Dec 18, 2000

For over seven years the encrypted Conversations with the Dead have defied humankind. But we're getting close! This interesting post from Ron Hunsinger <hnsngr@sirius.com> appeared on alt.games.marathon. Raul Bonilla <biomeca@hotmail.com> writes concerning a Playstation game called MediEvil, a K12 fantasy adventure game: I found this particular texture on the first level, Dan's Crypt. It immediately reminded me the PID's ghoul. Another MediEvil's element that make me think of a Bungie influence was how the player reads tomes. Instead of picking one up and selecting it from the inventory as in every other fantasy game, you walk forward it and press the action button. Richard Edgar <rge21@cam.ac.uk> comments upon the level name "Welcome, Tasty Primate". See the What's in a Name section. Jonathan Bahamon <jbahamon@earthlink.net> comments upon the level name "Please Excuse Our Dust". See the What's in a Name section.

Nov 21, 2000

Miguel Chavez <bs@bungie.org> writes to say that Maxaminus of Softwareoutlet has posted to the HBO forums again saying that they are now down to the last eight boxes of PID. By the time you read this they'll probably be all gone. Fifty boxes of a seven year old game shifted in less than 24 hours. Not too shabby. Softwareoutlet also have a very large scan of the back of the Pathways Into Darkness box which you can see here. I've also added this scan to the PID page here.

Nov 20, 2000

As seen on the Marathon's Story page. Claude Errera <errera@bungie.org> points out that there is an interesting post on the HBO forums concerning the sale of 50 copies of the original Pathways Into Darkness. No idea where they came from but if they are the originals then these are floppies. They're going for 99 cents each. Head on over... if you want a piece of nostalgia.

Nov 12, 2000

More on the Circles of Myth and Pathways. The following is taken from the Prologue in the Myth II manual: Andir crawled out into the night air and began walking back home. He could not seem to find the last tree he had marked. He stumbled through brush and over thick roots for perhaps thirty minutes before he saw the crow. Although in perfect darkness, the black bird somehow stood out. Its feathers were a glistening, oily black that seemed to pulse with some inner turbulence. The bird seemed to look past him rather than at him. Curious, Andir stepped toward it. The bird hopped away. Andir followed. He tripped on a root and fell against a fallen willow branch. The noise he made must have drowned out the rustle of another bird's wings, for when he picked himself up there were two crows before him. Both stared directly at him. Their eyes moved with the same sinuous, smoky motion as their feathers. Andir understood that these were no ordinary birds, but had a sudden urge to go home and wait until daylight before returning to study them. He stepped backwards, eyes on the two crows. They remained motionless. He turned around, intending to go back to the clearing he'd passed about twenty feet back and choose another path. He stopped. Andir stood within a group of crows arranged in a perfect circle. But was it a circle of seven crows?

Nov 5, 2000

Raul Bonilla <biomeca@hotmail.com> writes: The Circles of Myth and Pathways. In "Sons of Myrgard" there's a circle of small stones outside the Ghol city (http://myth.bungie.org/legends/images/relics/sculptures/symbolic/ghol_circle.jpg) that reminds me the "Circle of dead Ghast dust" found on "Please Excuse Our Dust" (http://pid.bungie.org/images/ringofsevenghasts.gif). Coincidence or connection?

Nov 2, 2000

Matt Heath <PoetOTR@aol.com> makes some interesting observations about the Pathways Into Darkness v2.0 demo and its recently discovered secret section: Hats off to those who felt all those stretches of walls and clicked on all those skulls.... (By the time you get there [the secret area] , you probably won't have a blue crystal left (or only a few remaining blasts) and only a clip or two left of Walther ammo, so it's really hard to survive to the end of the hidden part -- you have to stab those bloody Nightmares and back up a long way and rest each time.) Also, it's kind of a let-down to kill off some twenty Nightmares and about eight Headlesses just to finally get to a save rune at the end. A new weapon or monster at that point would have been great. But, hey, just being able to discover it was the main thing. I noticed that no matter where you eat the Easter Egg, the map afterwards shows a teleport at that spot. Also, you can teleport from the other two levels as well -- it dosn't matter where you are when you munch on the egg. I got curious and let the clock run on my PID 2.0 demo. It does shut off at 6:13 PM on Friday, but there's no scream from any awakening god. Instead, the game just shuts off and then the dialog box appears: "The application 'Pathways Into Darkness Demo' has unexpectedly quit, because an error of type 4 occurred." On the PID 1.0 demo, though, the clock just keeps on running and running and running... So why is there a save game rune at the end of secret area when there is no where else to go or do... or is there? An error of type pfhor eh? ;-) Interesting to note that not only does a teleporter appear (in map view) at the spot where you eat the egg but the ladder going up to "Charon Doesn't Make Change" changes into a teleporter (in map view).

Oct 23, 2000

Some say good things come in threes! Well in the space of seven days (17th - 23rd Oct) we've had three major discoveries in Pathways Into Darkness. Today is the third! Read on... Jacob Aberg <Jacob_Aberg@excite.com> writes: Just thought I'd tell you that using a combination of Resedit and Pathways Into Cheating (but nobody uses that, of course), one can alter the first dead person you meet to use the script of any other, and then, unless you don't have the alien pipe (or can't be arsed with it), can cheat it into your possession, and as such be able to talk to every undead in the game. "So what?" you might ask. Well Jacob has just handed us a way to read those encrypted 'scri' resources in the demo v1.0 and v2.0 and also the 'scri' resource associated with the headless Carlos in the full game. It's a simple copy and paste job folks. What story secrets lie in those demo 'scri' resources? Only the dead know! :-) Here's one for a start... Muller originally started out as a Sergeant! But I've revealed too much... go find out the rest for yourself that's 77% of the fun!

Oct 22, 2000

Two days ago Graham Cull found a secret room in the last room of the Pathways Into Darkness v2.0 demo. Apparently it had remained undiscovered (certainly undocumented) for over six years. But the story doesn't end there. Now mizark316 (full name pending) <mizark316@earthlink.net> writes: The hidden room at the end of the Pathways Demo v2.0 holds more than just dead monsters and bones... If you walk around the hidden room tapping 'g' to search the area, you'll find that one of the skulls holds the infamous Easter Egg. Upon eating the egg you are transported to an area on the lower part of the map that spells out CARNAGE. I'm not sure exaclty what the point of this room is (besides the fact that it might just be part of the Easter Egg) but there is a save spot at the E of CARNAGE. Go on you deserve to experience this secret for yourself. Hats off to Jason & Co. for keeping this little secret 'secret' for so long. And thanks to Herbert and mizark316 for finding it.

Oct 20, 2000

Pathways Into Darkness still remains very much a mystery. We don't know everything about the game, there's undocumented Conversations with the Dead to be read, unknown items lurk in the Shapes file, and yes... secrets are still buried in the maps. Now thanks to Graham Cull <gscull@swbell.net> one more secret is revealed. Graham writes: I've found a secret in the Pathways v2.0 demo. After you blast your way through all those critters in the last room, pick up the bungie propaganda, then make a hard right (90 degrees). Walk forward, and step into a room loaded with... with... ...skulls and bones and dead monsters! Whoah!... nice find. Hard to believe but this is probably the first time that this has been documented (unless of course you know different). We won't spoil the fun by showing you screenshots of this strange secret room... go explore it for yourself. The Pathways Into Darkness v2.0 demo was re-released in March 1994 to coincide with the re-release of the full game (Pathways Into Darkness v2.0). The demo and full game were rewritten to run native on the recently released Power Macintosh computers. Not only was the demo rewritten but it also came with three new levels: Ground Floor Charon Doesn't Make Change Come And Take Your Medicine When you recover the Alien Pipes and open the door to the final room you'll find a Bungie Propaganda note lying on the ground. On reading this note most people would be tempted to simply quit the demo. But as Graham found out it pays to explore further. :-)

Oct 17, 2000

Graham Cull <gscull@swbell.net> writes: Why does the manual say "Pull chains at your own risk," then the only chains are to be found on "Lock&Load"? This smells like there were originally more puzzles. Combine this with a message in the STR# resources about a pedastel with a hole for the alien gemstone and a funky set of dialogs about a gold mask, and it seems that there are more secrets to be found. It would help if someone has decoded the shapes file, so someone could look and see if there really is a pedastel and a gold mask. Of course, it might be a ruse... Oct 16, 2000 Want to know the location of every weapon, ammo clip, potion, item of treasure, etc. on every map? Well help is at hand. topsnark <TopSnark@aol.com> writes: enclosed (291K) is my work from a while ago on the PID maps. The key for the maps is the file 'descriptions' feel free to work it in however you want. The interesting/peculiar part is the 'Hex reps/notes' file, where I made my asides on editing the saved game file-- nothing new except for items. After I played throught the game, with a goal of taking every item possible, I wondered if there were others (more, secret) left, so using the fact that I had a ton of walther ammo left and a limit to items per level, I tried to see how many I could drop on each level. Odd results. Most are 40 or very nearly so. Was anything besides objects taking up the limit? Were they non-real? Or are they off the map or in a wall? Since PID picks up items on entering a square and since we can see what we're standing on, we don't really know. I gave up there. I suppose the other plus of hexing the game was that I was able to conjoin my portions of maps of seperate teleports, so its only one pic per level, with two exceptions. Labyrinth changes. Who else wants some is really odd-- I fiddled with the location hex a lot and found some odd area, but no indication what it is. Maybe like Marathon's maps with wall line comments or something. Definitely worth a look. The "odd" area on "Ok, Who Else Wants Some?" that topsnark refers to is most likely the small triangular area to the left of the 1993 map writing on this map. See Loren Petrich's PID map sectors for map details. You can actually get there if you use Alain Roy's Pathways Into Cheating program. Select Teleport from the Quick Cheats menu and choose "You've never been here". This will take you to an area which cannot be accessed during the game.