This week I started playing Myst to uphold my end of the FFVIII vs Myst bargain I struck with @zombiepie (I regret nothing). Just so you know, I’ve never played Myst before and I’ve never finished any adventure game (other than Pajama Sam and Putt-Putt) without a guide. I tend to get frustrated with adventure game logic pretty quickly when I play adventure games that have strong narratives. I’m there for the story, not figuring out how a balloon animal can scare away pigeons. However, for this playthrough I’m not allowed to use any guides so I’m sure this will go swimmingly! Luckily from my first exposure to Myst it seems like I’m not gonna give a single fuck about the game’s story so this island is going to effectively be one big puzzle box and I like puzzle boxes. So with that in mynd I entered the Myst.

When I first booted Myst: Masterpiece Edition the first thing that jumped out to me was that the game didn’t have any kind of resolution selection and it really didn’t play nice with OBS. The game only displays in 640x480 and it looked like a pixely mess when stretched to fit my monitor. It wasn’t a huge deal breaker, but it was a bit of ominous foreshadowing for the technical problems that were to come.

My first step on Myst Island was remarkably short of fanfare when compared to modern games. The game just dumps you onto a dock next to some sunken ship with no indication of the controls, goals, or even the setting. The cold open wasn’t a problem, but it was a bit jarring. I first tried to flip one of the switches that I came across, but the switch didn’t seem to do anything yet. I explored a bit and found a hidden door that lead into an underground light array of some kind. In the room I found a panel with some settings listed and number panel underneath. I tried putting in each of the listed settings, (40 for the topographical extrusion test, 67 for the water turbulent pool, and 47 for the marker switch diagram) but nothing happened. With that potential puzzle solving thread left dangling, I made my way towards the main part of the island.

On my way towards what seemed to be some buildings, I found a note on the ground that mentioned that I should input the number of marker switches on the island into something called “the imager” in order to receive a secret message (perhaps the imager is that secret light array I found underground?). I took note of this hint in my notebook and started a tally of every seemingly useless switchbox I encountered. At least those switches seemed to have a potential, if cryptic, purpose.

I made my way into some sort of observatory next and had a seat in the barber’s chair that lay at its center. The star chart on the ceiling was completely illegible, but on my way to the exit I found a light switch. Even with the lights off, the star charts and date inputs seemed to be of no use to me at the moment. There’s another dangling puzzle thread to keep track of.

I walked a bit further up the main staircase and found a library full of paintings and books. The books were unfortunately full of seemingly important writing and each of them were several pages long (save for one book that had 300 pages of 5x8 grids). I started reading the first one and it contained the story of some guy, his family, and some tree dwelling people. It was kind of interesting, but it mercifully contained no clear hints in its prose. Using that book as an indicator of what was to come, I skimmed the other books for clear hints and came away with a diagram of a piano and some constellation to symbol mappings (maybe those will play into the constellations in the observatory?).

On my way out of the library I touched one of the paintings on the wall and noticed that the library no longer had an exit. Instead, the bookcase descended into the floor and revealed another secret room. I found an elevator and rode it up to find two ladders: one with a key symbol and the other with a book. At the top of the key ladder was a placard with the numbers 2:40 and 2, 2, 1 written on it. At the top of the book ladder was a window that had a clear view of a clock tower across the island (more hints!). After noting down these hints I descended back into the library and entered what appeared to be a fireplace, but upon entering a screen dropped down with a 5x8 grid on it (maybe that book full of 5x8 grids has something to do with this!). I entered some nonsense and exited the fireplace. I was locked in the library for a bit before I figured out how the paintings worked and how I could unlock the main door, my fumbling around lead me to find some empty books and a tiny control that allowed me to rotate the main tower to face each of the landmarks on my map. I noticed that the only landmarks on the minimap were ones that I had already entered so I decided to scour the island for more locations.

I found a rocket, a basement full of generators, a clock tower, a log cabin with some kind of burner in it, a big tree, and a clearing with a miniature sunken ship in it (maybe that ship corresponds to the sunken ship from the beginning of the game?). After unsuccessfully interacting with each of these puzzle rooms, I returned to the library and rotated the tower to face each of the locations on my minimap. I got a few new clues to try out thanks to the plaques above the key ladder. I found the combination to the vault in the log cabin and found some matches inside. I tried to use the matches to ignite a burner inside the cabin, but clicking on and around the burner didn’t seem to do anything. I’m guessing that I’m just clicking on the wrong part of the pixilated mess smeared across on my screen. I also found some dates that clearly correspond to the barber’s chair observatory. I tried one and found a constellation that lined up with one of the constellations in one of the books in the library. I’m assuming that I need to use all three of the symbols that the hinted constellations correspond to in order to raise the tiny ship in the clearing and the huge ship with it.

The final clue I found pointed to the clocktower and I successfully raised a cog bridge leading up to the tower by setting the clock to the correct time 2:40. Once inside the tower I saw some numbered gears that I assumed I needed to set to 2, 2, 1. With that in mind I pulled one of the handles attached to the gears and… the game crashed. After all of that puzzle solving the game crashed. I couldn’t regain control and I couldn’t save. So I shut the damn thing down and started it up again. I made a bee-line for the clock tower, pulled the handle again and… it crashed again. It turns out that the “Masterpiece Edition” of Myst doesn’t run properly on Windows 7. I searched the Steam forums and it looks like on Windows 7 and 8 the game always crashes when you pull the lever in that stupid clock tower. The solution I found was to run the game in a Windows 98 compatibility mode. I booted the game up again in compatibility mode and made a beeline for the clock tower once more. I raised the gears and walked in with a new bit of hope. I pulled one of the levers and… it worked! I was able to solve the puzzle, which just moved some gears as far as I could tell. After that I tried to save the game and… it failed. I tried again… nothing.

That was enough for my first play session. I looked up speedrun times for the game and it can be beaten in a minute so I know that once I have the proper solutions to some of the puzzles I should be able to beat the game in no time. Myst is one of the rare games where you do the growing rather than your character; it’s the Dark Souls of adventure games. With that in mind I look forward to continuing this groundhog’s day of obtuse puzzles. I’m sure nothing else will go wrong.

Well, you picked the only game in the series that can realistically be beaten without a guide. So good job on that.

But you might still get stuck on a puzzle or two. The game world is huge, so once you're down to just a few puzzles remaining you might not even know *where* the puzzles are...

@levio: I've seen screenshots from zones I've never visited so I can see that I've still got a lot to find. The puzzles have been straight forward so far so I'm hoping some of that continues.

@thatpinguino: No joke, the Myst series has some of my favorite game lore of all time. It doesn't seem like much as Myst itself (as opposed to Riven or the other sequels) doesn't have a lot of interaction with others in it. However, you learn about the world from the journals in the library. It's immense.

That said, going back to the original or masterpiece edition is difficult. You may be better off trying the remaster of realMyst?

So @zombiepie gets stuck with bratty teenagers and you get stuck with technical problems and obtuse puzzles? I truly do wonder who has won this ugly battle.

Yeah ... I'm starting to think that I got screwed.

@thatpinguino

Wow I had no idea the Myst "masterpiece" edition worked so poorly.

I don't envy you, even as someone who loved this game, Myst has not aged anywhere near as well as FFviii. It was a game of its time, whose value was to a large extent imo a product of the context of when it debuted.

@levio is right, the good thing about original Myst is that puzzles are reasonable unlike Riven or Myst III etc. I didn't need a guide for Myst, but the larger games, Ho boy those get crazy obtuse in some incredibly unfun ways.

The books were unfortunately full of seemingly important writing and each of them were several pages long (save for one book that had 300 pages of 5x8 grids). I started reading the first one and it contained the story of some guy, his family, and some tree dwelling people. It was kind of interesting, but it mercifully contained no clear hints in its prose.

I guess I'm old school, but one of my favorite things to do in games is read. I thought a huge part of the appeal of the game was figuring out the story of the place, they mystery of what transpired and the lore and such. If you aren't enjoying that now (from your first paragraph it seems clear that you aren't), that doesn't bode well for your time with Myst as the other aspect to the appeal was the amazing photo realistic graphics. An aspect which of course today has no resonance, given how obsolete it now is.

Myst is one of the rare games where you do the growing rather than your character; it’s the Dark Souls of adventure games

There needs to be a better term for this kind of gameplay, something similar to Lenticular design you once blogged about, I get why everyone references Dark Souls, because it's a touchstone for a younger generation of gamers that seems unique, but man it sure seemed like back in the day the "throw you in the deep end and you figure out" style of gameplay was the norm not the exception. It wasn't really till Playstation 1/N64 era that changed to my recollection. I think Ocarina of Time was the first tutorial I ever saw in a game and the first time the game explicitly tried to point you in the right directions (red text for important clues, NPCs that were obviously direct with hints etc).

fwiw I don't remember anyone making much of a deal of this cold open when Myst debuted, although it's kinda hard to tell because a almost all of the gaming press was essentially advertorials in that era. Adventure games, specially of the Sierra tree often had this mentality. It makes total sense it would seem strange/unusual today though.

@slag: I was in a Skype chat during my first play session so reading was a bit difficult. I might read some of the stuff in the library as I go through the game.

I used the "Dark souls of" description because that seems to be the point of contact for people on this forum for games where you grow instead of your character (though your character totally grows in those games).

@jiggajoe14:I think I win until @zombiepie gets EncNone. After that I think it'll even out. If I could actually save I'd feel better about my lot in this challenge. Instead I have to play Myst like a nerdy-ass Sisyphus.

Myst 1 is rough by todays standards. Also unlike my fellow posters above, I think Myst has it's fair share of really trying puzzles as compared to later entries - if my memory serves me correctly at some point you're required to actually know how to play a piano? Riven is known for it's obscure challenges but Myst III didn't give me all that much trouble and I beat that game when I was still in high school. That is not to say it wasn't very challenging, but it wasn't impossible to solve without a guide. What I love about those games is that I would have pages and pages of notes and sketches, valve configurations, symbols, numbers.. I felt like Indiana Jones solving the mystery of some lost city with pad and pen in hand, and the mysteries were actually really good! Back in the day your efforts were rewarded with these breathtaking animations of the intricate mechanisms coming to life from your typically stiff-frame view. The story of the brothers banished to their prison ages without books linking them back was also very interesting.

The best game in the entire series is Myst IV: Revelations. It has some of the best storytelling and most beautifully crafted worlds (ages) out of the entire series. It also came with the option to take in-game photographs for future reference, although I still took down tons of notes on paper as well.

Good luck. I'm a big fan of Myst but even I wouldn't be able to actually go back to the first game. Maybe Myst III but definitely nothing before that.

@humanity: I already found a drawing that describes the solution to a piano puzzle so I think that your memory is correct, though hopefully my notes will carry me without having to learn how to play the piano. Taking real notes is certainly a different experience. I'm used to occasionally planning things out during regular playthroughs and scripting stuff for my speed runs, but taking detailed sketches is something completely new. I like it so far and, so long as my inability to draw doesn't mess me up later, I think I'll enjoy that aspect of the game the whole way through.

I've had success with getting realMyst (the 3D port) to run properly in Win7/Win8, complete with saving.

Without getting too spoilery, you won't need to know how to play the piano in a traditional sense.

@ascagnel: Ok good. I was hoping that my poorly drawn diagram of a piano would suffice.

@zombiepie and I agreed that I should play the original Myst so realMyst is out. If he has to play a 40 hour jrpg I should have to fight against an archaic adventure game.

This is going to be FANTASTIC! I can already tell.

While the game can be beaten in about 5 minutes with out cheats, you have to know what you are looking for to do that... There was a "Do not Read" envelope in the retail box with a letter inside that told you how to do this.

Also, this makes me feel INCREDIBLY old... I think I played this 20 years ago on our new shiny windows 95 computer.

Good luck @thatpinguino

I must've started this game like 5 times from the beginning and never finished it. I still have the motivation to do it, just not the time. Reading this should be good. Is this Masterpiece edition not the version where you can move without clicking for the next frame?

I remember playing Myst for the first time and loving it. Had a whole notebook full of notes on each puzzle as I tried to solve it. Something about being on this island knowing next to nothing felt awesome and yet kind of scared me, of course I was like 10 when I played this game which is probably why it felt so creepy.

Either way, good luck. I played this recently on my Ipod and I still really liked it, so much that I played it to completion again.

@cbyrne: That "do not read" envelope was instructions on how to use the switches/map/watchtower.

@rebel_scum: That version is realMyst -- Masterpiece Edition has higher-res still images, while realMyst is a full 3D rendering.

@ascagnel: I thought it told you about the flip every lever, go back to the dock, cabinet opens revealing the page to bring to the library basement guy.

That "did you bring the page?!?!" line is something that stuck with me all the years.

Ugh, your making me want to play this...