Twenty years ago, if you were getting a computer, you were getting one with a newfangled CD-ROM drive. And you were getting a game to justify it. That game was probably Myst. And if that wasn’t the case for you, it was for your mum or grandfather or cousin. Like few games before or since, Myst was ubiquitous.
I was a teenager when it came out and mostly a Nintendo gamer. But my family had a computer, and of course we had Myst. Everyone had Cyan‘s game.
Myst was a quiet adventure that required players to poke through a mysterious island, trying to solve various logic puzzles. It was peaceful, quiet and meant to be played slowly. It was, essentially, the tonal opposite to another legendary 1993 PC release, Doom. Fans of one game were likely horrified of the other.
Was Myst a good game? Hard to say. It’s puzzles were tricky but not ingenious. The game was hard to solve, but not exactly fun. Myst was, perhaps a good game at getting people to play games. It gave millions of people a chance to feel the thrill of solving a vexing problem presented in video game form.
Celebrate Myst‘s 20th birthday by watching someone race through the game in 105 seconds.
If you suddenly have a hankering to play Myst, you can grab it for iPhone/iPad or get it for a Windows computer through Steam or GoG.
Comments
8 responses to “Myst Is 20 Years Old Today. Go Turn A Crank To Celebrate.”
I never really played much Myst as a kid. I mainly remember marveling at the visuals and absently clicking on things. I think I ended up cutting pre-rendered games with horrible controls more breaks than I strictly should have because of those memories of Myst.
I’ve already made a comment about being younger before I read the title. I can’t in good conscience do it again.
Love this game so much and still visit it when I get a chance. The visuals have dated, but the ambience and art design are as strong as ever. It’s really great to see more indie games coming out now that reference – or seem to be inspired by – games like Myst. Word is Cyan are working on a HD version at the moment, looking forward to seeing that one released.
Myst was good but Pyst was where it’s at 😀
*Is falling down the fissure.*
That’s the last time I’m use Travago! AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaa………….
*WHAM!*
Personally, I find Myst both a good and bad game.
Good in that it has a well written story, some puzzles have just the right level of difficulty, and the environment was so well detailed it could exist in a universe somewhere (just close your eyes now and then while playing and you’ll see what I mean).
But it is not without its fault. Like many other adventure games, some puzzles are so vague only the design would ever know the solution. There is even a puzzle what is unsolvable if you are tone deaf.
And while well written, the story is stretch out to the ridiculous. Bilbo Baggins put it best when he said, “sort of stretched like butter over far too much bread.”
I found it to be a good game for its time, impressive for what it was, but this has to be kept in mind. As time marched on it became less impressive and the simple gameplay and puzzles were revealed for what they were.
I believe I also saw Myst on the Nintendo 3DS e-shop the other day
So many versions of MYst, I personally enjoyed Riven a lot more. Wish they’d do a masterpiece/3d version of that game.