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.