Four Aleph One netmaps and a Lua CTF script for Marathon fans today over at Aleph One, courtesy of eX and W'rkcacnter.

Nick from HaloDev let us know that their site has re-opened with a new backend system and a lovely bunch of coconuts. The site has FAQs for HaloDev as well as for the Prometheus editor, community forums, and developer blogs.

A blog that seems to focus more on politics than gaming marked the 10th anniversary of the release of Marathon Infinity earlier this week.

Needless to say, this game has given me and my friends many happy moments for the last 10 years, and it will continue to do so in the future, as Aleph One, which is the open-source adaptation of the game, has been available for some years. And it still plays great.

Two new packs of maps at Aleph One this week: Azure Dreams and Oblivion Pack 2.0. Enjoy!

Rockslider's latest game-within-a-game that he plays exclusively with Halo 1 is called Shark; you use a Banshee underneath a bridge to induce Covenant units to leap off to their deaths. It's the newest item on Bad Cyborg's Fun and Challenges page for Assault on the Control Room.

Version 0.5 of PhysicsEditorOne for Windows by HogePiyo is out, in English and Japanese. The program edits Marathon physics models, allowing mapmakers to change player physics, monster sequences, sounds and weapons.

Thanks for the heads-up to Marathon Open Source.

A new Marathon film (in Marathon recording and .mp4 formats) called Spectral Falls and a new map pack called Fabrecation are available at Marathon: Aleph One. Check them out!

Halogen, an unofficial fan project to create a real-time strategy game in the Halo universe, is shutting down due to a request from Microsoft. From their homepage:

Hours ago, we finally recieved the words we've been dreading since the mod started to get noticed. Microsoft has decided that we are infringing on the intellectual property of Bungie Studios and has asked us to stop development on Halogen.

The site notes that the forum and other areas will be shut down within a week.

Project Magma has announced the availability of a public beta of version 1.6 of Myth II. The update makes Myth II on the Mac a Universal application, running natively on PPC or Intel hardware, allows it to run in a window on Windows 2000 or XP, and many other new features and bug fixes. This is a final quality-testing release before the final release.

... and to Windows and Linux as well. Appleswitch at Source.bungie.org reports that a Mac OS X conversion of the Marathon sequel scenario Rubicon, appropriately called Marathon: Rubicon X, has been released. It requires the latest version of the cross-platform Aleph One engine. Rubicon was originally released in 2001. The X conversion features new high resolution art as well as new and updated maps.

MBO pointed out an unusual Gamasutra postmortem article from last summer which I don't remember seeing before. It's not on a game itself, but of an update to a game. In this case, the 1.5 and 1.5.1 updates to Myth II produced by Project Magma.

One of the best total conversions for Marathon, Tempus Irae, has gotten an Aleph One facelift: new high resolution textures, alternate soundtracks, netmaps, even a sequel-- the works. Check it out at source.bungie.org.

• Aleph One, the open-sourced version of Marathon for Windows, Linux and Mac OS, has a new release out.
• The HD QuickTime version of the Halo 3 trailer documentary is back up at Microsoft.
• KP profiles known Cortana-hater Jillybean at Bungie.net.