Rampancy

This update synchronizes the Mac version with the PC version 1.04 allowing cross-platform multiplayer to again function. Requires Halo v1.03. NOTE: You should disable your anti-virus software before running the updater. If you are reinstalling Halo, you need to first download the 1.03 update and install it prior to installing the 1.04 update.

Download: http://rampancy.net/machalo/halo103-104_updater.sit

If you look at Randy Pitchford's .plan file through Blue's News, the project listings there are the same as they've been for some time:

1. Halo PC
2. Secret Sauce

"Secret Sauce" might have been the Halo Editing Kit before that was announced, but it might be something else all together.

Well, as of the 12th, that .plan file also contains a note that Gearbox is hiring level designers with UnrealEd and/or Worldcraft experience, indicating that another project either has been underway before now or is just starting up. Gearbox's Project Page still only lists PC Halo, along with a screenshot of the still-as-yet-unreleased Sapien.

Why should this matter to PC Halo fans?

Because typically, support and updates for a port of a game to another platform never goes on forever, and usually begins to wane when the porting house gets another project going. Gearbox has already begun to lay the blame for delays in getting patches and the HEK out at the feet of Bungie and Microsoft, and now with a push on to hire programmers for an effort with a completely different game engine by the look of it, and the release of Halo 2 for the Xbox to come later this year, what will be the fate of support for PC and Mac Halo?

Of course, Gearbox was always going to have to do more work; there's no way Microsoft would continue to pay them enough to get by just to make patches for PC Halo.

Assistant Site Director Rams has put up his (second, by my count) resignation letter from Battleground: Halo, one of the longer-running Halo fansites on the web. While Viper is hedging his bets by holding a pool on Rams coming back again, the man himself says this is it, because real life is starting to infringe on the time he needs for working on the site. He will be replaced by Ecko. Be sure to give his letter a read.

SketchFactor has posted on Bungie.net that the PC version of Halo is getting a security patch through the auto-update mechanism to keep it in step with a needed security fix for the dedicated server. Both changes are to protect against an exploit on the GameSpy CDKey SDK. Both the Halo PC client and dedicated server will now be version 1.04. The story at Bungie net has a link to the updated dedicated server. There's no word on what, if any other changes, are in this version, or how this affects Mac clients.