: Thanks also go to unnamed sources at Bungie, for granting permission for us
: to distribute the XBLA art and build all-in-one releases (and for sending
: me a lovely T-shirt), and to some expert on Marathon's story whose name
: slips my mind. ;)
Some of the textures, now available in Aleph One versions of M2 and M3, appear to be descended from what was known as the "Texture Replacement Project" or more accurately, Texture Enhancement Project, which began when Aleph One was young. One of the key persons involved on that project was Jesse Simko, whom you might remember from his work, Muerte Machine or Carlos on the Run. http://www.sawbladesoftware.com/portfolio/
Those of us who participated submitted higher resolution (at the time) versions of many of Bungie's M2/M3 textures; I don't recall the resolution being as high as what we consider HD now, though.
The old Texture Enhancement Project link appears non functional: http://source.bungie.org/%7Ccontentcreation/content_creation_resources/texture_enhancement_project/_index.html
Its fun seeing some of these in the current iteration of Marathon 2 and Infinity.