Space Camp (Level)

Space Camp (now called Moonbase Alpha) is the name of a map that was announced in the Bungie Weekly Update: 10/12/07. It will be available for download on Xbox Live Marketplace in the future.

It is said it is best suited to objective games, like CTF and Assault, but that it also has some natural deadlocks that makes "Slayer interesting and Infection "terrifying".

In the Bungie Weekly Update: 5/23/08, It was stated that the map takes place on an "Empty UNSC space platform", possibly a level taking place on an Orbital Defense Platform such as Cairo Station from Halo 2. It includes a "...shrine to Doctors Tobias Fleming Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa." and is seen as "...creepy". This may hint it may be a map similar to the Halo 2 map, Elongation. It could also be similar to the Halo: Combat Evolved map, Boarding Action because of the 'jump of death'.

Information collected from weekly updates about Moonbase Alpha:

"The studio is heads down, fingers blazing working on new DLC and beyond that, new stuff. The new maps, however, are reaching the naming stages. We do this pretty late in the game – and the default names (which are in turn different than the codenames) are usually replaced with newer, better ones. Right now there’s some argument about what to call a smaller symmetrical map – I favor a very literal name – and the biggest of all the DLC maps – folks are making lots of joke names that we might share with you later. As we mention in the Q&A following this, “Moonbase Alpha” now has large opening doors and more unusually, a kind of unlockable jump over a deadly chasm. In its locked state, a jump over will almost always result in death. Unlocked, it becomes an easy jump and a simple shortcut. More and more, this map is beginning to appeal to my interests. At first I thought it was just a bit too large, but now that I know my way around it, it’s brisk enough to support even one vs. one games. King Leopold789 asks: Whatever happened to Moon Base Alpha? “Moon Base Alpha” – a codename only - is definitely still being worked on. It’s received some new lighting and different switches to enable and disable access to various parts of the map. We’re still playing it pretty often. It is a brutal map to play on, that may appeal to fans of Elongation, but is absolutely NOT a remake."

- Frank O'Conner, Bungie Weekly Whats Update

"Aesthetically, Moonbase Alpha’s labyrinthine hallways are still cleanly beautiful, but there’s something almost haunting about the empty UNSC space platform. Decorators have brought things like wastebaskets and eerie signs of human life – but there’s a feeling of abrupt abandonment throughout the level. The shrine to Doctors Tobias Fleming Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa is a flourish, but still just creepy. Maybe it’s not scary at all and I’m just a sissy. I’m sure folks will let me know when they play on the Moonbase."

- Luke Smith, Bungie Weekly Whats Update

Trivia

 * Moonbase Alpha is likely a reference to the TV show Space 1999.
 * Bungie never stated that "Space Camp" was a codename, so it could be the real name of it.
 * This map, Smuggler and Purple Reign might be released together in the next map pack.
 * Strangely, the map has been recently (As of 5/23/08) referred to its original codename: "Moonbase Alpha". This could either be from a case of people within Bungie having different information (as was the case over whether the lights above Blackout were the Aurora Borealis or the Aurora Australis) or an accidental slip of the map's true name, since it was rarely mentioned as Space Camp.