                         PLAY MYST-Y FOR ME
              (Or At Least Help Me Get It Running)
                        By Master Of Puppets
  
   Myst was originally released on the Macintosh. It was a  big
hit on the Mac, and was awarded the MACUSER Editors Choice Award
for best game of 1993. Myst is an MC CD-ROM only release, billed
as "The Surrealistic Adventure That Will Become Your World".
Unfortunately, due to some compatibility issues, it could also
become the "Unrealistic Adventure That Disrupts Your World".

                                         Dial "M" For Myst [>]    
   I'm active on Compuserve and Prodigy and always join in
on-line discussions of any game that I am reviewing. It became
obvious the day Myst was released that it had some serious
problems with some machines. It would not install on some
systems, it would not play the Making of Myst video on others and
then, if the user was able to start the game, it would sometimes
lock up on certain scenes. Add to this a rare memory low error
that plagues QuickTime, and some users got frustrated real quick.
Who do you call when all else fails? Tech Support. As expected,
the phones were very busy at Broderbund the Monday after Myst's
release.
     
                                    Would You Please Hold? [>]    
   Plagued by this problem, and after 30 minutes on hold, I was
basically told by tech support that it was not their program
causing the problems but, instead, it was a combination of
Windows device drivers that were at fault. I was promptly told to
obtain the drivers and then call back. After a day of calling
various company tech supports and BBS lines, I had all my drivers
in order and it appeared to work. While chatting with tech
support, I was told that the number of problems vs. shipped
product was minuscule (this on the first business day after
shipping). I can only wonder where that ratio is now.

                                           The Myst Lifted [>]    
   With my technical problems apparently behind me I dove into
Myst with eager anticipation. The 256-color VGA graphics are
stunning and very surrealistic in nature. There are over 2,500
static screens in Myst. While my audio had a little static, the
music and sounds make a huge contribution to the feeling of
"being there." The interface consists of only a floating hand
pointer controlled by the mouse, that's it. No icons to
manipulate, no text input, nothing to get in the way of the
gaming experience. Myst, unlike many other adventure games, is
non-linear in nature. Myst Island and the other 4 lands can be
visited in any order.

                                   So What's It All About? [>]    
   The Myst manual is a 32-page CD cover insert that gives only
the most basic instructions. It's is truly a game of exploration
and adventure. You can only discover the game's goal, for
instance, through exploration. After a short intro, you see the
Myst book on your screen. There is a small picture of an island
that leaps to life as you are taken on a fly-by tour of it. By
placing your hand cursor on the picture in the book, you are
teleported to the island and are placed on a dock next to a
sunken ship. As seagulls circle and waves break you must ponder
your situation and your next step.

                                              Photorealism [>]    
   Myst is populated by strange structures that hold the key to
your ultimate success. Each plays a role in your travels to solve
the mystery of Myst. The first clue leads the player to a
QuickTime video of Atrus warning his wife Catherine that their
sons have betrayed them and destroyed many of the books in the
library. He tells of how he hid the remaining books in their
"places of protection." It is the player's main task to find
these places, travel to the 4 other lands of Myst, collect the
needed items, and correct a wrong that has divided this family.
The Library will assist the player in many ways to this end.

                                             Read The Book [>]    
   Historical information, clues, and some actual solutions to
some of the puzzles of Myst are obtained from reading a series of
books in the Myst library. The books fill the screen and are
written in Atrus' handwriting, which is sometimes difficult to
read. You will want to keep detailed notes and pictures of what's
contained in these books. A Myst Journal is included in the box
that's full of blank pages and suggests that the player record
every scrap of information that they encounter. Myst is for the
player who loves a good puzzle and Myst Island is one big puzzle
that must be solved, as are all of the lands of Myst.

                                           The Scenic Tour [>]    
   Myst uses static screens with limited clips of QuickTime 
video. Click on a location and the screen blanks and switches to
the next screen. This alone has been the source of many of the
complaints about Myst. While the graphics are fantastic, many
would rather give up a little graphic quality for some fluid
movement (a la 7th Guest). Like 7th Guest, Myst is full of brain
warping puzzles. These puzzles range from logic puzzles to
musical and sound based puzzles. Each puzzle will provide the
player with a unique challenge guaranteed to stump even the best. 
Some of the puzzles remind me of IQ test questions in 3-D.

                           Give Me A Life, Or Give Me Myst [>]    
   Another aspect of Myst that is non-traditional to the  
adventure game genre is death -- the player cannot die. There is
no way to terminate one's life in Myst. There's  also no way of
getting into a situation, which occur's far too often in other
adventures, of missing something and not being able to go back.
This makes the game less stressful to play. However, the key to
Myst is collecting missing pages from 2 books that imprison the 2
sons of Atrus. One book is red, the other is blue. There are 5 of
each page color to collect, 2 in each of the 4 lands (the first
page of each book rests next to the books themselves when found).


                                      Can You Repeat That? [>]    
   The 4 islands of Myst are: Channelwood Age, Stoneship Age,
Selenitic Age, and Mechanical Age. There are 3 challenges to each
age: how to get there, where are the pages, and how to get back
to Myst Island. The only problem is that you can only carry 1
page out of each land at a time. Thus, 2 trips are necessary to
each land if you want to recover each page. I found this second
trip through the land to be a waste of time and a frustration.
While most of the puzzles remain solved, some manipulation of the
islands are required to traverse them making the overall
experience of the second trip frustrating at best.

                                             More Problems [>]    
   While all my drivers were up to date, and all my hardware is
name brand (NEC, Pro Audio Spectrum, Sigma, etc), I still had
major problems in parts of Myst. My CD drive would appear to be
locked up and, after waiting sometimes as long as 5 minutes,
would unlock. Some sounds cut in and out and I completely locked
several times. Add to this a frustrating save game feature that
returns you to the first scene of the current world and not the
specific location you saved at, and you have at least raised your
blood pressure into borderline regions. To Broderbund's credit,
they do provide a detailed list of BBS's to download current
device drivers.

                                        Is It Fog Or Myst? [>]    
   I truly enjoyed the challening puzzles in Myst and the  
breathtaking graphic images that are rendered to extreme detail.
I did not enjoy my tech support experiences, nor did I like
having to run laps through the lands of Myst to collect those
second pages. I also did not like the horrible save game feature
that did not return you to the specific location you saved from.
The endless battles with system incompatibilities wore me down
more than any other aspect of the game. On a perfect system you
could look past the save games and repeat visits. On a normal
system, however, it might just not be worth the journey.

Released To You By:      
                    Pirates Of The Mid-AtlaNtic 
