(^) ABOUT MYST (1993):
Myst was created by Rand and Robyn Miller’s team
at Cyan and released in time for the university
student gaming rush on 24th September 1993. It
was a $60 per-copy hit and less than ten years
later had sold 5.5 million copies. It was a unique,
and uniquely grown-up experience amid a sea of
childish Super Mario and Pac-Man arcade games
and crude maze-shooters. There were no
characters on the game’s box or marketing, and
Myst very clearly showed the industry that
videogames could appeal to adults and didn’t have
to rely on comedy or violence. Savvy marketing
and discounting brought the game to millions who
would not otherwise have explored it.
Once you installed the game it looked as beautiful
as the promotional art had promised, and it was
evidently made by real artists. It was easy to play,
though not to solve the puzzles in it. Its 2,500
images were all pre-rendered and the video was
highly compressed, which all meant that any PC
could run it. It used a HyperCard-based system
and thus didn’t need to constantly access the CD-
ROM drive, so “Loading...” was not an issue. There
was also no DRM or Internet connection required
back then. Indeed, there was no real Internet.
Myst is a single-player environment set on an
island upon which the player explores, solves
puzzles and unravels a storyline. The world is so
seamlessly created that the viewer never feels like
they are being short-changed and not shown
anything. Books are also important in the Myst
gameworld. Four of them lead the reader to
question which character should be freed first,
Sirrus or Achenar. They also lead to other visually
distinctive and remote Ages, all filled with strange
machines and structures. The Ages have names
such as Stoneship, Channelwood, Mechanical, and
Selenitic. Behind all these worlds sits a rich
tapestry of lore and the D’ni language and
symbolism.
The game was followed by Riven: The Sequel to
Myst. Also later enhanced versions of Myst, Myst
Masterpiece Edition and realMYST. There were
soundtracks, novels, and a board game. In 1997
the solid and well-researched book From Myst to
Riven: The Creations and Inspirations appeared,
detailing the making of Myst and Riven.
The game was distributed
on a CD-ROM, and was
easy to install and play. It
had very little competition,
in an emerging games
market where the other
main game for over 16s
was the 1993 ultra-violent
but ultra-fun PC shooter
DOOM (seen left).
coco
(coco)
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