Oh yes... they'll be more... lots more... ;-)

The 5th Dec 1994 MacWEEK screenshot (307K).

On the 5th Dec 1994 MacWEEK published an article by Robert Hess on Bungie's soon to be released game Marathon. The article included a screenshot from the game. If you were around at the time you'll probably remember seeing this. It caused quite a stir amongst those of us awaiting the full game. Here's an old post from comp.sys.mac.games concerning it.

From: jaelee@bigwpi.WPI.EDU (Jae Hyuk Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: New Marathon screenshot in MacWeek
Date: 15 Dec 1994 18:25:06 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Lines: 13
Message-ID: <3cq1m2$ebn@bigboote.WPI.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bigwpi.wpi.edu

For those of you who are dying to see more screenshots from Marathon,
check out the December 5th issue of MacWeek.  There is a screenshot from
Marathon showing a new species of aliens.  Three of them are standing
on a ledge (with what looks like magma -volcanic eruption, melting rock-
on either side) with you.  They are wearing a green Flintstones-like suit
and have an egg-shaped head with a green gem-like eye in the center.
One of them is being thrown back/killed with an assault rifle (?), the
weapon selection right after the pistol.

I'm sorry, but that's the best description I can give.  Perhaps someone
else can do better.  I'd scan/upload the screenshot, but I don't know how 
and I don't want any trouble with copyright.

The screenshot was scanned in and uploaded to the net. Unfortunately the web site that carried it has long since gone and this little piece of Marathon history was thought lost... until now. Thanks to Todd Bangerter <tabanger@husc.harvard.edu> the original article has been found and scanned in again. This time it will not be lost. Todd you rule!

Well I didn't think I'd ever find this. Years ago I had asked Bungie to track it down... but it appeared lost. But it was there... hidden away... along with many other items of Marathon memorabilia. The past will be preserved. Here is the original eggheads screenshot (93K) used in the MacWeek Dec '94 article mentioned above.

The Marathon 20/10 Scenario Pack (98K).

Another piece of Marathon lore, kindly sent in by Steve Wood <smwood@ccs.neu.edu>. Remember this one? The Marathon 20/10 Scenario Pack was not as many people think 20 solo levels and 10 net levels, but the other way around! Here's a comp.sys.mac.games post concerning it.

From: stattenf@apple.com (Keith Stattenfield) 
Date: 1995/04/10
MessageID: stattenf-1004951535240001@17.127.10.51#1/1
sender: news@gallant.apple.com
references: <jbrown41-0504950935480001@jamin-brown.umeres.maine.edu>
<straylight-0604950115410001@slip-d-16.ots.utexas.edu>
organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games

In article <straylight-0604950115410001@slip-d-16.ots.utexas.edu>,
straylight@mail.utexas.edu (Jeff Kievlan) wrote:

> In article <jbrown41-0504950935480001@jamin-brown.umeres.maine.edu>,
> jbrown41@maine.maine.edu (Jamin A Brown) wrote:
> 
> > Well, I thought the release for the 20/10 level pack from Bungie was in
> > March, it is now April, and I haven't seen any posts about it. Anyone
> > heard anything?
> > 
> Yeah. It's going to be released in two weeks.  :^)   :^(
> 
> Here we go again......
> 
> Jeff Kievlan           straylight@mail.utexas.edu
> _________________________________________________________________
> "They're Everywhere!!!"  -Bob

I called and spoke with someone at Bungie just last week.  They don't
think the 20/10 level pack will be available until June, and they are not
taking orders for it at this time.

-Keith

-- 
Keith Stattenfield                 "My opinion's, not Apple's."
stattenf@apple.com

Will the 10 bonus single player Marathon levels ever see light of day?

A midnight walk on Lh'owon (144K).

On the 24th July 1995 MacWEEK published an article by Mac the Knife with the enigmatic title "A midnight walk on Lh'owon". Some five days earlier Bungie had officially announced Marathon 2 development. For many people this was their first chance to get a look at the new game. Unless of course you had the leaked Preview. ;-) Here's a comp.sys.mac.games post about it, under the misleading title of "Just Saw Marathon 2 Demo"

Re: Just Saw Marathon 2 Demo
From: lewallen@onramp.net (Tim Lewallen) 
Date: 1995/07/25
MessageID: lewallen-2507951334520001@lub02.onramp.net#1/1
references: <bdevine-2007951354150001@slip-5-3.ots.utexas.edu> <cknox-2107951402130001@jumpnet.uoregon.edu> <asc1-2507951153570001@central-113-154.dorm.duke.edu>
organization: On-Ramp; Individual Internet Connections; Dallas/Ft Worth/Houston, TX USA
newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games

In article <asc1-2507951153570001@central-113-154.dorm.duke.edu>,
asc1@acpub.duke.edu (Aaron Sundance Cobb) wrote:

> In article <cknox-2107951402130001@jumpnet.uoregon.edu>,
> cknox@gladstone.uoregon.edu (Cory Knox) wrote:
> 
> > I would like to believe you.  Do you have any proof (maybe a cool screen
> > shot)?
> 
> I could upload a cool screen shot.  Of course, it would be a complete
> forgery, but it would be a cool screen shot nonetheless... (wink)
> 
> Aaron Sundance Cobb



The latest MacWeek has a screen shot in the Mac the Knife column.

Someone with a scanner should scan that puppy and post it for all to see.

It looks pretty keen.  The Bobs have guns!

Tim Lewallen

"Good manners are never a waste of time", Cyrus Redblock - ST:TNG.

Thanks again to Todd Bangerter <tabanger@husc.harvard.edu> for scanning in yet another blast from the past.

The original Marathon box sticker (120K).

If you bought Marathon when it first came out you would have found inside the box, in addition to a number of other goodies, a sticker. Big deal I hear you say! Yeah but an original Marathon box sticker in mint condition (NOT peeled off the side of your Mac - we know who you are!) will now set you back $40 assuming you were lucky enough to find one at the last Marathon Convention. So folks don't accept any fakes or tacky reproductions. Insist on the original commodity. Here are some early comp.sys.mac.games posts about them.

From: patrickd@sandstone.WPI.EDU (Patrick D.)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: MARATHON stickers for sale
Date: 30 Mar 1995 07:02:02 GMT
Organization: Satellite of Love - Satellite.res.wpi.edu
Lines: 16
Message-ID: <3ldl1a$ai0@bigboote.WPI.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: sandstone.wpi.edu

I have some Marathon stickers with the Marathon logo on them.
They're a cool silver and black color.  They are round and about 3" in
diameter.

I'll sell them for $2 each (plus $1 for shipping).  [So if you want one, it's
$3.  Two is $5 total.  Etc...]

Any takers?  E-mail me.  Somehow I suspect Marathon fans will want these.
(NOTE: These aren't just some cheezy things I printed up...these are the REAL
STICKERS!  They were made by Bungee (or someone they hired to make them).)

-- 
-Patrick Delahanty            | BEWARE!: MST3K, the TICK, TMBG, Phish, and
PatrickD@Satellite.res.wpi.edu| Star Trek fan!  Macintosh Evangelist & Guru
------------------------------+--------------------------------------------
http://www.wpi.edu/~patrickd/ |    Veteran MST3K Fan - Info Club # 6563



From: mgarriso@hmc.edu (Michael Garrison)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: MARATHON stickers for sale
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 14:25:22 -0800
Organization: HMC
Lines: 2
Message-ID: <mgarriso-3003951425220001@lotus.st.hmc.edu>
References: <3ldl1a$ai0@bigboote.WPI.EDU> <3leq3c$uoq@insosf1.infonet.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: lotus.st.hmc.edu

Just so everyone knows, Bungie was giving these stickers away free at MWSF
and will probably do the same at MW Boston.



From: qsh@osuunx.ucc.okstate.edu (Quanah S. Harjo)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: MARATHON stickers for sale
Date: 31 Mar 1995 00:13:52 GMT
Organization: Oklahoma State University, Stillwater OK
Lines: 15
Message-ID: <3lfhg0$666@bubba.ucc.okstate.edu>
References: <3ldl1a$ai0@bigboote.WPI.EDU> <3leq3c$uoq@insosf1.infonet.net> <mgarriso-3003951425220001@lotus.st.hmc.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: osuunx.ucc.okstate.edu
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #4 (NOV)

mgarriso@hmc.edu (Michael Garrison) writes:

>Just so everyone knows, Bungie was giving these stickers away free at MWSF
>and will probably do the same at MW Boston.

Is this the same sticker that came with Marathon?  I got a sticker that
fit that description in the box with mine.  Not all that special, you
know?

Quanah S. Harjo--qsh@osuunx.ucc.okstate.edu
_____________________________________________________________
To defend is to forge the links of life on Death's own anvil.
_____________________________________________________________
Let no man's soul be as hated as the Rough, full of divots,
but let it be as smooth and guilless as the Fairway.

Jack Miller <jack@radionics.com> writes to say that he has a whole bunch of those original Marathon Stickers. He got them at Macworld Boston August 1994. Which is interesting since it indicates that Bungie had decided at this stage in development to run with the title U.E.S.C. Then again as Jack says "the game was done except for the boxes", at least that's what he was told.

Jack's collection of Marathon Stickers runs into the "high double digits" so if you are lucky you might be able to pick up a few from him. But be quick they're going fast, I've ordered seven already!

Remember folks insist on genuine Marathon Stickers not fakes or tacky reproductions.

On June 15, 1997 Jason Harper <76703.4222@compuserve.com> made the following startling discovery. Jason wrote:

It didn't look like anyone was going to respond to my request for hi-res scans of the sticker barcodes, so I made another attempt at decoding them by hand. I was successful this time, once I realized that there was some unnecessary space between some of the barcode characters. Here are the results:

On the U.E.S.C Marathon sticker:

LEELA SHIP OPERATIONS

On the Celer Manus Dei sticker:

DURANDAL AUTONOMOUS FUNCTIONS

On the Cr'etz'ih sticker:

TYCHO SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

I have to say I'm disappointed... I was hoping for some profound revelation, not info that we've all known since the second level of the original Marathon.

Of perhaps more interest is the barcode on the original Marathon sticker. I can't find mine anywhere, but there is a scanned version in the Blasts From The Past section here. The scan wasn't done at a high enough resolution to be quite readable: notice that there are some areas where the bars have blurred together. However, by making some guesses about what's actually in the blurred areas, I was able to produce a self-consistent decoding of the message. As with the Trilogy stickers, it's in Code 39 without the required start/stop characters. Code 39 has a fair amount of redundancy in it, and the decoded characters make sense together, so I'm fairly confident that my result is accurate. It is:

DOOMSUCKS

Amazing! For nearly 3 years this Bungie secret remained undiscovered. How many other secrets are still out there... waiting?

The eWorld Conference Transcripts.

Read for the first time the REAL unedited Jan 1995 eWorld Conference Transcript! Kindly preserved by Steve Wood <smwood@ccs.neu.edu>. Here's a snippet.

Tuncer: Hey J, I'm outta here. Thanks again for coming, I'll call you tomorrow about the Making of...

BungieCorp : tuncer!!!!!!!!!!!!:: don't leave me with these people!!!!!

The AOL Conference Transcripts 17 Feb '95.

On the 17th February 1995 Tuncer Deniz of Inside Mac Games held a Mac Games Conference on AOL with Alexander Seropian, CEO of Bungie Software. Unlike the eWorld Conference Transcripts which were made widely available on the Internet the AOL conference transcripts have laid buried in the AOL time vaults. Thanks to Cindy Hoffa <cynho@earthlink.net> the Marathon's Story page is now able to bring you the first of two AOL conference transcripts with Bungie software. The 17 Feb '95 AOL Conference Transcripts are historically interesting for a number of reasons:

1. Unlike previous conferences there was an increasing appreciation for the Marathon plot.
2. Bungie Software had just closed their official Marathon World Wide Web page and Alexander Seropian briefly explains the reasoning behind this.
3. Alexander Seropian also hints at the possibility of a Marathon 2. Alex wrote:

"The 20/10 pack? It is supposed to come out in March, but to be honest we are considering rolling it into another product which won't come out til later."

The old mystery of the moving egg appears again too!

The Origin of the Caps Lock key controversy!

In Dec '94 Inside Mac Games (IMG) magazine published a Strategy and Tactics section for the Marathon demo. The demo had only been officially released the previous month. Written by Tuncer Deniz (IMG editor) and Greg Kirkpatrick (Bungie Software) it contained helpful hints on weapon use, net tactics and walkthroughs for each of the solo demo levels. The Strategy and Tactics section ended with a short guide to Vid-Mastery. Part of this was concerned with the use of the Caps Lock key for running. If you presently use the Caps Lock key you should read this. Remember this is what Bungie thought of the practice way... way... back before the full game was released.

Oh yes! some people caught on pretty quick too.

From: hfocd@aol.com (HFO CD)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Marathon, blapheme quarantine
Date: 23 Dec 1994 10:14:30 -0500
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
Lines: 8
Sender: root@newsbf02.news.aol.com
Message-ID: <3depgm$6qo@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
References: <3dcu6q$ou@portal.gmu.edu>
Reply-To: hfocd@aol.com (HFO CD)

Bungie says that using caps as the run key is for dorks..  hehe
_________________________________
If you really want it, go for it
And... IF someone doesn't give it
to you, take out your ASSULT RIFLE
and ask nicely!
MARATHON RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
__________________________________

Check your preferences file... for the tru7h!

Forrest Cameranesi <Pfhorrest@aol.com> writes:

I just noticed an exception to one of Bungie's vid-rules. On some older keyboards (like my friend Mike's), you can't hold down more than two keys at once. So that would be an exception to the 'never use caps-lock' rule, because the keyboard doesn't recognise caps-lock as being 'held down' when it's on. Using caps as his run key is the only way Mike can play Marathon succesfully, because he can't run (forward) and shoot, or shoot and sidestep, or run and sidestep, etc etc... at the same time without it.

Forrest describes these keyboards as:

the old Apple keyboards, the non-extended ones with no keypad or 'special' (help, home, end, etc...) keys, or FKeys, and the power key is above the whole thing instead of in the corner.

Simon Brownlee <squeaky@pobox.com> writes:

The keyboard problem (mentioned on the blasts from the past page) also applies to PB keyboards. With the official 'PowerBook Keys', you can't fire, strafe and move at the same time.

Simon describes his experiences playing Marathon on a PowerBook:

I used the keyboard first, and couldn't figure out what was going wrong. I'd be running along, and as soon as I fired, I stopped moving. Then I figured out you can only have 3 keys (plus modifies) at a time

The Marathon's Story page as it first appeared on the 19th Sept 1995. Just a piece of nostalgia. :-)

The Marathon Keychain.

Only one hundred were ever forged.
Distributed amongst the chosen few,
now scattered all over the globe.
To meet only once,
every seven years in southeast France.
But unknown forces were at work.
Many have been lost - others stolen,
melted down for their silver.
But one has now been found.

The gathering has begun.
They must be found.

Behold the one

Chad Poland <cgp@doubleaught.com>, ever the observant one, points out that there are seven rings on the Marathon Keychain. Yes SEVEN!

Matthew Payne <sfeira@pacbell.net> points out that the Keychain weighed 3 ozs and was sold as item #887 in Bungie's Summer 1995 Catalog. The catalog itself has become a collector's item now. Do you still have your copy?

What other secrets does the Marathon Keychain hold?

Here's a pic of another Marathon Keychain found on the 1st Jan 2003. Note the wear and tear.

Here's a pic of another Marathon Keychain found on the 22nd Apr 2003. Matt Soell is the bearer.

Here are two pics (top view and side view) of a Marathon keychain bought off eBay by Claude Errera for $82 in Sept 2005. Ten years after Marathon was released! The former owner was Jim Ruiz, Mr. Bungie Store prior to the move to Microsoft.

Early Marathon usenet humor.

Some of the humor that appeared on comp.sys.mac.games during the 'long' build up to the release of Marathon was priceless. Much of the humor was at the expense of Bungie's delay in releasing Marathon and the beta leaks. At least some people saw the funny side of all this.

Below are some of the funny posts that appeared at the time. If you have or know of any early Marathon usenet humor please send it in and I'll add it here.

Let's get the ball rolling with one of the classics. The true story behind the Marathon delay. This was actually added to the Story page back in Nov 23, 1996.

A selection of usenet humor added to the Story page back in Nov 26, 1996. These were mostly concerned with "the Marathon demo released" and "the location of the leaked beta".

Thanks to Jeff Wood <beezwax@oro.net> for sending in these early Marathon posts. What's really funny about these posts is that there is a grain of truth in them. Many people did react this way. Oh yeah note the reference to the 'seven'. ;-)

David Barabe, author of the true story behind the Marathon delay, sent in a snail mail reply he received from Doug Zartman (Bungie Software) concerning his comp.sys.mac.games post. You can read a scan of it here (103K). The story goes like this. Tuncer Deniz (then editor of Inside Mac Games) saw David's post, printed it out and faxed it to Bungie. Why not! It was and still is a classic. Note in the original copy of the fax you can just about make out the date at the top (Nov. 08 1994 02:11PM). In June 1995 Doug Zartman wrote a short note at the end of the fax and sent it to David. Apparently the fax had been lying around Bungie's office until then. Doug points out in his reply to David that back in Nov '94 there were only four Bungie employees. Who? Well most likely Doug, Greg Kirkpatrick, Reginald Dujour, and Ryan Martell. Jason Jones and Alexander Seropian would have been regarded as employers. Alain Roy, the seventh and final member of the Marathon team, was a summer intern working for almost nothing and a 660av machine Bungie gave him when he finished.

Since we're on the subject of humor here is some more early Marathon usenet humor. When the Marathon demo was released back in Nov '94 people played it incessantly leading to a thread on comp.sys.mac.games appropriately called:

You Know You've Been Playing Marathon Too Long When...

Marathon usenet themes have a tendency to occur in cycles so it wasn't surprising to find a similar type thread several months later:

You know you are obsessed with Marathon when...

Here's some more early usenet humor:

Marathon: Major Damage Turns Me Into Girlie Man

Early "Vidmaster" talk and criticism. Check out those films. Remember they only work with the Marathon Demo v0.0.

Marathon fisting session

More early "Vidmaster" talk. Another film that only works with the Marathon Demo v0.0.

The digital equivalent of masturbating

Guess what happens when you play the Marathon Demo for too long? ;-)

The DISC.

On July 18, 1995 Power Computing Corporation, the first company to license and ship Macintosh OS compatibles, announced the The DISC, featuring an exclusive, playable demo of Marathon 2: Durandal. The Disc would be distributed free to attendees of Macworld Boston '95.

Whatever you do, don't leave Boston without a free copy of "The Disc."

If you weren't going to make it to the Expo there was also a chance of getting any leftover copies directly from Power Computing. All you had to do was fill in an on-line application form.

Power Computing's press release was the first public announcement of a sequel to Marathon. Bungie's own press release appeared a day later along with a post by Matt Soell on AOL.

A day after Bungie's announcement two people posted to comp.sys.mac.games claiming they had seen the so-called "demo". As expected Marathon fans went wild with excitement causing not one but three usenet groups to be flooded with Marathon gossip. Two Marathon 2 web pages were announced a day later and shortly afterwards MacWEEK published Mac the Knife's A midnight walk on Lh'owon article. Marathon fever was at an all time high. Of course the inevitable happened the Marathon 2 "demo" was leaked prior to the Expo and fans wanted it. There was a strong feeling of déjà vu about all this.

How did the leak happen? Matt Soell had this to say on the subject in a post on comp.sys.mac.games.action and Doug Zartman's comments on the subject were later quoted in the UK version of MacUser.

While Power Computing's press release claimed that The Disc would contain a 'demo' of Marathon 2 it was in fact a preview of the game. The official Marathon 2 Demo was to be released after MacWorld. The Demo/Preview name confusion was fuelled by the fact that the Preview's end screen claimed that you had just completed the Marathon 2 Demo.

Because the official Marathon 2 Demo was to be released shortly after Macworld the Preview carried a big PLEASE DO NOT UPLOAD notice on the opening screen. However the Preview had already been leaked weeks earlier and although the Preview was billed as a limited edition Macworld Expo thing it later appeared on many Mac magazine CDs and Bungie's own limited edition Pathways Into Darkness CD. Even so "The Disc" from Macworld still remains the definitive collectors item.

Power Computing's press release also claimed that the 'Preview' would have four levels. Indeed the back of The Disc's CD cover also indicated this. However nobody could find the mysterious fourth level nor identify the CD cover's screenshot.

Interestingly enough the Preview that was being distributed on The Disc by Power Computing was an earlier version of the one actually demoed at Bungie's own expo booth. Steve Wood, a well known Marathon afficionado at the time, posted his Bungie booth observations on comp.sys.mac.games.action. Lots of tidbits in Steve's post. The weapon graphic changes were confirmed in a latter MacUser screenshot. But that's another story...

Matthew Payne <sfeira@pacbell.net> points out that unlike the Marathon Demo there is no Read Me with the Marathon 2 Demo. Yet there was a Read Me with the Marathon 2 Preview. Why was the Read Me dropped when the Marathon 2 Demo was released?

Interesting point. The Read Me with the Marathon 2 Preview that came on "The Disc" was called Absolutely DO NOT Read This! and was simply a re-edited version of the Marathon Demo DON'T READ THIS!!! Read Me. Indeed whole sections are exactly the same. You'll also note that the Preview's Read Me began with the line:

Welcome to the "Marathon 2: Durandal" Demo.

which further added to the Preview/Demo name confusion (see above).

Strangely there was no mention swimming in the Preview's Read Me. "HOLD ON!" you cry there was NO swimming in the M2 Preview. Yes indeed. This early version of the Marathon 2 engine was designed without swimming as Doug Zartman indicated in the Marathon Scrapbook. In the Marathon 2 Demo you could swim but only if you constantly tapped the "run" key. But as there was no Read Me how would you know this little trick. Indeed if you used the Caps Lock key for running you might never have discovered this unless somebody told you about it. Odd stuff! Of course Bungie did say that you should never ever use the Caps Lock key for running. ;-)

Nevertheless it's strange why there was never any Read Me with the Marathon 2 Demo. Another mystery perhaps?

Michael Dawe <dawe@frontiernet.net> writes:

I read over the readme for the Marathon 2 Preview. Anyway, the thing that popped out at me was that Bungie didn't even change the system requirements! Marathon's requirements were an '020 with an '040 or higher recommended. Marathon 2 "required" an '040 or faster, though this wasn't changed... Also, people questioned that, and Bungie admitted that you could run it on something slower, though not very well for gameplay.

Matthew Payne <sfeira@pacbell.net> writes:

My friend Mark just gave me the "Entertainment and Home Learning Demos Winter 1995, Power Macintosh Evangelism" CD ROM. It contains the Marathon 2 Preview. The Preview is a special version to this disc. It says so on the opening screen. It also makes reference to the final Demo (which seems to already have existed at the time this preview was released) and the retail version ?!?!? Why did they re-release the Preview?

Questions... questions... questions... always questions. ;-)

Just how many limited editions of the Marathon 2 Preview are out there?

Matthew goes onto say:

The Marathon 2 Preview has the same fighters as Marathon 1 - with the eyes "upside-down". Or was it right side-up? I heard a Bob yell "Nice Shot!" This sound is not there anymore. I guess the Bobs don't compliment you because they still hold a grudge for how much you tortured them on the Marathon :) B.O.B.s not only say Nice Shot, but they also say (and this may not be EXACTLY correct) "I think I saw one!" When you hit a drone, it sounds like a Marathon 1 hunter being hit. Shotgun shells are grey with brown strips around them. The shotgun is small when in your hand. All ammo is M1 ammo.

For more on sounds in the Marathon 2 Preview check the Sounds in Marathon section.

The Marathon Poster

To celebrate the release of their Marathon game Bungie software commissioned Don Dixon, an internationally renowned "spacescrape" artist, to design a Marathon poster. The result was a powerful "flaming star" image. Part of the poster's artwork also appeared as a background image on the front of the Marathon Box. Hence the reason for Don Dixon's name appearing in the Marathon manual's Packaging credits.

The first announcement of the availability of a Marathon Poster appeared on the 30th Nov 1994 as part of Bungie's Marathon Demo FAQ post on AOL. The same post appeared on comp.sys.mac.games several days later and elicited a number of enquiries as to what it actually looked like as well as this humorous post. ooops... I promised not to mention the "tubes"... sorry Jim. ;-)

I recently had the opportunity to talk to Don Dixon <ddixon@earthlink.net> concerning his Marathon Poster artwork. Don replied:

The poster that I recall for Marathon featured a detail of a painting titled "Flare Star". This was created as a cover for a DelRey novel, but art directors changed during the project and it was not used there. The image featured in the poster was actually a view through the porthole of a starship. A thumbnail version of the complete painting is posted in the science fiction "Portfolio" section of my site (http://members.aol.com/dixonspace/gallery/), I believe. Look for the girl clutching a knife!...

I hope this is helpful, and appreciate your interest in my work.

all good wishes,

Don Dixon

Interesting to note that the Marathon Poster as sold by Bungie is not exactly the same as that displayed in their advertised picture. The words "SOMEWHERE IN THE HEAVENS... THEY ARE WAITING" appear in yellow two-thirds of the way down the poster and there is also a large Bungie logo near the bottom along with copyright and contact information and a red "Accelerated for Power Macintosh" label.

The Marathon Poster is still available from Bungie but Jim Ruiz <jim@bungie.com> informs me that they no longer have the tubed versions. All posters are now shipped flat. The tube version has thus become a Marathon Collectable. Have you got a tubed copy?

John Gendreau <gendreau@bu.edu> kindly sent in the following direct link to Don Dixon's Portfolio page contain image 272 Flare Star (cover)

http://members.aol.com/artcatalog/portsf11.htm

This will save you searching around too much. However Don Dixon's site is worth exploring if you have the time.

THE DISC II.

Following on their success with The DISC Power Computing Corporation announced the free distribution of The DISC II at Macworld Expo '96 in San Francisco. The DISC II contained a special demo version of Marathon 2: Durandal featuring Power Computing Evangelist Bob LeVitus. In addition there was a new "LeVitus" Shapes file for the full version of Marathon 2. The whole package was creatively called "Kill LeVitus Marathon".

Matthew Payne <sfeira@pacbell.net> kindly sent in this screenshot of the contents of The DISC II.

It's fair to say that The DISC II did not create the same excitement amongst Marathoners as did The DISC. And as there were no restrictions placed on the distribution of the "Kill LeVitus Marathon" pack the full "LeVitus" Shapes file (Marathon 2 Enhancer) was uploaded to the net.

One thing to bear in mind though... apart from the Shape changes made to the Marathon 2 demo on The DISC II were there any other changes? ;-)

Dan Rudolph <rudolph.family@mcleod.net> sent in this screenshot of an old Compuserve CD dating from early '95. Dan writes:

It was given to new customers. The idea behind the CD is it contained a catalog of everything Compuserve had, so you could browse through the files without being connected. When you decided what you wanted, you would have it get them with minimum connection time.

You'll note that apart from the Marathon Demo the CD contains two Marathon related Quicktime movies and a review of the game. The review says alot about what made Marathon so popular and is worth reading. Details of the Quicktime movies to follow... soon.

Ok so soon was over three months ago. But they are here now! There are two movies available for download: Marathon.mov and game.mov. Before you rush off to download these babies they are big! So here's a brief description of what you'll see.

Marathon.mov (417K) is not really that exciting. It shows the title "Marathon" being displayed with a dramatic soundtrack.

game.mov (5125K) is a professional looking Quicktime movie of of Marathon game play. Scenes from both solo and net play are blended together with good use of fade ins and fade outs. There is an accompanying level soundtrack and a fun ending. Ok you'll see better game play in most Marathon vid or net films but this has nostalgic value. If you have the bandwith and disk space then take a look. Fun stuff.

The Official Marathon World Wide Web Site (Bungie's 1st web page)

On Dec 13th 1994 Bungie Software and Group Cortex announced the opening of

Bungie's first web venture was in fact a pro bono effort by Group Cortex, a Philadelphia based ISP. Brent Halliburton, Director of Business Operations at Group Cortex, explained the rational for this venture to his colleagues on the Internet Marketing Discussion List.

The Official Marathon World Wide Web Site became the voice of Bungie on the net. You could read official announcements, download the Marathon demo and third party add-ons such as Marathon Hard Core Sounds and the Holiday Music File, view screenshots of never seen before aliens, order the Marathon poster, enter the Marathon Mayhem Tournament, and read the introduction to the Story of Marathon . This online version was slightly different from the one in the game and provided some clues to the actual timing of events during the Pfhor attack on the Marathon. But you all knew that since it was mentioned in the The Pfhor Ship section way back in Mar 23, 1996.

The Official Marathon World Wide Web Site was a major success as Brent Halliburton revealed on the Internet Marketing Discussion List.

By mid-February 1995 however Bungie's web page was gone. Fans who regularly tuned in to catch up on events or hoped to see news on a release date for the 20/10 Scenario Pack were faced with a rather terse message.

Bungie Software has decided that maintaining a World Wide Web site is not an appropriate investment of scarce marketing resources.

If you have any questions or comments concerning this decision, contact Bungie Software by calling (312) 563-6200.

Thank You.

What had happened? Speculation was rife on usenet. Here are just some of the many posts on the subject.

But what was the official word? Brent Halliburton (Group Cortex) and Alexander Seropian (Bungie Software) explained the circumstances surrounding the closure of The Official Marathon World Wide Web Site in an interview with BackChannel, the American Association of Advertising Agencies quarterly newsletter.

Alexander Seropian also commented on the demise of their first web page in an AOL Conference back in 17 Feb '95. Here's what Alex (BUNGIE!) said:

Cdeth : Why did Bungie opt to nuke the WWW site? Were economic reasons a factor? ga

BUNGIE1 : Good question. Well Group Cortex (the company that put it up for us) came to us a few months ago... ... and asked if they could make a free WEB site for us, because it would attract people to their... .. other WEB pages. So we thought it was cool. But, after a while the Marathon pages got... ... really popular and started slowing down their system, so they asked us for $1000 a month ... ... to keep it up. We said no, so they took it down, it is that simple. We think the WEB is cool... ... and will support it in the future. GA

On Dec 21th 1994 Bungie Software finally released Marathon. The Official Marathon World Wide Web Site carried the following announcement from Bungie:

It is done! Bungie Software will release to a smattering of applause Marathon, the game of champions, on Wednesday, December 21. If you have not already ordered Marathon, what can I tell you. Orders are backed up in a fairly serious way, and Bungie will be filling back orders through Christmas. Best of luck trying to get a copy.

Release:
Wednesday - December 21, 1994

Press releases will be forthcoming. Thank you for your patience and your support.

It had been a long wait made all the more so by release dates that had never materialized. Yet here it was and a lucky few would receive copies in time for Christmas. Somewhat ironically though a number of these pre-Christmas shipments were 'boxless'.

Jason Jones (Lead Programmer at Bungie Software) had this to say about the 'missing boxes' in a latter eWorld Conference:

We shipped a bunch of flat packs (no boxes) to MacWarehouse before Christmas because we decided it would be better to send them 1k flat packs than 100 with boxes. I hope everyone agrees (same thing for Macworld SF) ... I'm just sorry we didn't include a note to that effect in the package, as I think a lot of people would have liked to be given a reason for not getting a box.

Strangely though some people did a note as this thread on comp.sys.mac.games revealed. If you have an original copy of this Bungie letter the Story page would like to hear from you.

The first 4000 or so Marathon packs shipped with the "Installer from Hell". As soon as you started the install by double-clicking the "MarathonInstall.1" icon the following cryptic message was displayed:

Please load the FINAL segment of the archive...

And you hadn't even reached level 13 yet! ;-)

The installer was to prove a major headache for Bungie tech support. Jason Jones later admitted on eworld that the original Marathon installer was arcane. Jason remarked:

we spent a lot of time on the game, and then punted on the installer. sort of stupid, huh? the installer sucked rocks. it wasn't even an installer, it was a compact pro self-extracting archive. very stupid. alex almost got fired for that one. but it's kinda like putting a really, really, hard puzzle right at the beginning of the game. a lot of people just didn't get it.

Of course the original disk version of Marathon with its arcane installer has now become a rare collector's item fetching high prices at Marathon conventions.

The Marathon Macworld Mayhem Tournament

On the 4th Jan, 1995 Bungie held the first officially sanctioned Marathon tournament at Macworld San Francisco. The Marathon Macworld Mayhem Tournament ran from the 4th - 7th at Bungie's Booth (#3472). I don't think I need to point out the relevance of this booth number to you.

The tournament was won by Michael Garrison (aka CYBERNATOR) though not everone agreed with this verdict. Bungie released the tournament films and these quickly circulated on the net. You can get them in their original form from the Story page here. When viewing these films it should be remembered that Marathon had only just been released. Many people still didn't have the game and those that did would not have had that much practice on the tournament levels other than "Mars Needs Women". Even so some people still didn't think much of the standard of play.

Although Bungie indicated that there would be a another Marathon Macworld Mayhem Tournament in Boston in August '95 it wouldn't actually occur until a year later in San Franciso again. As Thoth would say:

circumstances are cyclical

But that's another story.

Macworld San Francisco '95 was a big success for Bungie. Mac/Chicago Magazine had this to say about Bungie and Marathon at Macworld:

Running native and drawing crowds was Marathon, the incredibly popular new game from Chicago's Bungie Software. Reginald DuJour, who designed the game's graphics as well as the high-tech packaging for Marathon, said that getting everything working smoothly had caused some delays but it had been worth the wait. The enthusiastic crowds trying out Marathon, in the Apple Pavilion and also in Bungie's separate booth in Moscone North, apparently agreed.

Marathon sold out at Bungie's booth early in the show, and computer software discounters, all of whom were advertising Marathon on show flyers, complained that they hadn't received shipments for the show. "I wish we had," said one. "We could have sold a ton of them."

Voice mail at Bungie's Chicago office this week announced that the company is "closed while reorganizing to deal with the overwhelming demand for Marathon." The message also said that those who had ordered the product should be receiving shipments within two weeks.

Ling-Ling

Brandon Gupton <TraxusIV@aol.com> writes:

Perhaps you remember Bungie's old disembodied pooch, Ling-Ling? Well, I got the book National Lampoon's Totally True Facts, and guess what was on the first page? You'll find a .jpg file attached...

Ah yes Ling-Ling... I remember it well. Back in March '96 Bungie's 2nd web page received a major revamp. Bungie had in fact taken direct control of their web page from Art & Science who had been responsible for their page up to now. Bungie's 3rd web venture was a radical departure from their previous "Mararthonesque" pages. Gone were the bandwidth consuming server-push Marathon animations and in their place were images of a rather mangy looking dog's head called Ling-Ling.

Was this some sort of joke?

Bungie's fascination for the headless Ling-Ling has never been satisfactorily explained. Their Webmaster had this to say on the subject in '97:

Ling-Ling is a dog (a species which has historically had trouble communicating in standard English). Ling-Ling has also suffered decaptitation (which tends to end individual sentience rather swiftly). If you had to ask me what Ling-Ling is feeling right about now, I'd have to say: not much at all.

Was Ling-Ling for real? Yes indeed! Back in May 10, 1996 Ty Klein <mrenigma@earthlink.net> got the low down from Matt Soell who pointed him to a magazine called "babysue". Details can be found in The Number Seven section. You'll find a picture of the real Ling-Ling at the "babysue" site. Bizarre stuff.

But perhaps not as bizarre as the unpublished comments of Phreaky Monkey <bramcon@xyz.net>. Back in Aug '96 the nameless one wrote:

...on the Ling-Ling poster (http://babysue.com/poster1.GIF), the phone number is 871-7421. I found THREE weird things.

2 '7's already. Now remove them, and you get 81-421. Add these together, and you get 502. 5+0+2=7.

Also, Add 421, and you get 7. 8-1 is 7.

Third, 8+1=9, 4+2+1=7. 9+7=16. 1+6=7.

Weird indeed.

Whose idea was it to place a "beheaded bowser" foremost on Bungie's web page. Some have suggested that it sprang from the warped mind of Rob McLees. Concerning the artwork Bungie's Webmaster remarked:

The art was provided by Bungie's crack art team.

As for a higher order, I'm not at liberty to say. But if you were to save the image of Ling-Ling's Head, BinHex it five times and open up the resulting file with HexEdit, who knows what sort of secret message you might find?

Unfortunately almost all traces of Ling-Ling's head have been removed from Bungie's web page, though you can still get a tiny glimpse of it on their Stuff that Rocks page.

Postscript: Bungie's "Stuff That Rox" page is dead now so go here to see it.

The Controversial Macworld Marathon 2 Review

Back in March '96 Macworld published a review of Marathon 2 (229K) by Fred Delisio. Thanks to Todd Bangerter <tabanger@fas.harvard.edu> for scanning this in. The review struck a raw nerve in many Marathoners and lead to a rather long thread on alt.games.marathon and comp.sys.mac.games.action entitled - Dumbass in Macworld gives Marathon 2 only four stars!

The public outcry over the review was not restricted to usenet. Macworld also published two letters (233K) from concerned readers. Thanks again to Todd Bangerter for scanning these in.

The main objection to the review was the fact that the reviewer had imposed his own moral standards on the game and was not reviewing it from an unbiased position.

There was also a strong suspicion that the reviewer had not in fact played much of the game and was simply reporting "inaccurate" accompanying documentation.

The lack of a working microphone was just one of a number of bugs in Marathon 2. Simon Brownlee, the world renowned Marathon entomologist, has kept track of those pesky Marathon 2 bugs. You can read the gory details in - The Bug List.

Unlike Marathon and its updates 1.1 and 1.2 there has never been a Marathon 2 update.

The long standing grievances over Marathon 2 and the lack of an update came to a head with the announcement of Marathon 2 for Windows 95 in March '96. In the long, and sometimes vitriolic, thread SAY IT AIN'T SO, BUNGIE! the following post appeared, the sentiments of which were shared by many fans. It elicited the following reply from Matt Soell (Bungie Software).

So what happened to the Marathon 2 update?

When the Marathon 2 Demo for Windows 95 was released on July 31th 1996 another round of calls for a Marathon 2 update appeared. Tuncer Deniz (Bungie Software) had this to say in Bungie's defence. However one Marathoner was having none of it and laid it one the line for Bungie.

The word from Bungie at Macworld Boston in August '96 was that a Marathon 2 update would be released after Marathon Infinity.

So what happened to the Marathon 2 update?

I'll leave the last word to Tuncer Deniz.

Of course that was back in Aug '96. :-(

So what happened to the Marathon 2 update?

Are Marathoners deserving of an answer?

Todd Keating <cxtdk@ux1.cts.eiu.edu> writes:

When I first ordered Infinity, the registration number did not work. Because of this, Bungie sent me a 20% off coupon and also included a sticker.

It is black and says: "Marathon MacWorld Mayhem" and "Olympics Of Death." It has three interconnected circles with pictures in them (A skull, a man holding a flag, and a human silhouette with targets drawn on it). Do you know anything about this?

Ah yes!

Crush. Kill. Destroy. WIN!

Mayhem 2: The Olympics of Death

Bungie hosted Mayhem 2, the second annual Marathon net-game tournament, during the January Macworld Expo in San Francisco at their booth, #4071.

Booth #4071??? Now that's a number to conjure with. ;-)

Anyone remember Bungie's on-line registration page for this event? No? Well here it is in all its glory.

What happened? Where are the winning films? Well that's another story... best left untold... perhaps.

The Bungie 20% off Dollar - Just Spend It

Todd Keating mentioned above about a Bungie 20% off coupon. But what did it look like? Steve Campbell <campbell@okla.net> had one handy and kindly had it scanned in. Thanks to Glenn Cope <glenn@macsourceokc.com> of MacSource, Inc. for doing the scanning.

The 20% off coupon is made out in the form of a Dollar bill. A small scan (128k) can be seen here. A much larger scan (304k) can be seen here. The larger scan allows you to pick out some of the detail on there. Lots of add stuff. The old Pfhor Cyborg is there, remember him? Series 2437?. No need to point out what that number reduces to.

Anyone know what RHG3 could mean? There is also a G3. No need to point out that G is the seventh letter of the alphabet. If you can make out the writing around the capital L please let me know. If you can also decipher the barcodes please let me know as well. Remember Bungie have a habit of actually hiding messages in barcodes. Don't ask me why must be a Freemason thing.

Todd Bangerter <tabanger@hcs.harvard.edu> writes:

Well, if you actually had any American money, you could tell what that text around the capital L says. =) In fact, it's exactly what that seal is on our bills.

Along the top, it says FEDERAL RESERVE. Directly beneath that on the next concentric circle in, it says BANK OF at the top. Then along the bottom of that circle, it says SAN FRANCISCO (the S got smeared, most likely when Bungie scanned the seal to put on the money). And along the very bottom it says CALIFORNIA. The L code means that is comes from San Francisco. The multiple numbers 12 on the bill also mean it was from San Francisco. The Federal Reserve Bank codes are at: http://www.limunltd.com/numismatica/paper-money-faq/paper-money-faq-3.14.html

The G3 and RHG3 are both codes that are actually on a $20 bill. G is a check letter. RH are face plate letters. 3 is a quadrant number. These used to identify the printing plates and the position of the note on the plate. You can read more about all the funny stuff at: http://www.limunltd.com/numismatica/paper-money-faq/paper-money-faq-3.15.html

Series 2437 refers to the issue date, so it was issued in the year 2437. Treasurer of the Federation replaces Treasurer of the United States and Secretary of the Armory replaces Secretary of the Treasury. The signatures are replacements too. Does it look like any Bungie employee's name? The bar codes go directly over where the bill's serial number would normally be. The serial number would start with L since it's an L note. The serial number would be of the form L XXXXXXXX Z where X is a number and Z is a letter. But who knows what the bar code actually reads?

Interesting to note is that Bungie moved the upper right "12" over to make room for their coupon text. The original postition of that "12" on a $20 bill would be almost exactly where the 20% is in the coupon text.

Also intersting to note is that the $20 bill they used for the template is either a Series 1990, 1993, or 1995 note. Why? Because starting in 1990, the lined border around the portrait started having an extra line. Instead of 2 lines, it had 3. Except that the third line was actually very, very fine microprinting that repeatedly reads "THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA". The theory is that the microprinting is too fine for color copiers to reproduce, and that it will instead come out as a blurred line. It certainly happened in the case of Bungie's funny money. =)

It's also interesting that some world currencies are actually starting to incorporate bar codes. One example I know of is some notes in the Netherlands have bar codes. It facilitiates high speed tracking of individual bills, and deters counterfeiting.

The full Paper Money Collecting FAQ is at: http://www.limunltd.com/numismatica/paper-money-faq/paper-money-faq.html

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has a web site at: http://www.frbsf.org/

Art Cannon <art@angel.net> also writes:

It says "Federal Reserve Bank, San Francisco, California"

Kinda like the "Decus et Tutamen" engraved in the milled edge of a British pound coin. It just lets you know what Federal Reserve bank issued that particular note. I doubt there's anything funky about this, other that the fact that they _Didn't_ scan a bill issued from the Fed in Chicago, Bungie's stomping grounds.

Thanks also to Jim Mitchell <jim@sover.net> and Simon Brownlee <Simon.Brownlee@pobox.com> for also sending in similar comments.

And we all know what happened in 2437... right?

Ken Skidmore <kenskid@concentric.net> writes concerning the Bungie Dollar:

I have one of these, issued to me when my Infinity manual came with the pages all out of order, as if it were assembled by insane monkeys on LSD. However, it is Series 7956 instead of Series 2437. But what mystery does _this_ number hold... ;-)

What mystery indeed! Ken kindly scanned the dollar in and sent it to the Story page. You can see it here (172K).

If you have a Bungie dollar check the Series No.

Concerning the dollar's signatures Santiago Pereson <yaco@ad.com.ar> writes:

has anybody noticed that the signatures look like they were done with a mouse rather than scanned?

The Codewarrior CD.

Ajay Ayyagari <nirvana@mail1.halcyon.com> writes:

i was browsing around on this codewarrior cd of mine (learning cd) and it has tons of weird marathon stuff. it has in 640x480 format all of the screenshots that are on the backs of m1 and m2, plus it has super-high res (we're talking 20mb files here) tiff files of those pictures of the marathon boxes you see in maczone/connection/wharehouse, etc. all in all it's about 46mb of misc. picts, press releases, etc.

Ah yes the famous Codewarrior CD. Packed full of Marathon, Pathways Into Darkness, and even Minotaur goodies. Some of the stuff is so hot we can't mention it. A veritable gold mine for Marathon memoriabila collectors. It's not clear if the latest version of the Codewarrior CD still has this exclusive Marathon archive.

Mihai Parparita <mihai@mscape.com> writes:

It is ironic to note that Marathon 1 was developed with MPW (according to what Jason said in an interview in the Tricks of the Mac Game Programming Gurus book). I'm not sure about M2/M:oo , but I'm guessing they were done in CodeWarrior (with text editing in BBEdit (at least for M:oo), as the comercial shows.

I don't have the latest CodeWarrior CD handy, but the items Ajay mentions do now show up in the Academic/Gold editions of CodeWarrior 8 and 10. Perhaps you can get more information on which edition they show up in...

We'll be bringing you the details... soon.

Ajay Ayyagari <nirvana@mail1.halcyon.com> sent in an interesting Marathon screenshot from the Codewarrior CD. See the Official Marathon Screenshots section of Facts and puzzling things about... for details.

Concerning the availability of the Codewarrior CD Ajay Ayyagari <nirvana@mail1.halcyon.com> writes:

i don't know if the cd is still available but i doubt it because they have a new one that teaches java in addition to c/c++/pascal/etc.

The Codewarrior CD described above dates from late '96. The CD was called Discover Programming for Macintosh by Metroworks. A screenshot of the Bungie items contained on the CD can be found here (68K). The compressed items in the Materials folder weighs in at 30.1MB (compressed). The Demo Software is somewhat lighter, a mere 15.1MB (compressed).

Craig Stanton <c_stanton@hotmail.com> writes:

I have looked at the CodeWarrior gold 10 tools CD, It has a Marathon2 demo on it, from the get-info window I got, v1.0 DEMO © 1995 Bungie Software Corp.

This is also on CW gold reference CD but there is no other mention of MARATHON or BUNGIE on 10 gold, 9 gold or Discover Programming edtion 2.

The CyberMaxx VR Headset.

Mihai Parparita <mihai@mscape.com> writes:

...if you look in the STR# 134 resource for any Marathon app, you'll see a message about a CyberMaxx helmet. AFAIK that's a VR helmet that Marathon was supposed to work with. I have no idea if it actually does, but I guess this might deserve a mention in the Blasts from the Past section.

Ah yes the famous CyberMaxx VR Headset by VictorMaxx Technologies. Back in August '94 Bungie demoed a prototype of the CyberMaxx VR Headset at Boston Macworld. Doug Zartman (Bungie Software) had this to say on the subject VR helmets shortly after Macworld.

Confirmation of Marathon's compatibility with VR headsets appeared in an official Bungie press release dating from Sept '94.

Shortly after Marathon was released the January 1995 issue of Macformat magazine (Issue 20, pages 52-53) ran an article by Richard Hill on Marathon and the CyberMaxx VR Headset. Part of the article is transcribed below:

One of the first games that'll work with the CyberMaxx is Marathon, a frantic 3D gunfest that came out in the US last month. Jason Jones worked on the game for Bungie Software. 'We knew we were eventually going to get into VR,' he says. 'We didn't expect it to be this soon, but from the start we set up Marathon to let you look up and down, which is an important feature for a headset. We set it up so you could render a stereo image. If you plan from the start it's not that big a deal.'

The article goes on:

Spending your time in virtual worlds will bring its own problems, as Doug Zartman of Bungie Software explains. 'The response time to motions of the head is fast - it's actually so fast it can be disorientating to the user if they turn their head very quickly. They might swivel all the way round to face the wall behind them and not be able to figure out where they are. That was our experience using the CyberMaxx headset at a number of conventions. Once they put it on, people started turning every which way abd running around. they got lost and bumped into walls. We really had to slow them down.'

The following is a scan of some of Marathon screenshots from the Macformat article.

So what happened to the CyberMaxx VR Headset? Why doesn't every Marathon diehard have one?

In the first of two eWorld Conferences Jason Jones (BungieCorp) has this to say in response to questions about the VR headset:

Teachin: First, I'd like to say your game is does indeed kick ass!!! Second, is your game going to have a VR helmet option?

BungieCorp : (thanks, teachin) Marathon works with VictorMaxx's CyberMaxx helmet, which is still in the prototype stage for the Mac. When it is officially release (the Cybermaxx, that is) we'll release a patch to make sure Marathon works with it. We were demoing the CyberMaxx at Boston Macworld last August.

Teachin: how much would that set me back?? The one I saw was 700 bones.

BungieCorp : The Cybermaxx retails for around $700, but like I said it isn't done yet .. they're working on the ADB interface.

Bungie to release a patch?... hmmm...

Again the question of the VR compatibility arose in the 2nd eWorld Conference with Jason Jones (BungieCorp):

CCCarl : R. Hallock wonders....

The docs that came with the demo mention "VR compatibility". Where, if I actually had the cash, would I pruchase one that would work with your game?

BungieCorp : Marathon works with VictorMaxx's CyberMaxx VR headset. This system is shipping commercially for the PC right now, but won't be ready for Macs until .... who knows when (they say, "real soon now"). When it does ship, we'll probably have to rev Marathon to support it, but will do that ASAP (we tested marathon with a prototype unit designed for the PC). The helmet retails for about $700, I think.

So what happened to the CyberMaxx VR Headset? And why does Marathon, Marathon 2, and Marathon Infinity all contain the following dialog warning?

Be sure that your Cybermaxx helmet is properly hooked up to the serial port and turned on.

Simon Brownlee <Simon.Brownlee@pobox.com> searched deep within the usenet archives to find details on the availability of the CyberMaxx VR Headset. He found the following interesting information. Simon also writes:

The last 'bulk sale' was Sept 10th '97 when someone had 500 of them for $79 a piece. I couldn't find any companies selling them at any more, although there's a few second hand sales, and http://www.halted.com still has the LCD screens in stock (they used to sell the whole units. They also have a good article at: http://www.halted.com/online/cybermax.htm

Have you got a CyberMaxx VR Headset?

Gabe Rosenkoetter <gabe@colby.tjs.org> writes:

What I want to know is why this:

BungieCorp : The Cybermaxx retails for around $700, but like I said it isn't done yet .. they're working on the ADB interface.

... doesn't reconcile with this:

Be sure that your Cybermaxx helmet is properly hooked up to the serial port and turned on.

That is, does the helmet use the ADB or the serial port?

Or did it, like the Connectix QuickCam, use the serial for interface and the ADB for power?

It strikes me that it'd need a lot more power than one can draw from the ADB chain; it probably has it's own wall pack power supply (especially considering that "turned on" part).

Simon Brownlee <simon.brownlee@pobox.com> writes:

I'm fairly sure that there never was an 'official' way to hook up CyberMaxx helmets to Macs, hence the ADB/Serial port confusion. Maybe Bungie had hacked together their own interface and were experimenting with both connections.

The Cybermaxx requires an unregulated 9V DC input which is converted to an 18V supply for the LCDs, 12V for the NTSC/VGA to RGB decoder and 5VDC for the logic circuitry. You wouldn't be able to power one of these from a Mac serial or ADB port.

Input to the CyberMaxx is via a 15 pin VGA connector for the video an 1/8" stereo plug for the audio. The only output is a line of text continuously sent through the CyberMaxx comm port at 19.2Kb/s describing the helmets current orientation, e.g. "Y084.7P-03.5R+04.9" shows a yaw of 84.7', pitch of -3.5' and roll of '4.9'.

The easiest way to hook up the CyberMaxx would be through one of the serial ports as this would require no additional hardware. In fact, with minimal work you should be able to put together a driver that would work with Input Sprockets and thus make the CyberMaxx compatible with Infinity, bar the 3D effect created by sending a slightly different image to each LCD display - Bungie would have to release a patch for this.

Another patch?!!!

Charles S. writes:

I found this in Marathon Infinity's data fork. It looks like all the usual Marathon keys, with the name first, and then an alias name to that key (for example, butnfire for primary trigger, butnbtmf for forward). All normal-looking, except there are some keys in there that aren't in the game. Two that made me wonder were Yaw and Pitch. The word "yaw" has several definitions, but the one that caught my eye was "To turn about the vertical axis. Used of an aircraft, a spacecraft, or a projectile."

It does seem likely that yaw and pitch had something to do with that headset. But what are "yaw (Classic Mouse)" and "pitch (Classic Mouse)" for?

Eylon Caspi <eylon@cs.berkeley.edu> and Forrest Cameranesi <forrest@west.net> both point out that the mouse can rotate the player's view, pitching up or down, and yawing left or right.

Claude Errera <errera@bungie.org>, visited Bungie Studios recently and took some pics of the ADB Automatic Assault rifle that was used with the CyberMaxx VR Headset at the Boston Macworld in August '94:

The ADB Automatic Assault rifle with Grenade Option (full gun with ADB cable)
The ADB Automatic Assault rifle with Grenade Option (close up)
Property of the U.E.S.C. Marathon label
Close up of firing options (single shot, 3 shot burst, 20 shot round, full battle action)

Bungie's Bungievision.

"All the news that's fit to vid" so the headline banner of Bungie's Bungievision reads. Was there more than one? How many where there? What tidbits did they contain? The Story page has one Bungievision dating from Fall '96 and we'll be scanning that in real soon. But we'd like to have the lot for nostalgia purposes.

Kyjel Shaytolmae <kyjel@mailexcite.com> points out that Bungie distributed an electronic version of their first newsletter back in Oct '96. It contains a number of news items, tech issues, and an interesting Bungie Employee profile of Doug Zartman. Yeah he always seems to get dragged into these. Check the link below for details.

The Bungie Newsletter Vol 1 Issue 1 October 15th, 1996

The first issue was written by Tuncer Deniz who seemingly went by the title of Editor-at-Large. Was this the first Bungievision or the forerunner to the hard copy version? Was there only one Bungie Newsletter ever distributed electronically?

Jim Mitchell <jim@sover.net> dug deep into his Marathon memoriablia file and pulled out a Bungievision dating from Spring '96. Jim writes:

Here are the headers from the Spring 1996 Bungievision:

Charity Auction Successful!

(Marathon 2) +1 = *image of Marathon Infinity logo*

Better Bungie Web Site

Lucky Winners!

Bungie Word of the Day (follows with a definition of Dink)

Sizzling Hot Offers, straight from the Bungie Warehouse (Lists PID, Marathon 2, Marathon, Marathon hint book, and bungie t-shirts.)

On the back is the opening Marathon 2 chapter screen, spiced up a bit. This is an ad for Marathon 2.

Unfortunately Jim doesn't have access to a scanner so if you have this Bungievision issue and can scan it in please send it to the Story page.

Here's that promised scan of Bungievision Fall '96.

Bungievision Fall '96 Page 1 (203K)
Info of Bungie's 5th birthday party, Marathon Infinity, and Marathon 2 for Windows 95.

Bungievision Fall '96 Page 2 (239K)
Mainly info on Abuse and Weekend Warrior.

Bungievision Fall '96 Page 3 (177K)
Bungie Catalog page.

Bungievision Fall '96 Page 4 (123K)
Poster Ad for Abuse. Quite funny actually. Worth a look.

The Story page is still looking for a scan of Bungievision Spring '96 and any information on other Bungievisions. Thanks.

The first ever Marathon screenshot.

In the February '94 edition of Inside Mac Games magazine Tuncer Deniz reported on some of the games being shown at the San Francisco Macworld expo in January '94. One of these was Bungie Software's new science fiction action-adventure game code-named Marathon. It contained the first ever publically released screenshot from the game. Of course this early glimpse changed radically over time as did the initial story. Apparently your job was to investigate the disappearance of colonists living on a hollowed-out asteroid near the planet Pluto. Aliens! They're Everywhere!

This early alpha of Marathon can now be found on the Marathon CD or the Marathon Trilogy Box Set CD. There are also some screenshots taken from this alpha in the Grendel section.

Here's a walkthrough and some screenshots from the Marathon Beta SF Jan'94. Thanks to Raul Bonilla <lassonde@hotmail.com>, Craig Fay <DurandalM3@aol.com>, and Robert Zimmermann <robzim@gmx.net>.

Marathon Secrets 1.5

Long before the Marathon Gold hoax... long before the Marathon Dr'Ate'R (Marathon 4) hoax... there was the Marathon Secrets 1.5 hoax. Back in January 1995, just shortly after Marathon was released, Jason Fowler released Marathon Secrets 1.0. It was a standalone Macromedia application containing a walkthrough for Marathon. Screenshots for each level were displayed along with helpful hints and tips. It was one of the first Spoiler Guides to appear on the net and certainly the most professional looking.

It should be remembered that in this early period of Marathon there were few if any map editors to speak of so many secret areas were still unknown. About a month later an updated version was released called Marathon Secrets 1.5... that's when the trouble started. Marathon Secrets 1.5 not only added many new secret areas it also claimed to have found a secret level called Level 00 "A Good Way To Die...".

A screenshot of this level was shown along with details of the map. It allegedly contained black Hulks who could run twice as fast, climb walls and were invincible! Super Hulks no less.

Surely nobody actually believed this? Well yes! You have to remember that secrets were still being found and many people were finding out just how much they had missed the first time they had played Marathon. Bungie had already hidden access to net level 36 "You don't need to see my ID" so it was just possible that there was another secret level hidden... somewhere.

And so the posts began to appear on Usenet. For example:

Secret Marathon Level?
marathon secret level?
Marathon Secret level?
Marathon hidden level

While some people didn't appreciate the joke secret level 00 "A Good Way To Die..." remains the first of the truly great Marathon hoaxes. Nice one Jason. :-)

Marathon Secrets 1.5 is now a rare collectors item. Have you got a copy?

Mike Ackerman <mackerm@relaypoint.net> points out that Marathon Secrets 1.5 is available at Macdownload.com.

You can also now get it directly from the Story page here. This downloads as Marathon Secrets 1.5.sit and unstuffs as a folder called Do NOT rename. Inside is the Marathon Secrets 1.5.Xobj app. If you run into problems trying to launch it give it more memory. It is not 100% stable either so be warned.

Eric Klein, Jr.

In the later half of '95 Bungie Software were riding high on the crest of a wave. Marathon was a huge commerical success (by Macintosh standards) and the soon to be released sequel Marathon 2 looked like repeating this. Bungie were expanding and had gathered together a much larger development team for Marathon 2. Into this environment came Eric Nicholas Klein, Jr.

Eric Klein was Apple Computer's 2nd Game Evangelist, he took over from Craig Fryar in '94. As a Game Evangelist he would have naturally come into contact with Bungie Software at an early stage. Indeed he is mentioned first in the Special Thanks section of the Marathon manual credits. In June 1995 he began writing his own column "The Game Evangelism Zone" for Inside Mac Games (IMG) magazine. Five issues later he wrote:

This is my last column as Apple game evangelist. Late in October, I left Apple to join Bungie Software. I am going to start the Bungie Publishing label, which will publish COOL games from developers who need a strong partner to market and distribute their games. I will also be licensing Bungie technologies to interested developers.

Eric joined Bungie as their Director of New Business Development. Describing his new job on his personal (non-Bungie) web page he wrote:

I am Bungie Software Product Corporation's (thankfully referred to just as Bungie) New Business Development Director. So what does that big title mean? I am responsible for:

Finding new games for Bungie to publish (Windows, DOS, Macintosh)

Licensing Bungie technologies to game developers and others

Analyzing new technologies, game platforms, and business opportunities

OEM sales

Given the above Eric would have been responsible for such ventures as contracting Doubleaught to do the "Blood Tides of Lh'owon" scenario for Marathon Infinity, the licensing of the Marathon 2 engine to game developers, publishing Abuse and Weekend Warrior and the porting of Marathon 2 to Windows 95 and Pippen.

Eric, reluctant to relocate to Chicago, persuaded Bungie to set up a West Coast office. This was initially based in Cupertino, California as this Mar '96 usenet post indicates. Bungie did not officially announce the opening of their Bungie West office until July '97 when they advertised for a Lead Designer/Artist for an as yet unnamed "science fiction 3D game" (note: the date at bottom of the page is incorrectly given as Wed, Jan 22, 1997). By this stage the West Coast office had moved to San Jose.

Fast forward to the Computer Game Developers Conference (CGDC) in May 6-8, 1998. Eric Klein and Jason Regier give a talk on the cross-platform issues learnt from the Marathon and Myth series. Eric's title is Eric N. Klein, Jr. "At large" Eric@jumpy.com. Jason's is Jason Regier Bungie Software jregier@bungie.com. Eric has left Bungie Software. In an interview with Brenda Garneau at the conference he explains why he left:

And with all of that success, you're leaving Bungie. How come?

Ah, let's figure that out. You know, I've been working the last six and a half years straight with no break between one job and another, and I just wanted to take some time off to reflect, if nothing else, and to decide what I want to do next. That's the great thing about the gaming industry in general. There are many opportunities, and if you get into a track where you're just doing one thing day in and day out, you don't necessarily reflect on all the opportunities that are out there. So, I want to take some time to do that and hop in, ready to rumble, into something new and creative.

It was an amicable split?

Very much so. Bungie has two design studios, one in Chicago and one in San Jose. The synergy would have been better had I been in Chicago, but I just didn't want to move. That's really the only reason. Bungie is doing incredibly well, very much fueled by the success of Myth. I will continue to help them and support them in whatever way I can until I decide what I really want to do.

Some three weeks later at E3 (May 28-30, 1998) Bungie reveals "Oni" their new sci-fi 3D action game in development at Bungie West.

Eric's current home page is at http://www.jumpy.com/. In it he doesn't reveal much of his past but his links page does contain something odd. And I quote:

Game Companies

http://www.blizzard.com - What can I say? They just kick ass!

http://www.ea.com - Damn, when you make the best sports games in the industry, you get a link.

http://www.lucasarts.com - Mighty fine games

http://www.bungie.com - Love the games (okay, that is biased), and I can't wait till they get back to making action games.

Why would Eric write "...I can't wait till they get back to making action games"? Isn't Bungie West, the West Coast Office he helped to set up, not making a sci-fi 3D action game called "Oni"? And what about the other games... err sorry "events"... that have been in development at Bungie East since early '98. Isn't at least one of these an "action game"?

Update on the above. Well Eric's home page at http://www.jumpy.com/ has had a face lift. Indeed at the time of writing (July '99) you wouldn't know that the page was about Eric Klein. Anyway for those who are interested here is what Eric's old main page and links page used to look like.

Bungie's Dear Bob letter.

Arno Hautala <fracai@yahoo.com> writes:

Who in their M-thon life hasn't lashed out at a Bob at sometime just cause they were in your way or 20 feet away but you swear they looked at you 'funny'!

Well in 1995 around the release of M2 I recieved an interesting letter. Due to my father having purchased M1 as a birthday present (I was 11), it had been registered in his name... Robert, or Bob.

They expressed their concern for the anguish he must have endured from the butchering of countless number of Bobs. They even gave us a 20% coupon (my encounter with the Bungie Dollar) as consolation towards the purchase of their Bob T-shirt. I promptly accepted.

Here now is the complete text of the letter!

******************
                                                       [Bungie Logo]

      
July 7, 1995

Dear Bob,

As you may know, our game Marathon has caused the death of countless
numbers of "Bobs".  Though the character of Bob is a sympathetic and
ultimately victorious one, this is only the case after they have been
shot, burned, crushed and blown up by the hundreds.

We at Bungie are aware of the pain this may have caused you Earthly
Bobs (our own artist, Robert McLees, flinches a little every time he
hears the death-cry of his fellow Bobs).  To ameliorate any pain we may
have caused you, we would like to offer you a 20%-off coupon toward the
purchase of our new Bob T-shirt.  The shirt depicts a confrontation
between two of the most famous Bobs in software (the back reads "My Bob
is bigger than your Bob"), and we think you'll find it empowering.

If you would like to order the shirt, call us at (312) 563-6200, or
mail this letter with the coupon and $11.20 (plus $3.95 S&H) to the
address above.

Thank you,

[Doug Zartman's signature]

Douglas H. Zartman
Director of Public Relations
Bungie Software

******************

Also a black outline of the Bob encounter is shown to the right of the signature and the Bungie address and web address and so forth adorn the left margin.

Arno also sent in a scan in of the letter you can see it here (30K).

err... anyone notice the date on this letter?!!! Coincidence or... ?

Bungie's 2nd Web Page.

When The Official Marathon World Wide Web Site was closed in mid-Feburary 1995 Bungie were basically without an official web presence. However shortly after the announcement of The DISC in July '95 http://www.bungie.com appeared with the following announcement:

"We sincerely apologize that this site is not open to the public yet. We plan to open when we have a complete Web site for you to explore. To do this well will take some time yet."

"In the meantime, please feel free to send us suggestions of what you would like to see at the official Marathon site: webmaster@chiba.com"

"Note: We will be opening a preliminary page (primarily an ftp site) to the public at the opening of MacWorld Boston - August 15th. Come back and visit us then and get your demo copy of MARATHON 2.0."

This was good news for Marathon fans who could not attend MacWorld Boston and get their hands on the Marathon 2 Preview at least they would be able to download the Marathon 2 Demo shortly afterwards. However August 15th came and went with no sign of Bungie's new web page or the demo. This delay resulted in a number of acrimonious exchanges on usenet. At one stage both Matt Soell of Bungie Software and Stefan Fielding-Isaacs of Art & Science who were creating the site for Bungie stepped in to defend their position.

Bungie's second web page didn't actually open until Friday 13th Oct 1995 and boy did it cause a stir. For its time it was a state of the art site featuring server-push Marathon animations. However these bandwidth consuming features weren't appreciated by many fans who simply wanted to download the Marathon 2 demo. It lead to the famous What idiot designed Bungie's web site? thread.

You can see what all the fuss was about here. Ah nostalgia. ;-)

The Marathon Comic.

Back in 1995 Michio Hashimoto (aka Miha) was producing some of the earliest Vidmaster films. In addition he created the Marathon Comic. Twelve pages of art and text which retold the story from the Manual's introduction. It was originally available on his web page (now apparently gone) in both Japanese and English. While the Story page had the Japanese version Adam (MacAllah) Ghazi-Tehrani <ryutoth@netscape.net> found the the English version and kindly saved it for posterity. Enjoy. Hats off to Miha... one of the Marathon greats.

English version

Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.

Japanese version

Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.

The 10th Warrior movie

Back in Oct 20, 1998 Bryan "Brymen" Mendoza <brymen@mail.inficad.com> released "The 10th Warrior" movie. A film homage to Marathon netplay featuring the music of Underworld ("Cowgirl") coupled with rapidfire editing of net films, chapter screen and other artwork. The original movie (Quicktime format) weighed in at 28MBs and is still available at the Story page here. In Feb 2001 Bryan re-encoded the movie. The new version is now 39MBs and it looks better than ever before. You can get it here.

Inside Mac Games Sneak Peek of Marathon 2

Back in August '95 Inside Mac Games magazine published a Sneak Peek of Marathon 2. The preview was based on the version of Marathon 2 relased at Macworld Boston '95 although the cover pic would suggest differently. Here's another pic of those gun totting Cyborg Tanks.

The full article is worth reading not least for the opening comment:

"...I tend to dislike sequels...

Inside Mac Games Sneak Peek of Marathon

Back in July '94 Inside Mac Games magazine published a Sneak Peek of Marathon. Contains some early Marathon screenshots, early backstory, and some gameplay features including... Cyberspace. Here's the description:

Another twist to the game is the addition of cyberspace. In Marathon, cyberspace is essentially the computer's interpretation of the real world. In the game you'll be able to find cyberspace portals that will let you go into cyberspace. Once in cyberspace, you'll find the cyberspace world to be exactly like the real world you were just in but with some physical changes like more objects, corridors, doors, and walls than in the real world. For example, imagine you came to a door that was locked and had no way to get in. In Marathon, you'll be able to jack into cyberspace and find a way to open the door in cyberspace through the use of additional tools, rooms, etc. If you should get killed in cyberspace or decide to return to the real world, you simply return to the real world unharmed and in the same place you jacked into cyberspace.

Tricks of the Mac Game Programming Gurus interview with Jason Jones

The Jason Jones (Bungie Software) interview (pages 199-207) from "Tricks of the Mac Game Programming Gurus" published by Hayden Press 1995 (ISBN# 1-56830-183-9). The book in now out-of-print. Transcript brought to you by M-Class.