The Ministry of Security has some very good footage covering the final moments of bungie.net. The article is complete with pictures, so check it out of you weren't able to make it last night.
As announced several days ago, tonight is the final night you'll be able to login to bungie.net for some Myth II gaming. If you've got the time, check in and say goodbye.
Bruce Geryk at GameSpy has written the first part of a two-part series on the history of Real Time Strategy games. It covers 1989-1998, and lists the Myth series as one of the early fruits of RTS evolution . The banner graphic for the series even has a charging Zerk on the left hand side.
Myth only gets one paragraph on that page, but the praise is lavish:
The focus on unit tactics required some improvements to the standard interface of the time and the ability to manage formations (with unit placement being of the utmost importance). Myth also introduced some interesting multiplayer games, like Last Man on the Hill. With its outstanding graphics, smooth multiplayer, and tactical gameplay, Myth and its sequel, Myth II, carved out a niche in the real-time market for those more interested in combat than in resource gathering.
There's not much more Myth-related content there, but the series itself is an interesting read.
Bungie has finally opened its new Myth site, titled The Myth Vault. The content is fairly non-existant at this point, but Bungie has setup some message boards for anyone who wants to speak their mind.
One of its first items reports that the Myth II bungie.net server will be permanently offline beginning February 15, 2002. Fortunately for Myth fans, Bungie has released the raw Myth II metaserver source code so anybody with the right skills can start a server of their own. This will open the door to new and innovative ideas, but none of which will ever truly take the place of bungie.net.
The source code is already available for download at The Myth Vault. Make sure you agree to the license document before you download the code.
If you don't want to be there when the big server takes the plunge, go ahead and head over to Marius Net and register for use of its server. Marius Net has been serving Myth TFL and Myth II fans for months already and is very stable, although it isn't based on Bungie's network code.
A bit peripheral to Bungie at this time, we've just been informed by St. Joan that Take Two Interactive is being sued by its own shareholders,(also see here) under the accusation that they have padded the company's financial standing :
This knot will probably take some time to work out, but given TTI's recent handling of Myth III and the Myth III development team, the issue is of definite interest to our community. On the ConsoleWire pages linked-to, you'll note other lawsuit related items as well. Lawsuits are one of the big ways that business gets done these days... however, misrepresenting your financial status can be a very serious thing.
The complaint charges that defendants violated Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, by issuing a series of materially false and misleading statements to the market between February 24, 2000 and December 17, 2001, concerning its financial performance for the Company's fiscal year 2000 and the first three quarters of take-Two's fiscal year 2001.
A few years ago, a similar thing occurred when Cendant (then the owners of both Blizzard and Sierra) was selling off its software assets to Havas Interactive.
Phish contacted us with news that he has updated his Vengance tutorial to reflect changes to the Myth III editor.
The new version includes:If you're looking to migrate from Myth II to Myth III mapmaking, or to make your first foray into 3rd-party work, this is a good place to start.
- Over 5000 words rather than well under 2000
- A section devoted to the colormapping process in Photoshop
- A better explanation of the tools in the mesh editor
- Lots and lots more detail, making it more beginner-friendly
Phish writes in to inform us of his new Myth III map, titled Triple Backstab . Here's the fat from Phish:
Triple Backstab is a unique map with several key features which work together to produce one helluva fun map - it has 3 start locations, and has been specifically designed for all the wight lovers out there. Deep water and plenty of wights make for an interesting wading experience, however unfortunate players may find themselves out of their depth (strangelet's pun, not mine, honest!) Beta testers have described the map as being very very fun , and having a lot of potential - this one is likely to become a classic, so go ahead and download here!
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.
Also from Blambi at MythVillage comes word of electric playground's review of Myth III. Unlike the the beta tester, they didn't feel a GF3 was really all that necessary:
Much has been made of Myth III's visual glory via the GF3 card, but it looks fine even on a reasonable system without the GF3, with a good range of active and idle animations. The narration doesn't seem to be quite as epic and fitting as that from the campaign missions of the original game, but it's still bounds beyond standard computer game fare.
They gave the game a 90% rating overall.
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.
Rolling Rock at MythTournies.com posted note a couple days ago about two new Myth tournies (which is appropriate given the site's name, I suppose).
Pagon God told them about a tourney called For Unlawful Carnage Killing (how do you kill carnage?) which is a team tournament with a double elimination ladder, and Lone one called More Bungie Jumping then your Average Trow [sic] which combines team, FFA and 1x1 play.
