Myst

[headprogrammingczar]

Of course not! Sexy, sexy Myst IV prettiness. Or possibly even Metroid Prime prettiness!

Edit: The first one, not the other two. And dammit! Two wasted pagetoppers in one day!

[Asleep or Wrong]

Uru Live is back again. And free. And has a further extended name. MO:ULagain.

[Kaeyn]

I first played Myst back in the 1990's, when I was young enough to be scared every time I watched the intro sequence and every time I opened Sirrus' or Achenar's books. It's also the first and only app I've bought for the iPod Touch. It's still awesome every time I play it. Disappointing how it bores the shit out of anyone I show it to. Stupid lesser beings.

Riven is the best point and click game I have ever played. It's immersive, it's beautiful, there's something about it that makes me WANT to solve all the puzzles. Unfortunately, my c__ting Vista freezes every time I try to play it. I'll take up Czar's installation suggestions though.
Out of curiosity, why are people saying that it was really difficult? I never found it that hard... Mind you, I first played it back when I had the time to spend hours every day playing it.
Revelation, on the other hand, is a game that looks absolutely stunning, but I cannot for the life of me finish it. That's something else I've noticed here; If Riven was so difficult, then why am I finding Revelation to be fucking impossible???

I agree that Exile seemed to be lacking a certain something that Riven had, but I still loved the game in its own way. Saavedro was awesome; the hubs on which he left messages for Atrus actually made me feel sad for him, which is a first for a game. And the introduction of the 360 degree viewing method was awesome, when it first came out.
I remember the last time I played Exile, I managed to finish it in two and a half hours flat...

Another note: They are currently trying to port Riven to the iPhone and iPod Touch, which probably means it would also be on the iPad. As redundant as the iPad may seem, it would still be awesome to play Riven on it.

[SlyReaper]

I really wish I could have played Riven at some point. Unfortunately, unless someone makes a port for modern operating systems, I'm unlikely to ever get that chance. If they DO make a port for iPhone, that may well be the final deal breaker for me buying an iPhone.

Anywho, I think Exile is a greatly underrated game. The atmosphere was great, the puzzles were just as challenging and interesting as those in Myst 1, there was a great deal of detail, and the 360 degree view was pretty handy. Also, any scene which had Brad Dourif in was fantastic, that guy seems very capable of playing insane characters.

[Ubik]

I really wish I could have played Riven at some point. Unfortunately, unless someone makes a port for modern operating systems, I'm unlikely to ever get that chance.

Good Old Games has recently released Riven (clicky clicky) and they claim that it works on both Windows XP and Vista.

[ProZac]

I really wish I could have played Riven at some point. Unfortunately, unless someone makes a port for modern operating systems, I'm unlikely to ever get that chance.

Good Old Games has recently released Riven (clicky clicky) and they claim that it works on both Windows XP and Vista.

I might have to do this. My friend and I went through a 'Myst' phase in HS where nearly everyone was playing it. I tried to move on to Riven, but I think I solved 3-4 puzzles, and got stuck. My computer was also terrible, and I think it ran like crap, so I lost interest. Reading the thread has made me want to go back and try again. If anyone else tries this and can confirm it works, let me know. Of course, my main machine is Windows 7, but I might just play it on my box hooked up to the TV.

[frogman]

I think someone should do a remake of Myst and Riven. Seriously, the then-cutting-edge graphics of both games updated to be cutting-edge graphics now would be the coolest thing ever. Agree/disagree?

[psion]

Myst has been remade like four or five times. Riven: zero.

[NightStar]

Good Old Games has recently released Riven (clicky clicky) and they claim that it works on both Windows XP and Vista.

I might have to do this. My friend and I went through a 'Myst' phase in HS where nearly everyone was playing it. I tried to move on to Riven, but I think I solved 3-4 puzzles, and got stuck. My computer was also terrible, and I think it ran like crap, so I lost interest. Reading the thread has made me want to go back and try again. If anyone else tries this and can confirm it works, let me know. Of course, my main machine is Windows 7, but I might just play it on my box hooked up to the TV.

Not sure about Riven, but I just downloaded Myst from Good Old Games and it's working great. I'm running 32-bit XP, fully updated Quicktime, ATI X300 graphics. For once, my elderly system suits my purposes! Now, if I could just figure out what the tower's supposed to line up with...

EDIT: And... beat it last night. Not nearly as hard as I remember. Of course, that might have something to do with me being in... fourth grade when I first played it, and now I'm an engineer. Ah well, it was fun anyway. And I just found my old Riven CDs...

[Kaeyn]

Good Old Games has recently released Riven (clicky clicky) and they claim that it works on both Windows XP and Vista.

I might need to consider doing this if I want to play my beloved Riven again. I've now tried Czar's method, and it worked up until the recoding sound part, when I found that it was already on

[Audio]
fEnableMidi=false

Which, inevitably, means that it still crashes.
However, all is not lost. Pinkgothic! What method did you use?

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXOjd7QCP3Q

[poxic]

Myst was offputting until I got into it. Then I loved the hell out of it. It was a very sad day when I realised that I had replayed it so many times, there was no further joy to be had in another run.

Once I got over the initial ... offputtingness ... of the five-CD requirement of Riven, I was absolutely entranced by it. I replayed it until it became a chore to do so, and so abandoned it reluctantly.

Exile was enjoyable until it was over. I have never even considered replaying it. It was visually beautiful, and the acting was mostly very good. The soundtrack left me a bit cold -- overwrought and disconnected from the gameplay. The story and the ... depth of connection to the worlds, I guess ... were both seriously lacking when compared to the first two games. No compelling reason to play it again.

I tried Uru. Visually beautiful, a story I no longer remember much about, a soundtrack I've forgotten, and TWITCHY F***ING GAMEPLAY that turned me right the hell off before I could finish it. Seriously, spending twenty minutes trying to finagle the placement of a makeshift bridge across a stream so I wouldn't get my feet wet while crossing it (which was somehow desperately important)? I "took a break" at that point and have felt no compulsion to return.

I haven't tried Revelation. Maybe I should do that.

[frogman]

Revelation was definitely worth playing. Extremely nice visuals, easily the best in the series. The puzzles are extremely difficult, though.

[Vaniver]

So, I bought Myst and played it, thinking that I would enjoy the game more at 21 than I did at 11. And... not really. First my Quicktime wasn't working properly, making the videos not play (which made the game considerably more opaque), but once I got that fixed things started moving along. I quickly discovered that the puzzles weren't particularly hard so much as opaque- I would look around for a bit, check a walk-through (what can I say, I prefer plot to repeatedly trying things until something happens) to see what to do next, and then figure it out until I hit another wall. By the time I got to the spaceship puzzle, where

Spoiler:

You have to align five sliders perfectly, with only their tone to guide you

I tried to input the solution around five times before saying "you know what? No." Went to the end of the walkthrough, figured out how to rush ahead to the end, boom, best victory.

Moral of the story: I should stop playing puzzle games.

[NightStar]

I would look around for a bit, check a walk-through (what can I say, I prefer plot to repeatedly trying things until something happens) to see what to do next, and then figure it out until I hit another wall.

Understandable. However, I'm one of those people that spends far too much time on a single problem, which can be detrimental in real life but often yields results in puzzle games. For example, I

Spoiler:

brute-forced the correct time on the clock to raise the bridge to the tower (only 144 possible solutions) and managed to line up all the switches, which causes the map in the library to show exact locations of every object and tells you exactly when you've lined up the tower rotation.

It was all downhill from there.

[SlyReaper]

I have to admit I loathed that puzzle where you have to

Spoiler:

line up sliders by tone

. Maybe I'm tone deaf or something, but I found that one very frustrating.

[headprogrammingczar]

I didn't have trouble with that, but I did have trouble with

Spoiler:

Gehn's music box in Riven. There are three distinct sounds, but hell if I could tell which one is which.

[Vaniver]

I have to admit I loathed that puzzle where you have to

Spoiler:

line up sliders by tone

. Maybe I'm tone deaf or something, but I found that one very frustrating.

Yeah, that was the point when I decided to just bypass the rest of the game. I had

Spoiler:

Read all the books, saw the keyboard and copied it down on a piece of paper, found the five tones you needed, then slid all of the things to what I thought was the right place, and they all sounded right- but it didn't work, and didn't work, and didn't work, and since you don't know which one is wrong... I didn't have the patience or hands steady enough to move it up one by one and count out the 20 or 23 steps that #2 and 3 needed to go to be at the right tones, and they don't give you single steps that would have made it easy.

[Not_an_S]

Myst has been remade like four or five times. Riven: zero.

Well there has been the DVD version released, but that doesn't really count as a remake, just an exchange of media.
I really would like to see Riven on a portable system, although the PSP wouldn't really be good for mouse controls, and the DS has too small of a screen for it.

I would play Exile more if it didn't keep breaking. Every time I play, the mouse control slows down incredibly and I can't stand it, and it loads up in the save that way.
Has anyone else had this problem?
Is it actually part of the game?
I'm using Windows XP.

[headprogrammingczar]

Is it slow as in low framerate, high latency, or like someone went into your mouse settings and dropped the speed a lot?

[Not_an_S]

Is it slow as in low framerate, high latency, or like someone went into your mouse settings and dropped the speed a lot?

Maybe, I should have been clearer, but I can't find much of a better way to describe it.
The panning of the screen is slowed, as if a setting was changed.

[headprogrammingczar]

Well crap. The best I can suggest is to check the game options or run it in a window.

[Gl1tch]

Uru Live is back again. And free. And has a further extended name. MO:ULagain.

I have played, beaten, and enjoyed every myst game but Uru.

I don't know what it was, but I absolutely hated Uru.

[Kisama]

Please excuse the thread necro, but I don't have anyone in real life with whom to discuss Mysty goodness, so I'm going to gush for a bit now... (spoiler alert here for people who still haven't completed all the games)

I LOVE these games! I remember seeing my dad playing Myst when I was in primary school, and then trying it myself and being so thoroughly lost, but enjoying the atmosphere to bits anyway. The spookiness of wandering around deserted ages, which were so beautiful to look at, and the sense of accomplishment when I managed to solve puzzles (although for quite a few I needed hints from my dad), and the gradually revealed story of corruption and betrayal - brilliant! I found Riven quite difficult, as many in this thread have agreed, but I was so happy to have more Just got quite bleak when I couldn't go and explore that big tree on the front cover. People seem to dislike Exile, but I actually found it to be very good - I think it helped being older and being able to figure out the puzzles a little more easily. I really enjoyed the Amateria age, and the one with the plants was gorgeous. Revelations was a step up in graphics, and I enjoyed most of it, but some of the puzzles REALLY irritated me (pixel hunting? seriously???) and then End of Ages was fun, but rather disappointing visually after Revelations, and as already noted by others the puzzles feeling increasingly forced after Exile. The Taghira age was way too small (I think it had like 2 puzzles?) Also I felt really bad abusing the poor Bahro, especially with the inscription that seems to cause them pain, and the good ending felt a little contrived, but at least it was happy Also, I was so excited to have that chance to return to the Myst island Nostalgia boner!

The thing I hate most about the Myst series is that I can't forget everything and play them through again!

I haven't played Uru, but I do intend to at some point. I really want to try RealMyst though - has anyone here played it? Is it an improvement over the original or just a gimmick?

[The Moomin]

Has anyone else read The Invention of Morel which Wikipedia says was an inspiration for Myst? I'm currently reading the second of the Rand Miller Myst books and thoroughly enjoying it.

I've only ever played the first Myst game on the PSP, but I do own the PC boxset of all the Myst games. Do people think it would be hard to get my hands on a computer capable of playing the Myst games?

[MotorToad]

I have to admit I loathed that puzzle where you have to

Spoiler:

line up sliders by tone

. Maybe I'm tone deaf or something, but I found that one very frustrating.

I had my brother do that for me. :-/ I think that might be the last version of the game I've bothered with. It's pretty frustrating to have something like this keep you from enjoying the game. It's the kind of thing that makes me appreciate Valve.

[poxic]

I've only ever played the first Myst game on the PSP, but I do own the PC boxset of all the Myst games. Do people think it would be hard to get my hands on a computer capable of playing the Myst games?

Depends on the effort and cost of doing so. Riven was freaking cool. I wish I could hit a reset button in my head and go back and play it for the first and second times again. Repeatedly. Like Myst, it's a fixed story, though, so further replays are kind of pointless.

I found Exile to be interesting during the first playthrough, but I was completely over it when it was finished - it was slick and shiny but lacked the depth and feel of the previous two. Uru was frustrating and tedious to play so I didn't get far before dropping it. Your mileage may vary.

[Ardee]

I had a funny experience playing Myst when it was new - I was totally stuck on the first island and couldn't get anything to activate. Turns out that QuickTime hadn't installed correctly, so all the animations failed to play so it was impossible to proceed. The QT problem was an incompatibility with my video card firmware (Orchid Fahrenheit), and the manufacturer mailed me a fix: a new IC ROM chip to insert into the card, replacing the original!

It was a weird mix of new and old - a multimedia CD-ROM game, and a firmware update via computer-chip-by-mail.

[kinigget]

Myst was my introduction to gaming and I loved it to pieces. I have now played every Myst game but the fourth (I've even played Uru), and I've enjoyed them all, more or less. End of Ages annoyed me for having small levels, zero replay value (as long as you remember the drawings to make you can beat the game again in about 15 minutes), and a highly dissapointing non-ending. But the best game of the lot would have to be riven, even with that one utterly irritating marble puzzle that I had to check a walk-through to solve. Though Exile was still a lot fun and I enjoyed the age with all the ball puzzles, getting to ride the marble through them all at the end was *so much fun*.

[headprogrammingczar]

Myst 4 is good, but I think it's too pretty. I spent so much time wandering that I totally forgot I was supposed to be solving puzzles.