Ye olde grabby hande

From MYSTlore

Ye olde grabby hande refers to the pixelated hand cursor that constitutes most of the user interface of Myst, Riven and Exile. It was based on the Macintosh hand cursor, originally designed by Susan Kare, though it was colored and adapted to fit the user interface of the games.

[edit] Origin of the term

The term "ye olde grabby hande" was coined when it was revealed that Revelation would have a different cursor. To fit with the "Myst comes to life" motto that was the base of the Revelation design process, the cursor was changed into an animated, realtime rendered cursor that could interact more realisticly with the environment. Some fans suspected that this almost-but-not-quite life-like cursor would subtract from the experience rather than add to it (see also Uncanny Valley ^(Wikipedia)). Several people requested that it should be possible to switch to the old cursor instead; in this debate, someone came up with the idea of giving the old cursor this old-fashioned, humorous name.

It should be noted that Revelation was not the first Myst game to update the hand cursor, this had already been done in realMyst several years earlier.

Gadren created a cursor set from the olde grabby hande graphics, which is no longer available at its original download location.