Bungie, $19. Requirements: 68020 or better, 4MB RAM, System 6.0.7+, 1x CD. For more information, visit Bungie Software at http://www.bungie.com Review by Ed Carmien Bungie Plays the Oldies Bungie has collected six of their previous titles onto one CD (and that should tell you something right there about how far these go back: all six fit on one CD!) and packaged it in a more environmentally friendly way than many games--in a little burlap sac. In the fight for shelf space, it would be suicide to make it any smaller, but at least Bungie did their best to come up with a less wasteful package. The six games are the Marathon trilogy, Pathways into Darkness, Minotaur, and Abuse. Each is a very stable, final version, and each is presented such that networking is free using just this one CD. You and all your buddies can buy one Action Sac and play network Marathon without worrying about serial numbers. All the documentation is on the CD, which I can forgive in a special case like this. The Marathon Trilogy Regular readers might remember the Marathon series is one of my all time favorites. If you're into first person shooters, and can stand a bit of primitive look and feel, but you HAVEN'T played Marathon--well run don't walk to your computer and order up yourself a Mac Action Sack, just to get these games. For Marathon vets, the Sack is something to think about, as the versions here are freely networkable--no more scrounging serial numbers, no more fiddling with serial numbers while installing Marathon on your office network so you can play until four A.M.. This series shows its age when compared to current titles like Quake II, Unreal, Half Life, and so on. The faux-three D will seem hampering and artificial to players used to the new 3D rendering. Hard to believe it was only a handful of years ago when the Marathon series made Doom look like kiddy stuff, eh? Minotaur This network only dungeon crawl game (you can play in single player mode, but it gets dull fast, as all you're really doing is practicing for the real thing) pits up to seven players in a maze full of spells, items, weapons, and armor. There are a few mindless acid critters walking around to make the place a bit more lively, but most of the action comes from the players, who create characters using a simple point-based system. Characters can get better if they win, and get worse if they lose. I didn't get a chance to play this "live," but it seems like a good reason to put an Antique Mac network to use. Or perhaps, for any techies out there who have a slew of Mac LC era models just sitting around doing nothing, this game would be worth a hoot as a slap-together LAN party. That this truly ancient Mac game runs smoothly under System 8.6 is a tribute to Bungie, always known for the technical slickness of their products. Way to go, Bungie! Pathways into Darkness As we continue our journey into the past, we come to the game that put Bungie on the map. With a fixed height, first-person point of view (think "Castle Wolfenstein") and a spooky, convolute story, this isn't a first-person shooter: it is what first-person shooters evolved from. Strange, eh? The pace is languid, too languid for this Marathon-trained mouse maniac, but a devoted puzzler should be able to figure out how to plod through this intricate game. It's a pity they didn't unleash the code just a bit so that the game would move faster on PowerMacs and G3's. Just a bit more speed would have allowed the game to keep the walking pace that is important to the concept of Pathways into Darkness while allowing us speed junkies to feel as if we were getting somewhere. I can't recommend this one to any but the most devoted of Bungie fans, who will recognize level title styles and some other aspects of the design as being precursors to later Bungie products. Abuse This post-Marathon Bungie effort never did well, for a number of good reasons. This side-scrolling shooter was the pinnacle of that sub-genre's development, but the tactical limitations imposed on players seemed to leave us gamers flat way back when. I enjoyed this more today than when I played the demo I can't tell you how many years ago, however. With critters derived from those smooth, quick, slimy bastards in the Alien movies, and with a good selection of firepower and special goodies, a guy can have a good piece of fun ramming through Abuse. Be prepared for some "gimme a break" situations, however. The tactical limitations I mentioned earlier mean that here even more often than in most games, situations crop up which are impossible to fight your way out of until you've failed once, twice, or a dozen times, just so you can get the overall picture. I personally dislike that kind of game, but for those looking for a true challenge, set Abuse to one of the higher difficulty levels and have at. In Summation The Mac Action Sack is a good buy if you're a Bungie fan in general and want to archive your old stuff on one disk. For folks who haven't yet dipped their toes in the bloody mud that is Myth II, there's a playable demo included. Enjoy. And Oni, Bungie's current "game on the horizon," is represented by a theatrical trailer (oh how like the movie business the game business has become, eh?), some music clips that show Bungie can still put together some compelling electronic scores, and two desktop backgrounds (one of which graces my Mac right now. Yum.). After some time passes, this will be an excellent freebie to pick up from Mac Catalogs when you order, assuming Bungie follows the route they've followed in the past. This would be the "see the Matinee or rent the movie" option for those who don't want to shell out $20 for a slice of history and a set of outdated Mac entertainment software. Then again, as William Gibson so ably pointed out in Mona Lisa Overdrive, silicon doesn't wear out so much as it becomes obsolete. There are a heck of a lot of old 68020, 30, and 40 machines still out there, plugging along gamely. Assuming they've got a CD-ROM drive, this sort of History Product is the only way to go.