April 25, 2006

The Bungie Acronym Compendium

JNAMSTFY. DMUKYA. ABTFIPASO5. These cryptic identifiers have entertained, enightened, frustrated, and confounded Bungie fans since the early days in Chicago. Found on nearly every game and soundtrack created or licensed by Bungie, a surprising number of these enigmatic acronyms remain unsolved.

Acronym Game Solution Confirmed by:
DMUKYA Marathon Don't Make Us Kick Your Ass  
MBIBTYB Marathon 2 My Bob Is Bigger Than Your Bob  
TBWSAF Marathon ∞ and Trilogy Trick Bitch Whore Slut Ass Fucker Alex Rosenberg
WACCSMD Myth Warcraft And Command & Conquer, Suck My Dick Max Hoberman
MRTEFCFY Myth Soundtrack    
TATRTSTS Myth II Total Annihilation True Real Time Strategy Totally Sucks Tuncer Deniz (below)
WUBNMH Myth II Soundtrack What's Up, Bitch? Not Much, Holmes Matt Soell
SPMLOAS Myth Total Codex    
YYMMDBATC Myth TC Soundtrack Yummy, Yummy, Munchy, Munchy, Dwarven Bones Are Tasty Crunchy Max Hoberman
ABTFIPASO5 Halo (GotY)    
SABABWL Halo Soundtrack, Halo 3 Beta    
ILWNL Halo PC    
JNAMSFTFY Halo 2    
EGATFIBGBCSIMAW Halo 2 Soundtrack Vol 1    
MNNGSBTFS Halo 2 Soundtrack Vol 1    
IOHBOY Halo 2 In-game map (Metropolis)    
SIOHBOY Halo 2 In-game credits    
TOFTMTWCLMB Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack    
HAISTCWITDO Halo 2 Soundtrack Vol 2    
BMDWATBATWMC Halo Graphic Novel    
DTARAGS Halo 2 Vista    
SLMCWMYOW Halo 3    
JLTLEBLC Halo 3 Limited Edition    
WWYANOFAWD Halo 3 Legendary Edition    
TGAWAFAL Halo 3 Soundtrack    


There have been tons of different guesses as to these on a variety of different forums all over the place, so if you see one you think you know the answer to, feel free to post a comment. Hopefully, someone at Bungie will step in periodically and let us know how we're doing.

Remember that, although some of them contain a little bit of good-natured profanity, they're not all strings of foul language. Many of them are catchphrases heard around the Bungie offices during development of the related game.

Note: It's pretty obvious that EGATFIBGBCSIMAW refers to the skulls (Envy, Grunt Birthday Party, Assassins, Thunderstorm, Famine, I Would Of Been Your Daddy, Blind, Ghost, Black, Catch, Sputnik, Iron, Mystic, Anger) but since no one from Bungie has ever stepped in with any observations on the elusive W at the end, and public opinion is hardly conclusive, it's pretty pointless to keep throwing guesses about it around. Maybe somebody in the know would care to tell us a story? ;-)

Update
For the record, here are a few of the more widely-recognized guesses on some of the unsolved ones:

SPMLOAS: Single-Player Myth, Loads (or Lots) Of Additional Shit
ILWNL: I Like (or Love) Winning, Not Losing
IOHBOY: I'm Only Here Because Of You
SIOHBOY: Sid, I'm Only Here Because Of You

Anyone who can confirm or deny these is always welcome. :-)

Another Update
In the Halo 3 Beta, SABABWL is heard via Morse code, coming from the radio near the upper flag base on the map High Ground.
Posted by mnemesis at 8:33 PM | Comments (54) | TrackBack