12
MYST (1993): LAUNCHING MULTIMEDIA WORLDS
Cyan's Myst, first released in 1993 for the Apple Macintosh and later for the PC and countless other platforms, is one of the most influential adventure games ever made. It was so financially successful, in fact, that it helped spur the widespread adoption of CD-ROM technology, a critical development that changed the surface of the computer gaming industry. It also offered some of the best graphics of the era, offering a viable alternative to the often cartoony, pixilated, or blocky raster1 or polygonal graphics of its contemporaries. Beyond these technological factors, Myst also ushered in a new type of graphical adventure game, one that deviated sharply from past adventure game hits such as Infocom's Zork (see Chapter 25, “Zork (1980): Text Imps versus Graphics Grues”), Sierra's King's Quest (see Chapter 11, “King's Quest: Quest for the Crown (1984): Perilous Puzzles, Thorny Thrones”) or Lucasfilm's Maniac Mansion (1987; Apple II, Commodore Amiga, and others). Unlike these games, which emphasized story, character, and humor, Myst is primarily about ambiance, exploration, and complex logic puzzles. It is timeless and surreal, comparable to a quiet day spent wandering about a Zen rock garden.
However, Myst is not without its detractors, who are often as vehement in their condemnation as others are in praise. Despite its bold innovations in graphics, Myst's game engine is mundane and even primitive, often likened to an interactive slideshow. Even the prerendered, static graphics that were so compelling in the early 1990s looked fairly dated only a few years later, eclipsed even by Cyan's own sequel, Riven. Furthermore, the difficulty of the puzzles and lack of clear objectives frustrated many gamers, who eventually either gave up or were forced to consult hint books to finish the game. The severest critics lump Myst along with The 7th Guest and other early CD-ROM games as mere historical curiosities; important in context, perhaps, but certainly not worth playing today. In this chapter we'll embark on our own exploration of Myst, keeping these criticisms in mind, but pointing out why we include it as one of the greatest and most influential games of all time.
A recurring theme throughout the Myst series is books and writing, specifically the ability to create worlds merely by writing about them. The series explores the complex relationship between writing, video, and gaming, blurring the boundaries among these supposedly discrete media.
This Myst opening shot, one of the most canonical in all of computer gaming, gives the player a good idea of what the game will be about: mysterious machinery in surreal settings. It's up to the player to figure out where to go and what to do, but the primary joy is simply exploring these highly artistic environments.
Academic studies of Myst, such as the one found in Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin's book Remediation: Understanding New Media, tend to focus on how the game seems to reflect on the relationship between books and games, offering itself, perhaps, as the future of storytelling. This aspect of Myst is evident from the beginning; after all, the adventure begins when the Stranger (the player's avatar) is literally sucked into a mysterious book about an island. As the Stranger learns more about the world of Myst, he (or she) learns about its creators, powerful beings who create whole worlds with a magic script. The central dilemma of this game—which was principally developed by two real-life brothers (Rand and Robyn Miller)—concerns two brothers and their father. All are trapped in books; it's up to the player to collect the missing pages of these books and restore their freedom. Actually, these “books” contain blurry and distorted full-motion video segments; each restored page sharpens these videos and eventually lets the player hear and see the brothers.
The brothers accuse each other of murdering their father, but a savvy player will soon discover that neither is trustworthy. However, Myst spells out nothing; instead, players must piece the story together themselves, considering what they see and hear as they explore the large gameworld. Although there is no way for the Stranger to die, only one of the game's possible endings is a happy one.
Many clues in Myst are hidden within journals and other writings sprinkled across the worlds, though their purpose is seldom clear initially. For instance, players will likely stumble upon this clue long before they discover the machine it corresponds to.
The game is represented through the Stranger's eyes in a first-person perspective, but is not free-roaming like modern 3D games. Instead, the player clicks “hot spots,” which are special locations on the screen that enable possible actions. For instance, clicking on an exit will move the perspective to a new location, whereas clicking on a lever may raise or lower it. The interface is deliberately minimal and is easily controlled entirely by the mouse (or in other versions, gamepad or stylus). This setup was radically different from most adventure games of the era, which are usually represented in third-person perspective. The player sees the avatar and can move him or her around the screen by clicking the mouse, pushing the arrow keys, or (rarely) moving a joystick or gamepad. This is not to say that first-person adventure games were unheard of; indeed, the first commercially available graphical adventure game, On-Line Systems’ Mystery House (1980; Apple II) was first-person, and ICOM Simulations’ Deja Vu (1985; Apple IIGS, Atari ST, Nintendo Game Boy Color, and others) offered first-person perspective and mouse control. Nevertheless, the great majority of successful graphical adventure games were third-person point-and-click games such as Lucasfilm's The Secret of Monkey Island (1990; Apple Macintosh, PC, Sega CD, and others) and the aforementioned King's Quest. Both Lucasfilm (later LucasArts) and Sierra (was On-Line Systems and Sierra Online) took similar approaches to the genre, weaving witty, self-effacing narratives around scores of puns and puzzles.
This Buck Rogers—style rocket ship is a good example of the creativity, artistry, and diversity of the worlds in Myst. The desire to explore the ship more fully (to find a way to open the door, for instance) helps keep players invested in the game.
Nevertheless, Myst differed sharply from these games, and not just in terms of perspective. Another significant difference is the lack of clear objectives, especially in the crucial first stages of the game. There is no orb to recover, no wizard to slay, no princess to rescue. Indeed, it's not at all clear what the player is supposed to do at all; the plot and characters are only revealed after hours of diligent exploration and experimentation. Of course, there are plenty of puzzles to solve, most involving strange machinery—a theme that shows up in later Myst games. Gameplay consists mostly of finding such machines, manipulating them, observing (or listening to) the results, and eventually discovering how one machine interacts with another. Clues are sprinkled around the gameworld, and only the most observant players will find them all. In short, it's a game of tinkering and exploration.
One good example of a puzzle (or “friction,” as the game's developers are wont to say) involves a locked chest at the bottom of a flooded lighthouse. Opening the chest requires several steps. First, players must empty the lighthouse of water by manipulating a lever in an area called the Umbrella Crow's Nest. Then they must travel to the chest and drain it of water by opening a small valve, resealing the valve, then reflooding the lighthouse. The chest will now float up to the top of the lighthouse, where a key is chained nearby that can (at last) unlock it. Puzzles of this sort abound in Myst. Note how this puzzle doesn't involve carrying or collecting items; Myst deliberately avoids the inventory systems that continue to be a staple of the genre. The only items the player can collect in Myst are the pages from the brothers’ books.
A classic Myst dilemma: how does one get across the water to reach the switchbox? Clearly, the controls have something to do with it, but what? Is the time on the clock significant?
The best moments in Myst occur when the player begins to grasp the purpose and function of the various machines; the “aha!” moments that justify the hours of trial and error. However, sensitive players will also savor the lush environments and relaxing ambiance created by the visuals and the superb audio. The music, composed by Robyn Miller, is what might be described now as new age electronica, soothing synths that are occasionally dark and foreboding. Miller's 40-odd minutes of music fits the game perfectly, but it has also been released, along with some bonus material, as a standalone album by Virgin Records. Later games in the series would continue to uphold the high standard set by Miller's score; Myst IV: Revelation (2004), for instance, boasts a soundtrack by Jack Wall and Peter Gabriel.
Myst was a phenomenal success for Cyan, appealing to gamers of both sexes. Indeed, it was the best-selling computer game of all time until The Sims (see Chapter 22, “The Sims (2000): Who Let the Sims Out?”) finally surpassed it in 2002.2 Most critics raved about the product. Jeff Sengstack of GameSpot wrote that “if you own a PC, you owe it to yourself to try Myst,” and Philip Jong of Adventure Classic Gaming calls it the “second coming of graphical adventure games.”3 Some recent reviews have been less kind. In a review of the 2008 Nintendo DS version of the game, Jack DeVries of IGN wrote, “Even when it's free, Myst is barely worth playing, so charging $30 for a portable version is just ridiculous, especially since the port absolutely ruins the game. No amount of nostalgia can make this pixelated, boring, sorry excuse for an adventure fun.”4 DeVries is certainly not the only critic to bash the game's fuzzy graphics and miserable interface. However, the industry as a whole has seemed to turn away from the graphical adventure game genre. The majority of recent releases are imported and often poorly translated games from Eastern Europe. We'll explore some possible explanations for this shift in a moment.
To better understand Myst’s legacy, it's worthwhile to compare it to a contemporary game, Trilobyte's The 7th Guest, released in 1993 for PC and later ported to the Apple Macintosh and Philips CD-i platforms. Superficially, The 7th Guest and Myst have much in common. Both pioneered the use of CD-ROM to create a more cinematic gameplay experience. Both weave a thin narrative around a series of difficult logic puzzles. Like Myst, The 7th Guest was also a tremendous financial success, sending hordes of gamers to the computer store to purchase a CD-ROM drive and updated graphics card. However, unlike Myst, The 7th Guest has not withstood the test of time, and very few people would care to play it today. Trilobyte's game simply relied too heavily on its flashy graphics and trendy live action segments to dazzle gamers. Such gimmicks were exciting enough in the early 1990s to compensate for lackluster gameplay and mediocre acting, but the reign of full-motion video (FMV) in games was short-lived. Dozens of lesser developers surged in, rushing even the most decrepit FMV products onto the shelves in hopes of luring customers before the fad died out. These projects typically employed cheap, rightfully unknown actors, though a few managed to recruit faded stars.5 In any case, the decline of FMV games after 1995 was severe, and nowadays it's rare to find any game with footage of live actors.
An iconic scene from The 7th Guest. The 7th Guest was a hugely popular and award-winning computer title back in its day, but lacked the staying power of Myst. The 7th Guest’s direct sequel, The 11th Hour (1995), was ironically late to market and had only modest sales.
Unlike The 7th Guest, Myst's reputation was able to survive the onslaught and general discrediting of FMV as a viable technique. It certainly helped that Myst relied much less on FMV than its contemporaries, but we shouldn't forget its intricate puzzles and the great attention to detail paid by the Miller brothers. Playing The 7th Guest today feels like roaming through an empty and decaying theme park; all that was once bright and shiny is now rusted and dirty. Myst, by contrast, may look dated by modern standards, but its gameplay is still enjoyable today.
Modern gamers will probably want to play one of the remakes of the game. These include Myst: Masterpiece Edition, released in 1999. In addition to greatly improved graphics (24-bit color depth instead of 8-bit), it also includes a handy in-game hint guide. A more ambitious remake released in 2000 is realMyst, a fully 3D game that allows players to freely roam about the world. Because both games include the exact same puzzles, a modern gamer would do well to sample both interfaces before committing to one.
Riven offers more upfront story and structure than Myst. Shown here is Rand Miller portraying Atrus, a recurring character throughout the series.
Cyan followed Myst with five sequels, which, with one exception, have been generally well regarded by critics and gamers. The first of these, 1997’s Riven, was undoubtedly the most highly anticipated computer game of that year. By that time, Myst had sold more than 3.5 million copies, and game sites and magazines had been buzzing for months about the upcoming sequel.6 When it was finally released, critics praised it and over 1.5 million gamers purchased it. Again, most of the praise focused on the audiovisuals; Cyan had a much larger team and budget to work with, and had even recruited a former Disney designer who had worked on the hit animated film Aladdin (1992). The game also offered much more FMV than Myst, though as we've seen the enthusiasm for this technique was waning by 1997. The story picks up after the first game, and has the player chasing down Gehn, a villain who has captured Atrus's (the father in the first game) wife Catherine. Along the way, of course, the player will flesh the story out by exploring and examining the machines, journals, and other artifacts placed throughout the massive gameworld. After Riven, the Miller brothers went their separate ways. Rand stayed on at Cyan, while Robyn left to pursue writing and music.
The next Myst game was entitled Myst III: Exile, a project outsourced to Presto Studios and released in 2001. Cyan was busy developing Uru, which we'll discuss in a moment, and didn't have the time or resources to allocate to the sequel. Presto Studios had earned a solid reputation with The Journeyman Project (starting in 1992) series of adventure games for the Macintosh and other platforms, and seemed a good choice for the project. Exile proved to be another successful game in the series, with good production values, well-designed puzzles, and decent acting. The game sold well, though it didn't generate the media sensation brought on by its prequels. If the game suffers, it's from being too faithful to its predecessors; there is little here to make the game stand out. The general consensus seems to be that if you loved Myst and Riven, you'll love this game.
Shown here is one of Riven’s celebrated, full-screen gondola sequences, a sort of desktop rollercoaster that made good use of the era's graphic capabilities. These noninteractive but nevertheless thrilling rides also helped players learn the layout of the land.
The next wrinkle in the tale takes us down the steep slope of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, an ill-fated project released in late 2003. Developed by Cyan Worlds, the idea was to bring the Myst concept to a massively multiplayer online (MMO) format, which had become a vital sector of the games market. The potential of the product was substantial: individual players would be able to create their own realms and puzzles, adding value to the game far beyond Cyan Worlds’ initial investment. It is also the only Myst game to offer third-person perspective and the ability to create a unique avatar. Unfortunately, the developer ran out of time and money, and the resulting product was a half-hearted effort to salvage the material for use as a single-player game. Brass Lantern's reviewer Murray Peterson was aghast, remarking that “Cyan and Ubisoft have completely ruined the Myst experience for me. I won't be playing the online version of Uru, and unless things change, I won't be playing any future Myst games.”7 Like many other reviewers, Peterson objected to the cumbersome control scheme, limited save game options, and the many tedious puzzles involving running and jumping. Although the sterling reputation of the franchise was enough to guarantee good sales initially, word soon spread of the bugs and substandard gameplay. Later, Cyan Worlds worked out a deal with GameTap, an online games subscription service, to offer the game in a format closer to the original vision, but it again failed. Sadly, the failure of Uru paints a gloomy picture for the future of adventure games of this style, which have proven very resistant to the MMO format.
Back of the box for Uru: Ages Beyond Myst.
The back of the box for Myst IV: Revelation.
Myst IV: Revelation was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and released in 2004. Critics were impressed with the quality of this single-player game, which boasted the best audiovisuals and some of the best puzzles yet seen in the venerable series. The major game sites rated it highly, but the reception still paled in comparison to the first two games. That said, it is still the best-looking Myst game, with immaculate backgrounds and skillful direction.
For the final entry in the series, Cyan Worlds’ Rand Miller again took the helm. For 2005’s Myst V: End of Wages, the series at last abandoned prerendered graphics for real-time 3D. The end result may not have been as pretty as Revelation, but was still well received by many critics, who admired its detailed models and quality voice acting. Despite glowing accolades, however, some reviewers bestowed mediocre ratings on the game. GameSpot commented that it was “not as immersive as it could have been,” and the New York Times commentator argued that the game “does less with its real-time 3-D engine than 1997’s Riven did with prerendered backgrounds and some clever animations.”8 In any case, End of Ages is a quality entry that any true fan of the series would be foolish to miss—if for no other reason than it brings a long-awaited resolution to the gaps left by the earlier games.
Myst IV reintroduced the gondola sequence, but surpassed all expectations by making it more interactive—and even incorporating a live actor! During the ride, the player can move the camera without distorting the animation of the girl or the terrain.
The impact of Myst is substantial, and it is no exaggeration to say that Myst brought about a paradigm shift in graphical adventure games. The extent of the influence ranges from dozens of derivatives such as Dreamcatcher's The Crystal Key (1999), Knut Muller's Rhem (2003), and Detalion's Sentinel: Descendants in Time (2004), to more creative offerings like Her Interactive's Nancy Drew series (starting in 1998), XXv's Dark Fall (2003), Omni Adventure's Riddle of the Sphinx II: The Omega Stone (2003), and Kheops Studio's Return to Mysterious Island (2004). The type of gameplay pioneered in Myst is a touchstone for the genre, and countless reviews of modern games inevitably compare the new product to the venerable classic.
Cyan went to great lengths to make Myst IV feel less lonely and more populated, carefully integrating footage of live actors in compelling and unobtrusive ways.
Unfortunately for fans of Myst and its derivatives, the number of new adventure games produced each year has steadily declined, and even big-budget games like FunCom's Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (2006) get lost in the buzz over the latest crop of violent shooters. The majority of new adventure games are imports published by The Adventure Company and Dreamcatcher Interactive. However, few of these are first-person games, relying instead on the third-person perspective popularized by Sierra and LucasArts. Third-person is a popular choice because it allows the player to see the facial expressions and body language of the avatar, a particularly important aspect of humorous games. Indeed, one of the most common complaints heard about Myst is that it feels alienating; even in later games that feature live actors more prominently, the somewhat detached first-person perspective and total anonymity of the avatar can make for a decidedly disconnected experience.
If Myst was such a huge financial success, why don't we have more Myst-like games on the shelf today? Steve Meretzky, author of several of the greatest text adventure games of all time, blames the big budgets and corporate-style decision making of the modern industry. “I like violent games as much as the next non-psychopathic gamer—but with the whole range of human experience, is there nothing else, nothing else that we can concentrate on?” Meretzky asked in a 2008 interview.9 Myst certainly offered an alternative to violent games like Doom, id's seminal shooter released the same year (see Chapter 5, “Doom (1993): The First-Person Shooter Takes Control”). Nevertheless, that game, not Myst, has come to dominate modern gaming. Perhaps developers simply found it easier to follow in id's footsteps than Cyan's, as designing ingenious puzzles seems infinitely more challenging than throwing together a bunch of monsters for players to shoot. Likewise, the tranquil nature of Myst stands in stark contrast to the fiery explosions and adrenaline-pumping action of Doom. Apparently, the number of gamers, developers, and publishers who prefer the latter are just much greater. Nevertheless, just as Hollywood produces sophisticated films as well as action-packed blockbusters, there seems little reason why gaming can't do both as well.
Rhem, primarily the product of a single person (Knot Muller), is distinctly Myst-like, which seems to be its primary appeal. Myst inspired countless other games.
Speaking in a 2007 interview with Adventure Classic Gaming's Philip Jong, Rand Miller described what he thought made Myst special: “First was the attempt on our part to make it feel like a real place. We were fairly certain that the interface and game-play should be simple and intuitive enough to fade into the background. You should not have to be distracted with interface elements, and the game-play had to be built to support that. So no inventory, no on-screen arrows or menus, no points or timers—just the world. Second was the idea to step away from dying. We felt that dying was simply a brute force level of game-play friction to keep players from completing games too quickly. Myst would be large enough that we wouldn't have to depend on starting over to provide gaming value.”10
Miller's analysis seems quite astute, and it seems fair to say that the Miller brothers succeeded in creating a plausible world and intuitive interface. Still, although Myst remains one of the best-selling games of all time, its influence has not proven as long-lived as fans would have liked. Nevertheless, it spawned its own subgenre of adventure games that is still active in its own niche today, and Cyan Worlds seems eager to produce remakes and new compilations of the epic series.
1In reference to bitmapped graphics, which are the representation of a digital image as a matrix of pixels or, more simply, tiny squares.
2See Trey Miller's “The Sims Overtakes Myst” at http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/simslivinlarge/news_2857556.html.
3See http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/launchreview.asp?reviewid=255087 and http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/launchreview.asp?reviewid=922115, respectively.
4See http://ds.ign.com/articles/874/874807p1.html.
5For instance, Amazing Media's Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster and Mummy: Tomb of the Pharoah (both 1997) starred Tim Curry and Malcolm McDowell, respectively.
6See Jeff Sengstack's review of the game at http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/riventhesequeltomyst/review.html.
7See http://www.brasslantern.org/reviews/graphic/urupeterson.html.
8See http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/mystvendofages/review.html?page=2 and http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/01/sports/othersports/01game.html?_r=1002&page, respectively.
9See http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2008/08/opinion_meretzky_lets_loose_on.php.
10See http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/interviews/269/.