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Eternal X Commentary: "The Far Side Of Nowhere"
Posted By: Forrest of B.orgDate: 5/9/08 8:51 p.m.

In Response To: Volunteers: Eternal "The Far Side Of Nowhere" (pfhore)

Eternal X Director's Commentary, Part 0

(For a more general history of the Eternal project, please see here).

PROLOGUE: DESTINY
Chapter Screen: the hand from the end of the Infinity epilogue

Level 00: "The Far Side Of Nowhere"

(Created by Don-Martin Ashwell.)

You are inside a Jjaro-textured room. A terminal is in view.

[L00-T0-Unfinished]

(The text of this terminal was once placed in a long, prologue chapter screen, and phrased so as to be the idle thoughts of the player-character, Marcus, to himself. This is still evident in the phrase "here I am now, daydreaming about dreaming". But the chapter screen was too long and tedious, so I made it a log entry in a terminal instead. The implication is that Marcus just wrote this moments before the game begins, and I guess goes back to re-read it before leaving to meet up with Hathor.)

(The player-character's name, Marcus Jones, is a combination of a gag on "Mark V Mjolnir" - which in earlier versions was his only identification, make and model number, and thus became what the technicians working on him referred to him as - and "Security Chief Jones", seen briefly in a terminal in Infinity's "Your Wormfood Dude". In earlier versions he was known by the nicknames Marcus Xavier Mjolnir, for Mark X Mjolnir, or Marcus Victor Mjolnir, for Mark V Mjolnir, or much much earlier, Marcus Von Muller, when I had identified him with the Von Muller who wrote the logs in the Lost Network Packets. The Victor-Xavier change occurred when I decided that after over 500 years, an upgraded Mjolnir Mk IV cyborg wouldn't just be a Mark V, but an all new generation, a "Mark X", the X not standing for "ten" but just being a shiny, cool identifier, like "Generation X", or for that matter, "Eternal X".)

You leave the room to find a terminal with Hathor nearby. Outside is a S'pht or perhaps Jjaro city upon K'lia. In the sky, Earth and its sun and moon are visible against the black of a starscape. This whole world looks ancient, cold, and desolate.

[L00-T1-Unfinished]

(This terminal was originally much longer, with a detailed description of how your internal Cybernetic Adjunct program, which is responsible for such fancy features as automatic in-place text translation, has been keyed to automatically color-code shield chargers in your vision, thus explaining why they are different colors in Eternal - though that was actually an aesthetic choice on my part. There was also an explanation of how the ability to interface with Pfhor pattern buffers has been reactivated, it having previously been deactivated to prevent the Pfhor from recovering your pattern and using it against humanity, which segued into a discussion of how your Jjaro Cybernetic Junction interacts with pattern buffer technology, thus explaining part of the "you were dead a thousand times" bit from the Infinity epilogue. And finally, Hathor reminded you that just because she's inside your internal network, doesn't mean she can just talk to you in your head, ala Cortana from Halo; you've still got to have a terminal for her to use for a display. All of this was meant to serve as something of a newbie guide to Marathon gameplay features that non-Marathoners might not have been familiar with, terminals and pattern buffers and chargers and all, but it was cut due to length complaints.)

You teleport out to Level 1: "Deja Vu All Over Again".

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Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

Volunteers: Eternal "The Far Side Of Nowhere"pfhore 4/28/08 4:30 p.m.
     Re: Volunteers: Eternal "The Far Side Of Nowhere"Elderman 4/29/08 2:45 p.m.
           Re: Volunteers: Eternal "The Far Side Of Nowhere"Forrest of B.org 4/29/08 6:05 p.m.
                 Re: Volunteers: Eternal "The Far Side Of Nowhere"Luke 4/30/08 11:35 a.m.
     Eternal X Commentary: "The Far Side Of Nowhere"Forrest of B.org 5/9/08 8:51 p.m.
           Thought of "The Far Side Of Nowhere"- Ipfhore 6/1/08 2:57 p.m.
                 Re: Thought of "The Far Side Of Nowhere"- IForrest of B.org 6/1/08 8:54 p.m.
                       Re: Thought of "The Far Side Of Nowhere"- Ipfhore 6/2/08 12:03 a.m.
                             Re: Thought of "The Far Side Of Nowhere"- IForrest of B.org 6/2/08 1:06 a.m.
           Re: Thought of "The Far Side Of Nowhere"- IIpfhore 6/2/08 1:24 a.m.
           Re: Eternal X Commentary: "The Far Side Of NowhereDeath Angel 9/6/12 3:15 p.m.
                 Re: Eternal X Commentary: "The Far Side Of NowhereForrest of B.org 9/6/12 9:36 p.m.
                       Marathon Terminal PDF BooksGrimCleaver 9/6/12 11:54 p.m.
                             Re: Marathon Terminal PDF BooksGrimCleaver 9/7/12 12:32 a.m.
                                   Homer Simpson moment ;) *NM*Godot 9/7/12 3:40 a.m.
                       Re: Eternal X Commentary: "The Far Side Of NowhereDeath Angel 9/7/12 5:06 a.m.

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Pre-2004 Posts

 

 

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