Bungie Studios is a video game developer founded in 1991 under the name Bungie Software Products Corporation (or in the non-legal definition Bungie Software ) by two undergraduate students at the University of Chicago, Alex Seropian and Jason Jones. Bungie s first release was Gnop!, a clone of Pong, which was distributed for free. For much of the 1990s they developed a series of increasingly technically detailed first person shooter (FPS) games for the Apple Macintosh, the most famous being the Marathon (computer game) series, following this with the acclaimed Myth (computer game) tactical-combat series for both the Mac and Microsoft Windows. Bungie games were particularly well-loved by players due to their complex backstories which often left more unanswered than revealed.

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Due to this, it s speculated by some that the original source code for the Macintosh version was trashed in favour of development of the XBox version. The idea being that when the time suited Microsoft to allow the game to be published on the two platforms, the Macintosh version would be ported from the existing XBox release to save time and money, as would the Windows version (although the latter would be fairly easy to port anyway due to the similarities in the XBox and Windows Operating Systems). This would appear to be the case, due to the fact that third party developers were brought in to port both titles. The adverse effects of this entire episode was felt somewhat in the Bungie Studios however, when many of the key employees walked. Many have now been recruited by [http://www.wideload.com Wideload], a new game developement company founded by Bungie co-founder Alex Seropian himself.

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The company began life in a dormitory on the University of Chicago, and subsequently moved off-campus to real offices in Chicago, Illinois, Illinois. After Microsoft s acquisition, they moved into the Microsoft Campus at Redmond, Washington. Lack of space has prompted a move to Kirkland, Washington, which has recently taken place.

While not directly behind the program, Bungie oversaw and signed off on the . They provided the Haunted Apiary designers with the Halo Bible , allowing the story to fit to Bungie s specifics.

=Bungie Mythos=

Bungie, like many production companies, puts references to older games in newer games. Unlike others, many of these references hint or imply that a great deal of Bungie s games operate in similar or identical universes. Most well known of this is the connection between the Marathon (computer game) universe and the Halo (video game series) universe, which share a great deal of similar names and themes.

While most believed that Bungie would never add a direct connection between these two games (just as they did not for Marathon and has stated: I don t think you ever find that out, but it s the same character. Fans of both games will always be speculating on this theory.

To note, the Halo Story Bible is the name given to a mythical single compendium in which is stored all available material which is considered canon for Bungie s universe. The existence of any actual physical incarnation of the Halo Bible is questionable, as the actual content of Halo canon spans nearly a decade of development, during which time massive amounts of conceptual as well as functional materials were developed on a number of mediums. More properly, the Halo Story Bible refers to the characters, events, and other happenings of the Halo universe held to be canon by Bungie itself (regardless of whether the item has been documented on a physical source), and material which is not in the Halo Bible- while perhaps entertaining- is considered to have no relevance to the Halo universe.

Another interesting fact about Bungie is their use of the number seven. Many of these are more obvious than others, including - first discovered in 1877 and first photographed in 1977. Also the fact that, in the Halo universe, there are seven Halos, scattered throughout the Milky Way galaxy. Apart from seven, there are some other digits that appear very frequently in Bungie s games: 3 and 10 (and the lesser known 4). (Note how 7 + 3 = 10 and 7 - 3 = 4.) These four digits are collectively called Bungie Numbers by the fans.

Bungie as a company has developed its own complex and diverse mythology in addition to that in their games. Several of these include their 7-Step Plan for World Domination, The Shaft, the snack food Tijuana Mama (Containing Mechanically separated chicken, pork hearts, and protein concentrate , and 300% Hotter! ), the decapitated head of a dog named Ling-Ling (Step Five in the World Domination plan), the entity that resides in their server named Disembodied Soul, the chronically drunk and aggressive webmaster of Bungie.net (Known for dressing as a gorilla with a floppy yellow cowboy hat, as well as disappearing for months on HTML research missions and answering the E-Mails of grammatically impaired fans), a cheap absorbent toy fish called the Soffish, and The Cup, the prize at the Bungie Winter Pentathlon (A tradition has emerged that the losing team, out of envy, steals the cup rather than let the winning team touch it. In fact, several Bungie employees doubt the actual existence of The Cup, as it has been stolen and hidden so many times they have never laid eyes on it).

=Offshoot Companies of Bungie=

Double Aught was a short-lived company comprised of several former Bungie team members. They were best known for creating the Infinity scenario Blood Tides of Lhowon and for the unreleased title Duality.

[http://www.wideload.com Wideload], creator of Stubbs the Zombie, is another company that came from Bungie. It is led by one of the two Bungie founders, Alex Seropian, and in fact seven(!) of the 11 employees have previously worked at Bungie.

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