The Myst Graph: A New Perspective on Myst

> Curious if any superfans think it would be better experienced as the original in an emulator or similar.

(superfan checking in) -- I still believe the definitive release is the original `realMyst (2000)` (Sunsoft). https://archive.guildofarchivists.org/wiki/RealMyst . If you only ever play one version, that's the one to play. GOG maintains a beautiful version of this (that works well even on modern Windows), but Cyan de-listed it from GOG a while back, so you can't technically buy fresh copies anymore.

Don't mistake this for "Real Myst: Masterpiece Edition", which is (sorry Cyan), not very good. They imported the old assets into Unity for the re-release, and then did some random texture/asset swaps, the lighting and mood didn't survive the import and is all randomly weird -- strongly recommend ignoring this one.

The original release is good if you want the original experience - https://www.gog.com/en/game/myst_masterpiece_edition

And the new Myst (2021/VR, Unreal Engine) release is wonderful and beautiful, but is more of a re-make to modern gaming sensibilities.

I'd play the 2021 UE remake unless you are specifically a fan of retro gaming / have fond memories of playing games in the 90s. If you are new to the series, it hews close enough to the original that you aren't missing anything on puzzles or story, but its modern graphics and fully explorable world might give you an experience similar to what it was like to play the original closer to release.

Then go play the Riven remake. They simplified a few puzzles maybe a bit too much, but otherwise it's fantastic.

Myst is probably one of the few games that benefits from its upgrades and modernization and you won't find too many sticklers for "play the original only". The original was a mind-blowing CD-ROM at the time, but with hindsight it was a grainy slideshow that was sometimes hard to navigate because you only had a couple options at each point and sometimes they didn't line up with your mental model of what they were supposed to do. The modern one is a gorgeous free movement thing that makes it easier to get lost in the puzzles.

As a "superfan" of a certain other sort, my biggest complaint with the modern one is only that I can't find my Ki or Relto book while playing it. (In Uru, Cyan's attempt at an MMO version of Myst-like exploration which you can still play today thanks to community support, your Ki is your communications/chat tool to other players, and Relto is the player's "home island" and having a book linking to it at all times is a safety mechanism/security blanket for visiting dangerous Ages. It's also a fast way back to any of the more social hubs. Any of the more modern single player ones feel like they should still connect back to multiplayer, even this many years after Uru's second cancellation.)

And unfortunately they have had to lay off half their studio:

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/half-of-myst-developer-cyan-wo...

The news from a lot of games studios has been pretty brutal over the last couple of years.

If you are used to modern games, I would play the modern remake by Cyan. It's amazing to explore the worlds with proper First Person movement.

I can also highly recommend their new game, Obduction, and their remake of Riven. I have played the games in VR too and it adds a whole new feeling of scale and presence to the world.

I never liked Myst back in the day. It was just too weird and the puzzles too difficult for me. In those days there was hardly any internet so it was hard to find hints too (hint lines usually were US only and calling the US was ridiculously expensive from Europe). Eventually I played it through years later but needed handhold.

I thought Obduction from the same makers which had full VR support from the start, a much better game. Nice understandable story, not overly weird. Puzzles not too hard. I highly recommend it.

The latest Myst and Riven remakes are fantastic. The puzzles are the same, the environments are wonderfully made and the atmosphere is there 100%.

I find in old games, the relatively dated graphics detract from the gameplay - even if they were very advanced for their era. The Zen of Myst is in the mystery (duh), in playing a game where you don't even know the rules or the objective, exploring, guessing, observing, being curious, immersed in a misty riddle.

I think better graphics would only refine that, rather than detract from it.

Myst strikes me as a milestone of lost human opportunity. Myst is an incredible creative literary tour de force. I hoped for an entre genre to form around literary hypertext with diegetic narrative, but it never did, and popular culture never even seem to recognize the unique literary structures at play in Myst.

Well, now, decades later it s clear Myst is intellectually an Everest to most people, and all they did was stare up in uncomprehending awe.

if anyone is curious, the data structure used in the Apple II version had the idea of "locations" which just hold 4 of the nodes described here. Usually this would be for North/South/East/West, plus there would be an additional clickable area that would call a function callback, usually used for puzzles but it could also be used as a hack to take you to an additional location.

This setup was more or less enough to implement the whole game, the one problem area was Channelwood where the pathway platforms are pentagons and thus had more than 4 backgrounds. There were also a few areas where a location could have used an additional clickable area but had to make do without. Also to fit on 3 disks about half the nodes were left out: generally when walking a straight path every other node was left out for both disk space and also time-consuming-rotoscope reasons.

Is this yours?

http://www.deater.net/weave/vmwprod/mist/ It's cool

I hadn't heard of the Apple II version of Myst, so I looked it up...it's very cool, and pretty impressive!

I think this probably depends on your definition of "freedom". If you mean freedom as in movement, then yes, 3D games were freer.

If you mean freedom as in game design, then I'm having a hard time coming up with contemporary rivals. You can reach any of the Ages from the beginning, tackle them in any order, and even leave them unfinished if you wish (though you couldn't go back and forth at will, since you had to find the exit book first). Combined with the lack of enemies you mentioned and lack of any chance of failure (until the end), it stands out among its competitors.

Possibly there were some other adventure games that rivaled its freedom. Day of the Tentacle comes close, though it's more scripted than Myst—and it's not 3D.

> The 3D games at the time let you go anywhere, view anything.

In 1993? I don’t remember any full freedom games back then. Certainly nothing could begin to approach the visuals for a very long time.

There were no full 3D games in 1993. Quake was still 3 years in the future.

I think that's called Myst (1993)

I’m not sure if this is serious or tongue in cheek. Did you play the original?

Author here: In a few weeks, I will publish the graph generator's source code and a DOT file encoding the Myst graph in this repository: https://github.com/glthr/DeMystify. I would love to see how others render the graph and how the generator can be improved. A follow-up article will also dive deeper into the technical details. Stay tuned!

Author here: good catch, thank you! I have fixed the two errors.

That's in the OP.