Myst Shrine
Welcome to the Myst shrine! All of the games in the Myst series are puzzle games with very interesting stories.
Myst was released on September 24, 1993 by the Miller brothers, Rand and Robyn Miller, who were also the actors in the game and founded Cyan. Cyan's newest original release so far is Firmament, released on May 18, 2023.
Riven was released on Halloween 1997 (October 31, 1997) ;) and is considered to be the best in the series due to the integration of puzzles into the game world. It was released on 5 CDs, but it was re-released along with Myst and Exile in the 10th Anniversary DVD Edition (2003) as one DVD. A cool remake of it (Cyan used some of the Starry Expanse Project to make it) finally got released on June 25, 2024.
Myst: Masterpiece Edition was released in 1999 and realMyst was released in 2000. They were being really quick with releases. Myst: Masterpiece Edition has 24-bit graphics, but made the imager soundtrack looping by cutting out everyone's favorite part of it. :( It also had a hint system. :D Cool new features! ;) realMyst is the first version of Myst to have... Free-roam mode! :) Yay! (Or nay, depending on who you talk to. I like both but prefer point-and-click for puzzle-solving since you can only look at important parts in that mode, and for exploring, free roam.) It is the first version to have a day-night cycle on Myst Island, Stoneship, and Selenitic. It also has new easter eggs and a new Age called Rime.
RealMyst: Masterpiece Edition (a combining of the previous two's names) is my personal favorite (actually that's very biased if you see the History Section of this page, below) due to the gorgeous, awesome, realistic graphics, and they, dare I say, (rhyme) are better than the previous versions. It was released in February 2014, and it took away the previous version's eggs :( (but not Rime :) ) but added in new ones! :D It also took away the day-night cycle in Stoneship (now it is always night there), but added one in Channelwood. It was made in Unity. (If you're wondering, Riven is my second favorite ;) We've only played RealMyst Masterpiece Edition and Riven so far, and we (I and my brother) haven't finished Riven yet, only Myst).
Myst (2021) is the latest version of Myst :P It supports VR but doesn't require it. I haven't tried it yet. That remake features slightly randomized puzzles and accessibility features, but no Rime, as well as strange CGI versions of the characters. Hmm... ;) Personally I still prefer the 2014 version's graphics.
Exile was not made by Cyan (they were working on Uru) but by Presto Studios, published by Ubisoft and released on May 8, 2001. Ubisoft made Myst 4 and released it on September 28, 2004 (4 days after Myst's 11th anniversary). Both of them have great looking Ages, but odd puzzles. Myst 5, created by Cyan, published by Ubisoft and released on September 20, 2005 (4 days before Myst's 12th anniversary) was what Uru Live (MMORPG Myst) would be... (I've heard 5's the worst installment, though).
Uru was released on November 11, 2003 (I was a 1 year old then :P ), and was the single-player component of Uru Live. Uru Live has had a long and tumultuous history, which you can read about right here. But in the end, it was released for free by Cyan themselves on February 8, 2010.
Here's a review of Uru by Andrew Plotkin which links to other Uru related pages by him.
Our Myst History, or: How we discovered Myst
A linking book fell down on the ground, and I opened it and touched the moving image and... No wait, that's not how it happened ;)
Just before we got our laptop, I was intrigued about Myst due to the walkthrough that Mr. Eight-Three-One (Recommended YouTuber; very occasionally uploads, but when he does it's a treat!) uploaded. I recommended it to my brother, who thus bought the GOG version of RealMyst: Masterpiece Edition when we got the laptop, installed Windows 7 and its silly drivers after hard work, along with Arch Linux, installed Myst on the Lappy, it ran beautifully instantly (Rhymey), and then we took notes for a few days and finished the game. :) (Note: The version we bought ran perfectly because I ran it on Windows 7 32-bit and it was GOG and it was RealMyst Masterpiece Edition; that's my explanation for the very biased comment above.)
Fun in the Myst Games!
Glitches (aka Bugs)
(yes I find glitches fun, because I love to learn about how computers work ;) )
RealMyst: Masterpiece Edition
Tower lookout glitch: Some people (not us though) have experienced a glitch where, if you rotate the tower to anywhere and then look out, the Options menu is shown behind the window and/or a grey mess is seen. There seems to be no way to fix it, that I've discovered; it's optional to look out anyway, not crucial to the puzzle AFAIK. This glitch has been fixed in newer versions of the game.
Camera glitch: Sometimes the camera refuses to look around in Free Roam mode. That is, when I move the cursor to the right side, instead of moving to the right like a crab like usual, it doesn't move at all. To fix it, switch to Classic Mode and then back.
Mazerunner glitch: Already the most hated puzzle in the game (either for its length [my reason] or for missing the sound clues), it has THREE fun glitches! Wow. Each one in three different versions too! :O This glitch we didn't experience because either the sound was correct or we matched it to the 'new' order. It's mentioned here. Basically the east and west sounds are mixed. What a mess! ;) Probably fixed by now, though.
Myst: Masterpiece Edition
(Haven't tested in Win7 yet, due to the troubles experienced by others and I don't have it)
Mechanical Age glitch: In the Unoriginally-Named Mechanical Age, :P every time you rotate the building, you can't go to the west island (rarely the bug prevents you from going to the starting island!) since west is 'blocked' (it keeps going to north or the original island instead). There seems to be no way to fix this, so just input the other two symbols by trial and error or cheating (not that I condone it, but when it's needed, it's needed).
Mazerunner bug 2: Sometimes, there's a troll sound; that is, first the Mazerunner makes a sound, but when you go in that direction, the Mazerunner doesn't make a sound, and you have to backtrack twice.
iPhone realMyst
Mazerunner bug 3: Apparently, if you take one wrong direction (in this version only), you go into an infinite loop. See here. Got fixed after being reported by that topic.
And that's my Myst Shrine! More might be added soon... or might not! ;)
Edited on Dec 10, 2017 and again on Dec 8, 2018 (almost a year later :O to remove confusing parts and other various edits).
Edited once again on Mar 26, 2019 (updated every year :P Added that Riven is my second favorite).
Edited once more on Tuesday, December 10, 2019 (added which games in the series we've played so far [the first two], and quite a few misc. edits. :O Generally added more detail to certain events, described Mysts 3, 4 and 5, and added when glitches have been fixed, as well as other edits).
Updated on Apr 10, 2020 (since the Myst Online Forums will be shut down on June 16, 2020, I've changed the iPhone realMyst Mazerunner bug's link to a Wayback Machine link; the forums are being replaced by the Discord server. Note: Two years later on Sun, July 31, 2022, the Myst Online forums are still up! :D You can't post anything anymore there or register though, so I'm still keeping these links as Wayback ones.)
Updated on Sat, Sep 24, 2022 (added my thoughts on Myst 2021 in a new paragraph).
Updated on Wed, Aug 28, 2024 (added Riven remake and Firmament mentions).