Halo Mac Development wants to know which Halo Custom Edition maps you want ported for use with Mac Halo. They are only doing one at a time because conversions are complex, and to ensure that people can find servers to play on.

bobindashadows has posted over at Halo Mac Development that after a couple of weeks of work, he has successfully converted a map created for Halo CE, in this case the desert island map by ZexGX to work with Halo for the Mac.

Five screenshots accompany the story, showing ZexGX's map clearly running in Aqua windows.

Unfortunately, bobindashadows says that quite a bit of hand-editing work is required to do this conversion, so it looks like there will not be anything like a drag-and-drop converter anytime soon. In the absence of such an app, he'll only be converting the particular maps he thinks of as being worth it.

Thanks for the heads-up on this story to Louis Wu at HBO.

Hellface has posted in the Gearbox Forum something that appears to be about the Halo Editing Kit. We're not really sure... but the thrust of it seems to be that there may (or may not) be something good going on, but if there is, and they aren't SURE it's going on, they aren't going to tell us. The moderators might (or might not) know about it, but if they do, they can't tell anyone, and if they do, they're in trouble.

Everybody with us so far?

Thanks Louis Wu for the heads-up.

...and MasterNeoChief is their instrument, making this mod where you play as an Elite, eliminating UNSC forces. Get it over at HaloMods. Thanks Louis Wu at HBO.

Jason Snell, editor of MacWorld, has a column up recounting the good times he had playing network games of Marathon while working at MacUser, and insists that Marathon is really at the core of what Halo is:

In any event, don't let anyone tell you otherwise -- Halo really is Marathon 4, right down to the weapons choices and the gameplay. And I love it... especially on the network, because then I'm playing with and against real-live human beings with real skills. Or imagined skills, but that's fun too.

Thanks Ghôlsbane and Louis Wu at HBO.

James at HaloMods writes that the multiplayer version of Assault on the Control Room is now complete and released as version 1.3. MonoxideC is running a server for it as well, check HaloMods for the information.

Bungie games never die, but they do live on in websites that use frames. You have been warned.

However, if you're in the mood for a blast from the past, check out the Pathways Into Darkness page at Bungie.org, where Hamish Sinclair, who maintains that page as well as the compendious and excellent Marathon Story Page, has added information on the A1 demo version of Pathways Into Darkness that was released way back in July of 1993 before MacWorld Boston that year.

For those who don't know, Pathways was a precursor to Marathon, a less sophisticated first-person shooter/adventure game in a pseudo three-dimensional world. The latest update to the PID page details the levels and features in that demo that were removed or changed before the game's final release.

Wraith has produced a mod for Halo PC that you can get at HaloMods that allows you to use the Fuel Rod Gun the SpecOps Grunts use in the level Two Betrayals. He wants his gold star.

This news is a bit old, but we missed it the first time around, so here goes.

Loren Petrich has said if there's interest, he will modify the MML (that's Marathon Markup Language) used in Aleph One (the open source version of the Marathon engine) to support models made by a program called DimAnimator.

The reason? Spnkrghol has been cooking up some great models for use in Aleph One.

Pfhorslayer writes on the Postpose Software website that the development of Aquaduct Two, the Macintosh-based Xbox tunneler, is proceeding nicely:

We began the first phase of Aquaduct 2 beta testing this weekend. To keep feedback optimally useful, and to ensure that we don't release anything deadly into the wild, this first test won't be public. The answer to the Question that just loomed ominously over my inbox is, "No, we have plenty."

He goes on to assure everyone that it will be released as soon as possible.

HHHT has been updated to version 1.40, and fixes some bugs as well as adds some new features. Thanks BOLL. Go to Omnight.com to download the new version.

[image:7214 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0]A couple more projects are underway to bring new netmaps to PC Halo, still without the as-yet-unreleased Halo Editing Kit. (We're pretty sure that's going to become part of the official name at this point.)

Madrox is creating a new multiplayer level out of the architecture at the top of Boarding Action, with some new architecture as well using a technique known as "multi-inject". There's a video over at HaloMods.

On top of that, icanttype is working on making the Truth & Reconciliation hangar bay into a multiplayer level as well; HaloMods has some screenshots.

Thanks to Louis Wu, Devin, and Neo-Genesis at HBO for the heads-up.

Devin Olsen and Gil27 have put up a movie and some screenshots of multiplayer action on the engine room portion of The Maw. You may remember that a poll at Halo Mods asked what level, after the Library, should be converted into a multiplayer level, and this was one of the choices.

The map isn't available for download yet, but it might be... sometime...

The screenshot post by Gil27 and Devin Olsen gives special thanks to MonoxideC (creator of the Library multiplayer conversion), ViperNeo, ZexGX, and Zelda Freak. Thanks for the note to Louis Wu at HBO.