Before they became known for sucking away your precious time with the multiplayer sci-fi FPS action of Halo, followed up by the multiplayer sci-fi FPS action of Destiny, Bungie made their name on a series of multiplayer sci-fi FPS games for the PC called Marathon. It didn't involve any more running than your average shoot-em-up, but it did involve an intriguing plot that was a blend between Doom and Halo (you play as a security officer attempting to defeat an alien invasion aboard a colony ship), and one of the earliest popular deathmatch modes. It also includes one of the most convoluted Easter eggs in the history of video games, to the point that it took ages for players to not only realise it existed, but to actually crack it. Ages means a decade in this equation. You see, Marathon features three "dream levels", each of which include a pair of computer terminals with screens full of hex code. By taking that code, sticking it into a text editor like Notepad, and then saving that code as a level file, you'll create a whole new multiplayer map for the game. How exactly was any sane person supposed to be reasonably expected to find that.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
