Did the world really need this? I know I didn't, but I'm somewhat burned out on Star Wars. Read the full story.

Between finishing Halo and the release of Halo 2, I got the itch to return to the original ringworld crafted by Larry Niven.

It had been years -- probably more than 10 -- since I last strolled the imagined, curving plains of the Ringworld. For those unfamiliar with the concept, imagine a wedding ring scaled up to colossal proportions, thousands of miles wide, with a radius the size of Earth's orbit, and a sun-like star at its center. Now imagine that the inner surface of this ring contains enough soil, water and air for a million Earths, and that its all held in through a combination of thin (by Ringworld standards) but tall ridges at the edges of the ring, and centrifugal force as the ring rotates around its sun. The completed ring could hold trillions of inhabitants without any of them having to ever bump elbows with their neighbors.