In its day Myst was a great looking curiosity. It drew the eye and — when it first appeared — was pretty much guaranteed to attract a crowd of people who would marvel that such a thing was even possible. Ultimately, it was revealed as being a little style-over-substance.

Is it wrong to suggest that the iPhone is the perfect platform for a Myst revival? Lets hope not, because that is exactly what is coming. Cyan have posted a status report to the Myst Online forums that contains a little announcement about iMyst - a port of the original Myst to Apple's little slab of magic.

It could work really well, actually. Being able to cart those puzzles around with you might make them a bit easier to solve (having to fire up your 486 whenever you had a flash of inspiration was always a pain) and it might well make the perfect public transport companion.

Also, Myst had terrible 3G reception. You see? Made in heaven.

Status Report - Cyan development [Myst Online Forums via Wired]

As we reported earlier, the latest twist in the long and difficult life of Myst Online: Uru Live now sees the game handed back to its creators, Cyan Worlds, who said they'll relaunch the game later this year. The reason for GameTap surrendering the project? The company says it's just better for the fans.

"Cyan Worlds has been a great partner to GameTap", said content VP and creative director Rick Sanchez. "It's just the right thing to do, giving Cyan and the fans the opportunity to continue to enjoy this rich universe that has become a second home to many of its inhabitants."

The fan-favourite Uru Live getting shifted out of GameTap's portfolio for good comes just after Turner's content delivery network shuttered its editorial division and canceled its Galactic Command publishing deal with outspoken developer Derek Smart.

Amid all these issues, we asked Sanchez if there might be some difficulties at GameTap:

Sanchez reiterated that the editorial closing was so GameTap could focus more on other areas, which he detailed. "The reason we are moving away from editorial content is to focus our energies and resources on building our game library and new initiatives such as browser based games and expanded community features", he said.

"Our model hasn't changed, we will continue to offer our paid subscription service of more than 1000 games, ad-supported free play on GameTap.com, and titles for purchase via digital download in our online store."

Myst Online: Uru Live has had somewhat of a difficult life. The online multiplayer component of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst never made it out of the beta testing phase before being canceled in 2004. Then in 2006, Turner Broadcasting's GameTap service revived Uru Live, officially launching the game in February 2007 only to discontinue operation a year later. Now GameTap has given the publishing rights for the game back to Myst creators Cyan Worlds, who plan to relaunch Myst Online later this year.

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