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Speaker 1: Stuff from how stuff flix dot com. Hello again, everyone,
Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Polette
Speaker 1: and I'm an editor at how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: Sitting across me, as usual, is the person who just
Speaker 1: accused me of being too energetic, Senior writer Jonathan Strickland program.
Speaker 1: I just blew out everyone's ears. Yeah, yeah, she did,
Speaker 1: Sorry about that. So today we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: something we've actually had requests about this for ages. We've
Speaker 1: had people ask us about Halo and the games of Halo,
Speaker 1: and all my notes are about Beyonce. Is that a
Speaker 1: problem you can see your Halo? Yeah, that is a
Speaker 1: problem in more ways than one. But we'll talk about
Speaker 1: that after the show. So we want to talk about
Speaker 1: the games of Halo and sort of the development the
Speaker 1: story of Halo, if you will, because to talk about
Speaker 1: the technology that's within Halo is kind of silly in
Speaker 1: a way because the games are set in the twenty
Speaker 1: sixth century, and as it turns out, the technology of
Speaker 1: the twenty six century is different from the technology we
Speaker 1: have today. In order to explain how things would work,
Speaker 1: we'd have to make stuff up. Well, we've talked about
Speaker 1: the tartists, yes, and we had to make stuff up.
Speaker 1: Uh So, not entirely. We're gonna talk about kind of
Speaker 1: the development of these games and when, where they came from,
Speaker 1: and how they evolved over time. Uh So, let's let's
Speaker 1: cast our minds back to the mid nineties. Actually, if
Speaker 1: you don't mind, I'd like to go back just a
Speaker 1: hair further. Oh all right, you go round on the
Speaker 1: head just just a little. I will follow you wherever
Speaker 1: you may go. Um, there's a song in there. Somewhere
Speaker 1: there is a mountain two high. A couple of a
Speaker 1: couple of guys, Alexander's Seropian and uh Jason Jones. Um
Speaker 1: basically got together. They had both been working on writing software. Um.
Speaker 1: In fact, Alexander came up with the amazing game, which
Speaker 1: was a clone of Pong called knop Ah. So what
Speaker 1: did you play a ball that had knock paddles back
Speaker 1: and forth? Um? Well, I don't know. I actually haven't
Speaker 1: seen stuff. But they essentially they got together. They wanted
Speaker 1: to do this. Uh for well, let let me start
Speaker 1: by saying this all of all of you out there
Speaker 1: who have a project, and I'm speaking to myself also
Speaker 1: in addition, UM, who have a project and you want
Speaker 1: to do it, not because you want to become the
Speaker 1: next billionaire, but mostly because you can, and you just
Speaker 1: trying to get motivated to see what happens if you
Speaker 1: can do it, but you just haven't gotten there yet. Listen,
Speaker 1: you know, to the story of of Jason and Alexander.
Speaker 1: Not Jason Alexander. That's different, UM, because they essentially started
Speaker 1: writing these programs because they wanted to see if they
Speaker 1: could do it. And at least according to the information
Speaker 1: I dug up on the Bungee website, UM, because what
Speaker 1: what they essentially did was they started writing software and
Speaker 1: they wanted to see if they could sell it. And
Speaker 1: they were selling, you know, a couple of thousand copies
Speaker 1: copies of their early games like Minotaur, UM. And then
Speaker 1: you know, they they basically made it through the early
Speaker 1: nineties and started Bungee, this software company that was making
Speaker 1: games primarily for the Macintosh simply because um, that was
Speaker 1: the operating system they knew well more than any other really, UM.
Speaker 1: And they they started growing bigger and bigger, and they
Speaker 1: were one of many UH Macintosh game developers in the
Speaker 1: early to mid nineties. Um, but you know, they they
Speaker 1: moved up. As as Jonathan was get ready to say
Speaker 1: before I interrupted him so harshly. Um, you know they
Speaker 1: with every game they released, they were gradually more successful.
Speaker 1: And Uh. But one of the things is that they
Speaker 1: wanted to create games that had something more to them
Speaker 1: than just uh, straight gameplay. They wanted to have a
Speaker 1: story and a narrative that went along with it exactly.
Speaker 1: And and in the mid nineties, Bungee, which was called
Speaker 1: Bungee Software Products Corporation at the time, began to work
Speaker 1: on a series of games called Marathon. It's called the
Speaker 1: Marathon Trilogy. There's Marathon, Marathon to Durandall, and Marathon Infinity,
Speaker 1: which were released in nine respectively. And Uh. These games
Speaker 1: set up a science fiction, futuristic world. They were first
Speaker 1: person shooter games. They were for the Mac platform, so
Speaker 1: therefore the mac os and UH you took the role
Speaker 1: of a character who was aboard at least in the
Speaker 1: first game, you were board a colony ship called Marathon.
Speaker 1: And Uh. There were certain themes that were created in
Speaker 1: this game that would later end up re emerging in
Speaker 1: the Halo series, So having a first person shooter having
Speaker 1: to be a science fiction setting. Uh. There were aliens
Speaker 1: in the games, and of course in the Halo series
Speaker 1: there aliens. Will talk about them in a minute, Uh.
Speaker 1: They It also created the idea and this is not
Speaker 1: unique of course to games that Bungees created, but it
Speaker 1: created the idea of a an ancient civilization that's responsible
Speaker 1: for some incredibly sophisticated technology that has since been lost.
Speaker 1: Everybody else, like you occasionally come across a remnant of
Speaker 1: it and you think, wow, this must be really amazing
Speaker 1: and maybe this can still work in some capacity, but
Speaker 1: you have very little understanding of it. That was sort
Speaker 1: of established in these games. Also, another important element that
Speaker 1: ended up playing a big role in various parts of
Speaker 1: Halo is the idea of artificial intelligence. So you have
Speaker 1: these these personalities, these AI personalities that are individuals. You know,
Speaker 1: they have a sense of identity and personality. Um. And
Speaker 1: the idea of an AI going rampant, rampantcy rampantcy is
Speaker 1: in the Marathon universe and also somewhat in the Halo universe.
Speaker 1: This idea that an AI can become not only self
Speaker 1: aware but self actualized, like it can start to behave
Speaker 1: on its own, and it starts to lose coherence insanity
Speaker 1: over time, so that it actually starts to break down,
Speaker 1: and it can become a dangerous thing. This this AI
Speaker 1: can become destructive, and it can become resentful of its creators,
Speaker 1: of the whatever physical construct it inhabits. And these are
Speaker 1: ideas that also carry over into the Halo Universe to
Speaker 1: some extent. We haven't seen a lot of it in
Speaker 1: the direct Halo games, but a lot of it has
Speaker 1: come out in the various novels, um and other tie
Speaker 1: ins to the Halo universe, including one that I'll talk
Speaker 1: about briefly, Uh, the Red Versus Blue series. You know,
Speaker 1: we had the creator of that series, Bernie Burns, We
Speaker 1: had him on our show not too long ago to
Speaker 1: talk about the development of Red Versus Blue. Well, Red
Speaker 1: Versus Blue also continues this idea of rampancy and AI. Uh.
Speaker 1: It becomes a very central part of the story in
Speaker 1: Red Versus Blue. So they sort of took that same
Speaker 1: sort that same idea and adapted it for their story. Now,
Speaker 1: keep in mind, the Red Versus Blue universe and the
Speaker 1: Halo universe are kind of uh like cousins. You know,
Speaker 1: the Red versus Blue universe does not directly tie into
Speaker 1: the story of Halo. They just kind of splits splits off,
Speaker 1: sort of like the Evil Goatee version of Spock and uh.
Speaker 1: The Marathon Games took place in the twenty eight and
Speaker 1: twenty ninth centuries, so it actually, from the perspective of Halo,
Speaker 1: takes place in the future. Right. Anyway, the Marathon Universe
Speaker 1: and the Halo universe are a kind of spiritual cousins,
Speaker 1: but not directly related. So the the things that happened
Speaker 1: in Halo are not necessarily things that will take place
Speaker 1: in the history of the Marathon Universe. It's just meant
Speaker 1: to Like, some of the ideas that came up in
Speaker 1: Marathon also came up in Halo. So the Marathon games
Speaker 1: come out for the Mac in the nineties and in
Speaker 1: nine one other element I meant to mention, all three
Speaker 1: of those games had very important story elements. What you
Speaker 1: were talking about, this idea of creating a story. They
Speaker 1: had very important story elements that would be told to
Speaker 1: the player through the use of terminals that had these
Speaker 1: Ai personalities inhabiting them, and you would get missions through
Speaker 1: the terminals, you would also get more information about the
Speaker 1: world and the mythology that was being built around this
Speaker 1: whole game system or a series of games rather and
Speaker 1: UH and Bungee was very proud of that, and it
Speaker 1: was again a very central part of this game, and
Speaker 1: it kind of set it apart from other first person shooters,
Speaker 1: which when you get boiled down to it, a lot
Speaker 1: of first person shooters essentially boiled down to You're a
Speaker 1: dude in a place with a lot of bad guys,
Speaker 1: you got a gun, try to get to the other
Speaker 1: side of the map, like that's the that's the extent
Speaker 1: of the story for a lot of these games, and
Speaker 1: Bungee wanted to make something a little more deep and complex. Well,
Speaker 1: Bungee announced the successor to the Marathon series in a way,
Speaker 1: again the spiritual successor, and this was the Halo game UH.
Speaker 1: In fact, originally it was thought of as just a
Speaker 1: standalone game Halo what would eventually become Halo Combat evolved
Speaker 1: and the first unveiling of this was it wasn't early
Speaker 1: an official unveiling, but they held closed door sessions at
Speaker 1: E three and where they would invite certain people to
Speaker 1: come back and see the game that was in development,
Speaker 1: and at this time it was in development for the Mac. Yeah.
Speaker 1: One of the things that that Bungee did, um well
Speaker 1: Marathon really established him is one of the leaders in
Speaker 1: Mac game development, and um you know talking about that
Speaker 1: in the mid nineties is basically establishing yourself among a
Speaker 1: small handful of other developers really, um because gaming for
Speaker 1: the Mac at that time was just not that strong.
Speaker 1: Speaking as a Mac user of that time, yeah, their
Speaker 1: their entire videos online from that era that are devoted
Speaker 1: to you know, the the laments of the Mac gamer. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well there um uh Bungee and Blizzard both were very
Speaker 1: devoted to the Mac and UH Marathon was something of
Speaker 1: a appointed pride in a way for a lot of
Speaker 1: my friends who um, you know, there were there were games.
Speaker 1: There were gamers in the Windows side who were interested
Speaker 1: in playing and they couldn't because they had a PC.
Speaker 1: Well they did port. Um they began to port the
Speaker 1: UH Marathon series over two windows. Um and you know
Speaker 1: they became a Bungee became a more um, well rounded developer.
Speaker 1: They started releasing things for Windows and Mac. But um
Speaker 1: uh you know, they had a series of others like
Speaker 1: myth the Myth series. One into UM, which was you know,
Speaker 1: sort of a strategy type game you weren't playing as
Speaker 1: a as a third player, the third person game UM,
Speaker 1: and then UH and then Only, which was sort of
Speaker 1: a third person shooter. I am actually wearing my on
Speaker 1: E T shirt which I got in Mac World. UH.
Speaker 1: And they when they announced Halo at Macworld, which was
Speaker 1: which was earlier in the year than E three, which
Speaker 1: I think is kind of important to point out for
Speaker 1: the timeline of this UM. The fans were excited because
Speaker 1: here was this you know, it was planned for the Mac.
Speaker 1: They were really excited about playing this brand new game.
Speaker 1: If if you were around back when they released Halo
Speaker 1: or you know, we're starting to promote Halo UM. They
Speaker 1: were going to release it for multiple platforms UM, Windows,
Speaker 1: PC and UH and Mac and UM at least one
Speaker 1: console if I remember correctly. And the thing is, you
Speaker 1: know this it started generating buzz at Macworld, It picked
Speaker 1: up at E three well heck, I mean Steve Jobs
Speaker 1: himself came out during the keynote from Macworld and he
Speaker 1: talked about this game. And again this was a way
Speaker 1: to show how the Mac could be a great platform
Speaker 1: for games. And so he was pointing this out as
Speaker 1: an example, and uh, yeah, I got a great reaction
Speaker 1: when people saw what the demo for this, this game,
Speaker 1: which you know, in in compared to what eventually came out,
Speaker 1: was fairly primitive, although it's still look great. Well. Then
Speaker 1: in two thousand, everything changes because Microsoft acquired Bungee in
Speaker 1: that year, and uh, the development of Halo switches from
Speaker 1: primarily being a Mac game to being an Xbox title,
Speaker 1: one of the launch titles for the Xbox System. And
Speaker 1: I read that the Bungee executives at the time, we're
Speaker 1: really you know, considering this carefully when Microsoft came to
Speaker 1: them with this acquisition deal, because they had a couple
Speaker 1: of different pathways open to them. Remaining independent would have
Speaker 1: been uh probably the I think everyone would have preferred
Speaker 1: that the most, except for the fact that it's uncertain
Speaker 1: when you're an independent company and you don't have that
Speaker 1: that benefit of a larger parent company to help get
Speaker 1: you through tough time times. You know, you you stand
Speaker 1: or fall based upon how your products do, and the
Speaker 1: success of one product is not necessarily guarantee necessarily guaranteed
Speaker 1: the success of the next product. However, they were also
Speaker 1: worried about selling to a company that would just want
Speaker 1: to turn them into a production company, that all it
Speaker 1: did was port games from other platforms to the Mac
Speaker 1: and that would be all they would do. They didn't
Speaker 1: want that to happen. But then when Microsoft came to them,
Speaker 1: they saw Microsoft as a company that was getting very
Speaker 1: very interested and very serious about games, and they felt
Speaker 1: that that was a good match for their their work culture,
Speaker 1: and so they did make that deal with Microsoft. And
Speaker 1: so that's when Halo switched from being primarily a mac
Speaker 1: os game to an Xbox game, although it elso came
Speaker 1: out for PC um and it was in on November
Speaker 1: two thousand one when Halo Combat Evolved released for the
Speaker 1: Xbox m man I was. I was an Xbox owner,
Speaker 1: early Xbox owner, and Halo was one of the games
Speaker 1: that I played throughout the entire time that I had
Speaker 1: that Xbox. I mean, i've I was a hardcore Halo fan,
Speaker 1: and I loved playing the the the campaign, even the
Speaker 1: infamous Library level, which I will talk about in a second.
Speaker 1: And uh I also loved hooking up the Xbox to
Speaker 1: other Xboxes and playing in land parties against other players,
Speaker 1: which was a preview of what was to come once
Speaker 1: Xbox Live launched and people were able to play online
Speaker 1: against each other and call each other names that I
Speaker 1: didn't even know could exist until I got online and
Speaker 1: heard a twelve year old called them out to me. Um,
Speaker 1: yeah there are Um. This really through the gaming world
Speaker 1: into a bit of a tizzy. UM. You know, Bungee
Speaker 1: had made some some deals. They had a partnership with
Speaker 1: Take two. Uh you know them from the Grand Theft
Speaker 1: Auto series. Um and uh you know this was right
Speaker 1: about the time Only was supposed to have been released. Um.
Speaker 1: Take two ended up with the rights to owny and
Speaker 1: and published it. Um and Uh, Bungee did shift primarily
Speaker 1: to developing for the Xbox, although um, the Windows and
Speaker 1: later the Mac got their copies eventually. UM. Uh so
Speaker 1: you know, but this was this was a bit of
Speaker 1: a major shift. Uh. The PlayStation two, by the way,
Speaker 1: never did see its version of Halo. I wonder why.
Speaker 1: You can't imagine why. Um, but yeah, this was this
Speaker 1: was kind of a big deal. UM. I understand too
Speaker 1: that Activision was courting Bungee as well, but Microsoft ended
Speaker 1: up on top. Um and then it was released with
Speaker 1: I don't know some minor you know, praise. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: if you are one of the few people out there
Speaker 1: who has no idea what the storyline of Halo is
Speaker 1: all about, I'll kind of boil it down for you.
Speaker 1: And keep in mind, this story has been fleshed out
Speaker 1: quite a bit with supplemental material in the form of novels,
Speaker 1: comic books, um and and other media as well. But
Speaker 1: if you were to just take the content that's in
Speaker 1: the games themselves and string it together chronologically based upon
Speaker 1: the release of the games, this is how the story unfolds.
Speaker 1: So the game opens up, Halo Combat Involved opens up
Speaker 1: with this massive spaceship coming out of what it's called
Speaker 1: slipstream space, and it's essentially like warp drive. You're working
Speaker 1: space around so that you can travel faster than light. Uh.
Speaker 1: It is in an era where faster than light travel
Speaker 1: is is uh not only you know, not only something
Speaker 1: we can do, but something that's fairly common in human
Speaker 1: space travels at this point, and you and the overpopulation
Speaker 1: problems of Earth have gotten to the point where the
Speaker 1: colonization of other plants was a necessity. And one of
Speaker 1: the plants that that humans colonized was called Reach, and
Speaker 1: on Reach, you had this massive human colony which covers
Speaker 1: most of the planet. But twenty years before the opening
Speaker 1: of the game, the humans came into contact with a
Speaker 1: confederation of alien races called the Covenant. The Covenant have
Speaker 1: this very uh hierarchical religious view of the galaxy, and
Speaker 1: they think of humans as being evil and they need
Speaker 1: to be wiped out, their unclean creatures that have to
Speaker 1: be destroyed. And so there's this massive battle that took
Speaker 1: place on Reach before the events of Halo open, and
Speaker 1: the ship that your character is on the Pillar of
Speaker 1: Autumn has just escaped Reach into slipstream space. It comes
Speaker 1: out of slipstream space, and no one's really sure where
Speaker 1: they are because they just had to make a getaway
Speaker 1: as fast as possible and they couldn't really plan it out.
Speaker 1: So your character is known as John H. John one seventeen.
Speaker 1: You're never really given a full identity for your character,
Speaker 1: and he's mostly known by his H, his designation of
Speaker 1: master Chief, his Master Chief petty Officer um. And he
Speaker 1: is a spartan, which is a super soldier, a cybernetic,
Speaker 1: biologically engineered soldier who is stronger, faster, more capable than
Speaker 1: your typical soldier. Is also has the ability to store
Speaker 1: and artificially intelligent UH personality within his armor, so he
Speaker 1: can carry around with him in AI that can further
Speaker 1: augment his abilities. He's incrogenic sleep at the beginning and
Speaker 1: has woken up when the ship comes out of slipstream
Speaker 1: space and it is right in front of this enormous
Speaker 1: ring shaped space station. And the space station is huge.
Speaker 1: It's ten thousand kilometers in diameter, and UH it's so
Speaker 1: large that there are ecosystems that have developed upon the surface,
Speaker 1: both surfaces, the inner and outer ring of this space station,
Speaker 1: and on Most of the stuff in the space station,
Speaker 1: of course, is on the interior of the ring, the
Speaker 1: inside the rings guts, but there's all this other stuff
Speaker 1: that's on the outside. And meanwhile, the Covenant guys are
Speaker 1: right hot on the tail of the Pillar of Autumn.
Speaker 1: So Master Chiefs UH purpose in the first game is
Speaker 1: really to protect the artificial intelligent UH construct called Cortana,
Speaker 1: and to protect the location of the Earth so that
Speaker 1: the Covenant don't figure out where the Earth is, and
Speaker 1: also to figure out what the heck this ring thing is,
Speaker 1: because no one seems to know, and the Covenant they
Speaker 1: don't know, but they it's something in their legends that
Speaker 1: they think that this is a tool they're supposed to
Speaker 1: use in order to reach their religious enlightenment to go
Speaker 1: on the Great Journey. And it turns out that the
Speaker 1: Ring is something that was built by this ancient race
Speaker 1: of aliens that were very, very advanced called the Forerunners.
Speaker 1: So again that's pulling that same sort of idea that
Speaker 1: they developed a marathon and employing it in Halo. And
Speaker 1: as the game progresses, I mean, there's gonna be lots
Speaker 1: of spoilers in this, but if you haven't played the
Speaker 1: first Halo game, then I don't know why you're listening
Speaker 1: to this episode. Uh, the on that Ring, they discover
Speaker 1: that there is a race of parasitic aliens called the Flood,
Speaker 1: which can infect other races, sentient races and take them over.
Speaker 1: And uh, you discover throughout the story that the Halo
Speaker 1: devices themselves are actually a weapon, a defense system designed
Speaker 1: by the Forerunners to wipe out the Flood. The way
Speaker 1: they do this is they flood the entire galaxy and
Speaker 1: energy that kills any sentient creature. So, in other words,
Speaker 1: you kill off the Flood by killing off the food supply.
Speaker 1: Here's The problem is that humans are technically essentient creatures,
Speaker 1: so if they were to actually turn on this device,
Speaker 1: they would wipe themselves out. So then on top of
Speaker 1: everything else, Master Chief needs to try and destroy this
Speaker 1: Halo device to make sure that the Covenant doesn't turn
Speaker 1: it on and kill everybody, and as you play the game,
Speaker 1: you end up being able to do that. Uh. You
Speaker 1: do have this one level called the Library, which is
Speaker 1: filled mostly with the flood but also some covenant, which
Speaker 1: goes on forever and has essentially the same hallway like
Speaker 1: five times. It's crazy, especially if you're playing on the
Speaker 1: harder difficulties. It was one of those levels that gamers
Speaker 1: often would sort of complain about because they felt that
Speaker 1: one it was really repetitive, and two it was really
Speaker 1: really difficult, and three it was incredibly long, So it
Speaker 1: had all those things going for it. Oh, and the
Speaker 1: armor you wear, I love the name of the armor
Speaker 1: you wear, the Older Mark five. The Older or Mew
Speaker 1: Mew is of course the name of Four's Mighty hammer.
Speaker 1: So there are a lot of things like that in
Speaker 1: the game, where different chips and UH and and equipment
Speaker 1: have these cool names to it and um in the
Speaker 1: game you have the human based weapons, which are all
Speaker 1: sort of things like you know, battle rifles, so they're
Speaker 1: kind of like machine guns, things like that, pistols, sniper rifles. Uh.
Speaker 1: Then you have the Covenant weapons, which are all these
Speaker 1: sort of energy based weapons, and the two have very
Speaker 1: different abilities and they're useful in different situations, and that
Speaker 1: kind of set the basic premise of the Halo series.
Speaker 1: And again, there was a lot more story going on
Speaker 1: than you would necessarily first notice if you were just
Speaker 1: playing the game through as a first person shooter and
Speaker 1: you weren't really paying attention to that, And that story
Speaker 1: ended up getting fleshed out quite a bit by the
Speaker 1: other materials. So that's the that's the basis for the
Speaker 1: first game, and and the end of the first game,
Speaker 1: assuming you succeed, you destroy the Halo structure, and then
Speaker 1: you uh you are the only really the only person
Speaker 1: to escape, while one of two depending upon how you
Speaker 1: look at it, and you make your way back to uh,
Speaker 1: the Earth to figure out what the heck is going on.
Speaker 1: So that game ended up being really, really, really popular.
Speaker 1: It was not meant to be the first of a
Speaker 1: series of games. It was kind of a self contained
Speaker 1: story However, with the game like this, with with it
Speaker 1: being such a hit, and it being owned by Microsoft,
Speaker 1: which had such high expectations for the Xbox and this title,
Speaker 1: how could you not have Halo two? Yeah? And uh, Fortunately,
Speaker 1: I would say the sequels of Halo, a game that
Speaker 1: did not was not made to be the first in
Speaker 1: a series, they were much more successful at continuing that
Speaker 1: story than say a movie like Highlander too. Once again,
Speaker 1: if you watched the first Highlander, you realize this is
Speaker 1: a movie that was not meant to be the first
Speaker 1: in a series. It has a very definitive end um.
Speaker 1: But Halo managed to succeed in areas where Highlander did not.
Speaker 1: So on November nine, two thousand four, Halo two comes out,
Speaker 1: and it is incredibly popular. It's already I mean, people
Speaker 1: are eager to continue the story, and you have the
Speaker 1: added bonus of online multiplayer games. Yeah. Yeah, the uh
Speaker 1: Halo two first debuted well at any point where people
Speaker 1: could see it at E three, two thousand three, um,
Speaker 1: at the Halo two theater, yep um. And if you've
Speaker 1: ever seen pictures of any of these expos you know that, um,
Speaker 1: the companies that are find them spend a lot of
Speaker 1: money on the stuff they really want to promote, um
Speaker 1: and it could include anything from lots of banners and
Speaker 1: lights and all sorts of funky electronic stuff to giants.
Speaker 1: It it's it can be amazing. But yes, they they
Speaker 1: Microsoft built a a theater so that people could actually
Speaker 1: see Halo two in action. You walk into this big
Speaker 1: conference room floor and it's it's not even recognizable as
Speaker 1: a conference from floor in some parts, because you've got
Speaker 1: these massive structures in place, including theaters, which show off
Speaker 1: various games. And yeah, you can actually find videos on
Speaker 1: YouTube of the different Halo preview events where people get
Speaker 1: that look and the reaction you hear from the crowd,
Speaker 1: like these are hardcore fans of these games. Now E
Speaker 1: three is supposed to be an industry only event, although
Speaker 1: in certain years they did open to the public. Um
Speaker 1: But even as an industry only event, you hear people
Speaker 1: really react in a very vocal way when they see
Speaker 1: these Halo games. M previewed well. When it came out
Speaker 1: in two thousand four, it was very popular. It did
Speaker 1: make some interesting there were some interesting choices in the game. Uh,
Speaker 1: it picks up where the first game left left off,
Speaker 1: but the Covenant end up discovering the location of Earth,
Speaker 1: and they're because there's a big battle that takes place
Speaker 1: on Earth to try and fight off the Covenant and
Speaker 1: to cut them off before they can tell the rest
Speaker 1: of the Covenant where Earth is. Because this is just
Speaker 1: one little branch of the Covenant Armada, they're actually looking
Speaker 1: for something and they happen to find Earth because they're
Speaker 1: looking for something else that turns out to be on Earth.
Speaker 1: Uh spoiler alert for the end of this story, Master
Speaker 1: Chief ends up having to fight them off. Then he
Speaker 1: has to pursue a fleeing Covenant ship before it can
Speaker 1: find the rest of the Covenant Armada and let them
Speaker 1: know where Earth is. And in the process, they discover
Speaker 1: a second Halo Ring. So this is where you find
Speaker 1: out that they there are several Halo rings throughout the
Speaker 1: galaxy that are set up in this defense network, and
Speaker 1: the first one was just one of many. Uh. Aboard
Speaker 1: that second Halo Ring, they discover a creature called the
Speaker 1: Grave Mind, which is the leader of the flood on
Speaker 1: that particular installation, installation five, and it turns out it's
Speaker 1: very intelligent and it's very manipulative. It ends up manipulating
Speaker 1: Master Chief and an Elite. Now, the Elites are one
Speaker 1: of the races of aliens that are belown to the Covenant,
Speaker 1: and one of the elites is called the Arbiter, which
Speaker 1: was a disgraced Elite. Was disgraced because it's the one
Speaker 1: that takes the blame for the first Halo blowing up
Speaker 1: in the first game. So this is the elite that
Speaker 1: takes the blame for that and gets UM. It's title
Speaker 1: changed to Arbiter and it ends up being one of
Speaker 1: the controllable characters within the game. So unlike the first
Speaker 1: Halo where you just play his Master Chief, in Halo two,
Speaker 1: you play as Master Chief and also as the Arbiter,
Speaker 1: and it kind of alternates between chapters UM, which some
Speaker 1: people liked and some people didn't. But anyway, the storyline
Speaker 1: plays out where again you've got the the Grave Mind
Speaker 1: manipulating the Arbiter and Master Chief and Cortana trying to
Speaker 1: bring about um a series of events they'll allow the
Speaker 1: Grave Mind to start infecting other areas because it's been
Speaker 1: confined to this Halo ring for ages, and this is
Speaker 1: its attempt to try and spread itself kind of like
Speaker 1: an think of it like a virus. Is trying to
Speaker 1: spread to a new host really, and in the process
Speaker 1: the Halo ring gets switched on, which switches on all
Speaker 1: the Halo rings across the entire galaxy. And they discovered
Speaker 1: that the activation for these rings is in another location
Speaker 1: called the Arc. And here's the kicker. The entran to
Speaker 1: the Arc is back on Earth. So that means there's
Speaker 1: a race to Earth. That's how Halo two ends. Now
Speaker 1: in two thousand five, it's of the Covenant, no and
Speaker 1: no different arc uh. No Covenant faces melt off at
Speaker 1: the end of this. In two thousand five, Bungee then
Speaker 1: this is getting back to the marathon just for a second,
Speaker 1: releases the full Marathon trilogy for the mac os for
Speaker 1: free online distribution, which is a shame because I paid
Speaker 1: for the online I mean for I was about to say,
Speaker 1: it's a wonderful thing for all the Bungee fans, but
Speaker 1: I'm glad that Chris could turned something nice into something
Speaker 1: that was a personal and no, that's the same thing
Speaker 1: I would have said. In two thousand six, another interesting development,
Speaker 1: there was an announcement from a certain fellow named says
Speaker 1: here Peter Jackson, who had who was he that he
Speaker 1: was famous for making that, um that movie, The Frighten
Speaker 1: Nurse with Michael J. Fox. That one. Oh, also those
Speaker 1: Lord of the Rings movies. Um So, Peter Jackson in
Speaker 1: two thousand and six announced that he was going to
Speaker 1: produce a Halo live action film and this so you
Speaker 1: can see the Halo Halo Yeah, yeah, there are. There's
Speaker 1: a YouTube video where Peter Jackson actually talks about the
Speaker 1: Halo film. Uh. Sadly, this never really made it out
Speaker 1: of development. It just kind of sat there in various
Speaker 1: stages of development and never really progressed into actuality. Um.
Speaker 1: You occasionally still hear rumors that people are kicking around
Speaker 1: the idea of bringing back this and making a Halo movie.
Speaker 1: It just hasn't happened. So September thousand seven, Halo three
Speaker 1: comes out. Now. In Halo three, the storyline continues again. Uh.
Speaker 1: Master Chief has to make his way to the Arc.
Speaker 1: So he has to first go to Earth because that's
Speaker 1: where the entrance to the Arc is. Um. So he
Speaker 1: fights Covenant and flood forces. Uh, and they find a
Speaker 1: portal in on Earth that leads to a local Chian
Speaker 1: that's outside of the Milky Way. That is the activation
Speaker 1: point for the Halo defense system. Yeah, it's a long way. Well,
Speaker 1: you have to be a long way away, because if
Speaker 1: you're using a defense system that's going to kill everything
Speaker 1: that's sentient within the galaxy, you gotta get outside the
Speaker 1: galaxy in order to do it without dying. So uh
Speaker 1: they make their way to the Arc uh and they
Speaker 1: and Master Chief also discovers a new ring is being
Speaker 1: constructed to replace the one that he destroyed back in
Speaker 1: Halo one. Because you have all these these artificially intelligent
Speaker 1: constructs that still exist that we're built by the for Runners,
Speaker 1: that still exist and can still h do their jobs,
Speaker 1: although most of them are pretty crazy by now because
Speaker 1: they've had millennia where with nothing to do. One of
Speaker 1: those was Guilty Spark three four three, and that three
Speaker 1: four three becomes important in a little bit. But um,
Speaker 1: so you've got these uh this ring being constructed, Master
Speaker 1: Chief discover and and the Arbiter discovers that if they
Speaker 1: are to activate the rings before the newest one is finished,
Speaker 1: it's going to destroy the Ring and the Ark. So
Speaker 1: there's a big battle between them and the Flood and
Speaker 1: uh Forerunner technology in order to do this, and of
Speaker 1: course eventually they managed to activate it, which makes a
Speaker 1: self destruct sequence begin UH. They try to escape in
Speaker 1: a ship that goes into slip stream space. The arc
Speaker 1: and the ring blow up, and the the resultant shock
Speaker 1: wave through space disrupts the slip stream UH pathway and
Speaker 1: cuts the ship in half. The ship that the Master
Speaker 1: Chief and Arbiter were both on, the Arbiter is on
Speaker 1: the front half, which continues to crash into Earth. So
Speaker 1: the Arbiter actually survives and everyone assumes Master Chief is dead.
Speaker 1: Turns out Master Chief is not dead. He's just floating
Speaker 1: in half a ship out in space and goes into
Speaker 1: cry genic free sleep again and tells Cortana to wake
Speaker 1: him up when he's needed, and Cortana sets out a
Speaker 1: a distress beacon which will probably not be um discovered
Speaker 1: for several years according to her. So that's that story.
Speaker 1: And then September twenty two, two thousand nine, two years later,
Speaker 1: Halo three O D s T comes out. Now this
Speaker 1: is the first game where you aren't playing as Master
Speaker 1: Chief at all. You're playing as a member of the
Speaker 1: United Nations Space Command Orbital Drop Shock Troopers or O
Speaker 1: d s T. And the story in O d s
Speaker 1: T takes place sort of between Halo's two and three,
Speaker 1: because in Halo two you've got that big fight on
Speaker 1: Earth between humans and the Covenant. When Master Chief then
Speaker 1: goes off to Chase after the escaping Covenant ship. Well
Speaker 1: O d s t takes place on Earth as a
Speaker 1: member of this group of Shock Troopers that are fighting
Speaker 1: off the Covenant forces that are attacking Earth at that time.
Speaker 1: So there's that story. And then in September, Bungee releases
Speaker 1: their last Halo game, which is called Halo Reach and
Speaker 1: was a prequel, So it takes place on Reach, which
Speaker 1: is that planet I was talking about the very beginning
Speaker 1: when the Pillar of Automn ship is escaping Reach. This
Speaker 1: is the planet that takes place on and you are.
Speaker 1: You play a Spartan who is designated as Noble six
Speaker 1: as part of the Noble Strike squad Um. It's a
Speaker 1: six member squadron, and your job is to do these
Speaker 1: various missions while trying to fight off the Covenant, and
Speaker 1: ultimately the purpose is to try and get Cortana, the
Speaker 1: artificially intelligent construct, from Reach onto the Pillar of Autumn
Speaker 1: so that the information Cortana has can escape the clutches
Speaker 1: of the Covenant because Cortana has information about four Runner technology,
Speaker 1: which ultimately becomes this whole Halo program and arc thing.
Speaker 1: So this again takes place before the events of Halo
Speaker 1: Combat evolved, just before in fact, and again you're not
Speaker 1: playing as master Chief, You're playing as a different spartan um.
Speaker 1: It turns out that master Chief is one of the
Speaker 1: few Spartans left by the beginning of Halo Combat evolved.
Speaker 1: And it depends on whether or not you've read the
Speaker 1: movies or read the movies, read the books or or
Speaker 1: graphic novels, uh as to whether or not other Spartans
Speaker 1: are still alive at this point. And then on June,
Speaker 1: Microsoft announced Halo four. Halo four was a big deal
Speaker 1: because Halo four is the and I didn't talk about
Speaker 1: the the rerelease of Halo Combat evolved where it was
Speaker 1: and it updated the game engine, which was technically three
Speaker 1: H three or four three Industries first foray into developing
Speaker 1: this without Bungee. But Halo four is the first new
Speaker 1: game with news story by three four three Industries, which
Speaker 1: is the new production company that's in charge of the
Speaker 1: Halo franchise because Bungee has left. Bungee left Microsoft and
Speaker 1: left the Halo franchise behind after Halo Reached. That was
Speaker 1: their last title in that series, and now the company
Speaker 1: is concentrating on other projects. So Halo four is three
Speaker 1: four three Industries baby, and it is going to come
Speaker 1: out on November six. Recording this in the end of June.
Speaker 1: Um it comes out on November six, and it's going
Speaker 1: to pick up about four years after the conclusion of
Speaker 1: Halo three. It features Master Chief, it features Cortana Uh,
Speaker 1: and it has a new series of stories that involved
Speaker 1: the fore Runners. So these this ancient race that developed
Speaker 1: all this technology that that various races are just now
Speaker 1: really learning more about. You know, they've heard about the
Speaker 1: Four Runners, but now they're actually starting to learn more
Speaker 1: about them. And most of it apparently takes place upon
Speaker 1: an artificial planet that the Four Runners created called Requiem. Okay,
Speaker 1: but that's about all we know. I mean, there's there's
Speaker 1: been some video of some of the gameplay that shows
Speaker 1: some new enemies that you'll run into that are probably
Speaker 1: Four Runner based. Um, but that's that's about all we know.
Speaker 1: I'm going to get to know about it more after
Speaker 1: next weekend because I get to play it early. Yeah. Yeah, Now,
Speaker 1: you know, people people are familiar with Bungee's take on
Speaker 1: these things. So I know that Halo four is going
Speaker 1: is something of a um, maybe a mild question mark.
Speaker 1: You know, people are wondering if they can, uh you know,
Speaker 1: if this series will survive the transition. Um. I think
Speaker 1: it's probable that it will. Yeah. For one thing, well,
Speaker 1: the proper he is very popular. For another, three or
Speaker 1: four three Industries does have some former Bungee employees on staff,
Speaker 1: so it's not like it's a totally new group of
Speaker 1: people who have never touched the project before. Right, But
Speaker 1: you know, for those uh, you know, especially um, devoted
Speaker 1: fans who are are concerned about something like that, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll happen with all kinds of properties like that, comic
Speaker 1: books or movies or you know TV series and the
Speaker 1: oh well, the lead writers. I don't just don't know
Speaker 1: if I can keep following it, you know, Right, people
Speaker 1: are going to be concerned about that, But I think, um,
Speaker 1: I think the series is in good hand. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: series loyalty, and then there's company loyalty, and then there's
Speaker 1: the the complicated place in between. Um. It was also
Speaker 1: interesting when when Bungee said that, you know, Halo. Halo
Speaker 1: Reach was their last game. Uh in the Halo series.
Speaker 1: They also released UM stats when they gave up all
Speaker 1: the player information that had been collected over time, because
Speaker 1: you know, Bungee was responsible for that for the longest time,
Speaker 1: and then they transferred that information over because they were
Speaker 1: no longer the caretakers of the Halo series. Um if uh,
Speaker 1: let's see, I'll see if I can read up this numbers.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's thousand, that's millions, all right, so since
Speaker 1: September nine, two thousand four. This was one of the
Speaker 1: figures Bungee released when it gave over the information players
Speaker 1: had played twenty billion, eight hundred eighty million, two hundred
Speaker 1: fifty thousand, one hundred twenty three games of Halo. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh, then they broke it out by title. UM.
Speaker 1: And they also said how many minutes had been played
Speaker 1: in Halo, which was over a hundred and twenty three
Speaker 1: billion minutes of Halo? Is that broken down my platform
Speaker 1: to or is that just a box they just played it.
Speaker 1: They just broke it down by title, So it's not um,
Speaker 1: not by as far as I can tell, not by platform. Uh.
Speaker 1: They also broke down the you have killed each other
Speaker 1: one thirty six billion times and assist assisted each other
Speaker 1: forty three billion times, which tells you something about Halo players.
Speaker 1: I think they like those. They like those Slayer matches.
Speaker 1: I can't blame them, my I like Slayer matches to
Speaker 1: the problem with the cooperative matches is you have to
Speaker 1: work with other people, and unless you're able to select
Speaker 1: who those people are, that can be a less than
Speaker 1: ideal situation, as I found out last night when I
Speaker 1: was playing Halo Reach online. Uh yeah, if you guys
Speaker 1: want to play against me, you know, jump on Halo Reach.
Speaker 1: I am an easy target, as it turns out, I got.
Speaker 1: I got involved in the online play for Halo early
Speaker 1: on when it started, but then I started having some
Speaker 1: real problems with my internet service provider. This was back
Speaker 1: in the Halo two days and uh. In fact, I
Speaker 1: had so many problems that it was starting to seem
Speaker 1: like I was using a method to cheat when I
Speaker 1: was playing online. There was a people discovered that if
Speaker 1: they used the standby mode on their routers, on their
Speaker 1: you know, their their modems, that they could cheat in
Speaker 1: Halo online. What would happen is you would hit standby,
Speaker 1: which would make you break your connection to the Microsoft servers,
Speaker 1: really the Bungee servers, and you you continue to play. Well.
Speaker 1: The way with the way Bungees servers would interpret this
Speaker 1: is they would just keep having your guide do whatever
Speaker 1: it was he was doing when you broke the connection.
Speaker 1: So if you're running in a straight line, you would
Speaker 1: continue running, but you wouldn't really be there. It would
Speaker 1: just be a placeholder for you. When the connection would
Speaker 1: re establish, assuming it did re establish an enough time,
Speaker 1: like it was just a few seconds, your your ense
Speaker 1: of you would suddenly disappear, and you would reappear wherever
Speaker 1: you really were, based upon what you were doing locally
Speaker 1: on your machine. So let's say I'm playing a game
Speaker 1: of Capture the Flag. I pick up the flag, I
Speaker 1: start running in a straight line. I hit a standby
Speaker 1: button on my modem. I've broken my connection. I immediately
Speaker 1: hang a sharp right, run that way several yards, then
Speaker 1: hang a left and continue running. My pursuers see me
Speaker 1: continuing to run in a straight line because their connection
Speaker 1: is still to the servers. But every time they try
Speaker 1: and shoot me or knock me down or run me over,
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem to work. Nothing's happening it's because I'm
Speaker 1: not really there. The servers are just trying to keep
Speaker 1: track where I should be. My connection re establishes. Suddenly
Speaker 1: the computer has to resolve where I really am versus
Speaker 1: where it thought I was. The representation of my character disappears.
Speaker 1: My actual character reappears on the map in a totally
Speaker 1: different spot than where everyone thought it was, because of
Speaker 1: course I had moved in a different location. So this
Speaker 1: was a way of cheating, you know, you would people
Speaker 1: did use this. They would grab the flag that used
Speaker 1: stand by, and then they would suddenly be in a
Speaker 1: different location than where you thought they were, and the
Speaker 1: flag would get to the other end of the map
Speaker 1: and you'd lose. And everyone thought this was awful, and
Speaker 1: it was because you were gaming the system. You were
Speaker 1: finding a hardware solution to solve for the fact that
Speaker 1: you were not very good in Halo. Um well, I
Speaker 1: had a problem because I had an internet service provider
Speaker 1: where I was getting severe lag, and that lag was
Speaker 1: acting the same way like a little dropped connections. Every
Speaker 1: now and then my connection would drop, and so it
Speaker 1: was acting just like this standby uh bug, And so
Speaker 1: I ended up I stopped playing because people thought I
Speaker 1: was cheating, and I didn't want to play that way.
Speaker 1: That was no fun for me. I wanted to play
Speaker 1: on a level playing ground. I'm not a great player,
Speaker 1: but I don't want to I don't want an unfair advantage.
Speaker 1: So I just stopped. And until recently, I just didn't
Speaker 1: have a fast enough connection to get back on Xbox
Speaker 1: Live and really play on line again. So for years
Speaker 1: I just I just that part of the game was
Speaker 1: off limits to me. I just wouldn't play that. I
Speaker 1: played the single player campaign and that was it. So
Speaker 1: I was missing out on a big part of what
Speaker 1: makes the Halo games so interesting to players. Well, I
Speaker 1: finally got back into it, and now my problem is
Speaker 1: that there are only certain people who still play Halo
Speaker 1: Reach online because it's a game that's been out for
Speaker 1: a while now, right, so it's not as popular as
Speaker 1: it was when it first came out. Um, And the
Speaker 1: people who are playing online for the most part are
Speaker 1: people who have been playing for a while, so they
Speaker 1: know all the maps, they know all the tricks, they
Speaker 1: have developed their playing style. I'm still learning, so I'm
Speaker 1: eating a lot of shotgun blast to the face. Not fun, No,
Speaker 1: it's fun for the other players. They love it. I
Speaker 1: see my name pop up and they're like, oh man,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get a lot of points in this
Speaker 1: round because me, Jonathan the Walking Target is playing. You know,
Speaker 1: you might want to rename your character. I'm just saying that, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: my kick them in. In case you want to know
Speaker 1: my my game handle, I will go ahead and give
Speaker 1: it out. I don't. I don't mind because even if
Speaker 1: I get tons of request that doesn't mean I have
Speaker 1: to accept them. But my game gamer tag is John B. Strickland.
Speaker 1: Because I use my name as my handle everywhere. It
Speaker 1: keeps me accountable. So yeah, if you want to play
Speaker 1: against me, go ahead, and I'm I'm terrible. I'm telling
Speaker 1: you right now. You don't. You don't need to tell me.
Speaker 1: I already know, all right. So anyway, that's the story
Speaker 1: of the Halo franchise as it stands right now. We
Speaker 1: may we should also say there are lots and lots
Speaker 1: of books that tie into the Halo franchise that really
Speaker 1: flesh out the mythology um, depending upon you know, they
Speaker 1: may or may not really be cannon to the games.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like the Star Wars stuff, right, it
Speaker 1: doesn't happen in the game. It's not really cannon, but
Speaker 1: most of them deal with events that happen around the games,
Speaker 1: not they aren't necessarily novelizations of the games themselves, so
Speaker 1: they really are supplemental material that can flesh out that world.
Speaker 1: If you're really interested in it, um, if you are
Speaker 1: interested in a totally different topic and you think that
Speaker 1: we should talk about it, you should contact us our
Speaker 1: email addresses tech stuff at Discovery dot com, or you
Speaker 1: can let us know on Facebook or Twitter. Are handled.
Speaker 1: There's tech stuff hs W Chris and I will talk
Speaker 1: to you again, probably not about video games really soon
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