Old news but still good news!

And Logos...
After a long time with no submissions, the Logos section gets another entry. We've also put up a layered Combat Evolved document (photoshop format, 1.1 mb, zipped) that appeared on the web - in a much larger size - for a short time about 18 months ago. If you want to make your own Halo logos (i.e. without the word 'Halo'), this is the puppy you need. (Louis Wu 18:44:21 UTC) (permalink)

More pictures, even.
Next up in the 'clearing the queue' game... 6 art pieces for our Miscellaneous Art collection. Everything from Zelda/Halo crossovers to armed school invasions. Check 'em out! (Louis Wu 18:25:14 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Cheats made easier - no modding required.
Wow. I wonder if this really has a market? A company called CodeJunkies has created a product called ActionReplay, a $39.99 package (£19.99 in the UK) that uses a specially-modified 8 MB memory card to move saved games from your PC to your Xbox and back. (The package comes with 'powersaves' - saved games from critical points in Halo, and other games.) More details can be found in a writeup at XBOX365, which was pointed out to us in our forum by Tomass. (Louis Wu 17:54:01 UTC) (permalink)

Halo PC Strategy Guide details
Nice find by Eclarap - looks like the Official Strategy Guide for the PC version of Halo is being done by Sybex (the Xbox version was done by Prima), and it should be released on June 15, 2003. According to the Amazon.com listing for it,

The PC product refines and improves upon the Xbox version -- which many consider the "best first-person shooter ever" (EGM) -- with greatly enhanced multiplayer capabilities and new weapons and vehicles.

Wonga... should be nice to get hold of this! (Louis Wu 17:46:11 UTC) (permalink)

Pictures for your desktop
Gonna try and clear out the art queue today. First up: desktop images. We've got 7 for you - you'll find 'em in the Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 17:39:09 UTC) (permalink)

Don't forget - stories without titles simply cannot be approved. (There's nothing to link to...) (Louis Wu 14:13:02 UTC) (permalink)

GURPS cover - now mostly readable
Both 2 and 2 make 5, over at Subnova, and Doggone, on our own forum, have cleaned up the recently unearthed (but damaged) front cover for GURPS Halo. Check the pics out, and speculate away! (Louis Wu 14:01:23 UTC) (permalink)

Another new site... sort of
Oops, forgot this one - Sector7, which opened a while back, then died, is back online. Or... at least, it's supposed to be. (All I get is a flash animation of the title...) (Louis Wu 23:08:48 UTC) (permalink)

Dead Rabbits summary number 1 (with pics)
Team Overkill is the first to post a summary of the Dead Rabbits event that happened here at HBO Headquarters yesterday. (They won't be the last, I don't think...) It's a good read, and covers the spirit of the day pretty well. I'll say it was an honor to be killed so many times by these guys... (Thanks to E.S. for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 22:28:23 UTC) (permalink)

Combat Resurrected
Hehe - nice pickup by oddworld - this week's Photoshop Phriday at Something Awful contains a pretty nice Halo parody. Check it out! (Louis Wu 22:05:50 UTC) (permalink)

Quick Wrap-up... and GURPS news
Another day... another lanfest in the past. Apologies for the sparse updating yesterday, but there were 26 Halo fanatics here yesterday, from as far south as mid-New Jersey and as far north as the Massachusetts/New Hampshire border... 5 states were represented, and the carnage was nonstop. Mostly the games were just for the heck of it, but we did have one 2v2 Team Slayer tournament running during the fest. Congrats to the winners, Geeoff and Tom! Back on the Halo news front, Subnova has received a damaged, but readable, image of a proof of the cover of the Halo GURPS manual. Curiouser and curiouser... (Louis Wu 16:56:14 UTC) (permalink)

A day to play...
News will be sparse today... Dead Rabbits kicks off in less than 2 hours. 30 Halo fanatics, all crammed into my house, shooting each other and making the dogs crazy. Should be fun! (Louis Wu 13:03:10 UTC) (permalink)

LSW now online
StarWarsFanMan points out that his new movie project, 'Halo: Large Scale Warfare', is now online at The Green Marines. Check it out... he's looking for feedback! (Louis Wu 12:56:19 UTC) (permalink)

More Web Comics (old ones this time)
Hehe - Cybrfrk found a pair of web comics from last year that everyone here seems to have missed. Check out TrueNuff for January 9, 2002, followed by January 11, 2002. Now THERES a Halo fan. :) (Louis Wu 16:35:01 UTC) (permalink)

It is insidious and elegant.
Finn, in a frightening display of work ethic (and not a little cruelty, leaving mnemesis with nothing to do), has updated the Halo Story page with a mind-numbingly large array of speculations, comments, and pictures from the peanut gallery. If you're even slightly interested in the Halo storyline, you'll want to read this. (Louis Wu 13:39:33 UTC) (permalink)

Brute Force Companion DVD details emerge
Thanks to the literally dozens of folks who pointed out the article at IGN Xbox listing the actual details of the Brute Force Companion DVD Set. The first word of this actually came from Dan Chosich, on our forum - and in response to some speculation of mine, Matt Soell confirmed that there's nothing in this set that you can't already get on the net. (Louis Wu 13:23:25 UTC) (permalink)

GURPS Halo?
Interesting. Looks like poena.dare came into posession of an interesting Bungie webcam shot recently... details are over at Bungie Sightings. Thanks to Ross Mills for the heads-up. (Shame on you, pd, for not letting us know!) (Louis Wu 13:31:58 UTC) (permalink)

Clearin' out the older stuff
Three images languishing in our inbox for too long; a mockup of an Xbox cover, a tribute to Super-Issy, and an illustration of a scene from one of our Fan Fiction entries. All three can be found in our Miscellaneous Art section. (More artwork coming later.) (Louis Wu 10:46:43 UTC) (permalink)

Nicely Captures The Spirit, I Think
Not sure if this'll kill the link... but Foginator has put together a nice little gameplay vid on The Silent Cartographer; you can find it linked from this forum post. (To be fair, if we overwhelm the mac.com site it's hosted on, we'll give it a new home...) It weighs in at over 17 mb, so we might be doing some re-encoding... (Louis Wu 09:56:02 UTC) (permalink)

If you write it, they will read.
The Misc Art collection is still behind (hopefully soon, I'll put up the stuff that's here), but Fan Fiction continues apace:

There's a new egg hunt that is underway. When the community knocks its collective head together, it hurts... but we also get quite a bit done, dontcha' think?

I need copies of those...
B-Sharp found a couple of little-known books in the back of his local tech store... check 'em out (here and here) on our forum. (Louis Wu 15:09:15 UTC) (permalink)

The Seventh Column just got spiffier.
Three new themes are now available for your Bungie.net Seventh Column chapter, thanks to poena.dare - two are Pathways Into Darkness-related, but the third (First and Last) is a Halo theme (thus warranting a news post here). Check 'em out! Thanks to SketchFactor for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 02:07:29 UTC) (permalink)

Is THAT what they sound like?
Hmm. Over at Subnova, HBO forum regular Shishka has put up a new feature - Subnova.comic. The first strip pits some Subnova personalities against... an HBO forum visitor. Ouch. (Louis Wu 15:47:12 UTC) (permalink)

Thievin' scoundrels, I tell ya!
In case nobody noticed, Finn put up another bit of speculation at the Halo Story page yesterday. (You may or may not agree with the quoted item... but there's a rebuttal linked at the end.) (Louis Wu 13:22:41 UTC) (permalink)

Halo and booze... what a combo!
Buddha writes to point out a site he's built for the Halo parties he and his buddies hold. It's called, appropriately enough, Halo-party.com. (Louis Wu 10:14:49 UTC) (permalink)

Wallpaper for you
The server crash last week put a crimp in the image processing, but I'm getting back on track. Here are the 6 backlogged desktops - enjoy the Wallpaper section. (I particularly like the Warthog one...) (Louis Wu 23:18:41 UTC) (permalink)

Movie Mirrors up at That Weasel TV
That Weasel Television has added a number of movies to its mirror list:

Halo Done Quick Part 1 (qt and wmp versions)

Blood Gulch Ballet

Total Halo

Hurt (qt and wmp versions)

We've added them to our mirror lists here - go get 'em if you haven't already! Update: Lion points out that he's mirrored the Total Halo movie, as well. (Louis Wu 18:39:59 UTC) (permalink)

Fan Fiction changes (again), plus stories
11 stories for you today in the Fan Fiction section:

Another change has occurred... there are no more hard-coded copies of stories; the entire section is run from databases. (All old hard-coded links should continue to work - if they don't, please let me know - but the whole system has become more portable.) This does NOT mean that authors don't need to provide a 'pagename' for their story - the databases still require it, it's just used differently. Again, any glitches you run across should be reported immediately. (Louis Wu 20:25:23 UTC) (permalink)

Those pesky door openers...
Before I get yelled at by Opie301 again for forgetting, Finn put up a hefty Story Page update just before our box died a few days ago - it's now visible to the masses. Go read! (Louis Wu 22:28:20 UTC) (permalink)

Halo mods - lots and lots of Halo mods
During the past week, we've had word of several mods/skins for other games, using Halo designs. A couple are now housed here. First up is agentJ64's Master Chiefette model for Jedi Knight II - pretty sweet! Then, we've got a Halo skin for Counter-Strike made by rdc^kosh (and found by Matt Smith) - with a bunch of screenshots for flavor. Lastly, Tankramp over at Battleground: Halo found a Blood Gulch conversion for Battlefield 1942 - you can see screenshots and download the maps at LanClan's website. If you can't wait for Halo 2 (or Halo for PC), go play with Halo characters and environments in other games! (Louis Wu 22:26:18 UTC) (permalink)

We've moved... again (plus fanfic)
Okay, the server is back where it started. Dunno how long it's going to take for folks to find it again... but the backup will stay up (if not updated) for a little while, at least. In the meantime, here are the Fan Fiction stories that were in the queue when the box went down. (The entire comments section has been overhauled - some links have changed a bit. If you've bookmarked a page that no longer exists, try going through the front door to find it. One problem I can foresee - if you found this news post by searching, but it's not on HBO's front page, you're still looking at the old site... and the fanfic links will not work. You'll just have to wait, sorry.)

Go to it... and be sure to let us know of any problems! (Louis Wu 17:21:43 UTC) (permalink)

The State of the Server
Quick status update: the original server is back online, but it's not completely ready for prime time yet. Unfortunately, I've got an engagement this morning that will keep me from making the switch before mid-afternoon, eastern time. (Once the switch is made, HBO might be unavailable to you for a short time; I've set timeouts on the DNS records to be really low, but I can't control your ISPs.) When it comes back up for you, you'll find a couple of changed systems; hopefully, all the bugs will have been worked out by that point. In the meantime, enjoy your Saturday! (Louis Wu 14:25:43 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Origami
Funky. A Microsoft-run Xbox promotion site, Playmore.com, has a pretty cool little toy for you; Halo Origami. It's an 800k PDF that, once printed and cut up, lets you put together your own little Master Chief figure. It's a totally Flash-driven site, so pointing you directly to the product is not possible; but after it loads, go to 'Play', then scroll through the options until you hit Halo Origami. (The download link is next to the mouse - as you get close, it'll say 'Activate'.) Thanks to Team Overkill for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 02:41:26 UTC) (permalink)

I wanna be a sentinel.
Another Calvin and Halo, from Warbow, to lighten a relatively rough week. (Thank goodness it's Friday!) Enjoy. (Louis Wu 20:37:04 UTC) (permalink)

HBO XBC Name List up and running
Do you play Halo on Xbox Connect? Would you like to join up with HBO Forum regulars in these games? goatrope has put together an HBO XBC Name list to help you do this. Check it out! (Send him your XBC and HBO forum handles if you want to be added to the list.) (Louis Wu 18:23:23 UTC) (permalink)

The Rolling Stones?
He's been quiet on the posting front... but Crux Fidelis, our stalwart behind-the-scenes guy, has gotten himself interviewed by Ryan 'Mhaddy' Matthews... go check the Junkyard's Spotlight for the lowdown on this Benedictine bloke! (Louis Wu 00:12:00 UTC) (permalink)

Tourneys in the Land of Kilts
A Halo tournament in Scotland? Aye. Check out ntlworld's Home Gaming League page. Games are every Thursday, admission is £5.50/player. Thanks to Les Campbell for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 23:44:21 UTC) (permalink)

Halo at E3: Yeah, baby
Kudos to Mike Smith, who noticed that the front page of the E3 2003 website has a listing for an 'Expo Spotlight':

3-20-2003 • Sneak Peeks returns with a vengeance. Halo 2, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and StarCraft: Ghost headline this year's session. Other speakers include John Carmack, Brian Reynolds, Seamus Blackley, American McGee, and Raph Koster.

We were pretty sure that there was gonna be lots of Halo goodness at E3... but the fact that it's making the spotlight is a pretty cool thing. (Louis Wu 22:40:23 UTC) (permalink)

Action Figures pics from Toyfare
Stuntmutt found a page (182K) in Toyfare magazine (issue 69) showing Joy Ride's Halo action figures. We'd put this in the Press Scans section... but I can't find any useable online info on Toyfare. (One of these days, we'll post the collection of pictures from last month's Toy Fair in New York... but this is what we have for now.) (Louis Wu 17:39:38 UTC) (permalink)

Credit where credit is due
Many, many thanks to Deimos™, of Subnova, who stepped in yesterday during HBO's time of need and made sure you folks could still get the Halo content you've expected from us. (They're currently supplying some of our bandwidth.) An added bonus: news searches are now MUCH faster (close to 20 times faster). If you need older content, there's no longer any excuse! (Try that little box up there. Go ahead - you know you want to.) (Louis Wu 10:42:24 UTC) (permalink)

Elite Guide comes online
A new Halo site is up; nice design, focuses on gameplay. Check out Elite Guide. (Louis Wu 10:21:54 UTC) (permalink)

The Games We Play
Old-time Bungie fans are most likely not a huge portion of the current pool of Bungie fans; Bungie's latest poll ('Which multiplayer gametype do you enjoy the most?') shows that the vast majority of respondents (90% of 1500 votes) enjoy playing either Slayer or Capture the Flag, gametypes made popular by FPSs like Quake and Unreal. Only 8% voted for gametypes brought forward from older Bungie games, like King of the Hill and Oddball... and only 2% chose 'Race' (a gametype relatively unique to Halo) as their favorite. Just goes to show you what happens when your audience base widens... (Louis Wu 23:06:26 UTC) (permalink)

Status Update
If you're reading this, you've found the server's new home. This is a backup of the existing site. Unfortunately, the death of the machine this morning wasn't out of the blue; the box has been pretty unstable for a few weeks now. (It's been unstable for longer than that, but the instability can only be attributed to hardware problems recently.) One of the side effects of the nearly continual crashing in the past few days is that the nightly backup hasn't been completed since early Friday morning; all news and new features since then are in limbo until the original machine is brought back online. (Please be patient.) Fan Fiction, movies, artwork, and any other submissions in the past few days still exist; they are simply unavailable until repairs are completed. Please do not resubmit your work. (Additionally, in order to keep the bandwidth demands down while on this smaller pipe, we're going to delay posting NEW fan creations; they'll go up, eventually... just not right now. We've taken the Fan Fiction submission form offline, and we ask that you hold off on sending us artwork for a few days.) Again - we apologize for the downtime/lack of functionality... we're doing the best we can to get back to where we were (and we WILL keep up on news posts), but hardware failures get messy sometimes. (Louis Wu 19:36:24 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 3 Man Fandango
Funky downtime... datacenter says it's not them, but the server said it wasn't down, either. Anyway, check out Bungie.net's newest contest - if you can come up with the best three-player Halo gametype variant for Halo, you'll win the accolades due a true master. Entries are only accepted from Seventh Column chapters, and there are other rules, so be sure to read Bungie's news story carefully. You've got just a bit under 2 weeks; deadline is midnight (Pacific time) on Sunday, March 30. What are you waiting for - get creatin'! (Louis Wu 00:14:50 UTC) (permalink)

There were a few that needed to be deleted... there's always someone who either can't read directions, or feels like abusing the system. If you feel that your story was deleted in error, let us know. (Louis Wu 21:35:07 UTC) (permalink)

Artwork updated
Three art pieces for you today, including a pretty dang impressive MC model made for a 3d animation class. Check 'em out in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Wallpaper coming later today.) (Louis Wu 10:47:02 UTC) (permalink)

The MOSHPIT puts up a movie page
ICDedPpl writes to let us know that the MOSHPIT now has a page up for easy access to movie mirrors. Currently, there are just the new ones put up yesterday (and one made by one of their members), but that number will increase. We're always grateful for movie mirroring bandwidth! (Louis Wu 10:24:25 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Cave comes online
Eric writes to tell us of his Halo site, Halo Cave. Update: Both Eric and ToXiC have written to clarify that it's ToXiC's site, Eric is just helping. (Louis Wu 10:21:23 UTC) (permalink)

Gathering the Goods
Sometimes, the tenacity of Halo fans just has to be seen to be believed. (Before you blow that off as just another pic, look carefully at what's behind the MC - and where it is.) (Louis Wu 09:23:03 UTC) (permalink)

Gossip - it's what's for dinner.
poena.dare uncovered an interesting tidbit related to last year's Halo National Championships... if you like backstory, read this forum post. (Louis Wu 02:20:26 UTC) (permalink)

Housecleaning, and Hurt
The Movies database has finally been brought up-to-date; movies from the last 6 weeks have all been added. There's a new movie there, too - it's called 'Hurt', and it's mostly Blood Gulch gameplay (with some cutscene footage added nicely for flavor), set to Johnny Cash's remake of NiN's 'Hurt'. It's available in both QuickTime and WMP9 formats, weighs in at 13.4 mb (QT) or 17 mb (WMP9), and lasts just over 4 minutes. Hosting is currently provided by Mythica and the Psyjnir Complex, but we're happy to add mirrors to that list. Grab your flavor. Update: ICDedPpl gets our back - Hurt (the QT version and the WMP version) is mirrored at the MOSHPIT. (Louis Wu 17:43:52 UTC) (permalink)

Edge mentions modded Xboxes, and Halo
Stuntmutt points out that Halo Hacking gets a mention in the latest issue of Edge magazine (number 122, April 2003) - and so does HBO. (They point to the mirror link for the very first hacking film. Hopefully, visitors reading that will explore and discover the OTHER hacking movies... they should be in the Movies database within the hour.) Update: poena.dare points out that today is the 8-year anniversary of Bungie modding, in general. (Well, sort of - Mia was available before Pfhorte was, but that's a story for another day.) Check Bungie Sightings for details. (Louis Wu 16:55:17 UTC) (permalink)

Gnomes rebel - story at 11
In a surprising twist, the Halo Story Page is NOT updated today. (Finn actually has real life work tugging at his coattails, and mnemesis... well, mnemesis is mnemesis.) I must say, however, that it was a struggle to make this happen... so if you're not watching carefully, there might be an update in the not-too-distant future. (Louis Wu 16:42:05 UTC) (permalink)

Help Wanted at the Junkyard
Ryan 'Mhaddy' Matthews writes to let us know that the Junkyard is looking for help:

We're looking for anyone who has a passion for any of the games that we cover and has a basic understanding of HTML. All positions are open; from newshounds, interview / review / preview / article writers, site maintenance, file keepers or just a general helper.

If you're interested in helping us out and have the time to dedicate to the 'Yard, drop me a line at mhaddy@the-junkyard.net. Skills can be taught. Benefits available :).

Free book drawing just 2 weeks away
ICDedPpl is EXTREMELY worried you might have forgotten that his Seventh Column chapter is running a giveaway for Halo: The Flood. If you haven't signed up yet, go do it. I'm learning what 'flood' means... (Louis Wu 02:26:19 UTC) (permalink)

For the 777th time...
I hate doing this - but some of you give me zero choice. :( Once again, there are items in our uploads folder that have no attribution (or worse, have SOME attribution, but not enough). If, for example, you've sent a movie that hasn't been posted, and you haven't received an email from us about it, do not resend the film. Rather... give us a way to contact you. Include your email address. Even if you don't want it published, include it in the readme (feel free to tell us not to publish it - we won't). We have no way of contacting you otherwise. And we're tired of getting the same file over and over, with us not posting it (for whatever reason) and you thinking we didn't get it and sending it again. If you're not willing to let us contact you privately, the likelihood is that we're not willing to host your creation. (Louis Wu 02:19:50 UTC) (permalink)

That should keep you busy for a little bit... (Louis Wu 22:50:19 UTC) (permalink)

Resurrection of an old movie
Blast from the Past: In early September, 1999, a now-defunct website called 'Total Halo' released a home-grown movie. I re-discovered that movie on my drive while looking for something this morning... and thought it was great. I've re-encoded it (to reduce its filesize from the original 6 mb to a more reasonable 1.4 mb), and made it available again. Remember: this was created more than 3 years before Halo was released, by a fansite. (I no longer have any way of contacting the creators, Ian and Colin Jackson - so if they see this, and aren't happy with the re-release, they're welcome to contact me and I'll yank it.) (Louis Wu 17:46:01 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Source comes online
th3gh05t writes to tell us of his new Halo website, Halo Source. Still under development, but always open to comments and suggestions. (Louis Wu 17:23:19 UTC) (permalink)

Gametype collection online
Ertai23 has set up a Halo Multiplayer Gametype Compendium; basically, an archive for various multiplayer variations. Check it out, and send him your favorites! (Louis Wu 16:06:50 UTC) (permalink)

Winged Monkeys, indeed.
Once again, scooped by Opie301 on my own dang site. Finn has updated the Halo Story page yet again, this time with some extensive fan speculation. Take a look! (Louis Wu 16:02:24 UTC) (permalink)

Play that funky webcam, white boy
We've mentioned recently that Cybrfrk has been archiving webcam images... he's just posted a few short movies to our forum, giving us a fast-forward glimpse into the Bungie world. Take a look! (Louis Wu 01:57:24 UTC) (permalink)

Authors should be careful that they fill out both Series names (if there is one) and Titles - and if there's NOT a series name, don't put the title in that box. (Louis Wu 15:25:23 UTC) (permalink)

Signups available for iGames Spring Season
CobaltNova points out the iGames Spring Season site is now accepting registrations. (We'd noted the site before, but until very recently, you couldn't actually register.) The two divisional tournaments are March 29 and April 19, with the regional championships on May 10, and the Divisional championships on May 31. (Louis Wu 09:58:20 UTC) (permalink)

Great deals coming soon
Team Overkill noticed a blurb on Xbox bundles over at Gamespy - this sounds like a deal... Halo, Amped, a DVD Remote, and a bunch of vouchers, for $59.95. Since this is being offered in Australia, that's presumably Australian dollars... meaning that you can get all that stuff for less than $36 US. Not bad! (That particular bundle goes onsale on April 3.) (Louis Wu 09:52:55 UTC) (permalink)

Partial update of the Miscellaneous section
Sadly, the Miscellaneous section of this site hadn't been updated since the end of November. I spent a goodly chunk of time classifying what needs to go in there since then (a couple of dozen items) - but I didn't get them all fully formatted. I got through about half of them, though - and you'll find those available now. (It's predominately material added during December, 2002.) There are a few nice pieces of Fan Music, some maps, icons, some artwork... a true potpourri of offerings. (All of it has been made available before, in the news section... but it's easy to miss stuff that way.) The rest will be added this weekend (along with the 10 movies not yet in the Movies section). (Louis Wu 01:37:22 UTC) (permalink)

Building a Better Chapter - Part 2
Last week, SketchFactor put up the first part of his 'Building a Better Chapter' article at Bungie.net. He has now posted Part Two - and for this one, he's interviewed five chapter founders for their ideas about what makes a good chapter. Get to readin'! (Louis Wu 00:29:32 UTC) (permalink)

Feed rate: 16bps+
Hehe - Roger Wilco came across an owner's manual for Halo. Pretty funny. (Louis Wu 22:37:25 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Done Quick - Part 1
A month ago, a pair from Canada sent in times for speed runs through the various levels of Halo, performed on Easy. Yesterday, Åstro and his partner, Coreman (Team Poughkeepsie), sent word (and a pair of films) of their work on the first of 10 levels... performed on Legendary. Their run of Pillar of Autumn is just a hair faster than Hartley and Copeland's... on a much rougher difficulty setting. The gauntlet, thrown down 4 months ago, now has some content behind it. The movie of this feat, which includes everything from the time the Bungie logo leaves the screen through the Level 2 loading screen, is available in both QuickTime and Windows Media Player 9 formats (25.6 and 18.6 mb, respectively) from Mythica.org, and both versions have been mirrored on the Psyjnir.com Hotline server. (We are happy, of course, to announce mirrors - just let us know if you put these up.) (Louis Wu 21:48:09 UTC) (permalink)

Arthur, eh?
Not that he's trying to get you to think, or anything... but Finn has updated the Halo Story page again with some intriguing speculation from our forum. Check it out! (Louis Wu 19:11:05 UTC) (permalink)

Best games in the UK?
Killer points out that you can vote for the best game in the UK - you won't be able to SEE the results (you have to watch Game Stars on ITV1, in the UK, for that), but heck, you can vote for Halo in 5 or 6 categories. (Louis Wu 14:29:37 UTC) (permalink)

Just a few stories
Is the flood ebbing? Fan Fiction increases by only three stories today:

Milkin' it
Interesting. Team Overkill points out a product available at various online sellers (a couple of links in the forum post) which contains the Halo National Championship on DVD. Price varies, but is below $10 at both links. It also comes with a bunch of Xbox demos. (Louis Wu 01:53:03 UTC) (permalink)

Halo on the cheap
Whoa - get it quick, while it lasts! ToysRUs, through Amazon.com, is currently offering Halo for $29.99 online. If the Best Buy promotion is anything to go on, this will only last a couple of days. If you need another copy of Halo (because you're playing more LAN fests, or because yours is scratched), here's your chance to save $20! Thanks to Jose Vasquez for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 20:56:40 UTC) (permalink)

A Tribute to Ar
Miguel Chavez has written up a stunning recap of Brian Morden's memorial service last month, over at Bungie Sightings. Read it, if only to see what a relationship primarily built through the internet can generate. (Louis Wu 20:38:19 UTC) (permalink)

Calvin Rocks.
Hehe- Warbow turns in Calvin and Halo number 5. Snowmen! (Spoilers, of a sort, for Halo virgins.) (Louis Wu 17:38:43 UTC) (permalink)

7th Column desktop
Pretty cool desktop image from Dave Driggs - it's not completely Halo-related (it's based on Bungie's 7th Column website), but it's close enough for government work. (Well, and I like it a lot.) You'll find it in our Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 10:23:59 UTC) (permalink)

If you don't see something you submitted, check your email. If you STILL can't figure out what's going on, make sure your submission met the fiction guidelines. (Louis Wu 10:10:13 UTC) (permalink)

Livin' in Slipstream
For the second time in three days, the Halo Story page has been updated. Finn AND mnemesis working? What is the world coming to? Go read. (Louis Wu 19:20:13 UTC) (permalink)

Another link - multiplayer stuff
Break Point points out another site - his Halo Amateur League, set up for XboxConnect tournaments. Take a look if you're into online gaming! (Louis Wu 18:42:39 UTC) (permalink)

Carnage for the Holidays - a little late
John Yates points out a pretty funny little film over at G4Tv. It's called Happy Halo Days, and was obviously made for the Christmas season - but this is the first we've heard of it. It's in streaming Windows Media format; I couldn't find any tools that actually saved this puppy. Check it out! (Louis Wu 18:35:40 UTC) (permalink)

Gaming on MTV
th3gh05t points out that MTV is going to be showing an episode of 'True Life' called 'I am a gamer'. It looks at the life of videogame players. Showtime is 10pm. If there are Halo sightings, we'll let you know. (Louis Wu 17:23:40 UTC) (permalink)

Lots and lots and lots and LOTS of stories
Pretty hefty-sized Fan Fiction update this evening:

The bugs continue to be worked out of the system. If you run into trouble submitting a story, please send email, explaining EXACTLY what you did, and EXACTLY what error you got. With your help, we'll weed out the last few stragglers! (Louis Wu 01:46:11 UTC) (permalink)

Oooh... that's nice.
Cybrfrk captured a fleeting glimpse of an Elite action figure in progress that showed up on the Bungie webcam today. (More pictures in this forum thread.) (Louis Wu 20:20:55 UTC) (permalink)

Niven talks to /.
Yesterday, Slashdot posted an interview with Larry Niven (creator of Ringworld, and this pseudonym I use). Halo gets a tiny mention, and there's a small subthread leading off from it related to the game. Thanks to Ghôlsbane for the heads-up on this one - although he sent word yesterday, it took a forum post by Adam Daniel to get me off my duff and writing. (Louis Wu 18:13:51 UTC) (permalink)

Blood Gulch Ballet
Okay, I'm probably gonna get some flak for this one, because of all the movies we've declined to host recently... but hear me out. Rory Hartley and Bill Copeland put together a movie they called 'Blood Gulch Ballet.' It's three and a half minutes of Blood Gulch gameplay, set to classical music. (I recognize the piece, but can't name it.) It weighs in at 15.4 mb; it's smaller than it was when it was submitted, but I didn't reduce the quality very much. (It wasn't great to begin with.) What tipped the balance for me were three things:

There are some really nice moves in here

We haven't posted movies recently, so Mythica's not heavily loaded

It was dedicated to Brian Morden (sue me, I'm sentimental)

Grab the QuickTime-encoded movie at Mythica.org, or the Psyjnir Complex Hotline server. Update: Thanks to Ninja on Fire and Stuntmutt, who both pointed out that the music is Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Flight of the Bumblebee'. (Appropriate, no?) If you're ever in Portland, Oregon, look for Rimsky-Korsakoffee's, the best coffee house in the northwest. (I miss it.) (Louis Wu 16:31:12 UTC) (permalink)

And the Desktops, too
Six new desktops for you, too, in our Wallpaper section. Some rockin' good stuff in there... (Louis Wu 10:28:59 UTC) (permalink)

Gettin' out the Artwork
Once again, the art queue has built, a little bit. Here are five pictures submitted to the Miscellaneous Art section over the past few days... Update: Gah, missed one. It's from almost 2 weeks ago, even. (Louis Wu 10:13:29 UTC) (permalink)

More traditional news outlet coverage
Following up on yesterday's news glut on the Halo 2 'delay', JPSartre points out that CNN Headline News is currently running a piece on how Halo is being pushed back. (It's titled 'Hello Halo'.) Let's hope the coverage of the actual GAME is this big... (Louis Wu 10:00:42 UTC) (permalink)

Halo50K Registration - Do It Now
The Halo50K Tournament is fast approaching (less than seven weeks away now), and in an attempt to clarify who's coming and who's just talking, the deadline on the $75/person ($300/team) entry fee is March 22 - after that date, the fee goes up to $360/team. Get your money in soon! (Louis Wu 09:15:15 UTC) (permalink)

IGN Talks about Melody
music.ign.com has put up an article about a panel of musicians that convened to discuss the importance of melody in video game music. Apparently, there were some major audio/video problems - but some interesting discussion was still reported. Marty O'Donnell was among the group (which is why it's getting a writeup here), and he had some several comments about the purpose melody serves in a video game:

"But you don't want to keep repeating that over and over again, you want to have it play, but you want to have it always played in some place that people go 'Oh yeah, that's Halo ' And to me there's nothing more valuable to brand a game than to have some sort of melody that is instantly connected with it and it's in everybody's head."

Read it soon, since it'll likely be behind the IGN Insider barrier before too long. (Thanks to Doggone for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 09:07:45 UTC) (permalink)

The navy says 'Halo!'
Pretty cool - TechTV has an article (and an associated video) about videogame playing on US military submarines. The funny thing about the video - though everyone talks generally about 'videogames', and 'playing games', the 5 or 6 clips of actual gameplay are all...yup, you guessed it, Halo. Not another game in sight. Thanks to Tirion (shameless Psyjnir fanboi) for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 00:23:18 UTC) (permalink)

Halo-Se is no more
The Swedish Halo site Halo-Se is being taken down (lack of staff, it seems). We'll yank it from our Links page soon. (Thanks to BOLL for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 00:02:56 UTC) (permalink)

The History of Halo
Red Loser, who seems to want his own day (but started WAY too late to succeed, sorry pal), has written up a History of Halo: Combat Evolved which brings to light some heretofore little-known tidbits. Or maybe just the type of mushrooms he's been eating lately. (Louis Wu 19:48:24 UTC) (permalink)

Halo and the Bible, revisited
Red Loser has put together an interesting page of speculation linking Halo to the Bible. He let us know about this yesterday, but time constraints kept it from getting posted; for the masses, he referenced it on our forum. It's worth a read, if you're at all interested in what RL calls 'The Persecution Parallel.' (Louis Wu 19:35:30 UTC) (permalink)

To Spam, or Not To Spam
Red Loser, a forum regular, has written up a Guide to Recognizing Spam. (No, not the luncheon meat... the annoying blather that sometimes fills our forum.) The aim is to give people guidelines on what does, and doesn't, constitute spam on the forum, in order to improve the overall signal-to-noise ratio. Worth a read, if you're a regular forum poster. (Louis Wu 13:57:40 UTC) (permalink)

War, the Stock Market... and Halo 2
Wow. The 'Not in 2003' news on Halo 2 is big enough to be reported by Reuters. Now that's impressive for a videogame release date status update... (Thanks to mnemesis for the heads-up.) Update: Griffon points out that it made the BBC news, as well. When was the last time you saw this sort of coverage for a videogame development status update? Update 2: Hehe - just to be complete, poena.dare (whose day it is not) has compiled a sizeable list of news sites that have grabbed this story. Wonga. (Louis Wu 13:20:50 UTC) (permalink)

Fan Fiction Flood Continues
And the Fan Fiction keeps rolling in. The latest installments:

I'm still working glitches out (this is the first major section to come online without rigorous testing, and the first to be subjected to some pretty serious diversity in user sophistication), but we're getting there! (Louis Wu 01:21:43 UTC) (permalink)

Where are the snowmen?
If you're like me, there are certain comics that simply made you sad when they stopped. Bloom County, The Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes... well, our very own Warbow has resurrected one of these classics and updated it for the present day. We're proud to bring you the first four strips of Calvin and Halo. As more get added, we'll let you know. (Louis Wu 22:01:45 UTC) (permalink)

Bugs in the system... workin' out
Fan Fiction writers: early submitters have pointed up a couple of errors in the system. The biggest one, however, was simply a misunderstanding; folks didn't seem to be able to figure out my explanation of why their 'filename' was being rejected. I've rewritten a section of the directions to clarify this problem. (Scroll down to 'Title'.) Also, some of you actually tried submitting stories while I was working on the page last night; you probably got errors. Two stories were recovered (Ultra Sonic 007 and Tygpj) - if you don't see a submission you made in the next update (later today), drop me email or try again. (Louis Wu 16:59:24 UTC) (permalink)

Fan Fiction - Open for Real
::crosses fingers:: Okay, I'm approving the first batch of user-submitted Fan Fiction; here's hoping it all works properly. Stories for you today:

Go get 'em! (Don't forget to let us know if there are any problems...) (Louis Wu 01:55:02 UTC) (permalink)

The Case of the Missing Screenshots
I'm fallin' out of my seat, laughin'. We got a note from ed, asking us if we knew anything about the new Halo 2 shots showing at Giga.de, a german TV affiliate of NBC-Europe. In ed's words,

Giga is a well-known show about all sorts of internet-themes, and I don't think they would lie, but I wonder if these pics are real, because they have no Bungie-logo on them, and they are still not shown at BungieÇs T&R-site.

To see the pics, follow this link, then hit the 'Shots'N'Pics' link underneath the action figure picture. Alternatively, here's the frame in question. When you're all done, follow this link, posted on our news last week, and if you want, you can even follow the internal links from there for the original source. When you're all done with that, sit back, laugh, and then send Roger Wilco some email, telling him just how cool his work really is. (ed, you were right to be suspicious... but if you ask me, those are good enough to be in the game anyway.) (Louis Wu 01:46:13 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2 dates
PlanetXbox has posted what they call a 'narrowed down' release date of Halo 2: someone who works for PXB who was at the GDC heard from someone that the 'slated release date' is Q1 2004. Now, given that Matt Soell (who is DEFINITELY more of a known quantity than an unknown source at a gaming conference talking to an unnamed staffer of a general Xbox site) has said, as recently as yesterday that there is nothing more firm than '2004', this info should be taken with a grain (okay, a pound or two) of salt... but we didn't want a few dozen of you writing to let us know that you KNOW when Halo 2 is gonna be released, and we're way behind on the news. (Thanks to Team Overkill for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 00:03:35 UTC) (permalink)

Fan Fiction... Ready for Prime Time?
Okay, I think it's ready. The Fan Fiction section now has an online submission form, and it's the ONLY way we'll accept stories. (Upload them, or email them to us, we'll politely point you to the form, the first time. After that, we'll simply discard them.) Now, it's been tested, but not RIGOROUSLY tested; I figured authors wanted it online more than they wanted assurances that there are zero bugs left in the code. This means that if you're a Fan Fiction author, make sure you keep a backup of your story until you see it on the site. If you run into a problem, tell us - we can't fix what we don't know about. All that said, go to it - read the revised guidelines, then head to the submission form, and submit your story according to the directions listed. Stories will be reviewed and approved once a day or so. (Louis Wu 11:40:25 UTC) (permalink)

What would YOU call it?
Hehe... BOLL is building a new desktop, and needs help with a caption. Do your stuff. Update: Looks like BOLL changed his mind - he doesn't want captions. (The pic is still worth looking at, though...) (Louis Wu 10:45:47 UTC) (permalink)

GDC Ninja Visit
Forum regular Shishka was at the Game Developer Conference yesterday; you can see his report (and a few pics) in this forum thread. I want one of those 'Make Your Mother Proud' signs! Update: Dan Chosich pointed out an article at HomeLAN Fed on the talk given by the Bungie folks on Halo. It's not very extensive, but there are some interesting tidbits:

Bungie created most of their own development tools for Halo and demoed them to the audience but unforunately their level design tool called Sapien didn't work completely during the panel so people were not able to see how Halo levels actually look inside the editor.

Go read the rest! Update 2: poena.dare found some more GDC coverage at GameSpy - I'd point to it directly, but his article at Bungie Sightings is a must-not-miss. (Louis Wu 10:43:14 UTC) (permalink)

If You Build It, They Will Come
Interested in making a decent chapter site at Bungie's Seventh Column? Well, sit right down and read what SketchFactor has to say on the subject - after you read his 'Building a Better Chapter' article, you'll be on your way to a fantastic home for your group! (Louis Wu 04:24:00 UTC) (permalink)

Wanna free copy of Halo?
Forerunners.org is giving away a copy of Halo - all you have to do is sign up by March 31. Visit their Giveaways page for more details. (Thanks to B.net for the heads-up.) (Louis Wu 19:56:21 UTC) (permalink)

Wallpapers Updated
Seven desktops for you - you'll find 'em in our Wallpaper section. Back to Fanfic... (Louis Wu 19:45:35 UTC) (permalink)

Misc Art updated
I've been lax about image submissions recently - busy with the Fan Fiction backend, I guess. Here's the first batch - 6 images for the Miscellaneous Art section. (Once again, there are a number of uploaded images I could not include, because they came with no attribution... and several people, not seeing their artwork displayed within a day or two of uploading it, decided they needed to upload it again. Servers don't usually lose files, folks - if you're unsure about whether we got something, send us email. You don't need to email us the item - simply a note asking whether it's still queued will do. Or... even better, just be patient. Thanks!) (Louis Wu 18:58:09 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 2: out in 2004
Matt Soell has posted a news item on Bungie.net about Halo 2's release date - it will not be shipping in 2003. They're not willing to rush the project in order to make the Holiday deadline. on the plus side, Matt states that Halo 2 will be shown at E3 in May. Straight from the horse's mouth... (Louis Wu 18:36:59 UTC) (permalink)

Team 7hr33 Revamps
One of the earliest Halo Trickster teams, and one of the most impressive, Team 7hr33 has overhauled its website. Most of the changes are under the hood, so it'll LOOK the same... but there've been a few very nice additions. Most importantly, though, is new content... and there's quite a bit of that. Hit the most recent Movies page, and you'll find some pretty cool clips. Likewise, there's new content in the Stills section, the Spooky section, and the Outtakes section. And that's just the Halo media stuff! Poke around... there's lots of fun stuff there. (Louis Wu 16:30:29 UTC) (permalink)

The Emperor Has No Pants (Anymore)
Bungie's Pants Contest is over... Alex Edwards was 7 cents shy of the correct total of $50.57. (That's almost twice what I'd have guessed was in there... I think I got the size wrong.) There are more details (and a better writeup) in the B.net article, so go read it. (Louis Wu 02:29:17 UTC) (permalink)

HBO XBL Gamertag update, and news on Fanfic
The HBO XBL Gamertags list has become slightly more functional - you can now (finally) limit your search to a specific starting letter (either HBO Forum Name, or XBL Gamertag, or, if you're clever, both). For Fan Fiction authors who are getting frantic to submit their work, take heart; this change was made because I needed some code off this page for the new Fiction Submission system, and figured while I was there, I'd add the two lines necessary. If all goes well, there'll be a way to submit Fan Fiction by the weekend. (Louis Wu 22:25:17 UTC) (permalink)

Sighting Bungie
Pallor reminds us that some of the Bungie guys will be attending the Game Developers Conference this week:

Keep your pants on
Yesterday, there were several posts on our forum revolving around the Pants on the Bungie webcam (which were opened yesterday, and their contents counted). Bungie.net will be posting the winner of the contest soon (probably today), but in the meantime, if you missed the Opening of the Pants, Cybrfrk has graciously provided a recap. (You know it's a slow day when we're putting up news of the opening of Bungie's pants...) (Louis Wu 15:06:54 UTC) (permalink)

Holy Carnage
Gonna be anywhere near south central Connecticut at the end of this month? Come visit. (Louis Wu 13:18:40 UTC) (permalink)

Movie Submissions Rejected
Folks have GOT to learn to read: There are four (count 'em, 4) new movies in our uploads folder in WMP9 format. There are no alternatives for any of these - which means we (on Macs) can't watch them, which means we (as maintainers of this site) can't post 'em. There's a note, in big bold letters (some of them even red) at the top of the Movies section stating clearly that movies submitted ONLY in WMP9 format CANNOT be posted; does that need to be replaced with blinking text? (WMP9 movies are happily accepted, when there is an alternative version in a more mac-friendly version (MPEG, MOV, most AVI), as well. WMP8 or 7 versions are fine, too.) If you submitted a movie recently, in WMP9 format exclusively, and you wonder why we're ignoring it... this is why. (Louis Wu 10:39:23 UTC) (permalink)

Halo: Ringworld... almost
poena.dare, man-about-town, has discovered a very interesting tidbit of chatlog from Larry Niven's website, in which he discusses the fact that he was approached about writing a Halo novel (and that he turned down the invite). Now that would have been an interesting news post by Louis Wu, wouldn't it have? pd also had this to say:

I will not be at the WCG 2003 Tournament.

I will not be at the Michigan LANFest.

I had nothing to do with Haloplayers being down.

I am NOT Bungie Studios! Bungie Studios are bungie.com.

It is unclear how much of this is true. (Well, the Niven bit is, at least.) (Louis Wu 23:13:44 UTC) (permalink)

Halo chosen for the WCG 2003 Tournament
Interesting. The World Cyber Games Organizing Committee has announced two titles to represent console games in the WCG 2003 Tourney: Halo and SSX Tricky. This rounds out the total list of 8 games to be played at this year's contest.To be chosen to represent consoles in a traditionally PC-oriented competition is a notable honor; moreso because the category (first-person shooters) is one that many PC gamers feel consoles will NEVER perform well in. Thanks to kappa for the heads-up. poena.dare couldn't be reached for comment - his handler mentioned something about handcuffs... and a tennis ball. (Louis Wu 22:41:21 UTC) (permalink)

Michigan LANFest has cool prizes
The Grand Rapids Frag Pile had another LAN party recently, called SWAMPCANDLE. (There was a small contest on the Frag Pile's Seventh Column chapter site concerning this image of the prize trophy... but it's over now. A larger version of the image is available on the contest page, should you want to play along.) What you should take away from this is that some gaming groups put together some pretty dang cool trophies for their players! (poena.dare, living in a dumpster in Arequipa, Peru, was too far away to attend this fragfest.) (Louis Wu 20:45:39 UTC) (permalink)

Haloplayers - down but not out
Bad news for Haloplayers - their host managed to delete the website, with no backups. :( They're rebuilding from scratch, and will be back up asap. (poena.dare had nothing to do with this mixup, as far as we can tell. You never know, though...) (Louis Wu 19:58:47 UTC) (permalink)

Feed Your Head
Whoa. Major Story page update - Finn goes crazy. No details, because who knows, some non-spoiler types might be reading this... but a serious dent has been put into the backlog. (And to ensure that poena.dare makes it into every news post today, Finn included a wonderful Jefferson Airplane sendup by... well, you know.) (Louis Wu 18:59:38 UTC) (permalink)

Interview with Brannon Boren
poena."I wanna be in all of the news articles today"dare points out that he's posted an interview with Brannon Boren over at Bungie Sightings. Brannon is a Microsoft contractor who (among other tasks) helps integrate the Halo storyline across various products (Halo videogames, books, etc). He's also the man behind Dr. Catherine Halsey. For more details, read the interview; it'll give you a nice background on how the development process works! (We've added it to our Interviews section.) (Louis Wu 17:32:36 UTC) (permalink)

Your favorite gametype?
poena.dare points out that Bungie.net has posted a new poll: "Which Halo gametype do you enjoy the most?" (He also has pretty strong feelings on what your answer should be - but then, there wouldn't be need for a poll if you all agreed with him, so go vote!) (Louis Wu 15:58:47 UTC) (permalink)

One last Hacking movie for you
Last month, the rage was to see what could be done with a hacked copy of Halo. Most folks seem to be ready to move on, since the benefits of hacking require more risk than they're willing to take... but before we go, we've got one more film for you. This one is from Dozi, as the very first pair of hacked movies were - but this one has had quite a bit more time put into the soundtrack. Some clips you've seen before, some you haven't - but the overall effect is quite enjoyable. It's 16 megs, in QuickTime format, and runs about 3:39 in length. We don't normally post multiple movies in a single day, but it's a special occasion. Watch MoreHackinFun, and say goodnight to Hacking movies! (Louis Wu 19:32:27 UTC) (permalink)

You Can Dance If You Want To
In keeping with our desire to eliminate the backlogged movie queue, we present to you Jiberish Halo Productions' version of 'Halo Safety Dance'. It's 9.6 mb, 1:17 long, in QT format, and brings back memories of the early 80's. At the very least, it should bring a smile to your face. Thanks to Brian Towne and Mythica.org for the hosting. (For those keeping track, this film contains game spoilers.) (Louis Wu 14:51:08 UTC) (permalink)

Oh, Baby...
Last year, Bungie introduced Halo Babies, whose first season aired on Fox through last October. The show is currently in syndication - but it's unclear whether the second and third season will ever air. Bungie Sightings gadfly poena.dare has managed to dig up the full three-season Episode Guide, however, and we now present it to you in its entirety. (Louis Wu 02:13:58 UTC) (permalink)

Cortana: stiff but pretty
For all those burning questions you might have about the Halo action figures... Mehve has put together a FAQ at Bungie.net for you. Did you know they were planning a UNSC Marine action figure with an interchangeable head? Well, they are. Check it out. (Louis Wu 02:12:04 UTC) (permalink)

More pics for your eyes
A number of images posted recently on our forum (plus a couple that came in via email) have made their way into our Miscellaneous Art collection. Take a look! (Louis Wu 23:05:32 UTC) (permalink)

Delay that, Marine!
Once again, xbill comes up with a technique that will make the lives of Halo Tricksters everywhere just a little bit easier. Read his forum post for a way to delay checkpoints until you're in the position you want to be in. This could save you hours, if you're, say, launching vehicles! (Louis Wu 21:37:16 UTC) (permalink)

The Hoody is Here!
Woohoo! The new hooded sweatshirt is finally available at the Bungie Store. $30 ($32 for XXL) puts the MC on your chest and a hood on your head. Check it out! (Louis Wu 20:41:35 UTC) (permalink)

Banner section updated
A new HBO-themed banner has been submitted to our Banners section... (Louis Wu 19:23:52 UTC) (permalink)

Under the Icons
A pair of desktops for you today - black Halo. Check out the Wallpaper section. (Louis Wu 17:56:45 UTC) (permalink)

Fanfest? mmm...
Bungie Fanfest 2003? Cybrfrk noticed that the Bungie Webcam has changed to a closeup of the white (paper?) that's been in the left of the frame for days... is this a preview of the invite that will go out for, say, a fanfest that might be linked to E3 2003? (Louis Wu 17:38:17 UTC) (permalink)

Fans - they're what make this game tick.
Couple of totally random images for you today - Wraith0x (winner of the Silliest Email Address Ever award) sent in this single webcam frame, captured last friday when Cortana stopped by the Bungie offices. And James Loosli, headed to a color guard competition (as he says, "think hundreds of girls in spandex"), made up a homebrew Halo t-shirt that fared rather better than he did in the lovin' department. I love this job. (Louis Wu 16:13:25 UTC) (permalink)

BG: Off the table for off-the-map
To all the people who have suddenly begun to send us 'new ways out of Blood Gulch' (after months of silence on the subject, we've gotten half a dozen messages in the past few days, from different people): The top of Blood Gulch is COMPLETELY tapped out, tricks-wise. To get out, you can use a ghost to climb the walls (Cal showed the technique, and then Geeoff and later Destr0yer expanded on it), you can tank-flip (described by Brizzle a long time ago; I'm not sure if it was ever documented on film), you can Sidewinder-sneak out of a whole bunch of locations. Finding a new location to get up, using one of these methods, does NOT constitute a new trick; they're all documented, and people can experiment all they want. (I bet there are 2-dozen-plus sneakable places around the walls... we simply don't need that many films of the same technique in slightly different locations each time.) I'm sure there are still tricks to discover with respect to BG - but climbing out of the map is no longer on the list. Thanks! (Louis Wu 14:21:15 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Ringtone - Deluxe
Wow. If you've got a phone with a polyphonic ringer, check this out. (Even if you don't, listen to the midi file. It's pretty dang impressive.) Thanks to Team Overkill for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 04:28:50 UTC) (permalink)

Jimmies and a lobster bib?
There's another Dogsounds Art Challenge brewing on our forum. Rules are here. (At some point soon, we'll put up a page of the submissions to his first challenge - but as far as I can tell, he moved the deadline back because he hadn't gotten around to entering himself, so it's not quite over.) (Louis Wu 01:59:17 UTC) (permalink)

The last of the stories - for a while.
Here is the last Fan Fiction update until I can get a user-operated form up and running. Luckily, it's a huge number of stories - should keep you busy for a while.

Do not submit any more fan fiction. Thank you.
I give up. Fiction is now coming in faster than I can actually process it. As of this moment (timestamp on this article), the fan fiction section is closed. Stories received before this point (and I think we're up to 18, in the past 48 hours) will be processed sometime tomorrow morning (by 17:00 utc). After that, I'll build a form for story input - there'll be almost no formatting, but you can write to your hearts' content. I simply cannot spend 6 hours per day formatting stories any more. (Louis Wu 04:16:01 UTC) (permalink)

Glitches - still out there!
Whoa. The Trickstering continues. Two new tricks have popped up on our forum today - NJ_HitMan found a place on top of 343GS where the player becomes invisible, seen from the point of view of his coop partner (details and a movie in this thread, and more details in this one) - and xbill, long silent on our forum, has found a way to get a warthog and several marines past the first barrier in the Silent Cartographer ocean. Halo tricks are alive and well - there's still plenty of stuff to find! (Louis Wu 18:43:29 UTC) (permalink)

New Desktop Goodies at B.net
Posted last night - Bungie.net has updated their Wallpapers section to include a cool new desktop that uses the image that will be found on the new Halo novel to be released next month. (The original artwork can also be found in the Gallery.) Of course, if you're still trying to avoid spoilers, don't look at this... (Louis Wu 17:18:42 UTC) (permalink)

Another Framework mirror, and a new hacking vid
Dinky has added a mirror for the small version of the Halo50K Framework film at HaloJuggaloProductions - and because the mirrors have handled the strain, we're going to continue with the clearing of the movie queue. First up is a film submitted about a month ago (yes, it's been a while) - it's called Hackin Halo! (no relation to HackinHaloFun), and was made by HNN productions. It's available in both WMP9 (11 mb) and QuickTime 5 (13.7 mb) formats at mythica.org, and both versions are mirrored at the Psyjnir Complex Hotline server. It's basically another compilation of what can be done with a modded Xbox, much as the ones released last month were. (There are some new tricks shown here.) Enjoy this, and the Framework film if you haven't grabbed it yet! (Louis Wu 14:06:27 UTC) (permalink)

Hmm... Ultimate Halo Companion?
Johnny points out an interesting product at EB Games - preorder Brute Force, and you'll receive a free Ultimate Halo Companion DVD Set. There's a picture of the product (mirrored locally in case it disappears)... but no description. If we find out what this is, we'll let you know! (Louis Wu 12:37:40 UTC) (permalink)

Blam comics
Stosh has put up a new comic at blam.moap.net - I hope this one doesn't prove to be true. (There's also another Halo-related one that I hadn't seen before...) (Louis Wu 12:30:08 UTC) (permalink)

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March 2003 Archived News