Myst (game)

From MYSTlore

This page is written from an OOC point of view. Events and elements surrounding the Myst Universe are regarded as fictional.

Myst

Developer	Cyan Productions
Publishers	Brøderbund, Midway Games, Mean Hamster Software, Sunsoft
Designers	Robyn and Rand Miller
Platforms	Mac OS, Windows, Saturn, PlayStation, Jaguar CD, AmigaOS, CD-i, 3DO, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, iPhone
Release Date	24 September 1993
Genres	Graphic adventure, puzzle
Mode	Single-player
Rating	E
Media	CD-ROM
Input	Keyboard, mouse
Series	Myst
Followed by	Riven: The Sequel to Myst

Myst is a pre-rendered adventure computer game, with a simple point-and-click interface. Developed by Cyan Productions (now Cyan Worlds) and published by Brøderbund, it was released on September 24, 1993 after roughly two years of work. Its tremendous success sparked four sequels, several re-releases and bundles, a complete remake, three novels, a spin-off computer game series, and arguably an entire new genre of games heavily inspired from Myst's simplicity and style of puzzles, the solving of which is required in order to progress in, and complete, the game.

Myst also very subtly introduced an entire civilization's story and history to the player, the D'ni. The D'ni-related themes are much further developed in the first sequel, Riven, in the three novels and in the Uru spin-off series. The events of Myst take place in 1806 AD, or 9462 DE.

Myst was widely acclaimed for the then-unusual amount of graphical detail. It was one of the first games to ship on CD-ROM, rather than floppy disks, and actually came bundled with some CD-ROM drives of the time, which were still an unusual piece of hardware to have in the home PC market.

The first Hypercard ^(Wikipedia) stack that eventually evolved into Myst was created April 21, 1991 9:54AM PST^[1]. The original version of Myst was released for Macintosh computers on September 24, 1993.

The game begins at and revolves around Myst Island. The Stoneship, Mechanical, Selenitic, and Channelwood Ages are featured (all four of which contain numerous clues to solving the game); those of Haven and Spire are hinted at though not expanded upon until Myst IV: Revelation; and D'ni (more specifically: K'veer) is seen at the end, with the imprisoned Atrus sitting there at a desk.