Myst (game)

From Guild of Archivists
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For the Age, see Myst.
Myst
Myst game box.png
Developer Cyan
Publishers Brøderbund, Midway Games, Mean Hamster Software, Sunsoft
Designers Robyn Miller, Rand Miller
Genres graphic adventure, puzzle
Mode Single-player
ESRB rating E
Media CD-ROM
Input Keyboard, mouse
Followed by Riven


Myst is a pre-rendered adventure computer game, with a simple point-and-click interface. Developed by Cyan) and published by Brøderbund, it was released on September 24, 1993 after roughly two years of work. Its tremendous success sparked four sequels, several re-releases and bundles, a complete remake, three novels, a spin-off computer game series, and arguably an entire new genre of games heavily inspired from Myst's simplicity and style of puzzles, the solving of which is required in order to progress in, and complete, the game.

Myst also very subtly introduced an entire civilization's story and history to the player, the D'ni. The D'ni-related themes are much further developed in the first sequel, Riven, in the three novels and in the Uru spin-off series. The events of Myst take place in 1806 AD, or 9462 DE.

Myst was widely acclaimed for the then-unusual amount of graphical detail. It was one of the first games to ship on CD-ROM, rather than floppy disks, and actually came bundled with some CD-ROM drives of the time, which were still an unusual piece of hardware to have in the home PC market.

The first Hypercard stack that eventually evolved into Myst was created April 21, 1991 9:54AM PST[1]. The original version of Myst was released for Macintosh computers on September 24, 1993.

The game begins at and revolves around Myst Island. The Stoneship, Mechanical, Selenitic, and Channelwood Ages are featured (all four of which contain numerous clues to solving the game); those of Haven and Spire are hinted at though not expanded upon until Myst IV: Revelation; and D'ni (more specifically: K'veer) is seen at the end, with the imprisoned Atrus sitting there at a desk.

Re-releases and ports

Myst has been remade various times and ported to multiple platforms:

  • Mac System 7.1: September 24, 1993
  • Windows 3.1: 1994
  • Sega CD (never released): 1994[2][3]
  • 3DO Interactive Multiplayer: March 17, 1995
  • Sega Saturn: September, 1995
  • PlayStation 1: September 30, 1996 (NA)
    • November 15, 1996 (PAL)
  • Myst: Masterpiece Edition: May 2000[4]
  • realMyst: Interactive 3D Edition: November 2000 (PC)[5]
    • January 2002 (Mac OS)
  • Windows Mobile/Pocket PC: February 2005[6]
  • PlayStation Portable: 2006 (JP and EU)[7]
    • 2008 (US)
  • Nintendo DS: December 7, 2007 (EU)
    • May 13, 2008 (NA)[8]
  • iOS: May 2, 2009
    • June 14, 2012 (realMyst)
  • realMyst: Masterpiece Edition: February 7, 2014[9]
  • PlayStation 3: May 18, 2012[10]
  • Android: January 26, 2017 (realMyst)[11]
    • April 26, 2017 (Riven)[12]
  • Nintendo Switch: May 21, 2020 (realMyst: ME)[13]
  • CD-i
  • 3DS
  • AmigaOS

References

  1. Email from RAWA to RIUM+, dated October 26, 2007 5:50 AM
  2. "Next Wave - Sega CD - Myst (Sunsoft)". EGM2. No. 2. Sendai Publishing. August 1994. p. 59.
  3. "Next Wave - Sega CD - Myst (Sunsoft)". EGM2. No. 5. Sendai Publishing. November 1994. p. 74.
  4. "Myst: Masterpiece Edition", Ubisoft, 2000. Archived from the original on March 17, 2008.
  5. Walker, Trey (October 20, 2000). "Real Myst Shipping in Early November". GameSpot. Archived from the original on May 25, 2011.
  6. "Myst for PocketPC". Archived from the original on December 13, 2012. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
  7. "Myst Set for PSP". IGN. November 22, 2005.
  8. Purchese, Rob (June 7, 2007). "Myst heads to DS". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on June 25, 2007.
  9. Matulef, Jeffrey (February 7, 2014). "Myst gets remade, again, in realMyst: Masterpiece Edition". Eurogamer. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
  10. "Myst, A PS One Classic Adventure Game For The PS3™ & PSP® System - PlayStation®". Us.playstation.com. May 15, 2012. Archived from the original on February 8, 2013.
  11. Webster, Andrew (January 26, 2017). "Iconic adventure game Myst debuts on Android today". The Verge.
  12. Takahashi, Dean (April 26, 2017). "Classic game Riven follows Myst onto Android smartphones". VentureBeat.
  13. Romano, Sal (May 13, 2020). "realMyst: Masterpiece Edition for Switch launches May 21". Gematsu. Retrieved May 13, 2020.