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 | September 2000 |  |
September 2000 Archived News
News September 30 2000
Fan Fiction section updated
Thanks to Elmo, who submitted the first of what should be 8 chapters for a new piece of Halo fan fiction.
I really want to get some feedback from fans. I've taken a few creative liberties with the story before they arrive on the Halo but i want some feedback on how well this works.
Read it on our Fan Fiction page, then let Elmo know what you think! (Louis Wu 15:28:33 UTC) (permalink)
Console Curtain
Interesting. Seems the Xbox is going to have a VChip-like parental controls, according to Alex Kotowitz (Xbox's Senior Director of Sales), as reported by Game Informer. Parents will be able to restrict what games are played on the Xbox, based on game rating. This gives everybody (parents, regulators, adult gamers) what they want... except the kids. Will it affect what console the kids ask for? Pax. (Crux Fidelis 09:58:01 UTC) (permalink)
Fan fiction at BGH
Battleground: Halo puts up another episode of "Retaliation", a fan fiction in parts by Patrick Palmer. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 09:52:14 UTC) (permalink)
News September 29 2000
When ISPs go bad
Wow. Seems the nVidia movie has caused some major problems... R.net has a story that every Halo fan should read. Cannibal Harry, a Bungie fan with a big heart, now has a big (whopping big) ISP bill to go with it. From the outside, it sounds like Earthlink (his ISP) was either astoundingly ignorant of what was going on on its servers, or just plain greedy. In any case, you should read this thread on the R.net forum, and this explanation from Harry himself. And let us HOPE that this gets resolved in a reasonable manner... because it's not only a problem for CH, it's a problem for everyone who tries to do his part in a fan community. (Louis Wu 13:04:10 UTC) (permalink)
News September 28 2000
Logos page and Wallpaper page updated
Thanks to Diogo Barbosa, who mailed us two pieces of artwork: a modified Halo logo for our Logos page, and a new desktop for our Wallpaper page. Take a look! (Louis Wu 12:32:15 UTC) (permalink)
News September 27 2000
Miscellaneous Art updated
Put a tiger in your Halo! Jesse Keenan sent us a modified Halo Marine, wearing camo stripes. Check him out on our Miscellaneous Art page. (Louis Wu 19:44:27 UTC) (permalink)
Halo marine in early Oni movie?
Halo marine in early Oni movie? Some say yeah... some say nay. The Marathon's Story page has a shortclip of a rare Oni movie seen briefly on the web in '98. It shows what looks like a guy in aHalo marine helmet. It has been discussed before on the Oni forumsbut some Oni folk didn't seem convinced. Well the HBO gang gathered round to watch the movieand we're chanting "Halo marine helmet" "Halo marine helmet" "Halo marine helmet". But then we'relike that. (Ding 18:41:18 UTC) (permalink)
That was then, this is now
Interesting tidbit... the Marathon's Story page notes that a letter written to Macworld 4 years ago, condemning Macworld's judgement that violence in video games decreases the games' worth, was authored by a Matt Segur... a name shared by a current Bungie programmer working on Halo. Coincidence? Or was Matt simply standing up for a company he would one day work for? (Louis Wu 18:00:47 UTC) (permalink)
Two more nVidia mirrors pop up
Two more mirrors for the nVidia movie have popped up: Halo Center now has a copy, and so does HaloCenter.de (no relation to the American site). In fact... it doesn't look like we've ever seen HaloCenter.de before, so we'll take this opportunity to announce it. Looks like it's a GameszPlanet affiliate. (Louis Wu 14:20:51 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper page updated
Thanks to Olaf, who sent in a pair of high-quality desktops for our Wallpaper page. Take a look! (Louis Wu 14:08:10 UTC) (permalink)
News September 26 2000
Multiple locations for nVidia film
Sokar writes to say that the nVidia movie is available on the HaloEmpire server, which is probably a good choice for European visitors. That makes 4 locations we know of... the one above, Stomped, VoodooExtreme, and here at HBO. (Louis Wu 19:48:21 UTC) (permalink)
Halo SETI Team 7-day stats posted
Took a whole day to get these onto the server, but they were calculated on time, Monday. The Halo SETI Marines hold steady at number 43 in the Battle of the Teams, pulling farther ahead of Team Slashdot. A couple of Marines went AWOL this week... maybe we're not pushing the team enough. :) DarthFlounder takes La Crunch Honneur again, and lobo blasts into position to win the Frogblast Award. Full details can be found on the 7-day stats page. (Louis Wu 19:40:56 UTC) (permalink)
Halo HQ coming back
First seen at HaloCenter: looks like Halo HQ is coming back online. Nothing there yet... but it's nice to see it's not dead permanently! (Louis Wu 19:29:36 UTC) (permalink)
Original nVidia promo movie available
AAARGHHHH!! For two months, we've been working on getting Bungie to release the nVidia promo movie that was shown at the Bungie fanfest at MacWorld NY 2000 in July. It finally came through last night... in the middle of the first network outage of merit we've experienced. Ah, well... and so it goes. Anyway, this film is available from our Movies page. If you have trouble with our local copy (I'm putting very, very little faith in my telco these days), Stomped was given a copy, as well. Thanks, Bungie! And to the fans... enjoy! This one's hilarious. (Louis Wu 17:40:59 UTC) (permalink)
News September 25 2000
Blackley says no browsing
No internet browsing on Xbox!Gamecenter has posted aninterview with Seamus Blackley,manager of the Xbox Advanced Technology Group at Microsoft. Blackley explains in theinterview that there are no plans for internet browsing on Xbox. Here's the quote:
GC: There's no browser on this still, right?
S.B.: No! Nobody wants a browser on a game box. And I'm not trying to be down on Sega, but if you talk to parents whoare buying a lot of game consoles for their kids--oh my lord, they don't want their kids to have a browser in theirbedrooms. Are you kidding?
The HBO Spin: The lack of internet browsing on Xbox will undoubtedly pose a problem forthe online Xbox-Halo fan community. To view fan pages like HBO it means having access toa PC. (Ding 20:22:22 UTC) (permalink)
Up again, naturally
Wow. That was the longest outage since we moved the servers here. Ouch. Anyway, we're back up. (We think.) Sorry for the downtime! Look for more updates later today or early tomorrow.) (Louis Wu 20:21:42 UTC) (permalink)
News September 24 2000
The joys of networking
We want to apologize for the downtime today... an underground cable broke somewhere, and it took the Telco over 8 hours to find the problem. I'm still not 100% sure it's solved... but we should be back up for good, soon. (Louis Wu 23:16:47 UTC) (permalink)
News September 23 2000
Xbox news roundup
Slow Halo day... so we'll pass on some interesting Xbox tidbits. J Allard was interviewed over at GameSpot, and had some interesting things to say. Worth a read. (The bit on why they stuck with 'Xbox' is intriguing.) The Xbox specs have been finalized, and you can find them here, also at GameSpot. Sharky Extreme has a great article on nVidia's contribution to the Xbox... if you want your jaw to drop, go read ITS specs. Now go out and enjoy your Friday night! (Louis Wu 01:51:21 UTC) (permalink)
News September 22 2000
Halo Division comes online
Budd Morris sends word that he's starting up a new Halo clan, Halo Division. Currently, he's not looking for standard recruits... he's looking for staffers. If you're insterested, stop by the site and read the job opening list. (Louis Wu 13:10:07 UTC) (permalink)
News September 21 2000
Matt says Listen the first time!
Tempest in a Teapot, Part Deux: Okay, this has nothing to do with the other rumor discussed recently... but it sure is silly. Recently, Matt Soell went on an answering spree at Rampancy.net... and tossed out this comment, in response to a question about what operating system the bungie.net servers might move to:
We've spoken to a couple people here who've made snarfy comments about us not using an MS server for b.net and we've ignored them. The most important thing is the integrity of the product. If MS were to produce a server OS that ran faster and crashed less than any of the unix variants out there in a series of independent tests, we'd use it.
Inside Mac Games picked up the comment this morning, and by lunchtime, it was on Slashdot. There are now over 200 comments about that article there... many assuming the worst. Matt clarified the original comment at R.net, for those who missed the point the first time... we ALL need to remember that the rumors that fly sometimes are just that... rumors. Bottom line: bungie.net runs on linux servers now, and will continue to do so, despite the fact that they're running at Microsoft. And Matt's getting tired of being misinterpreted. :) (Louis Wu 20:26:40 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper page
Thanks to Pr@iler, who sent along a desktop combining the Xbox logo and a modified Halo logo for our Wallpaper page. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 19:15:32 UTC) (permalink)
Links page updated
Thanks to Nights, who, although particlurly tactful about it, uncovered another French Halo site, Clan Highlanders. Through this site, we've added a number of French sites to our Links page: Halo Zone (site of the Halo Mystics), Addiction Halo (very nicely laid out), C.I.R.C.E. (all Flash, very little substance), and Fragger's Halo (who we'd left off previously because they used an awful lot of our content without asking - seems like a petty reason to ignore). Enjoy! (Louis Wu 15:25:44 UTC) (permalink)
MS Product Planner says MS titles TBA later
Thanks to Jon Kimmich, product planner for MS Games, who wrote to say that the reason Halo was left off the list of announced titles was because
This announcement was just to announce "3rd party" (ie. non-MS) publishers. All titles published by MS are "1st-party" titles, and we'll make some announcements about them at a later date.
Thanks, Jon... we're all breathing a sigh of relief here! ;) (Louis Wu 11:53:30 UTC) (permalink)
Halo, where are you?
Okay, so MS bought Bungie specifically so that Halo could be an Xbox title, right? And Halo's been shown, in one form or another, for months. (It was demonstrably playable at E3, for example.) So Microsoft had a huge global press conference yesterday, at which they showed a bunch of titles, including Unreal Tournament, Max Payne, Tomb Raider Next Gen, and more (the full list can be found in this Computer and Video Games article)... where was Halo? (Thanks to TomeOne for the link to the list.) (Louis Wu 08:57:45 UTC) (permalink)
The game's afoot!
Whoa. We got an email today...
"Through the instruments of the Muse, we shall sing the nameless their endsong."
"Silence will end their dirge."
"Beat we the rythym, their filth in a blaze will cease. They are flat, andno deeper deafness could their have, than to not see the song that has beenwritten for them."
-Speaks the Conduit
No, it didn't come from Nathan. Should we lock the doors? (Louis Wu 00:22:00 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper page updated
Thanks to Mojo, who dug out an old (but very nice) wallpaper for our Wallpaper page. Makes me pine for the old Marine! (Louis Wu 00:18:49 UTC) (permalink)
Xbox logo public, finally
Kudos to Picky, who found this page at Computer and Video Games... THIS is what the new Xbox logo looks like. Hmm... I still like the old one. ;) Heh... and check the official Xbox page - now 'The Word' section contains not only 'News' and 'Noise' but also 'Rumors'! (Louis Wu 00:02:36 UTC) (permalink)
News September 20 2000
Xbox it is
Tempest in a Teapot Dept: FGN Online is reporting that
Disappointingly Microsoft did not unveil the console itself. However the name of PlayStation 2's big rival has been confirmed as... Xbox.
So whether the form changes or not, the name stays the same. Note to self: stop reading so much into internet outages and misconfigurations. (Louis Wu 20:12:09 UTC) (permalink)
Matt says SP... not yet
Just a quick update... Matt Soell confirms that development of Halo hasn't yet moved into Single Player mode yet. Good thing they've got a year! :) (Louis Wu 18:12:07 UTC) (permalink)
www.xbox.com is alive again
Looks like we jumped too fast. In time for the 7:00 pm GMT announcements planned today, www.xbox.com is up again. Still waiting... (Thanks to Cosmic Muffet for the heads-up.) Pax. (Crux Fidelis 18:02:58 UTC) (permalink)
www.xbox.com offline... forever?
More fuel for the rumor mill... Microsoft's official Xbox site, www.xbox.com, is currently nonexistent. (Well, you can visit... but the message you get is 'No web site is configured at this address.') A temporary problem... or a change of name? (Louis Wu 14:00:00 UTC) (permalink)
News September 19 2000
Xbox = Raven?
Hmm. Seems an article at MSN Computing Central Computer Games Forum referred to the Xbox as "now officially known as the Raven", until xbox.ign called about the reference. That line is gone now. Does this mean someone screwed up completely, and just got it wrong... or that someone screwed up a little bit, and released a name that wasn't supposed to be public before tomorrow? Time will tell. (Credit goes to R.net for this one.) (Louis Wu 19:56:58 UTC) (permalink)
Codename Xbox = Realname... what?
Thanks to papamarx@speakeasy.net, who writes in with news from Daily Radar, who in turn got it from Advertising Age... Microsoft will be announcing a new name and logo for the Xbox tomorrow in San Francisco. Ouch to all those sites who bought xbox domain names! Pax. (Crux Fidelis 18:13:43 UTC) (permalink)
Halo SETI Team 7-day stats posted
Blam! The Halo SETI Marines climb past Team Slashdot to position 43, despite the defection of a one-time bungie.org staffer (and his 400+ units). Total production is up almost 10% over last week! Darthflounder takes La Crunch Honneur, and SHARkY blasts past 74 teammates for the Frogblast Award. Full details can be found on the 7-day stats page. (These were crunched yesterday, but somehow, I forgot to upload them to the server.) (Louis Wu 14:56:10 UTC) (permalink)
Honest3D looks at the Xbox
Picky sends word that Honest3d.com has an article on the Xbox, and where they (Honest3D) think the Xbox fits in the console world. One interesting quote had to do with the rumor of a RAM upgrade (to 128 MB):
The Microsoft rep said flatly that in fact the X-Box was still going to be sold to gamers with only 64mb of RAM and that the reason for the rumor was the fact that the X-Boxes that are going to game developers will indeed actually have 128mb of RAM. This is due to the fact that the game developers need the extra RAM.
You can read the rest of the article here. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 12:39:10 UTC) (permalink)
Matt holds forth on this forum and that one
Rob McLees, on the current state of Halo:
"Halo in its current form takes the old stuff that everyone was so impressed with and holds its head under the filthy waters of a public men’s room toilet."
That doesn't sound like a disheartened art staffer... That, and more, was posted to our forum by Matt Soell today, who went on a writing spree over at R.net, as well. Stop in and read all of it... there's a TON of good info there. (Louis Wu 00:55:20 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Multi Player Zone online
fAt1 sends word that he's got a new Halo site up and running: Halo Multi Player Zone. You'll need to register with MPZ to get in, but it doesn't cost anything. fAt1 says there's lots of help needed, so if you're interested in helping out on a Halo site, drop him a line! (Louis Wu 00:43:21 UTC) (permalink)
News September 18 2000
Planet Halo is a pager
Thanks to Bounty, who clears up the "Planet Halo" issue:
The site is registered to Angellcom, and will serve to be a corporate page for their new pager :) Although, it does have the words "Planet Halo" on the pager, it could be the desire of some maniacal Bungie fan, don't expect to see any new info pop up at that domain :p
Thanks, Bounty! Ah, well... saves us writing a line into the Links page. :) (Louis Wu 03:01:22 UTC) (permalink)
Another Planet Halo?
An alert reader noticed this site, which was registered a few weeks ago. It might not have anything at all to do with Halo, the game (the site is registered to Angellcom, so it's possible that it's simply a play on the owner's name)... or it might. (This is not Gamespy's Planet Halo, which currently resolves to Battleground: Halo.) (Louis Wu 01:13:19 UTC) (permalink)
News September 17 2000
Wallpaper page updated
Crovax sends in a new wallpaper for our Wallpaper page, using (almost exclusively) old-style Marines and Covenant. If you pine for the days before the switch, take a look at this one! Pax. (Crux Fidelis 14:27:06 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie Coat of Arms updated
Ironfist mentions on our forum that he has updated the Bungie Coat of Arms, and brought it into the Halo age. The QuickTime movie weighs inat just under 2 megs. And it looks a little better in IE than it does in Netscape (has to do with the placement of end-of-line returns). Go take a look! (Louis Wu 14:17:51 UTC) (permalink)
Psyjnir Complex interviews Resurrection lead
Psyrixx writes that there's an interview with Durandal, Project Lead of the Marathon: Resurrection project (a project to bring Marathon to the Unreal Tournament engine) over at the Psyjnir Complex. (If you're having trouble getting in to find it, here's a direct link.) This is only marginally Halo-related; it's here because of the (so far implied) links between Marathon and Halo. For those poeple who never saw Marathon in its original form, this might be a great way to introduce yourselves! (Louis Wu 13:59:31 UTC) (permalink)
News September 16 2000
Halo screensaver available at HaloEmpire
Sokar writes to say that HaloEmpire now has a Halo screensaver (created by GCA) for download. It cycles through Halo screenshots with various fades and cuts between them. (Windows only.) Go take a look! Pax. (Crux Fidelis 14:33:04 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Universe comes online
Lord of flaw sends word that his new German Halo site is online: Halo Universe. Swing by and take a look! (Louis Wu 03:10:57 UTC) (permalink)
News September 15 2000
Baddies in tights
Oh, my. I'm not even sure how to explain this. Well... first read the thread (it actually gets relevant here), then look at the picture. And then wonder about the free time Halo fans have... and be afraid. Be very afraid. (Louis Wu 13:38:50 UTC) (permalink)
Three different X-boxes?
Three different X-boxes? Daily Raider UK have an interview with J Allard of Microsoft concerningX-box's global roll-out. Here's a quote:
DR-UK: If you buy a game in Japan, will it work on a UK X-Box?
J Allard: That's up to the publisher. We'll build three different boxes, one for each territory, and what thepublisher can choose to do is: they can make one disc that runs worldwide. Or they can make a disc thatonly runs in the US. Or they can make a disc that runs in Europe but has all the languages. Or they canmake a different disc for every language in every territory - it's really up to the publisher. We hear frompublishers that there are a couple of reasons why they don't want all games to run always worldwide.
The HBO Spin: Different boxes for different territories? Sounds like DVD region specific players. It'll be interesting to see if Bungie fans outside the US will get Halo at the same time as those in the US. (Ding 06:44:01 UTC) (permalink)
News September 14 2000
Matt says MR is full of it
In case anyone was unsure (and if you were, you should be ashamed of yourself), Matt Soell lays to rest the "Halo is ready" rumor in no uncertain terms. Turns out even the bit about Halo running on nVidia cards on Macs ain't true. Watch that bull flying... (Louis Wu 18:31:58 UTC) (permalink)
Macrumors.com goes overboard
Geez. Thanks to Carth for the heads-up... Macrumors.com is reporting (reporting?) that
"HALO for the Mac is ready but Microsoft are holding it back till at least 2 months after the X-Box is released. Although the game is ready to ship for both the Mac and the PC the game will be most marketed on the X-Box with a demo being bundled on the DVD that comes with the machine. Bungie confirm they are now using nVidia card on their Mac machines with the new beta drivers as the Rage Pro was getting too slow for higher resolutions. "
Folks... don't believe everything you read. Time to batten down the hatches against the flood of email this rumor'll bring... (Louis Wu 18:20:29 UTC) (permalink)
HaloPort goes live... maybe
A rather spartan email from Pureblood announces HaloPort... which is, apparently, a new Halo site. I say 'apparently' because it requires a username/password combo to get past the opening screen... but provides no way to obtain one. More as we know it. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 08:54:03 UTC) (permalink)
News September 13 2000
Story page fans pin down Nathan quotes
Heh... in case anyone didn't realize how important the Marathon's Story page is to the fans of Halo... several Story page fans noticed some quotes from Nathan Bitner (first made on our forum, here and here, over a week ago, and posted to the Story page yesterday), and the source of both sets of quotes are now known. Khalil Gibran and Smashing Pumpkins... let no one say Nathan's not well-rounded. Thanks to the Story page fans for unearthing these! (Louis Wu 12:55:40 UTC) (permalink)
Halo editing tools... PC only?
Ack... very good question posed by PsychoBean on our forum. The Bungie job offering mentioned yesterday states that the mission editor will be developed in MFC (Microsoft Foundation Class)... does this mean the mission editor will be PC only? Or will Tamte's group be porting this, as well? Hopefully, a Bungie employee will chime into this thread and clarify the matter. (Louis Wu 01:53:10 UTC) (permalink)
News September 12 2000
Bungie's looking for a Tools Programmer
Kudos to TomeOne, who noticed another job opening on Bungie's page: They need a Tools Programmer to build a mission editor for Halo! Wonga. (Louis Wu 21:46:07 UTC) (permalink)
Theories Page updated
Sebastian "The Tiny Toad" Brytting sends in a theory on the builders of the Halo. We don't rate 'em, folks, we just publish 'em. If you like this one, let Sebastian know on our forum. (Louis Wu 00:45:09 UTC) (permalink)
News September 11 2000
Halo Command UK being revamped
Peter Askam writes to tell us that Halo Command UK has been revamped with more content on the way. Stop by and take a look! Pax. (Crux Fidelis 20:23:30 UTC) (permalink)
Antebios has Halo bias (or vice-versa)
JosephAW noticed a computer animated short film ('Antebios') highlighted on the SciFi channel. The movie itself is visible on SfiFi.com's website... if you have a Macintosh, Netscape, and a (very) fast connection, the On2 link is pretty astounding. Otherwise, it's available in RealPlayer format. Joseph mentions it because the alien sounds a lot like the Covenant sound in the E3 trailer. (There are other similarities... the humans have projectile weapons, while the alien uses an energy weapon, the doors of the base used by the humans and the hallways in which they walk bear a striking resemblance to the ancient structure highlighted in the Halo movies... the alien (well, the 'good' alien) has hooflike feet, similar to the covenant... and more, if you want to watch it.) The film was made in 1998 by a French designer who (among other things) makes video games. Definitely worth a look, if you're on a fast connection! (Louis Wu 17:16:03 UTC) (permalink)
Halo SETI Team 7 day stats posted
Dink! The Halo SETI Marines fall one notch, victims of the unrelenting climb of Team Project Blue Book. On the plus side, Team Slashdot is only 500 units ahead... they'll fall soon. cae takes La Crunch Honneur this week, and limbofrog snags the Frogblast Award. The 7 day stats page contains all the details. (Louis Wu 14:49:57 UTC) (permalink)
Flash your stuff on Halo, the Game
Heh... tired of waiting for Halo? Play Halo, the Game! Battleground: Halo has put together a Flash 4.0 game in which you can kill your fill of Covenant and vie for the top spot in their Hall of Fame. (Be aware, though, that a couple of people have already put up four-figure scores... in a game where you get two points for killing a Covenant soldier.) Are you good enough? (Louis Wu 13:06:33 UTC) (permalink)
Unreal Engine gets a serious makeover
We usually stay away from the competition's news... but this movie is too good to miss. Epic Games (and specifically this article at Daily Radar) has released a movie showing some of the new features of the Unreal engine, including 3700-poly skeletal models, facial animations, improved level-of-detail (LOD) support, and large-scale terrain support. (The trees are quite nice!) The thing that got me most interested, though, was the 'seamless mixing of indoors and terrain'. Usually, there are separate engines handling indoor and outdoor areas, so that you generally have one or the other, but not both. (Watch the Halo E3 movie... most of it is outdoors, except for the sequences inside the ancient base. Entrance is through a single door... meaning the engine never has to render both indoor and outdoor scenes together. Then take a look at the Unreal tech demo, specifically around 1:20 or so.) Looks like Halo has some serious competition! (Louis Wu 12:58:39 UTC) (permalink)
Halo-World fully online
Red Hot Ryan sends word that Halo-World is fully up and running. Go check 'em out! Pax. (Crux Fidelis 12:42:19 UTC) (permalink)
HL Halo mod is now a Tribes Halo mod
The word from Haloplayers is that the folks who were talking about bringing Halo to Half-Life have decided that HL is too limiting, and have switched over to Tribes. Anyone interested in this project can join in this HP Forum thread. Pax. (Crux Fidelis 12:38:59 UTC) (permalink)
News September 10 2000
The Psyjnir Complex up for previewing
We're baaaack! (Well, okay, I"m back. Wirehead is still on extended leave, Ding's bugging some military guys, and Crux... hell, Crux hasn't been the same since that game of spin the bottle up at the Monastery.) Looks like it's been a slow weekend... but there was a LITTLE news. Psyrixx writes to say that The Psyjnir Complex, which should be back online sometime this week, has a preview page up to view, so you can swing by and see what it's going to look like. (BIG warning... do this with Internet Explorer (or iCab). Load time for these two browsers was under 3 seconds (on a fast connection)... Netscape took over a minute.) More news coming, a bit later! (Louis Wu 21:58:02 UTC) (permalink)
News September 9 2000
Still closed...
News September 8 2000
HBO closed for a couple of days
The crew of HBO is taking a break this weekend... we'll be back late Sunday night (around midnight UTC, Monday morning). Enjoy your weekend! (Louis Wu 16:04:22 UTC) (permalink)
Miscellaneous Art page updated
Matthew Unger has composited a couple of Halo shots to come up with this 'screenshot' for our Miscellaneous Art page. Nice job! (Louis Wu 14:13:47 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper page updated
Thanks to MrEiffel65, who submitted a new desktop image for our Wallpaper page. Night is falling... (Louis Wu 13:26:46 UTC) (permalink)
Mac Halo to be ported by Tamte
Congrats to Isolder, who noticed (before I had a chance to find it myself) a tidbit in the October issue of MacAddict about Peter Tamte:
A new company, headed by former Bungie vice president (and previous MacSoft executive director) Peter Tamte, has taken charge of bringing Microsoft's key games, including Bungie's titles, to our platform.
I suppose this makes sense = Tamte's new company, and its mission, was announced at MacWorld during the same speech in which Fries and Seropian asserted that Halo would be coming to the Mac - it simply never occurred to us (or to Isolder, apparently). I guess I'd always thought BUNGIE would port it, once they were done with the Xbox version. Just goes to show you... be careful about the assumptions you make. (Louis Wu 13:15:15 UTC) (permalink)
A Halo mod for Half-life...
Hehe... these guys are nuts. HaloWar has a message from a bunch of guys who are building a Halo mod for Half-life... if they pull this off, it'll be out before Halo will! ;) Go check it out. (Louis Wu 02:14:18 UTC) (permalink)
Update on Halo TV spot
Oops... $erial-ki!!A sent word that the info about the Halo spot on British digital tv was incorrect. The actual show was called Gameover, and the channel was technology.tv. He's got it on tape, but can't upload it... hopefully that'll change. :) (Louis Wu 02:10:37 UTC) (permalink)
News September 7 2000
Halo on TV
Thanks to $erial-ki!!A, who writes to tell us of Halo on TV:
I was watching Gameplay on the british Sky digital channel dot.TV, and they were doing a review on the X-Box. Surprise surprise, HALO came up, and, to my enjoyment, they did a small feature on it. In this feature (with an interview with Seropian and clips from the E3 movie) Seropian says that HALO is a weapon: certain proof that some of our specualtions were right. Just confermig all the rumours, I know that everyone assumes it is some kind of a weapon anyway.
Interesting... if anyone knows how to get a copy of this broadcast, we'd love to hear about it. (Louis Wu 11:54:20 UTC) (permalink)
Theories Page updated
Thanks to Howard Bisoski, who submitted a new theory about the potential uses of the Halo. For good measure, he's also tossed in some anti-gravity speculation... go take a look! (Louis Wu 09:08:05 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper page updated
Thanks to Tom Van Sinden, who created a new desktop image for our Wallpaper page. Ever wondered where you were? Well, if you're on the Halo, now you know. (Louis Wu 00:05:12 UTC) (permalink)
News September 6 2000
New Win98-only Halo movie (homemade) available
Okay, we've had a submission of a Halo movie. It's 5 MB, and it's basically quick cuts from many of the Halo movies out there, put to a soundtrack from Toonami (on the Cartoon Network). Now... the only real problem is that it's in Windows Media Viewer format. The latest Mac version of Windows Media Player can't read this properly... it plays the music, but the picture is black. (Older versions of the program say the bit rate is too high to handle.) It plays fine on WMP v7 on a Win98 box, though. (Be aware that v7 will not install on Windows95 or NT4.) It's set up on an ftp link at the moment, so you'll have to download it to your machine to play it. Thanks to neo627 for the submission! Enjoy. (Louis Wu 18:28:12 UTC) (permalink)
Cortana-like clues from an old hand
Good Lord. He's back to Halo clues. Nathan Bitner continues his mad posting spree... a mysterious email contains the following lines:
"Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and nights."
And, addressed specifically to Hamish Sinclair:
"Say not, 'I have found the truth', but rather, 'I have found a truth'. For the soul walks upon all paths."
Has he been drinking again? Or is the fun beginning? (Louis Wu 13:52:48 UTC) (permalink)
Nathan says Hi
Where Are They Now Dept.: Nathan Bitner rambled a bit this morning, letting folks know what's up with him these days. School's going well, the wedding got postponed (cancelled, maybe, if she reads this)... he rants a bit about some big purple gorilla. Hmm. Anyway, Nathan, the Producer job still seems to be open... (Louis Wu 13:46:31 UTC) (permalink)
CVG talks to J. Allard... no keyboard
Computer and Video Games talked to J. Allard, GM of Xbox development, at ECTS yesterday, and got some details about the Xbox controller:
“I can tell you that there will be no more buttons than on the PlayStation controller [8]. We think that’s pretty much the optimum number of inputs most people can deal with in a console controller.
“Also, we really liked the double slot idea from the Dreamcast controller. In the Xbox handset there is a slot for a memory card and a slot for a voice system, so you can wear a microphone and ear-piece while you play. We don’t want to be messing around with keyboards when it comes to consoles.”
Several people have mailed us recently, asking about the possibility of a keyboard being included, or available... this information would suggest it's not. Link first seen at MSXbox... thanks to ryu for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 13:32:33 UTC) (permalink)
Rebel Force Assault Squad recruiting
[RFAS]Fishbulb posts on our forum that Rebel Force Assault Squad is now recruiting. The site is far more viewable in IE than NS. (Louis Wu 02:12:33 UTC) (permalink)
News September 5 2000
Halo gets mention in HardwareCentral ECTS story
Sharp-eyed tulmid noticed an ECTS review at Hardware Central, in which a page was devoted to the Xbox, and Halo was the only game mentioned by name. However... any tech writer who says at this stage that
what Intel processor it will use is still not known (probably to Microsoft as well)
can accurately be said to not be on top of the situation. Nice spot, tulmid! (Louis Wu 17:29:50 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Empire comes online
SOKAR posts to our forum that his German Halo website is now online - Halo Empire. Due to its heavy use of style sheets, it's pretty much unreadable with Netscape, so visit with IE. We found it interesting that we're not on the links page, although nearly every one of their magazine scans was taken off our pages (without attribution). Don't mind our peevishness, though... Go take a look! (Louis Wu 15:52:12 UTC) (permalink)
HaloVault comes back online
Oops, we missed this one... HaloVault came back online Sunday, with a new maintainer... Vosx. Give him a few days to get up to speed... good to have the site back! (Louis Wu 13:54:14 UTC) (permalink)
Does Xbox have what it takes?
R.net has found an Xbox article on the New York Times website. If you don't have a NYT login, read the R.net news post for information on seeing this easily. The Times is a bit pessimistic on the Xbox; they think the console market might not last long enough to keep the Xbox afloat:
Brand and demographics may well conspire against Microsoft. Since July 1998, the penetration of video-game consoles in the nation's homes has begun to decline, to 35 percent from 37 percent.
The reason, according to the San Francisco-based market research firm Odyssey is that the home PC is also increasingly a game machine.
And they also worry that the rate of console speed growth could increase, putting Microsoft (a newcomer with no software titles) at a disadvantage:
While Microsoft will take the performance lead in 2001, it will be with a powerful machine and little software.
Sony could then trump Microsoft with a faster machine in a year or two that could spell trouble for the software publisher: if the video-game business becomes more like the PC hardware industry, Microsoft may find itself locked in a bitter war over profit margins in which it lacks the comfortable software cushion it enjoys in the PC business. Sony has not publicly acknowledged that it plans to speed up the pace but it has quietly sent signals to its developers.
It's almost certainly too soon to really judge the Xbox's chances in this lucrative market... but this article certainly brings up some heretofore unspoken fears. Go read it! (Again, check the R.net news post for instructions about access if you don't already have a login for the NYT site.) (Louis Wu 00:30:09 UTC) (permalink)
News September 4 2000
New Halo preview at Jack In
Thanks to Eric (on our forum), Dan Rudolph (via email), and fire phoenix (of Halo Center, also via email) for notification of yet another Halo preview, this time at Jack In. Mostly, it's a good overview of the game... but they either know a LOT more about this game than the rest of us, or they're good at making things up as they go along:
Other borrowed touches include the window at the top of the screen as seen in Delta Force that allows you to snipe from a third-person viewpoint. The non-complicated control system of Quake and its sequels. Also included are the class distinctions as seen in Team Fortress, although it will be possible to pick up new weapons and change your role as it is possible in another of Half-Life’s fantastic mods, Counterstrike. Another aspect taken from Half-Life is the mapping system that means that the area is broken down into sections that link to one another.
Window at the top of the screen? Class distinctions? (Jason has said this won't happen... at least not in the context of other games' class distinctions - they'll be learned, not chosen.) Mapping system with linked sections? An interesting read, even IF this stuff is all just made up. (Louis Wu 20:30:04 UTC) (permalink)
Halo SETI Team 7 days stats posted
Blam!... Blam!... Blam!... Blam!... Blam! The Halo SETI Marines climb 5 notches to number 43 in the Battle of the Teams, mostly due to a server reset that changed the way earned units are allocated. No matter... Slashdot is now within easy reach. Unfortunately, Project Blue Book is climbing fast... can the Marines hold on? Check the 7 days stats for the full details on movements. (Louis Wu 14:31:45 UTC) (permalink)
Bungie alone with a non-exclusive launch title
Seen at GameSpot UK: At this weekend's ECTS (the European Computer Trade Show), Ed Fries announced some details of the Xbox launch strategy. There will be (at this point) 22 games ready for release with the box itself - seven from within Microsoft, and 15 from 3rd-party developers. It was this passage that caught my eye:
"Virtually everything we are developing will be exclusive to Xbox. We have a separate set of PC developers," he said. "We're not looking to port content back and forth between the Xbox and PC platforms."
The one exception Fries allowed to this rule is Bungie's much-hyped Halo, which will publish on Xbox, PC, and Macintosh platforms, although even this title will publish first on Xbox ahead of the PC release.
Shame on us for suggesting, yesterday, that Bungie doesn't hold a place of honor in the Xbox pantheon! (Louis Wu 03:35:22 UTC) (permalink)
Spank! says 64 megs it is
Will nobody actually put their name to any information any more? Last week, xbox365.com posted a story in which "a good source" suggested the Xbox spec had been improved to include 128 MB RAM, instead of 64. A day later (we missed this until now), Spank! did some checking, and found another "source" (unnamed, of course) who said it's all a bunch of hooey... "The spec hasn't changed and it won't change." Makes you wonder about xbox365's 40 gig HD rumor, too... (Louis Wu 03:24:50 UTC) (permalink)
News September 3 2000
PlanetHalo.dk online
Noticed this on Halo Center: There's a Danish Halo site up and running. Seems to have been reporting for the past 3 weeks or so, actually.) I've got very little idea what they're saying... but if you speak Danish, go check out PlanetHalo.dk! (Louis Wu 19:45:10 UTC) (permalink)
Another Wallpaper page submission
The Wallpaper page gets another one... J.C. Barbosa has submitted an interesting tropical scene for your viewing pleasure. Check it out! (Louis Wu 16:56:12 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper page updated
Thanks to Alerus, who sends in another desktop for our Wallpaper page. It's built on the original Blues News screenshot... so it's sort of big. Worth a look, though! (Louis Wu 14:45:59 UTC) (permalink)
Nathan Bitner returns
Wow... Nathan comes back from the dead (or at least marriage). Nathan Bitner, who left his job as Producer of Halo last fall to get married and go back to school, has surfaced once again on our forum... the man sounds a little frazzled, but I hear Raleigh can do that to you. Good to have you back, Nathan! (Louis Wu 14:28:28 UTC) (permalink)
Fan Fiction updated
We got more Fan Fiction... I think. Empty Weapon, it's called. (Louis Wu 02:46:10 UTC) (permalink)
MS says "you're independent... not"
Interesting. Bungie has always made a point of the independence they're keeping in the Microsoft buyout deal... how Microsoft saw the Bungie name, its cachet, even, worth as much as the games it would produce. Yesterday, however, Microsoft published a press release about the talent pool currently developing for the Xbox. In it, they list all the "independent developers" currently on board with Xbox titles... Bungie isn't on the list. Below it, though was this:
"In addition to allying with independent development studios, Microsoft also intends to continue to expand its internal pool of development talent across all game genres. The recent acquisition of Bungie Software Corp. increased Microsoft's internal games group to more than 700 designers, programmers, testers and producers."
Sure looks like (at least in Microsoft's eyes) Bungie is just another 50 game engineers, not an independent entity. Hmm... (Louis Wu 00:29:19 UTC) (permalink)
News September 2 2000
xbox365 says Xbox specs still increasing
Well, the Xbox is proving to be one of the largest rumor generators since Mata Hari. xbox365 is reporting that the 8 gig drive is being swapped out in favor of a 40 gig drive, so that the Xbox can act as a recordable VCR, like TiVo or Replay TV. Even Slashdot has picked up on this story (although they bring a healthy dose of cynicism to the table). Thanks to Noctavis for the heads-up on this one. (Louis Wu 14:35:36 UTC) (permalink)
Turbine hires former Fantasy Siege designer
Turbine Entertainment Software, "the technology-leading developer of massively multiplayer Internet-based persistent virtual worlds for PCs and videogame consoles," put out a press release on August 17 announcing that they'd hired David Bowman, formerly of Bungie Software, "where he designed for their hit series Myth and Fantasy Siege, the forthcoming hit based on Bungie’s Halo engine." For some strange reason, news of that press release is just making the rounds today... VoodooExtreme has some pretty wild speculation based on the release, but you can make your own guesses. Thanks to R.net and BHG for noticing this. (Louis Wu 02:51:18 UTC) (permalink)
Halo HQ closes its doors
Another old name hangs up his hat: Stryker writes to say that Halo HQ is closing down, due to "time contraints and lack of Halo-related information." (There's a full resignation letter at Halo HQ, but unfortunately, that's unreachable from here at the moment.) That's two of the oldest Halo sites gone, in one day! Ouch. (Louis Wu 02:37:56 UTC) (permalink)
News September 1 2000
Halo SETI Marines leapfrog 5 places
Wow! It looks like there's been a full server reset over at SETI... the Halo SETI Marines have been credited with over 10,000 units sometime in the past day. (These were units submitted by team members that may have been completed for other teams. Currently, the total for the Halo team is equal to the sum of the individual member totals.) This means that the Halo SETI Marines rocket up to 43rd place, just behind Team Slashdot. Full stats will be presented on Monday... but congrats to all the crunchers out there! (Louis Wu 20:52:17 UTC) (permalink)
Halo-Net going offline, unless you can host it
Alan Stott writes to say that due to problems finding a free server that allows server-side includes, Halo-Net is going down, but he made this offer:
The domain is up for grabs and is paid off until next August, and if someone has a server with Server Side Includes, they can have the new unseen site (pretty impressive) and also the freemail system.
If you're interested, contact Alan at Alan@TheRhythmDome.co.uk. (Louis Wu 19:58:44 UTC) (permalink)
Wallpaper page updated
Thanks to Ben Evans, who sent in a pair of desktops for our Wallpaper page. They're composited screenshots... one with the old graphics, one with the new. Take your pick! (Louis Wu 13:09:06 UTC) (permalink)
| September 2000 | |
