Zandervix over at Myth.Bungie.Org posted the news from MythMaps that they are proceeding with beta testing, and are about ready to offer users individual accounts if you email them at accounts@mythmaps.com.

Well, just as soon as we open our big fat mouths to say there's no new information, Matt pulls up to the drive-thru window at HBO to toss a few more needles into the haystack.

They aren't much, but they are something.

In response to complaints about the lack of information (and by information we mean a release date etched in stone ):

I don't think I, or anyone else at Bungie, would ever claim to know when a project will be done. When we say We don't know, we always mean We don't know. It may sound evasive, but it's an honest statement.

In response to the allegation that MS is trying to protect Halo sales on the Xbox by dictating the release date for other versions:

MS is not delaying production of PC Halo.

There you have it, honest to goodness information.

Halo will come out on the Mac. So says Alex, so says Matt, and consign to the flames of hell all who say otherwise.

Of course, there's always more people saying otherwise, and those who say yes still don't have too much else to say... until there's more to say.

So in the spirit of never letting the truth get in the way of a good story, we've cruised the web to collect links about Halo on the Mac-- some outdated, some inaccurate, some just funny.

Click story link below for the complete summary.

Gamers.com has an overview of Halo for the Mac, based primarily on old information but has been updated. It has a screenshot of the old marine design. It lists the publisher as Microsoft , but the developer as Bungie Software (not Bungie Studios ). The user review (9/10) written late last month actually refers to the Xbox version. The release date is listed as N/A .

DGames.com has a Macintosh index page that lists Halo with a price of $44.95 and a link to preorder. Caveat emptor.

Happy Puppy has a page from May of 2000 after E3. It still lists the developer and publisher as Bungie and has a shot of the old marine and the old warthog.

Blockbuster.com has an entry for Halo as a game rental says in part Initial development of Halo was done simultaneously for the Macintosh, the PC, and the Xbox. That's interesting... I'd have thought initial development was done for the Mac and the PC, and then later for the Xbox...

Maccentral still has their story online from when Alex confirmed at MacWorld that Halo would still come out for the Mac. We still have a lot of love for the Mac platform, said Seropian. and yes indeed, we will be bringing Halo out for the Mac.

Cheatcave has a page purporting to be for the 52 codes and cheats available for Halo on the Mac. The first is infinite viagra pills . Later on down the page we are shocked to be informed by a gamer from usa that all of this shit is fake . Darn!

ZDNet's story from awhile back mentions that although Halo was confirmed for Mac, it wasn't announced who would port or publish it. In fact, we still don't know that-- although my bet is that the absence of an announcement of who the third party porting company is means that there isn't one... so they must be doing it in-house. Will that delay Phoenix? Of course not... you can't delay something without a release date. The story speculates heavily that Tamte's company Destineer might do the job under their Bold label... but little has been said about that lately.

That's all for now... more Mac Halo (mis)information as we find it!

Strolled over to the Marathon Open Source project page and saw that the Macintosh version of Aleph One was updated earlier today. Although it's dated February 20, there is no news item that lists the latest changes. At any rate, be sure to download the latest build if Aleph One is your thing.

Zandervix posted at MBO that The Mill is giving away five copies of Myth 3.

Creation Games has released Sisters of the Blade, which Blambi at MythVillage dubbed scantily clad chicks running around killing stuff.

And, as was noted before, this marks the end of Creation Games. Farewell.

According to this item by Blambi over at MythVillage, EGArentz, a Mac Myth III beta tester for MacSoft, has posted a message in the forum over at IMG, suggesting that the Mac version of the game has benefited from many changes since the first PC version, and that the game really looks great on a machine with a GeForce 3 video card.

Nate Birkholz has posted the remaining bugs in the Mac version of Myth III in the Myth Village forum:

Two A-level bugs:

Command-Tabbing to switch from the application causes a crash in OS X.1, and Contraband is fixing this. (We may have to disable Command-Tabbing for the release and try to patch later if possible.)

Selecting a large group of units, changing their formation, selecting a couple more previously-unselected units, and then issuing a new order to the entire group causes a crash (OS X) or a hard lock (OS 9). Contraband is looking into this.

This update comes in response to the recent announcement that Myth III for the Mac won't be on shelves by Christmas.

Kudos to Rabbit who pointed out that IMG has interviewed Bungie's Alex Seropian. Seropian discusses the significance of the Oni team's involvement as well as Bungie's transition to console games. Of course, IMG had to inquire about Halo for the Mac:

IMG: And the big question...will Halo ever come to the Mac? Any details you can share with your loyal Mac fans?

Seropian: Yes, Halo will be out for the Mac. Be patient. Or, I suppose if you have no patience, get yourself an Xbox [insert evil music here] :)

That's the fourth time I get to say BOO-YAH! today.

ax informed us on RampancyHL that Nate Birkholz has announced that Myth III for the Mac won't be here in time for Christmas. Many people are disappointed by this and I am, too, but at the same time I am very comforted that MacSoft is taking its time in making a solid version of the game.

Battleground: Halo spotted an interesting tidbit in the latest issue of PC Zone:

Our guess is that Halo for the PC will be out next autumn, probably to coincide with the announcement of Halo 2, which is already being worked on and a cert to arrive on Xbox first yet again.

Before you get all excited, this statement has no credibility. Don't believe it simply because it's in a printed magazine; they're very often wrong.

MacCentral has posted a mini-preview of Myth III that mostly constitutes quotes from Nate Birkholz. Here's a segment from the preview:

Users have noted that the problems mentioned by MacSoft in its status updates have been confined to Mac OS X -- given that's the case, why not release the OS 9 version now and offer Mac OS X users a patch or upgrade later?

We just don't want to divert the resources we have to get this game out to change the application to make it a Mac OS 9-only app, said Birkholz. I'm not sure what sort of engineering that would take, either.

In any case, it shouldn't be too much longer before Myth III is released for Mac OS 9 and X. (Thanks Myth Village)

Yesterday, Driver8 registered as a user on Rampancy.net, leading us to his website, where lives his Myth Chat Extractor program:

Myth Chat Extractor extracts and displays player chat text and elapsed time (differentiating between whispers and yells), as well as player names, color, and rank icons, map name and game type from Myth I, II, and III multiplayer and single-player co-op films.

Even more interesting, there's a new version-- Myth Chat Extractor 3.0b3, released on December 5. It is available for Mac OS 9, Windows, Solaris 7 and 8, Mac OS X, and Linux.

And the best part? Now it works with all the games in the Myth series-- 1, 2 and 3.

Brad Cook of Apple has previewed Myth III on Apple's gaming website. They were able to snag a bunch of quotes from Mumbo Jumbo developers, including Scott Campbell and Mike Donges. The preview contains general information that isn't new to any of us expecting the Mac version, but it's good for those who still need to do some catching up on the story and features.