Alex packaged and mailed out copies of the game from his bedroom ultimately selling around 2500 copies. It wasn't long before his second game was ready - Operation Desert Storm, an overhead war game once again designed for the Mac.
It was a small little game for sure but it was the beginning of something great.
HALO FOR MAC HISTORY FREE
A University of Chicago student named Alexander Seropian released a free game for the Macintosh known as Gnop! That's Pong spelled backwards. Like many things in the gaming industry, Bungie's history can be traced back to the original Pong.
HALO FOR MAC HISTORY FULL
It was incredible and this video would up finding its way onto bundled CD-ROMs included with magazines across the country - after all, downloading full length videos from the internet in 1999 was still relatively difficult. The water too was impressive for its day with beautiful specular highlights from the sun and natural wave formations dancing across its surface. Marines reacted realistically to the bumps and jumps of the vehicle, the antenna swung around and dirt and rubble could be seen spitting up from the tires and colliding realistically with the terrain. The Warthog makes an appearance as well and the physics on display were incredibly impressive for the time. Rolling hills and towering bases were shown with a main character resembling what would become The Master Chief running around.
This first look at Halo showcased a very different game indeed but it was tantalising all the same. Bungie had been a prolific developer of games on the Mac, after all, and the visuals showcased that day were a massive leap over many other games available at that time. The first time Blam! would make an appearance in public was at MacWorld '99 where Steve Jobs brought Jason Jones on-stage to introduce the world to Halo. As detail was added, it became clear that the engine could support more than a simple overhead view, inspiring the team to begin experimenting with third-person shooting. Unlike Myth, however, the engine had evolved to the point where it was possible to utilise fully 3D polygonal models. This project was first known as 'Monkey Nuts' but Jason Jones, one of Bungie's co-founders, decided that he wouldn't be too keen on explaining this title to his mother thus it was changed to Blam! - with an exclamation point, of course.īlam! Started life not as a shooter, rather, as a semi-sequel to Myth - an overhead real-time strategy game focused on tactics as opposed to action.
To understand its beginnings we need to jump all the way back to 1998 - following the release of Myth: The Fallen Lords, development of a secret project got underway while the rest of the studio toiled on Myth II: Soulblighter. But the path to release was a long one fraught with challenges and changes that resulted in a product very different from what was first envisioned. As a product, it helped define the first generation Xbox and help Microsoft become the juggernaut of today and, as a project, it lifted its creator, Bungie, into the history books as one of the most revered developers of all time.Īt the time of release Halo was cutting edge not just in terms of game design but also in terms of technology, storytelling and features. As a game, Halo evolved and refined the first person shooter, making it work on a console like never before. Games like Doom, Super Mario Brothers and Half-Life aren't just incredible games in their own right - they helped shape the gaming industry as a whole. Every so often a game comes along that changes everything.