Rampancy

Do we have some great sleuths in our community or what? A number of Bungiefen have been hoping, fervently, that the much anticipated #2 would be the Marathon source code. Well, jooz guyz just got your wish! Red Hot Ryan was the first person to pass us the news, so he deserves a fat kudos from the rest of us. Here's a PR, ripped straight from Mac Gamer's Ledge:

Today at 7 pm CST Bungie Software releases the Mac source code for their classic game Marathon 2: Durandal to the net. This game represented the pinnacle of first-person shooter technology in 1995, and was the most successful of the highly-acclaimed Marathon series. Programmers only need apply: the code is in MPW format (Macintosh Programmers Workshop, which can be freely downloaded at developer.apple.com), and because various components had to be removed before public release, devising some workarounds will be necessary before the code will compile. Nevertheless, for those with the skills to manipulate it, the code can form the basis of all kinds of 3D, first-person perspective games, and we look forward to seeing what is done with it. The code is being released under the terms of the GNU public license, and Bungie does not offer technical support with the code. More information can be found in the ReadMe that accompanies it. The download can be found at ftp://ftp.bungie.com/pub/mac/misc/Marathon2Source.sit and a gzipped version at ftp://ftp.bungie.com/pub/mac/misc/marathon2_src.tar.gz.

Now, what's it gonna take to get them to release the source code for Marathon 2 (PC)...

And you thought they only made maps. H'Biki has posted word that Vista has created and posted a Halo desktop for your downloading delight, possibly the only the first such offering. It comes in several sizes, but just one color... just what is it about this blue? ':)

Following the influx of new information from MWSF, I've brought the FAQ up to date with a few new questions, answers, and revisions of old questions. That makes almost a hundred questions answered, with more coming in every now and then. And as always, your own questions are welcomed.

Some folk who were around to see Bungie's first Halo page might recall some of the cryptic, random messages that appeared there. While they recieved a great deal of attention back then, they have been largely forgotten since.

However, Cannibal Harry has exhumed those messages, and posted a long, Crack Pipe Alert analysis of them that is one of the best yet. Using what might be time-stamps in the messages, he has built an interesting and plausible timeline, including what could be the origin of Cortana... definitely worth checking out:

• Forum: Cryptic transmissions and the PoA (long, cpa)