover appearances, but certainly not the last. The game that many expected to be released in the first quarter of the following year, 2000, would not actually hit the streets until late 2001, and would not come to the platforms it was originally announced for -- Mac and PC-- for another two years after that.

Although Xbox Halo's multiplayer was limited to LAN (and various gateway hacks for internet play), it was central to the early conception of Halo; nearly all the early shots show no distinction between any character referred to as "Master Chief" and other, normal human marines.

Two clearly identifiable Banshee flyers patrol a rather arid landscape in an early screenshot. Bungie revealed the Warthog in a nearly-final form in the very first shot, and showed it, the Ghost, and the Banshee in the announcement video. The vehicle-centric, squad-based type of play described in the original press release had many comparing the game to Tribes.

This show was to demonstrate the scale of battles possible in Halo-- multiple players and vehicles over large areas of territory.

The Chief fires what looks like the anti-aircraft rocket launcher that didn't make the cut at an oncoming Banshee (and misses by quite a lot, it seems. While still a third-person game, the interface for aiming projectile weapons was a major issue for developers. Early builds featured in the Evolution of Halo video show a three-reticle system to allow players to aim such weapons. It was abandoned as unworkable, especially in multiplayer.

Early Elites seem to be having a heated discussion with the MC near an overturned Warthog.

The Covenant also originally had weapons that didn't make it into the game. There were once several different kinds of rocket launchers, some anti-tank, some anti-personnel, and some anti-aircraft. It's a good guess that this one didn't make the cut when it was decided to make all Covenant weapons non-projectile; the only similar weapon in Halo 1 as shipped is the Fuel Rod Gun, used by Spec Ops grunts and molded into the arms of Hunters.

Some early screenshots like this one betray a scope that dwarfs what Halo eventually became. However, an obvious design tradeoff is how much time can be spent on any one area of a gameworld that is so large without repeating. Here, while individual elements like the trees, rocks and bridges are detailed, they seem almost randomly placed.

Early shots and vids show the Master Chief running with his assault rifle resting on top of his right shoulder; this posture was eliminated from the shipped game for the Xbox. Here it looks like he's taken it down off his shoulder in preparation to fire on the Elite in the tunnel to his left.

Another weapon that didn't make the cut, like many featured in the Evolution of Halo video. The gatling machine gun also showed up in several early screenshots. The look of it, especially the rust on the heat shield, resembles the model of the flamethrower that was also cut from the Xbox version and resurrected for the PC and Macintosh versions of Halo 1.

Some of the early shots showed amounts of shell casings that were evocative of action scenes in The Matrix. One point stressed in early PR for the game was the phrase "persistent world". Some forumgoers wondered if that meant if every one of those shell casings would remain in the game world as an object, similar to the detritus from melee combat in Myth.