Kudos to Ars Technica for seeking out developers to tell these amazing stories. This isn't the kind of material likely to go viral and get heaps of clicks, but it's the definition of quality journalism.
And it's effective advertisement for Firmament. Because odds are if you like Cyan Entertainment you're likely to want to check out their other projects, or at the very least don't mind hearing about them at the end of something related. It's... conversational, in a way that banners and forced viewing just aren't.
That's exact,y right I was playing this when I was 4 a yeart I had no idea what I was doing and was clicking around with my dad's help but I was so amazed by the beautiful world for me to explore.
having played Myst and read all 7 Narnia books, I can confirm the OP is correct. to those involved in the making of Myst: thanks for bringing dreams to reality!
I’m 74 years old now. I bought Myst when it first came out, the same year my wife died. I was devastated in my sorrow and barely able to function. But I got sucked into the world of Myst and became lost in exploring those fantasy levels. The game kept me sane, no, honestly, I think it kept me sane. Thank you, Miller brothers.
This same game was able to allow me to keep my sorrow at bay after my father died in 03. I watched him play it when I was a boy and I played it to remember him. Love and consolation to you my friend.
Eli T We seem to have found a similar respite in the webs wound within this marvelous, suspenseful world of MYST. Did you continue with the other worlds?
I was working in CD-ROM publishing at the time. It's not an understatement to say that everyone I worked with was BLOWN AWAY that this worked so well on a 1x drive.
This game just took over our house. My wife played during the day and kept notes. I got home had dinner and I got to play. Over dinner we discussed what she has learned and I could read the notes. Our kids would stand next to us and point things out. Touch this touch that it was a tremendous help having our kids assist. My wife and I discussed how lucky we were to be alive at a time that all these parts come together computer, we were not rich but our household could afford one, cd rom drives we could barely afford who ever created this game. All came to this point in time that 100% of our family was working on this puzzle, that by no means is a simple game. Myst is a ball kicker game. Our kids 7, 8 and 11 did not want to watch tv. The way Myst is played the & year old could take a turn playing. Our whole family was working on this puzzle for well over 90 days before the kids started to get bored. Maybe the 11 year old did not last as long. But all of the kids to this day, because of this game when they sit down to play a game bring out pencil and a note book for notes. To this day our family talk about the game we all worked on at a family together.
I have the same story and memories as you, except from the kids perspective! My parents played this game all the time when my sister and I was young, and they would keep notes between themselves and my sister and I would watch them play and help them out in the same ways you described. We had so much fun with it and eventually when we finally finished it, my sister and I would play the game for years to come using our parents old notes to help us out. Especially the maze! Thanks for your story, it really brought back some great memories for me.
I remember when I was playing Myst as a kid, I could "cheat" because I could tell when something important or interactive was nearby because the CD-ROM would take an extra second to seek! I used that to find a lot of hidden buttons or whatever.
Never played Myst, cause it costs a fortune in Russia for a kid to have it. All i could do was to reread pc magazine with 2 pages about over and over. Remember walking by CD shop starring at this box, wondering about worlds inside. Now making my own adventure game. Thanks for Myst and this video.
I was the same with computer gaming and video magazine (must look it up to see if it still exists) looking at all the Sega and Super Nintendo games, reading reviews and art work. Ah life :)
Shorah b'shemtee. Greetings from France. You can download Myst online from Cyan's website. It's free. And welcome in D'ni ages. Link to Ae'Gura you will discover a very nice community...
No.... One day Aleksey Loykuts,people one day will watch a video about you being a great game creator inspired by Myst just like We all watched this one for Rand and Robyn and Myst.
Me too, and it really is - especially coming out in 1993!! Having played Myst myself so young (age 6-7, a couple years after Myst came out), the enhanting music, surreal animation/graphics, and the fantastical worlds will stay with me forever. Being immersed and all alone in such amazing realms with no one to help me was so unique, and in fact it made it easier for me to get myself through games like The Neverhood, Rayman, Phantasmagoria, Duke Nukem 3d, Shadow Warrior, and Diablo (yes I know, far too young for some of those but most of them had a censor option!), since I was so used to exploring bizarre and eerie locations with no one but myself to depend on. If museums exist for video games as art (I'm sure there are) then Myst should be in every single one.
My wife went away for the weekend. As soon as she was gone, I ran to the computer store to buy a cdrom player, for $300 and Myst and spent the entire weekend playing. What a great memory.
I love the humility of this guy. He has the spirit of a true artist. We need more passionate gaming creators experimenting and breaking artistic boundaries.
That lunar lander game was the first computer game I ever saw too. It was open on an Open University terminal at Luton College in about 1974. I was so hooked I went home and plotted dozens of graphs in order to plan the perfect landing. My technique was to let the lander drop under gravity until the point I calculated and then apply maximum thrust in order to reach the surface at zero m/sec. I tried it the next week and it worked and it also spurred me into a change of career from chemistry into computers. Thanks lunar lander, I owe it all to you.
"Myst" and "The 7th Guest" basically ran constantly on my Packard Bell 486DX2-66. That was the only time in my life where I wore down a CD-ROM drive to the point where I had to manually spin up the disc with my own fingers.
i didn't comprehend the puzzle solving as a kid... but those graphics stayed with me to this day. the atmosphere of myst, little big adventure, alone in the dark and ecstatica gave me big chills back then.
same. as an 8 year old child i dug this up from my father's old dusty cd cases. he had been unimpressed with the game, but i booted it up anyway on his 2000's mac os and just wandered around the main island. couldn't get into one of the worlds, or solve any puzzle, but i kept coming back to the rocket, because i loved space. many years later i went back into this game with walkthroughs and just got absolutely lost in these universes. it sparked my imagination like crazy.
I watched my Dad play this game when I was as young as I can remember and the visuals and atmosphere of the game may have been one of the biggest impacts on my imagination. I'm glad to hear about others who were affected in the same way.
I was too young to get it as well, and I remember being frustrated by how long certain things took to load. I’d love to give it a play now. The game The Witness reminds me of it a lot.
Riven ignited my passion for gaming as a child, starting 30 years of diving further and further into the industry. I'm now working with a friend to start creating games of our own and I could not be more grateful to this man and his brother. Thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart, for sparking joy in millions.
I remember watching my brother and cousins playing this game whenever we visited our grandparents. I was never allowed to play because I was only 5 or 6, but it was magical for me. Thank you for creating something so wonderful.
Myst was my late mother's favorite (only!) Computer game. She would spend hours on it and would ask me to come over to help her resolve the hard puzzles. Myst was such an amazing and captivating world. It really set the standard for this style of game and fantasy art worlds. Truly iconic.
Myst is such a great experience just for the fact that I had to write down notes. I still have a self-drawn map of that one underground system where the game tells you that it would take "years" to explore which gave me enough motivation to explore it completely as I didn't want to miss anything because seeing a new image was always such a delight - I believe this aspect is something that many new games have lost nowadays namely that seeing a new section of a game should feel really special
I hate that about algorithms. They think they know what I want so I don't ever really get recommended new exciting ideas. It just pigeon holes me. Its almost offensive in a weird way.
18:24 I'm one of those!!! RAND and ROBYN, I hope you're seeing this! I remember my parents in the 90s playing Myst, me being maybe around 7 and way too young to get it but I LOVED it, the places were so beautiful, the music eery, the atmosphere was so stunning and captivating. When I was old enough, computers were too advanced to run the first part, but I did manage to play through the others. When I was 21 I got my hands on a PSP and a copy of the game and boy did I play it through! I spent every free minute on it. I recognized all the places from my childhood, all the impossible puzzles from back then suddenly clicked into place. A thousand light bulbs wrapped into nostalgia went off. A few years later I built a copy of Myst Island in Minecraft, including most of the puzzles (though crudely simplified). MYST has been one of the greatest joys of my life. I love the game and everything that came with, all the milestones it represents. Many of my generation don't appreciate it and most don't even know it, but that doesn't change how I feel about it.
Boy this brings back memories. I was killing time on a computer at my in-law's house, and they had this game installed. I had never before played a computer game. Myst grabbed me immediately. I couldn't walk away. The mood of the game was completely immersive.
I played Myst when I was maybe 12 years old at a party where the grown-ups leave you alone with the other kids. It was and still is the most haunting, magical game I've ever played. Since then I've played every sequel and nothing is more satisfying than getting a puzzle right and seeing everything come together. The music has always haunted me and especially in Riven, some of those vistas will stay with me forever.
No.... it is not the most haunting and magical game..... RIVEN! the sequel to it was lol. The same format and movie animation embedded into the actual gameplay... and the world.... was.... Myst on sterroids.... But ya.... I still never actually ever "finished" Myst either.... lol.
@@harkejuice I guess you didn't have the chance to play Riven.... usually the sequel to anything usually sucks.. but Riven's story just literally expands upon the Myst story (not the same world but stories are connected.) They introduced actual "motion" and yet it was the same as Myst... only in some spots instead of a picture fading to the next picture it "takes" you to the next point with actual "motion" of traveling there. Everything Myst was they went over the top of everything that made Myst great and pulled Riven OUT of it. I absolutely LOVED both of the games.
@@rustykoenig3566 Did you even read my post, I've played everything they've made. I love Riven, but we're talking about Myst here. I even played URU when it was online. Yes it was awful.
I met Rand and Robyn Miller when I was in the 8th grade. The Book of Atrus had just been released, and they were doing a tour-one of their stops was at the defunct Tower Books in Portland, OR. I told them I wanted to be a graphic designer, and Rand encouraged me to steer close to my passions. I did, kind of! But I’ll never forget that meeting. Such cool people, and I’ll always hope for a new MYST.
While it's not a Myst title exactly, they are working on a new game right now called Firmament. If you want a Myst type of adventure game, that is coming down the line.
@@amandaobrien2405 Yeah, it's still being worked on, though they did put out Obduction back in...2016 as well, if you want something to tide you over until then. You may see a familiar face or two in that game, lol.
Omgoodness!! I love finding these videos! Love you Rand! Your videos changed and ENHANCED my life!! I’m 66 this year and I backed the 25 anniversary complete Myst set on Kickstarter! It’s the pride and focal point in my living room!! Thank you 🙏🏽
Thank you so much for this. Myst was huge for many of us gamers. I had heard of some of the challenges but this was revealing. I was a big user of HyperCard and Myst inspired our company to build a similar game. 7th Guest was a big deal, but none of us were fans of it. The Journeyman Project was great. We went ahead and built a more pure puzzle game in 1993 called Jewels of the Oracle. There's always a compromise with technology so we opted for more of a 3D walk-through experience, rather than dissolving from still to still. That meant we had no room for story elements, but the Millers were better at it than us, anyway. We had one of two 1-speed CD ROM burners in Toronto. It cost us $7000. Blank CDs were about $40 each so when we ended up with coasters we cried. Macromedia Director was our platform but the workhorse tool was DeBabelizer that let us reduce the colour space down to 256 colours. Infini-D was our 3D program and when things came down to the crunch I would take a hard drive of all our files to a friend's company who had dozens of Macs and I would turn on the distributed rendering option. I would set it up at 10 pm and come in at 6am to collect the rendered .movs so as to not be in any of the employees' way. The game was a sizable hit but the publisher did not pay us our royalties. A bittersweet ending to an amazing project. A project we never would have attempted without the inspiration of Myst.
I was 12 when Myst came out, I didn't even have a computer, but my friend did. I was hanging out at his house and he showed it to me. That opening narration blew my mind and still stays with me now. "I realized the moment I fell into the fissure that the book would not be destroyed as I had planned..."
I was obsessed with this game in high school. I just played it on the Oculus for the first time in twenty years and it was so amazing. I had forgotten how to solve most of the puzzles so it was like playing it again for the first time only now I felt like I was literally on the island of Myst. If you loved this game you have to play it in VR.
An ingredient of success they completely miss is that in an era where "oh just get the developers to be the actors", most games were terrible and schlocky. But the Millers really kind of nailed the roles.
@@danielduncan6806 But will I be able to play firmament if I haven't finished myst, riven, exile, revelation, end of ages, uru and obduction? I have all of these btw
Cyan in 1996: let's organize the files by ages and place them strategically close on the cd's sectors to reduce load times. EA in 2020: Oh, there's a bug on the game that releases next week, let's make a 200 gb day one patch.
@steveo314 not really, it would be more cost effective if they wouldn't have to issue a recall, they'd only give away the patched game on a new cd. Still, the last time I can recall such a thing happening was Metroid Prime 3, but I don't think there was a mass recall. When I was a kid I remember the Sonic Blast Man arcade had to be recalled because people were breaking their hands when punching the pads, but I can't remember a case in which a bug was so damaging that the entire run of the game had to be recalled because it made it unplayable. Another case was one GTA game for the PSP that allowed to run homebrew. But my coment about the day one patch is to highlight how incompetent are those companies into patching games, they prefer to make the user download the whole new game again instead of patching the files that cause the issue.
At 17:00 that's actually Riven in the game store, not Myst when he's talking about being in Albuquerque. However, the fact that I recognize the box art and haven't played Riven in 23 years, and even then it was only at a friend's house, is testament to just how memorable of an imprint those worlds left in your mind.
When I was a child in the 90's I saw the comic, "Myst: Book of the Black Ships" and bought it immediately. It was then that I fell in love with the story. I then bought the 3 Novels in hard cover and read them repeatedly. If I stopped reading them it was only to try and forget a bit of it so I could read them again fresh. That set was eventually stolen so I bought two new sets to replace them, although their condition wasn't as good as my original set. I printed out every short story from the website of Atrus' journals and I still have them kept to this day. I read the books so much that I once had a dream of watching a Myst movie. In the dream I saw an opening cinematic of a camera panning to the left with rock in the background panning to a cave opening a contrast of dark rock and lighter dark background with a bluish tint and then I saw the Myst title and I got so excited I woke up. I then bought the games. Yes, with my own money I saved up for on my own computer that I saved up for. I must have spent a few years waiting. Honestly, I didn't like the Game play nearly as much as I liked the story, but I still enjoyed it. I liked the online game, but I think I would have liked it more if it was a local network game since it really didn't feel like it fit the MMO model. I was excited when I learned that a new book was being written, then disappointed when it never materialized. If they launched a Kickstarter to fund the novels continuation I'd buy at least a dozen up front no matter how many years I'd have to wait to read it. When I learned that Myst reached limited run games for the Nintendo Switch I bought a copy to play and a copy to remain sealed as a collectors edition. I will do the same with Riven and any other game in the series they port. Suffice to say I'm a fan.
I absolutely love the books as well, in fact, I'm probably more of a fan of the books than the games! I read the books after playing all of the Myst games, and they were so good I've read them all at least 3 times.
Riven was my introduction to the series, watching Mom play it, then eventually getting into it. I haven't finished any yet due to time constraints, but I own all the Myst games now. We are slowly completing them on our own free time. Such a wonderful game collection. Thank you for that interview.
Myst will forever be my favorite game series of all time. I'm still trying to finish Obduction, and I'm drooling over the world of Firmament! I even own the novels, and an art book. Everytime I pick up a book, a CD-ROM box, or hear those iconic Myst sounds, I can't help but be hypnotized.
I never understood it. It was always so unstimulating to me. But I suppose that was perhaps the thing people like about it? If I explored a world, I had to feel like there was something for me to learn, create, and change. Without failure the place has no expectation of me. Without danger there's no fear of being alone in an unknown world. All the dreariness and mood is pointless if there is no risk and loss. Eventually it just patronizes you. Your puzzles aren't meant to keep you from achieving your goals, they are the goals... Just odd for me, needing as soon many games give why Myst does, and richer. I suppose it came at the right time.
Krystal Myth The fact that there was no danger was revelation in a video game. You were free to explore and figure things out at your own pace, without worry or concern, you could just exist. It was a very new concept at the time and very freeing.
I remember finishing Riven was a fricking accomplishment. It took me months. It looked insanely awesome at that time. I had a notebook where I took notes and little sketches because there was so much to connect and to figure out. The notebook had more content than the notebooks for some study subjects :-D
I did the same with the "Zork: Grand Inquisitor" game. I ended up with more than 100 A4 pages of handwritten notes. I was so pleased with myself when I managed to finish the game without cheating (by looking at other people's hints) but only using my notes.
I did exactly that but got stumped someplace well into the game. I think if I had realized it was a Hypercard-based game, I could have figured it out but the grids and outcome tables were a great preparation for Foxpro and SQL...
I was a young guy at the time and remember being excited for Riven to come out. I played a ton of it and got really far, but there was so much walking back and forth, and also there were a few too many puzzles that didn't use logic but mostly just just luck and random clicking. That irritated me too much and eventually I didn't finish it. If I can think my way out of it that's great, but if I'm reduced to pure chance and I'm also wasting a ton of time going back and forth trying to figure out what they even want me to do then that didn't cut it. I need to know why that one pixel in the field of grass (or whatever) should have been clicked on. Seriously that was the breaking point after wandering around for hours and hours and then it was just some random chance clicking on some like blade of grass lol. Most of it was awesome though. Loved the worlds. I really want to buy one of their newest games but the reviews on steam say the same thing, too many random puzzles that have no logic, just chance.
I beat it with a friend over a period of around 4 months, while being enlisted in the military. Played each night after polishing our boots. It felt so great to "win" at long last...
I remember doing exactly that (card stack thing) in Powerpoint when I was in Primary school. Used MS Paint to draw every single slide with all the different scenarios and outcomes, and then HYPERLINKED invisible buttons to certain slides based on what you clicked. What a time.
I was literally just talking about Myst with my dad the other day! We had it on our family's computer growing up and my little brother and I would take turns playing for hours. It was a great exercise in problem solving and logic based puzzles. We loved it and I think it contributed to shaping both of us into who we are today. Cool getting to hear this backstory years later as a young adult!!
I still remember playing Myst on my old XT -- It seemed so real that when remembering parts of it it seemed more like remembering something I saw in real world experience
I was part of that "older audience" in my thirties if that counts, and I *loved* MYST and RIVEN and all the others. Those still are my favorite games of all time. Cheers, Russ
"I realized, the moment I fell into the fissure, that the book would not be destroyed as I had planned. It continued falling into that starry expanse of which I had only a fleeting glimpse. I have tried to speculate where it might have landed, but I must admit, however... such conjecture is futile. Still, the question of whose hands might someday hold my Myst book are unsettling to me. I know that my apprehensions might never be allayed, and so I close, realizing that perhaps, the ending has not yet... been written."
I have such a huge respect for Rand Miller. I played Myst and Riven when I had like 10 years old and it always has been such a big inspiration for me. Thank you for this episode !
The Indie scene has definitely come back to a really great place. What we need to come back is the Mid level AA games. That market died and just hasn't returned yet.
@@brpadington They have much smaller budgets though. Have you maybe considered you don't think of the modern AA games as such because graphics and dev tools have gotten so good that the distinction is just not that meaningful?
@@williancruz9657 Those are smaller budget games for sure but they are by large studios. What I think we are missing is medium size studios that specialize in AA games. I don't know anything about Nier so it my fit that description.
@@brpadington FromSoft and Atlus aren't as big as you think. Persona5 is by an ENORMOUS margin the highest-selling game Atlus has ever made, and it has sold in the same ballpark as games like The Order 1886, which by this point noone remembers, and less than the original PS1 Twisted Metal.
This video series is wonderful. Also, I was one of those kids that had the cool experience of appreciating Myst without playing it. My Mom...who is not a gamer at all...fell in love with story driven puzzle games like Myst and Shivers etc and it's been a cool thing that we have bonded over for many years
Played Myst and Riven as a kid and they were absolutely captivating. My brother and I spent lots of time and notebooks to complete the puzzles. There’s a remaster of Myst with UE4 that’s gorgeous and brings back that nostalgia of the gameplay with modern interface
I was so young but so captivated by these games. I couldnt figure much out, I dont think i ever got off the island....the 7th guest and the 11th hour where also too complicated for my age at the time, so I would visit my older cousin to try to get through them.
I played this in ‘93/‘94. It was just so unlike any computer game I’d seen before, and it was completely engrossing. It was this lonely world that you traveled to then quite difficult puzzles were inflicted on you. I gave copies to friends because I was so enthusiastic about it. Those were the days of Spaceship Warlock and The 7th Guest. Gosh, I guess that’s almost three decades ago. How time flies.
@Dubious I believe that in addition to compression, Rand was talking about working out the physical placement of various files on the CD so the head would only have to travel a minimal amount to access a sound that went with a certain graphic. If the sound is used in multiple places, do you save it in multiple locations on the CD, or just do a lot of puzzle-piecing to keep the distances minimal? Nowadays, if you want to burn a CD you just burn it, but back in the days when CD players were slow and computers had a lot less power, you actually needed to design the data layout on the CD for optimal playback. Regarding images, when you have a choice of thousands of colors but are limiting each image to 256 of them, and different sets of images use different 256-color palettes, this was definitely an issue in the 1990s. Whenever you went from one palette to another, for example dissolving from one image to another, the PCs of the day did an auto-shift of colors that generally looked awful. And I don't mean a little off, I mean weird color flashes and nightmarish imagery. To make the transition look good, you had to do some manual color gymnastics with the palettes. In fact, I had a job in 1992 where all I did for two months was manhandle color palette transitions for a company that produced corporate training CDs. That issue went away by the late 1990s, and sadly, I am no longer in demand as a Color Palette Manipulator. :)
@@manyworldsvideo VESA BIOS Extension changed everything for DOS games. Then Windows 95 was released and color modes were handled by Windows and videocard drivers.
This was my dad's frustration with the first game. We had a 1x CD drive, but it didn't work particularly well. A lot of games even at the time would install a lot of assets to the HDD, and then stream audio from the disc, but because this was a near fully disc based game it was extremely difficult to play at the time. By the time Riven came out it was no longer a problem, but Myst was the great motivation for my dad to upgrade a lot of computer parts lol. Probably the most expensive game he ever played!
The art direction on Riven sure was something. There's a book called "From Myst to Riven" that covers a lot of what went into the game that I found fascinating and always remembered and incorporated into my own designing strategies. One of them was going out into the field to take photographs of textures. I think there's a photo of their team taking a picture of rocks or something like that.
I'm not a gamer. Never really have been. Never really want to be. But Myst, had me entranced back in the day. It was magical in ways that were hard describe. It was almost mythical in some of the story lines, and paired with haunting soundtracks that hold up to this day. It was a masterpiece. Bravo Rand Miller.
Really enjoying this series with fantastic technical detail recalled by the original creators. Brilliant creativity seems to thrive best in a tight space, and these sort of two or three person companies and their wonderful creations of the 80s and 90s exemplify this. 👍🏽
Having loved Myst during my formative years as an early teen, it's really interesting to hear about the challenges that developers went through to make my gaming experience seamless and immersive. I think I had a 4X speed cd rom at the time.
I’m one of those people that had Myst as a kid, but never got anywhere. I played and beat Riven, but never went back to Myst until 2021 when I found the new version done in the Unreal engine. I finally started it in earnest and played end-to-end while swearing to not cheat and look up hints. It’s so simple and elegant in its execution that I feel it deserves the moniker of masterpiece.
As teenagers from poor backgrounds my friends and I would club together to buy games or music between us and then we would sit around and ‘share’ the experience. We spent many hours pouring over Myst (as well as ‘the dig, Full throttle, Zork the inquisitor & others) and remember distinctly being blown away by the puzzles.. the underground one with the train.. evil.. just pure evil.. We even played our very first multiplayer game with 2 BBC model B’s hooked up together with one of the thickest interconnects we had ever seen.. and played Ridge Racer the original. It is thanks to Myst in no small that made all 5 of us go on to work in IT in the years that followed. Proud to say we bought a copy (actually several as we all bought our own in time) when it first came out.. was a magical time.. Some years ago my brother died of a heart attack and to this day whenever I think of him I always think of when we were sat around laughing and swearing playing Myst.
I am one of the generation who got into this game through parents: my mother and father recommended it to me, because at the time I didn't really like any of the more fast-paced video games, but I was all about stories and puzzles. To this day I love the series, played every game in it, read the books. The characters, the story, the gameplay just got to me, and never let me go.
We loved this game. It was everything that I loved in one thing- no one dying, lots of exploration, science, travel, mystery, problem solving - totally an amazing game.
My parents bought Myst and Riven and I played them never knowing what the heck I was doing, probably didn't solve any of the puzzles, eventually bought the walkthrough book but still never beat it. What I do remember is that Myst changed the point and click adventure game market from that point on, unfortunately for the worse. My favorites Sierra and Lucasarts, along with many lower budget companies. Producers all wanted that 1st person view, puzzles and FMV like Myst series.
This was really cool to see. I never got *anywhere* in MYST when I was younger, but now I'm willing to give it an honest try. Time to bust out my Windows '95 machine and my CD-ROM copy of the game...
You might want to try the Masterpiece edition, if you can. Better quality on the visuals and sound, now that they're freed from the CDROM 1x limitation. And at the very least, have a notepad to has to copy the clues in the library, and map out the worlds.
Did them all "back in the day", was thrilled when my boys got me Obduction last year, did not know about that game, they were daring me to try it , now that I am in my 60's, well, I blew thru it in a week with zero hints, needless to say they were duly impressed with their old man. I loved Obduction and all the rest of them, really missed them.
Myst was an absolutely game changing unforgettable experience at that time. Really cool to see the creators here and also him mentioning HyperCard and Seventh Guest. I thought Seventh Guest was incredible at the time as well but it hasn't held up and become as iconic as Myst.
It was that game that you would be like “what’s that!?” Over and over and mesmerized at the strange things that would happen and you would want to know what else is here and it wasn’t about how to escape until later on in the game when you had your bearings to say. It wasn’t a game about ugh how do I get out of here. it was more about exploring what everything did because nothing about the game was generic or intuitive
@@gileee Cyan have Uru online with all it's Ages. There are also independent servers or "Shards" for online play. Uru is available from GoG for both online and offline play. Uru also introduces a new item, the "Nexus", a huge rotating machine that stores linking books. A program called Drizzle lets you d/load new Ages and put them into the Nexus along with the original 30 or so Cyan Ages. I have 141 fan made Ages in my Nexus and I haven't seen them all yet. "Elodea" simply gigantic. If you haven't played it, Uru is Riven cubed, first person, huge worlds, great graphics. But do drop in the The Guild of Writers and read about what has been going on. If you like Myst, you'll love Uru. forum.guildofwriters.org
@@JohnJ469 I loved Uru. I remember it was never released for online play originally. The multiplayer was scrapped. I remember going into some of the ages designed as multiplayer hub worlds and seeing the names of the last people online (the devs). Was very surreal. I heard of a project to bring it back years ago but never heard of it again. This is amazing news honestly, ty. There's also the starry expanse project working on a riven remake, but you've probably heard of them.
@@gileee I'm actually envious, you have so much to see for the first time. Some of the puzzles online can only be solved with the help of other players. If you want to dive in, go to the Cyan server mystonline.com/en/ create an account and play. It's free. There are also fan made Relto pages, I like having the TARDIS. :) If you see JohnB2 in the cavern, say "Hi", that's me. Oh yes, online you can invite other players to visit your Relto and the Ages in your bookcase. Enjoy.
My daughter was a toddler when Myst came out, and she would sit on my lap for hours watching the game as I worked my way through it. She was never so content to sit still at any other time. I really enjoyed Myst, but my favorite of all the series was Riven. It was so much more complex, beautiful and interesting. I also found it tougher to solve. I was actually disappointed that there wasn't a special 20th Anniversary edition for Myst considering how groundbreaking it was and how long it had been the top-selling game.
@@throatwobblermangrove8510 There was no market for a 20th anniversary edition, because the market is already saturated with RealMyst and MystMasterpiece and... I think there is one more re-release, but I'm not sure. Also @Jared Giff - I am terribly sorry you have such a boring life, that even reading boring comments and leaving boring comments are better than just doing life.
@@SGresponse I'm sure you're right about the lack of a market for it, plus the fact that the genre has morphed into a children's game setting now. I had hopes though, and possibly for a rejuvenation of the series since I found the storyline captivating, especially during Riven.
@@throatwobblermangrove8510 Oh plot-wise it will never happen, cause the franchise is owned by a few separate entities. Also it pretty much burned out with Myst V which broke lore beyond repair. In terms of genre moving into preschool-friendly - go play Obduction and Quern and then tell me if they are children's games.
I am 61, played the first pong game on tv when it came out. Have played all sorts of games ever since, and LOVED the artwork and worlds of Riven and Myst, would love to play them again on my mac desktop or ipad, or maybe to be able to see them on a widescreen tv because they were so beautiful and really took some studying.
The really amazing thing that is talked about in this video is arranging the content on the disk for the fastest loading. This became common hat during the PlayStation/Saturn era of gaming and has continued on for any game that plays directly off a disc of any kind since. Cyan was likely the first to do what would eventually become the industry standard.
4 года назад
Myst was exactly of its time. That's why it sold so well.
I've not played Myst, but I give a hearty thank you for creating the game that inspired the Mystcraft Minecraft mod. Myst contributed to my childhood without me even having to play it.
I remember playing myst when I was like 10, and I fumbled around forever. Never beat the game as a kid or got off the first area, but replayed it later in life and it was such an intriguing game that was great to complete. It really was the gateway game that got me into pc gaming for the rest of my life.
Myst destroyed my life. Thankfully I had two more. But truly, Myst was the first game my parents could actually use to force me to do homework. They would hide the disc until I brought then my homework, completed. I hated it. All that annoying junk data "That I was never going to use" that I had to do, just to get my Myst CD back from them.
I think I was about 24 years old with my first hand built PC and I had both 7th guest and Myst and I would come home from work and immediately start playing the games until well into late evening everyday for several weeks loving that magic.
I remember playing Myst as a kid. I’d draw maps of each age as I explored to keep track of where I had been. Figured most out on my own except for last part. Still love the art and music to this day.
I remember being loaned the Myst game and playing with it and finding out 7 hours had passed. The interesting aspect was that you used your intuition to find the next goal in Myst.
I just turned 74, and I remember going to CompUSA on my lunch break and spotting MYST on the shelf. The pictures on the cover and the description intrigued me. As soon as the first graphics and sound came on, I knew this was going to be a special game. I love exploration games where I have to solve puzzles and mysteries. Having done graphic renderings and animations on the old AMIGA computer (greatest computer for graphics ever made at the time) I tend to focus on those aspects of games. The game was amazing, but when Real Myst came out, I was blown away. I still play it every three to four months, even though I have a pretty good idea of how to solve the puzzles, the game is still engrossing. In fact, as soon as i finish this comment I will be entering the world of Myst. Beyond the amazing graphics and sound is the story. The puzzles make logical sense, unlike some of the new downloadable games for tablets where you search out items and use them someplace else which has no connection with the location where the item was found. For instance, a key at one end of the world is used somewhere else to unlock a chest to get an item that may be used at another end of the world. Myst does the opposite, the puzzles tie together logically. You have to solve this puzzle to gain access to one of the other worlds where there is a whole vista of new place to explore. Myst pulls you into the worlds. Even now, having played the game dozens of times, I still find new and exciting aspects that I missed earlier. There are about a dozen games or so, that i classify as classics or groundbreakers, and Myst is there near the top of the groundbreakers. Thank you, Miller brothers for giving us this masterpiece.
I remember playing myst for hours eventually beating it after breaking down and buying a walk through book for some of the puzzles. It was an amazing experience that era of game making had such a 'garage' type mix-media feel to it that it was truly captivating. Some other greats were the 11th hour, jack the ripper, and doom
I'm so happy they found a way to make Myst work on Steam. I finally get to play the game that my Dad played when he was younger. (edit): My dad used to have the original Myst CD game for our old Apple computer. But when my mom got rid of the old computer the game went missing.
Wow. I was just thinking of this game last night. It came out when I was in high school and I played it on my buddy's Mac. What I remember most about it was getting the soundtrack. I used to set a timer on my CD player and fall asleep with the soundtrack playing. Good times.
I was 14 years old the first time I played Myst. I still remember the feeling I had. This was the first game I'd played where it wasn't just about reflexes - thing comes toward you, shoot/punch/jump on thing, repeat. In Myst I had to remember things. I took notes, and made diagrams. I had to *think*. And it was amazing. I wanted to keep finding more, but I was on a friend's computer and I couldn't play it for long. My parents were confused when I asked for the game, but they got it for me because they were interested too. I didn't ever finish it back then, but I had an incredible time looking at everything in the game. I think my favorite Age was the one where you had to aim a receiver toward a radio that made a specific sound. Thank you and your associates for making this game.
I watched this several months back, and then I started up, and completed my first playthrough of Myst. A game I had ALWAYS wanted to play through. It's too important of a game to ignore, so I knew I'd play it eventually, but simply watching this video pushed me to finally do it.
I literally have had "Book of Atrus" next to my computer for a while now. Have had the book since probably 95 when it was published. Never got too into Myst until more recently, and realized that the games play more like interactive book stories. Even the book theme is a main thing in the series. I'd love to see him talk about all the other games in the series, including Uru.
@@clintgirodat9142, no, it's not. The image on the right is not full 24-bit palette (since it lacks white to name the easiest example) but it definitely has more than 25 colours.
He "Clint Girodat" said 8-bit(256 colors) is on the right, the video said the right image was 24-bit, the same way the video said the left image was 8-bit where you pointed out it's 3-bit.
@@lmcgregoruk 256 colours can be shown in a grid of 16 x 16 (so every colour square would be plainly visible) so no, the right image has far more columns/rows of colours than 8bit. They just made a dog's breakfast of the visualisation 😁
I first encountered this game back in about 1996-97 when I was still in primary school on Mac. I never was able to grasp it until I was much older and revisited it with the masterpiece edition. It was so immersive.
I remember playing this with my brother on the Sega Saturn, it was definitely something quite different than most video games. Never beat it, but loved it. Quite a classic. Edit: Wasn't this also ported on the DS handheld?
I was introduced to Myst at a very young age through it been one of the very few games my Mum actually got into! Still, to this very day, I find the worlds very eerie through their very isolated feel... Even when it's not true, I just always feel like I am being watched whilst playing... Great stuff!
More than an excellent video. I played Myst with my friend a long time ago. We never made it past the first island, but I can still remember we had the time of our life exploring and problem solving on the island.
