In November, 2002, we posted an announcement of a movie called ‘Heaven and Hell’. In it, we stated that it showed, for the first time, the bottom of the Silent Cartographer main shaft. What we forgot was that in December, 2001, barely a month after the Xbox was released, we had put up an announcement for a DIFFERENT movie… which showed the same thing. That film (Team 7hr33’s livefromtheshaftfloor.mov) never actually showed anything of the floor itself; the player on the bottom spent all of his time looking up. (I think I must have thought that they were almost, but not all the way, down because of this when I wrote up the Heaven and Hell post.) However, upon exploring Team 7hr33’s website, there is a DIFFERENT film (dated June 6, 2002) which shows plenty of bottom-of-the-shaft footage (last movie on the page)… my bad entirely for overlooking this. Rightful credit for the first film of the bottom of the main Silent Cartographer shaft (not the Security Shaft) should go to Team 7hr33, all the way back before Christmas, 2001.

Whoa. Massive film by Blackstar – it’s a loving reconstruction of ‘Dead Rabbits’, a LANfest held here at HBO HQ a week and a half ago. It’s nearly 7 minutes long, and 63 megs big. We’ll work on mirrors (I’ll put a copy up at Mythica this morning) – if you have bandwdidth to spare, feel free to let us know! Update: There’s now a copy at Mythica.

Matt Soell put up a note on bungie.net mentioning the voice actors that were traipsing through Bungie’s studios today… and pointing out that one of them, David Scully (Sergeant Johnson, to all you greenhorns), has a comedy album out. It’s only $10, and there are 3 2-minute samples on the CD’s website – go listen, then grab a copy. Scully is a funny man.

A long-time member of the Halo community, The Junkyard, has a poll up to determine if visitors would be willing to donate to offset the cost of their server. Swing on by and cast your vote!

A million years ago (okay, last month), dogsounds finished up a pair of art contests on our forum. We’ve finally put up a page to display the entries to these; any future contests will be added to this page. Check out Dogsounds’ Art Contests in our Miscellaneous section.

For those who didn’t register at the Red vs. Blue site yesterday, your wait is over; the Public Service Announcement is now available to the general public. Go grab it… it’s pretty funny. In DivX or QT, high or lo-res. Thanks to Buzby for the heads-up. Update: we got word from Eclarap that Halo-Game, in France, has mirrored the first three RvB movies; if you’re on that side of the Atlantic, you might have better download luck there.

Three new banners have been added to our Banners section – two from Michael Frank and one from GT500E. Check ’em out! (Remember – if you decide you like these banners, and want to use them in your signature on a non b.org forum, you’ll have to find your own hosting for them.)

A few weeks ago, we announced a movie called ‘Blood Gulch Ballet’, by Rory Hartley and Bill Copeland. It was fun to watch, but the quality left something to be desired. Well, Rory got us both a much-smaller DivX-encoded .avi, and a nearly uncompressed version we were able to use to make a very nice QuickTime version. You’ll find both new versions in the Movie Database listing for this flick. (There’s no new content; if you’re not interested in the higher-quality version, you should pass on this one.)

H. Shield has submitted another entry for our Halo 2 Cover Art Contest. (The contest has been over for some time, but we still add new entries to the section when they come in, rather than mix them in with the Miscellaneous Art.)

A gigantic logo has been added to the Logos section.

Three new desktop images for you this morning… you’ll find ’em in our Wallpaper section.

Dinky writes to say that HaloJuggaloProductions has mirrored the Halo50K Framework movie (the large version). If you haven’t seen this, you should definitely download it. (We’ve added the link to our mirrors list.) He also wanted to point out that they’re getting a new camera – so upcoming movies from HJP should be of a higher caliber.

8 tidbits of random artwork, ranging from concept art for vehicles to personal hygiene items. Check ’em out in our Miscellaneous Art section. (Remember – if you upload files to our ftp or http directories, we can’t post them if you don’t identify them… there are some great pieces with no attributions there right now.)

Dang, this came in Sunday night, but I forgot to post it. Front Range Company 7 (a Seventh Column Chapter) and Colorado Fusion, based in (you guessed it) Colorado, would like to announce ‘Se7en’, a no-elimination, 4-man team Halo tournament. The competition will be near Denver, CO on May 17, 2003. Registration is $120/team, and top prize is $1000. Check out the details on the Se7en page!

Thanks to Pez, who pointed out an episode of TechTV’s Extended Play that focuses on first-person shooters. Halo, of course, is covered. The first airing was yesterday… but it’ll be showing today at 3:30 am (past) and 7:30 am, as well as Saturday and Sunday of this upcoming weekend. Check the page for details.

PMFLEX Productions has put together another hacking video. It’s nicely designed, but we’ve already said we don’t have the bandwidth for more videos showing what you can do with a modded Xbox. Luckily for PMFLEX, That Weasel Television has no such limitation. Hop on by their Halo mirror and grab a copy of Hackin Hog Heaven, in either WMP9 or DivX formats.

IGN Xbox has put up an Insiders-only article about what Halo 2 would look like if they were in charge. Well… if you read our forum, you’ve seen a few dozen Halo 2 wishlists such as they end up with, and if you read the Psyjnir Complex, you’ve seen scenarios as outlandish as IGN’s. If you don’t have Insider access… well, don’t buy it for this story alone. Thanks to Ross Chestnut for the heads-up.

NightHawk writes to say that he’s put up a website for his Dark Phoenixx Clan. Currently, the only game they play is Halo 2. (I guess that means they’re not very busy at the moment…)

Eleven Fan Fiction pieces for you today:

• Enigma: part 1, by Madcat_97
• The Defense of Earth 3: The 889th Tactical Fighter Wing, by Steele
• Law & Order (Part 3 of 3) Lesson Learned, by el_halo_diablo
• 1st Special Forces group, by grylsy
• Fallen Angel 11: Little relief, by Gruntkiller/Covert
• A Single Motion: part 4, by Arthur Wellesly
• Just Getting Started Chapter Seven, by James Kinsella
• End Game: Chapter Two, by Anthony Coronado
• Chapter 2: What we do to liars, by Kyle/Mutated Elite
• Super Covenant -part2- Cryto’s Sorrow, by Matt James
• Prologue: Battle of Croton, by Trevor White

Writers – please, use the Series listing if your story is part of a series. Thanks!

Forum regular Poocho wrote up a strategy guide for playing Capture the Flag, with specific scenarios for Blood Gulch and Sidewinder. You’ll find it in our Miscellaneous section.