Myst, the CD-rom game, released in 1993, is an adventure game conceived by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller, developed by their company, Cyan, and published by Red Orb. It was one of the first attempts at making an adventure game in a photo-realistic visual format, rather than in the more traditional text interface (as in MUD online gaming) or in the cartoonish, unrealistic style that was the staple of visual game formats at the time. It is also notable that it is a non-violent game, made in a time when shoot-em-ups were quite popular¹, and it was very hard to find non-violent games aimed toward adult tastes. It was a success with non-gamers, mostly, and it was primarily these uninitiated who made Myst a best-selling phenomenon, despite its modest budget.

Myst

The opening sequence does not answer questions. It does not tell you the backstory of Myst, how it came to be, or what you have to do there. It features a disembodied voice rambling about a book and endings and such, and a graphic of a book falling. Until, of course, the book hits the ground. Upon opening the book, there is nothing to read, just a picture of a dock and the ocean beside it. The picture moves. With not a whole lot else to do, the player is expected to 'touch' the image...

...And you're there. No one jumps out to shoot you, no one comes to offer you a tour, and after a quick look around, you realize that there is no one there.

The Plot

Due to wandering nature of various eyes that don't want a spoiler, this section of the entry has been moved here.

A Visually Appealing World

Enough could not be said about how utterly tangible Myst felt to it's fans.

The world of Myst is viewed in a slideshow format. You would not turn to look to the right as much as you would turn and see what was to your right, as 360 degree views were still something of a novelty in gameplay. Myst was essentially made up of still pictures, often inbued with Quicktime plug-ins to let the player alter their enviroment and solve puzzles.

To younger, more savvy game players who do not remember a world before 3D accelerators became the norm, when 256 colours seemed like more than anyone could ever use, when blocky figures masqueraded as human characters and got away with it, this seems, in a word, pathetic. Myst was made so almost anyone, not just those with high-end processors and loads of memory to spare could enjoy. And yet, Myst broke down graphic barriers, using real people² to play out the very real-feeling characters in the game, and textures so rich with colour that the real, everyday world seemed to lack some depth after bouts of extended gameplay.

Ear Candy

How could one make a world so beautiful, only to have it fall silent? Myst was quiet... but nowhere near silent.

Having only shoestring budget, fancy recording studios were out of the question. Chris Brandkamp stepped in, and with use of everything from crescent wrenches to plastic-wrapped microphones submerged in toilets³, made the world of Myst alive with sound.

Sound effects contributed to the overall realisim in Myst, but the haunting score made it an emotional experience. Originally, the Miller brothers opted for no music in their game, thinking that music would only be overkill on their rather delicate project. Convinced of this, Robyn Miller wrote a short piece of music (via midi) to accompany the opening sequence of the game to once and for all proove to himself, his brother, and everyone else envolved, that Myst did not need, and would not benefit from a soundtrack. Less of a song and more like an audio representation of Myst itself, the track was immediately added to the game, and music for every other part of Myst was written by Robyn, all with the same haunting, mysterious, and dark sound in mind.

Beyond Myst

The Myst story is continued in Riven, the Sequel to Myst, and further continues in Myst 3: Exile, a game unreleased as of when this was written, but concernes a man from one of the ages Sirrus and Achenar ruined, bent on revenge.

The gaps in the history of the Myst world are filled in by a series of novels⁴. The trilogy begins with Myst: the Book of Atrus which tells of how Atrus, Myst, and most everything else within Myst and Riven came to be, continues with Myst: the Book of Ti'ana which tells the story of the fall of the D'ni race, and of Atrus' grandmother (who came from the surface of our world), and in the third book, Myst: the Book of D'ni Atrus attempts to rekindle the D'ni empire, but comes across the little-kown dark side of D'ni culture on the way. There has been buzz about books being added to the trilogy, but nothing has been printed, yet. They're pretty good reads if you're at all interested in what happened in general/before/or after Myst, and like fast-paced, well-written fantasy.

Myst for the New Millennium

Since the release of the original Myst, there have been updated versions. Myst Masterpiece corrects a few faulty gameplay problems, and boasts true-colour deph, as opposed to the original's 256 (yet beautifully rendered) graphics. Unreleased as of when this was written is a game called realMyst⁵, which will reportedly feature changes in weather (clouds darken the skies, rain falls, lightning strikes...), changes in the time of day (have you ever seen Myst at sunset?), full 360 degree views of the landscape, and a generally more immersive gaming experience, including a new age to explore.