1. The Island Of Mata Nui
2. Rapa Nui Island

You are Toa - an ancient guardian of the island of Mata Nui. You must unite with 3 of your brothers to rescue Matoran villagers scattered across the island and unleash the power of the elements against the evil Makuta, master of shadows, who's lurking deep beneath the great Mangai volcano, forging an army of Rahi beasts and planning to break through to the surface and conceal Mata Nui in shadow forever.

Why is Mata Nui a Toa?

Mata Nui was not a Toa, the Toa Inika was the mask itself. Mata Nui during Galitorian was not a toa.

What happened to the Bohrok after Mata Nui awakened?

The sonic signal was sent to Mata Nui (the island) to awaken the bohrok. The island of Mata Nui was thought to be Mata Nui's (the great spirit) face. So the Bohrok destroyed all of the jungles, villages, and temples on Mata Nui after the Matoran and Turaga left to Metru Nui.

What is the bio code for mata nui on glatorian arena 2?

You don't actually need it, since Mata Nui is the default character.. But here it is, anyway. Mata Nui - M74NU1

Bionicles 2009 sets include mata nui is that true?

Yes, Mata Nui will be a 2009 canister set. He is being released this summer. There will also be a larger box set of Toa Mata Nui.

How did mata nui come to life?

Well the Toa Mata were inside Kadra Nui, and when the mask of life was placed inside the Codex, Mata Nui awoke. This is because Kadra Nui is actually the power output for Mata Nui, his 'heart.' He woke because the mask was made to regenerate his life force, and you should know that he was dying. For more visit biosector01.com

Where does mata nui come from?

Mata Nui the being came from Spherus Magna, the name means 'Great Spirit' in matorian.

What is mata nui?

Mata nui is a spirit inside a giant robot body that houses the matorian universe and that studied the surrounding universe.

What are all the bionicle names for places in the bionicle world?

Mata Nui, Metru Nui, Voya Nui, Mahri Nui, Karda Nui, and Bara Magna.

What is the meaning of the word wainuiomata?

WAI = water NUI = large MATA = probably a persons name So Mata's big water

What is the bio code for Toa Mata Nui?

704m47 for the big guy ,and m74nu1 for the small guy if it doesn't work email kungpaoneil@hotmail.co.jp

What does mata nui as a bionicle look like?

First of all, I'd like to point out that Mata Nui is never a 'bionicle,' but is a bio-mechanical being. 'Bionicle' is a portmanteau of the words 'Biological' 'Chronicles;' Mata Nui is certainly not a story, but a being! ;D Anyway, Mata Nui has been seen in three forms - as a 'great spirit' in the MU, as a mask (when sealed in the Ignika), and as a 'toa' in Bara Magna. Pictures can be… Read More

Who is mata nui?

Mata Nui is a being created by the Great Beings to document the universe, his origin form is a giant robot with the Matorian universe inside of him, that is why the story calls him the creator of the universe. Also he was comatose and under the surface of the planet of which most of the bionicle story takes place. The island of Mata Nui is just over his face, and Metru Nui is within… Read More

In poptropica how do you get the mata nui armor?

*This was part of a Bionicle ad-game that is no longer available. Go to the water in the cave. Click on it. You will get a vase to the top. Give it to the still Bionicle and you will get a Lego gun and the the Mata Nui suit.

Will mata nui be a bionicle set in 2009?

He is going to be a canister set!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mata Nui, the Great Spirit, will come out as a canister set in the summer of 2009. his colour will be yellow. if you want to see him, go to google, seach for 'mata nui 2009 set', and there will be some sites. take the correct one, (flickr) and you will see him and the other canister boxes. There will also be a titan version of him

How does bionicle 4 end?

well, mata nui goes to confront tuma, and rescues kiina and Berix. Then he goes, defeats tuma and rescues kiina and that other guy. then all of the skrall, bone hunters, and vorox attack mata nui and all the glatorian. they defeat all those enemies, and find out the traitor is metus. he tries to escape, but mata nui turns him into a snake. The agori villages all get connected, forming the body of a… Read More

What weapon does mata nui use as a toa?

A Scarabax Shield and a sword. The Thornax is not in the movie.

What are the next bionicle?

I do not really know what the collection names are, but the names of the 2009 summer canisters are: Stronius (rock), Ackar (fire), Vastus (jungle), Kiina (water), Gelu (ice) and Mata Nui. Yes, Mata Nui will come out in this summer 2009.

Do you ever find out what Mata Nui looks like as a bionicle?

Yes. He's basically a 40,000,000 foot maskless 2001 Toa covered in dirt. His face is the size of the island Mata Nui, confirmed as his head was underneath it. The island no longer exists.There is also a Mata-Nui canister set in the summer of 2009 that is keetongu orange/yellow in colour.He has a remolded Ignika,a weird shield,a blue 2009 head,and a thornax launcher.

What happens in Bionicle 2010?

Makuta and Mata Nui battle in giant robot forms, then mata nui makes makuta use this gravity power thing to bring the moons of bara magna to the planet. Mata nui pushed Makuta into on of them and it makes a giant hole in the back of his head, killing makuta. then all the plants and water return to bara magna, and toa, matoran, glatorian, and agori live happily ever after.

Who is the master of the bionicle?

Mata Nui fort the good guys and Makuta Terridax for the bad guys.

What movie did mata nui awake in?

The Island Of Mata Nui

in the legend reborni think it's in the special feature if you have the movie

What is the first bionicle?

There was more than one 'first Bionicle'. They include: The original Matoran, which only had 5 to 6 pieces and had the same masks as the early Toa, but just different colours. Toa Tahu Mata; Toa Gali Mata; Toa Lewa Mata; Toa Kopaka Mata; Toa Pohatu Mata; Toa Onua Mata; Turaga Vakama; Turaga Nokama; Turaga Matau; Turaga Nuju; Turaga Whenua; Turaga Onewa; Tarakava; Nui-Rama; Nui-Jaga

Which was the last bionicle made?

The last bioinicle ever made (so far) is Toa Mata Nui

Whats the main goal of the Bohrok?

The Bohrok's goal is to make the island, Mata Nui, into what it was in the beginning of time.

Why was Lego Bionicle discontinued?

makuta was defeated.the toa win and mata nui`s distiny was completed

Rapa Nui Island

Can Makuta control Mata Nui's body?

he is not stronger than Mata Nui but when he takes control of mata nuis body he does become stronger. The only beings that can match or come close to his power is Tren Kom Great Beings Takutanuva

What is the date the Mata Nui Bionicle set will be released?

In US and Canada: August 2009. For other countries, I'm not sure.

What is the Gold bionicle's name not mata nui the gold bionicle who fought makuta?

The 'Gold' bionicle's name was Takanuva, the Toa of light.

Who is the strongest bionicle?

Mata Nui is the strongest bionicle. He is the great spirit of the universe considering he has the 'Mask of Life,' which provides him with great powers.

What is the storyline of Bionicle in SUMMER 2009?

That has not been revealed yet, but we know it will have something to do with Mata Nui, because that will be when he crashes into Bara Magna.

What does NUI mean?

Nui in maori means big, huge for example 'he tino nui tana puku', translated this means, 'your stomach is really huge'.

How do you say big in Hawaiian?

Nui or loa can mean big. Loa is closer to 'Long' as in Mauna Loa, long mountain. Nui can mean big in size or power. Ira

How do you Say great in hawaiian?

nui, nunui (those mean big/very big for great) or maika'i nui loa (very, very good)

Does the new lego bionicle mata nui have the mask of life?

Ignika, the mask of life, will be once again featured on the 'Mata Nui' 2009 summer canister set, however it has been modified into a 'helmet' in order for it to fit on the new 2009 heads. In the 2009 UK Toyfair, the mask appeared in yellow, however there are rumors that it might be released in gold instead.

What is the biggest bionicle?

the kardas dragon set ... actually its either the kardas dragon, toa titan mata nui, or takanuva of darkness and light

Who is the strongist bionicle in the world?

Mata Nui if you are asking that question outside the story, but if you where asking inside the story, then I would say Tahu Toa of fire.

What are the bio codes for the glatorian legends?

Mata Nui - M74NU1 Stronius - 57RN1S Ackar - 4CK4RG Vastus - V457U5 Kiina - BLUK11 Gelu - 73G3LU

Gathered friends, listen again to the legend of the Bionicle.

In the time before time – actually, just before the turn of the millennium – The Lego Group was facing a financial crisis. Yes, the now hyper-profitable Danish company responsible for the plastic building toy, that holds huge mass-media licenses like Star Wars and both Marvel and DC superheroes, was on the verge of bankruptcy. Due to myriad reasons, including an unnecessarily large colour palette, frivolous use of expensive printing techniques (seriously, they had several variations of pizza chef torsos for the minifigures) and other issues, they were circling the drain.

In 1999, Lego acquired the Star Wars license and began promptly releasing sets, but it wasn’t enough. They needed something new, something befitting the new century, an in-house original IP with strong story material to back it up as marketing, they needed a new franchise with supported by a wide range of multi-media. The increasing popularity of video games chewed into physical toy sales for years by this time – so why not make use of it?

Enter Bionicle, a proprietary franchise of buildable action figures initially released under the Technic subline, backed by a surprisingly complex and deep mythos based on Maori culture and metaphors of the human immune system. This was the franchise that had to save Lego, and it did, thanks in no small part to the strong multimedia marketing in its first few years and connection young fans made with the characters via the storyline. Running between 2001 and 2010, the first generation of Bionicle (a second ran during 2015-2016) developed a vast fictional universe, one which is deep and nuanced, and enjoyable even for adults who aren’t interested in the toys*.

A quick rundown of the premise is this: the biomechanical Matoran villagers have been living in peace on the island of Mata Nui for a millennium, revering the Great Spirit Mata Nui after whom the island is named. Mata Nui’s shunned evil brother Makuta grew jealous and infected the Rahi animals living on the island to terrorize the villagers. The legends of these villagers told of six Toa who would arrive to save them – and so they did. The expanded story told over the next decade branched wildly, but that is a different tale.

Bionicle: The Legend of Mata Nui was supposed to be the crown jewel of the multimedia marketing campaign. A full-fledged action-adventure video game for PC and the Gamecube featuring the six main characters of the franchise – the Toa heroes – was supposed to accompany product launch in 2001 with what counted as advanced graphics for the time. This game was meant to be the primary vehicle for the year one storyline, and it was planned to be the main canonical source of lore and story.

It was never released.

Saffire Corporation, known for their work in titles such as StarCraft: Brood War and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, was licensed by Lego to create the game. Saffire also developed a prequel to Legend of Mata Nui for the Nintendo Gameboy Advance, Tales of the Tohunga (The Matoran were initially called Tohunga, however in 2002 The Lego Group was sued by a Maori group on grounds of cultural appropriation forcing Lego to change some names and spellings), which they released successfully.

Over the course of development, The Lego Group initially allowed the team to do their own thing and didn’t involve themselves overly with the process, however over time this changed. Lego’s (in?)famous anti-violence rule – which they themselves have begun to interpret in increasingly loose terms – cause issues in spite of the whole IP involving a great deal of fighting, weapons and elemental powers. Each Toa character had their set of tools, which in some cases fit that description – Onua, the Toa of Earth wielded claws that helped with digging, for example – however, most were definitely weapons including swords and axes.

In the first year of the Bionicle storyline, the primary enemies faced by the heroes are infected specimens of the local wildlife called Rahi. Based on real-world animals, these opponents were also inherently violent in nature. Huge tigers, bulls and scorpions were featured, as well as freaking boxing treadmill lizards.

Around the same time, Lego also commissioned a browser-based point ‘n’ click adventure game from Templar Studios. Called the Mata Nui Online Game, in lieu of Legend of Mata Nui, this became the primary story vehicle for the first year, and it became cemented as a key part of the fandom as a result. Beyond sharing an IP, the two games were connected in more ways.

Even at first, combat was fairly dialed back by video game standards, however, Saffire was forced to tone it down even more later on. I spoke with Darvell Hunt in an exclusive interview, who was a programmer at Saffire working on Legend of Mata Nui. He later played an instrumental role in the current restoration project undertaken by Team Litestone, a group of fans with the technical knowledge required to rebuild the game that sprouted from The Beaverhouse, a game streaming team. Hunt offered invaluable insight into the project and the causes for the game’s eventual cancellation.

–

Aron Gerencser: What role did you fill during the development of LOMN (Legend of Mata Nui)?

Darvell Hunt: I was hired in August 2000 and added to the software development team for the LEGO Bionicle PC game. I did various coding tasks at first until I was assigned to fix the terrain-following code or the code that makes the movable objects – like the Toa you control – from falling through the world. This was done with ray casting and was not working correctly.

Once I had terrain following working well, the lead noticed that I seemed to be good with physics simulation, which I had actually done a lot of in college at Utah State. After that, I was pretty much assigned to do all of the physics for the game, which involved walking, running, swimming, falling, jumping, grabbing cliffs, rolling and bouncing objects, etc.

AG: How did you find out about the restoration project, and what gave you the idea to provide TheBeaverhouse the Beta?

DH: Over the years since I left Saffire, I have had fans contact me asking if I had a copy of the game. This started about 5 years after leaving Saffire, or around 2006. Yes, I had been given a copy of the game, but I had never been able to run it on my own home PC because of video incompatibility issues, so I lost track of it. I still think I have that copy, but I have never found it. I think it’s packed away in a box from my past move somewhere.

Over time, I ended up receiving two copies of the game from different sources. I don’t know the original sources, but I was given a copy of that provided to TheBeaverhouse. I didn’t really have the idea, as they were asking about it, and they had a version already, which was the other version that I had, and only after chatting for a while did I think of letting them have the other copy I had. I hadn’t ever bothered to extract the files from the CD image I had, but I provided it to them and thought that would be the end of it. I guess it wasn’t. Things have really “gotten big” since then.

AG: During development, did Saffire actively collaborate with Templar Studios, or was Templar simply given access to Saffire developed assets for their licensed title, Mata Nui Online Game?

DH: I don’t know anything about Templar Studios and don’t recall hearing the name while I was there. It’s been a long time, though, so maybe I missed or forgot about the reference. I don’t know about any assets from Saffire being given for other projects, sorry. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, but I don’t know about it.

AG: What was the climate like at Saffire during the development of LOMN?

DH: At first, it was a lot of fun working there. We had a pretty fun group of software developers and we were all pretty good friends. We were working on a cool project and the moods were high. Most of the team existed before I arrived, but I seemed to fit into the group just fine.

Starting in the late spring or early summer of 2001, Saffire asked us to put in more time because the game was behind. Management ramped up required hours, a little at first, but eventually, we were working 70 hours work weeks. Saffire was catering for lunch and dinner so we wouldn’t leave and waste time away from the office. It was cool to have free food, but the hours were hard, and the long hours had its effect on the team.

For the last 2 or 3 months, Saffire was having difficulty meeting payroll demands, such that by the time I left on October 10 (involuntarily!), they were at least six weeks behind with payroll. The LEGO contract was cancelled at that time, possibly the day before, I’m not sure, and no severance package was offered, they promised to pay us (those leaving) first, which was a bold lie. They never intended to pay us (my opinion) and I had to file with the Utah State Labor Commission to get paid, which took about a year. I also heard that those of us who filed with the state for pay was vilified for “destroying the company” and “taking pay from existing employees”, which was total garbage.

So, for that last few months, it wasn’t very fun working there. We were not getting paid and the work was long and hard. I enjoyed much of my time there, but the experience soured my view of the video game industry. I did try to get a job in video games over the next year or so but found nothing. With the game having been cancelled a month after the 9/11 attack, the job market was horrible, such that I didn’t get a new job until January 2003, which was in a different software development field. I’ve never considered doing video games since.

AG: How much oversight or control did the Lego Group exert over the project? At the time this would have been the definitive piece of media telling the Year One story, so I imagine there was a lot of liaising with the story team.

DH: Well, it seems that LEGO had given us leeway in development, but we would do things in the game and get slapped down by the LEGO liaisons. Then sometime in the summer, probably late summer, something changed at LEGO and suddenly our game had too much simulated violence. I found out later that LEGO has some shuffle of people involved in deciding what the game was supposed to be, but I didn’t know that at the time.

Then 9/11 came and we were told we couldn’t do any sort of violence in the game, which we didn’t really have anyway. We had Mario-like fireballs and such, but it wasn’t really violence. I was told that the game was cancelled in part because it was too violent—which, in my opinion, and the opinion of my teammates, was ridiculous. It’s curious that the calls for less violence came before 9/11, but afterwards, it just seemed like the straw that broke LEGO’s back.

AG: How did you and your colleagues feel when the plug was pulled?

DH: We were all pretty upset, obviously, especially those who got laid off because the contract got cancelled. I don’t remember how many of us were let go, but it was a pretty horrible experience. It was my first layoff and it was pretty traumatic for me and my wife, especially since it was just after the 9/11 attacks and I wasn’t able to find a full-time job for over a year.

Since I was gone within about 2 hours of the announcement about the game, I didn’t really have any interaction with the rest of the team. I’ve met a few of them by chance around the area, but I’ve never really chatted with them about what they thought.

AG: Do you have any personal interest in Bionicle or Lego?

DH: When I started working on the game in the fall of 2000, my 4 kids were between 6 months and 9 years old, and they loved Bionicle stuff. The toys weren’t released until much later, sometime in 2001, I think, but my kids wanted them all. They thought it was pretty cool that Dad was making the game for them, too. In fact, my 9-year-old son Taylor came into work after school for a couple months to help playtest the GameBoy Advance LEGO Bionicle game Saffire was also developing. As it turns out, he got an official game credit for the GBA version, both in the end credits and the instruction booklet, but I never did. He even has an IMDB page for it.

Immediately after being laid off, I wanted to have nothing to do with LEGO at all, especially the Bionicles. I was that way for several years before the hurt and anger of being fired subsided. But I’ve never really had much interest in Bionicle since, although my kids still had it. I’m OK with LEGO in general, though. I took my kids to Legoland in California a couple times when they were younger.

–

The previously mentioned Mata Nui Online Game and Saffire’s released GBA game, Tales of the Tohunga shouldered much of the narrative delivery in 2001 when the toyline launched, but Lego pushed strong across many fronts. A bevvy of online videos, character bios and written material told the tale of how the six Toa vanquished the evil Makuta, at least seemingly. Since the toys sold extremely well and effectively saved the entire company, naturally Lego kept making them.

I asked Hunt about Templar Studios and MNOG (Mata Nui Online Game) for a specific reason, due to a connection revealed only after both the Alpha and Beta versions of LOMN were discovered. Much about the visual representation of locations in the Bionicle world wasn’t specified in other sources, so Saffire was allowed to come up with a bunch of stuff on their own. One example would be the village of the water-element Matoran, called Ga-Koro – in the Alpha build, the village is shown as it was later depicted in MNOG and canonized, as huts built on massive floating water-lilies in a bay. However, in the Beta build, that whole level is changed completely with an altogether new design for the village.

Yet, the depiction of Ga-Koro in MNOG is so similar to how it appears in the LOMN Alpha that the similarity cannot be a coincidence, meaning at some point prior to the finalized design of the village seen in the Beta, Templar Studios was given some measure of access to LOMN assets, which led to the development of what many would argue is the single most definitive piece of released Bionicle media. Even though it went unreleased, Legend of Mata NuiMade in heaven serie. left a significant and lasting mark on the franchise.

Lego began marketing LOMN before it was cancelled, so the fandom at large knew about the project. Magazines, pack-in comic booklets and other material linked to the toyline advertised the upcoming game, which was even supposed to be packed with an exclusive toy accessory – a mask, which is significant in the lore. As such, the fans were fixated on it after its cancellation, and it became something of a holy grail. The official reason Lego gave for the game’s cancellation was “chip compatibility and timing” – though not the entire picture, this statement is true, as before TheBeaverhouse/Team Litestone patched the game significantly, LOMN could only run on systems with a very specific Voodoo GPU.

Over the course of G1’s run through 2010, Legend of Mata Nui popped in and out of the fandom’s consciousness. Around 2002 and 2003, several instances of CDs appearing with development content were reported, but most were hoaxes. At the time, Lego often shipped games with demos of other Lego titles on-disc, and in some cases, these discs came with unaccessible LOMN demo assets, but nothing could be done with them.

It is now known that after the game was cancelled, members of the dev team copied existing builds onto discs and gave these out among themselves, as confirmed by Hunt. Many of these discs found their way back to Lego, but most went unaccounted for. In 2004, an anonymous member of the fandom who identified themselves as Deep Brick acquired one of these discs and managed to play the first level of the game, something they proved via screenshots shared on Bionicle fansite Mask of Destiny. Much later in 2010, Deep Brick recorded footage of the game and posted it on YouTube.

Due to Bionicle: Legend of Mata Nui never having been released, there are some gaps in the year-one storyline that were never retconned or filled. In 2003, a novel was released that recounted the story in great detail, however after Greg Farshtey was given full control over the lore, these books written by Cathrine Hapka were partially de-canonized with no other material made to fill them in. Farshtey went on to partially de-canonize MNOG and/or make retcons that indirectly rendered elements of that game non-canon.

During the mid-to-late years of G1, a direct line to Farshtey was given to the fans via the Lego Messageboards where questions regarding story and lore could be asked. This led to Farshtey occasionally canonizing, de-canonizing or retconning story material on the forum without these changes being acknowledged in any actual story material which led to some continuity errors.

In particular, the final (or first, depending on how you look at it) confrontation between the Toa and Makuta in the 2001 story doesn’t have a canon representation at all. It is referred to in canon material and depicted in MNOG, but that rendition has been de-canonized. In fact, the Hapka novel cuts off literally right before the Toa encounter Makuta, and the second novel picks up after they won the fight. Makuta would have been the final boss battle of Legend of Mata Nui, which would have been the definitive depiction.

Multiple Bionicle video games went on to be released – in 2003, a video game was released around the same time as the first of four Bionicle movies, which covered snippets of the story from 2001-2003, but it was entirely unrelated to LOMN, and more followed.

Following Deep Brick’s videos, the buzz died down. Bionicle was cancelled in 2010 and ended on a cliffhanger with multiple story threads left unfinished, and Lego replaced the series with a similar action-figure based toyline called Hero Factory with significantly watered-down story elements. In 2015, Bionicle was rebooted for a 3 year run with an entirely new story and setting but was cancelled prematurely in 2016, though the story team managed to end it with proper closure. Many think that this was the definitive end for Bionicle, as a failed second run would make a third unlikely. Many fans moved on or stuck to creating their own creations.

Then in 2018, a piece of Bionicle news dropped that made a bigger splash than G2 in its entirety – Legend of Mata Nui‘s Alpha build was anonymously sent to TheBeaverhouse, who then streamed it and made the game available for download.

TheBeaverhouse wasn’t explicitly a Bionicle-related group, but many members such as head Liam Scott were Bionicle fans, and also had technical expertise regarding making the game work. However, that developed into further aspirations – they wanted to restore, and eventually even finish Legend of Mata Nui. Team Litestone sprung up around the concept and the restoration project breathed new life into the Bionicle community.

News of the game’s rediscovery made the rounds on social media as well as BZPower and TTV, the two largest still active Bionicle fan sites. A Discord channel was opened for enthusiasts interested in the game and the project, and work on making the game compatible with modern systems and hardware began.

As the project progressed, more and more successes were achieved. LOMN could run on current versions of Windows, bugs left in it back from 2001 would be fixed, the code would be finished and optimized, existing but unused assets were put into place. Team Litestone was steadily rebuilding the game. And then out of nowhere, this unlikely story got another twist.

Liam Robertson of Game History Secrets obtained a previously unseen Beta build of the game, the most recent existing version from October 23, 2001, around the time the game was cancelled. Robertson collaborated with Team Litestone, and this changed the scope of the project.

After being present in TheBeaverhouse’s Discord server for a while, I talked with Liam Scott who is in charge of the restoration project, who revealed some details about how the project came to be, how development is progressing and what the future holds for Legend of Mata Nui.

–

Aron Gerencser: In short, when and how did the LOMN restoration project begin? How did the team come together?

Liam Scott: As soon as we got it back in February I guess. We don’t know who sent it. The core team members filtered in from the news, I only knew a handful of them beforehand from BMP.

AG: When word got out that the alpha has surfaced was there a sort of call-to-arms to restore it, or did you just drift together with people with expertise hitting you up and offering help?

LS: More like the latter.

AG: Getting the Beta release was a pretty major event, but it too has its fair share of issues. What kind of impact did access to it have on your goals with the project? Was it at all expected to pop up eventually?

LS: Sort of? We figured it might make other holders of the build less apprehensive. As for goals, it meant that largely the alpha would no longer see content updates, but at the same time, cut content from the alpha would be very useful in finishing the beta.

AG: Right, so sometimes you use bits from the alpha to fill in gaps left in the beta, or replace content that works in the alpha but not the beta?

LS: Yeah, like various cutscenes cut from the beta were ported from the alpha, or some animations that didn’t exist in the alpha like the finished Tarakavas were backported from the beta despite them having technically been cut but still remaining in the data.

AG: And there are some pretty major differences in some cases between the two, like the entire design and layout of Ga-Koro. Were there any other examples like this?

LS: Well most of the levels either had entire areas removed or re-ordered for streamlining. A couple of examples would be SCRP and CAVE in the beta, which was all one level in the alpha: The Nui Jaga chamber, and the cave network surrounding it respectively. Gali’s level had a good 5 or 6 areas removed entirely by my estimate. Various areas that were reused but had other exits such as Onua’s CLF2 I think, and SHRN, or Lewa’s LE04 simply had the vertices for the former doors pinched together to seal them off.

AG: Even though both the Alpha and Beta versions of the game are now out in the wild, your development efforts continue. What are your plans for the game, what do you seek to achieve?

LS: Well we pretty much just plan on finishing it as close to Saffire’s original vision(s) as possible, with the main current goal being a merged build with content from both the alpha and beta. The content that was cut but doesn’t fit anywhere else will be preserved in an “Insomniac Museum” type of level. If you’re at all familiar with Ratchet & Clank, you’ll know exactly what that entails.

AG: Does this also include a proper final boss?

LS: It’s planned, but due to a lack of C# programmers to help finish our tools, we do not currently have the capability to work on it.

AG: What is the stance of The Lego Group regarding the project?

LS: Depends on your definition of stance. Direct to us? There’s been nothing stated one way or another. However, suffice to say that I have word from reliable sources within LEGO that no action will be taken as long as it remains a not-for-profit project. All that aside even, given that I recently registered BMP as an RLOC, and they’d have had to have scoured the entire site for the approval process, and the recent IGN article, there’s almost zero chance that they’ve simply overlooked it.

AG: Sometimes particularly bothersome and persistent bugs appear when working with LOMN. What were some of the toughest roadblocks in the project?

LS: Hmm… that’s a tough one. Most memorable would be some of the bugs we used as bait for ThiccBricc [ThiccBricc was a Twitter account launched by Team Litestone to tease the Beta version of LOMN], like the gray Matoran. It was so funny cause when the chat was discussing why they were gray, Fraug [Another Team Litestone member] suggested it was a texture issue. Meanwhile at that exact moment we were flipping out over the REAL issue which was lighting. The toughest is a bit of a loaded question because THE toughest have yet to be properly solved, like the Kane-Ra dismount bug which we had to just work around for the next patch.

AG: What were some easter eggs you guys have found, akin to Pohatu urinating**?

LS: Well a lot of the most hilarious ones aside from that are in the code itself. For instance, the Fire Elemental is internally referred to as “PuffTheMagicDragon”.

AG: You guys are working on this in your free time with no compensation – what motivates you to keep going, to keep putting effort into the game?

LS: Well… I can’t speak for the others, but my motivation is just to see the product through to completion, and maybe have actual game dev experience to add to my portfolio.

–

During the months while I observed Team Litestone’s efforts, it became known that there are a total of 4 versions of LOMN out in the wild currently. Liam Robertson was given an Alpha build which was the earliest known version, TheBeavehouse acquired a later Alpha version, Darvell Hunt had a Beta build dated October 10 while Liam Robertson was also given the latest Beta version from October 23. The original sources of any of these versions are unknown.

The Alpha build was first streamed by TheBeaverhouse via Twitch on the 10th of February 2018, with frequent videos and streams following it. Since then, Team Litestone has released several versions of the game and multiple patches, and they’ve even created tools such as a launcher for it.

Currently, Bionicle: Legend of Mata Nui can be played on modern PCs with much of its content being accessible. Many bugs are still present and the game still can’t be played from start to finish, nor without a teleportation cheat developer tool. Even so, this is already far more than what any fan hoped to see of the game before the discovery was announced.

Though the restored version of the game, even if Team Litestone irons out most bugs and finishes it given they acquire the needed talent, will never fill the hole in the lore that LOMN would have filled in 2001, it is still a monumental piece of Bionicle history and a curious lost-media tale.

Various versions of the game can be downloaded from BioMediaProject here, and the page includes installation instructions, troubleshooting help and general information.

A PC game conceived in 2000, cancelled in 2001, rediscovered and revived by the loyal fans in 2018 – for that is the way of the Bionicle.

*If you are interested in Bionicle lore and the storyline, BioMediaProject hosts all comics and multimedia material including the Mata Nui Online Game, while a fan project has compiled all literary material, including the complete text of 30 novels.

**The Alpha build contained an easter egg that needed to be enabled in the code which triggered a peeing animation when pressing P while playing as Toa Pohatu.