Myst
| Myst | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Cyan, Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | Brøderbund |
| Designer(s) | Robyn and Rand Miller |
| Engine | proprietary |
| Platform(s) | Mac OS, PC, Saturn, PlayStation, Jaguar, AmigaOS, CD-i |
| Release | 1993-09-24 |
| Genre(s) | Graphic adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Myst games |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Uru games | ||
| Novels and fiction | ||
| Related topics | ||
- This article is about the first computer game titled "Myst". For the entire series, see Myst franchise.
Myst is a graphic adventure computer game created by the brothers Robyn and Rand Miller. It was developed by Cyan, Inc., a Spokane, Washington based studio, and published and distributed by Brøderbund. The Millers began working on Myst in 1991 and released it on September 24, 1993.
Accomplishments
Myst has sold over 12 million copies and held the title of best-selling computer game of all time throughout much of the 1990s. Its popularity led to the following:
- Three sequels: Riven, Myst III: Exile and Myst IV: Revelation, with a fourth, Myst V: End of Ages coming in autumn 2005.
- Two remakes: Myst Masterpiece Edition, and realMYST.
- Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, and its expansion packs Uru: To D'ni and Uru: The Path of the Shell, are hybrid single-player games set in the Myst universe but in the modern day. They were later released in a single compilation called Myst Uru: Complete Chronicles. An online version of these games somewhat similar to a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) called Uru Live was planned and developed, but it was cancelled a short time after it went live. It was brought back in a limited capacity under the name Untìl Uru.
- Three derivative novels, written by the Miller brothers together with David Wingrove and published by Hyperion, entitled Myst: The Book of Atrus, Myst: The Book of Ti'ana, and Myst: The Book of D'ni (with two more releases coming up, one of which will be Myst: The Book of Marrim).
- Two comic books published by Dark Horse. A series of four was originally planned, but Cyan cancelled the series after issue #1 due to grievous artistic licenses taken by its designers and a refusal by Dark Horse to correct them.
Myst was the spark for a new genre, the first-person adventure-puzzle game. The games that followed this genre are often referred to by both fans and non-fans as "Myst clones".
Development
The game was created entirely on Apple Macintosh computers, especially Quadra models. The entire game was essentially a very large, color HyperCard stack, with each card consisting of a three-dimensionally rendered scene. Each scene was modelled and rendered using Strata Vision. The game was ported to Microsoft Windows in 1994.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Myst consists of a first-person journey through an interactive world. The player moves the character by clicking at the outside border of the game display and can interact with specific objects on some screens by clicking or dragging them. Unlike some computer games, there are no enemies or threat of "dying" or a "game over" event. The only competition is the player versus the puzzles presented in the game. To complete the game, the player must discover and follow clues to be transported via books to several Ages, each of which is a self-contained mini-world. Once traveling through the Ages of Myst, Selenitic, Stoneship, Mechanical, and Channelwood, the player would return to the starting point of the game, Myst Island, with all the information necessary to complete the game. For those less patient, this information could be obtained from an outside source and the game objective could be completed in a matter of minutes.
According to the creators, the game's name, as well as the overall solitary and mysterious atmosphere of the island, was inspired from the book Mysterious Island by Jules Verne.
Story
Under obscure circumstances, a mysterious person known as the Stranger (the player) finds an unusual book entitled 'Myst'. Opening the book, the stranger discovers that the first page is occupied by a single moving image, or linking panel. The picture shows a flyby of an island. Touching this panel, the stranger is transported to that island and is left with no choice but to explore.
Myst Island contains a library where two books can be found; a red book, and a blue book. These books are traps for Sirrus and Achenar, two men who claim to be the sons of Atrus. Atrus is the mysterious and powerful owner of Myst Island who could write special books ("linking books") by an ancient practice known as The Art, which would literally transport the user to the worlds, or "Ages", that they described. From the linking panels of their books, Sirrus and Achenar plead to the stranger to let them escape. However, the books are missing several pages, so their messages at first are faint and unclear.
As the stranger further explores the island, he or she discovers more books hidden behind complex mechanisms and puzzles. There are four books in total, each linking to a different world or Age. The stranger must visit each Age, find the red and blue pages hidden in that age, and then return to Myst.
Those pages can then be placed in either the red or blue book. The more pages the stranger adds to these books, the clearer the brothers can speak. After collecting five pages, the brothers can talk clearly enough to tell the stranger where the sixth page is hidden. If the stranger gives either brother their sixth page, they will be free. The Stranger is left with a choice. Should s/he help Sirrus or Achenar? Or neither?
The worlds of Myst are full of hints of the dark past, where a horrible tale of greed and plunder took place. The Stranger must piece together these hints to discover the true nature of Sirrus and Achenar.
Ages
As the player explores the game, he or she discovers four linking books, books that allow a person to link to the worlds that the books describe. The Art of Writing was practiced by the D'ni, an ancient civilization who lived in a large underground cavern.
The game includes the following 'Ages':
- Myst Island, the starting Age. This island remains the central 'hub' Age throughout the plot.
- Channelwood Age
- Stoneship Age
- Selenitic Age
- Mechanical Age
- Rime Age, found only as a special bonus at the end of realMYST
- D'ni, later revealed to be only a small part of D'ni proper
See Ages of Myst for descriptions.
Remakes
Myst: Masterpiece Edition
Myst: Masterpiece Edition was an updated version of Myst with re-rendered images in true color (million colors) instead of 256, newly rendered point-of-view images, better audio effects and music, a hint system, and maps.
realMYST
realMyst: Interactive 3D Edition was a re-make of the Myst computer game featuring various changes over the original:
- Graphics were rendered by the real-time 3D Plasma engine also later used (in an improved version) in Uru: Ages Beyond Myst
- Navigation provided vastly more freedom due to the above
- Weather effects like thunderstorms and sunsets/sunrises were added
- Some minor changes to the main Age (Myst Island), like the addition of a gravestone for Ti'ana, adjusted the gameplay to the Myst novels and sequels
- Rime as a new Age was added and loosely tied into the storyline
realMyst was developed by Cyan, Inc. and Sunsoft, and published by Ubisoft and regarded by some as a test project for the then-in development Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, which subsequently went out-of-print within a short period of time.
Parodies and Fan Games
- Pyst was produced in the wake of Myst's success. Featuring a satirized version of the Myst universe, the game was notable for featuring a performance by John Goodman. Although nothing more than slideshow of desecrated Myst screenshots, it was popular enough to spawn "Pyst: Special Edition," which included a preview of "Driven: The Sequel to Pyst," which never saw the light of day as creator Parroty Interactive went bankrupt.
- In 2004, a Parroty Interactive fan began making "ReallyPYST," a Hyperstudio-based recreation of "Pyst" that would've allowed click-based movement to match the style of the original "Myst" games. However, the project was delayed indefinitely after only a few new screen renders were completed, each involving the inside of the Pyst Library.
- Missed is a text-based (and thus somewhat confusing) online game in which you must free a player hopelessly lost on the Internet.
- Mylk, produced by Bart Gold (PC version by Wayne Twitchell), is a parody based on dairy products and other foodstuffs.
- D'ni Legacy is a browser-based fan game.
Contrarian views
Though Myst was an extremely popular and commercially succesful game, not everyone has enjoyed it. Some vocal criticism centers around the lack of "action" in the game, leading some to claim the game is boring (a typical review of this type describes the game as a "slide-show"). Interestingly, these reviews often complain about the difficulty of the puzzles, which those who like the game would claim is the main point.
The Myst page of Mobygames has totally mixed reviews, indicative of the dividing opinions among the gamers community.
Trivia
In Germany, the game's title was subject to a number of jokes - while the title clearly alludes to the weather feature in the English language, the word Mist in German means "manure" or, more commonly, "crap".