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Myst Online Trailer

Posted by michael on from the missed dept.

Allaran writes "The latest installment in the Myst story, an online experience entitled URU: Ages of Myst, is ramping up to its release. This has been up and coming for some time, but a trailer (Warning:20MB) [BitTorrent link via GameTab] has just been released, made entirely from within the game engine. Apparently, there is a significant offline game that can be played, with the option to subscribe as well."

44 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. No Macs by pudge · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Currently Uru is only planned to be available on the PC. But we are exploring options to expand to other platforms. Check back with the Uru website for updates regarding additional skus that may become available."

    Dear UbiSoft: fuck you.

    "Let's screw the platform that made the Myst franchise what it is today!"

    1. Re:No Macs by fadeaway · · Score: 2, Informative

      Erhm. Perhaps Myst was born on the Mac, but it was the PC sales that broke software (and CD-ROM) sales records.

    2. Re:No Macs by t0qer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why are you mad at UbiSoft? They're just the publisher, not the actual people doing the work of creating the game right? Like when Myst was originally made, broderbrun was the publisher. It was 2 guys in their garage that actually made the game.

      I can't really blame them though... People don't buy macs as "gaming machines" From what i've seen, mac's are primarily used by a few types of users..

      Graphic Artists (scrotumshop)
      Desktop Publishers (Quark)
      Coders (using codewarrior dev enviroment)
      Amatuer film makers (can't remember the name of that new apple video editing suite offhand)

      Gaming is just not what mac's get used for. For getting serious work done, yes but playtime on the mac is almost non-existant. I don't think it has to do with the mac being harder to code for, as it's more a profitability issue.

    3. Re:No Macs by John+Hurliman · · Score: 4, Informative

      I toured Cyan's studio a few months back, as it's local to the area. The sound engineers and artists primarily still use Macs, but the programmers have entirely shifted over to MSVC/Win32 platforms, to speed up the release cycle and avoid cross-platform issues. The game is based entirely on DirectX libraries, so doing other platforms wouldn't be an easy task. It's hard enough to find competent programmers at all in Spokane, let alone ones that can write cross-platform 3D games.

    4. Re:No Macs by Cliff · · Score: 2, Interesting

      SKUs are generally inventory numbers or stock keeping units. By asking users to watch their webpage for "additional SKUs", they are basically asking the users of other OSes (ala Macs) to hold their breath until they decide to release to something other than Windows.

      What I want to know is what is so different about this latest version of Myst where they couldn't have completed a Mac version to begin with. They had 2 versions of Myst under their belt, already, so it's not like they haven't had experience developing for the Mac.

      I can understand if they gave an explicit reason as to why a Mac version wasn't created, but saying "watch this space", is kind of a cop-out. Generally, and at least in this industry, when you say "watch this space", what it really means is "yeah, keep looking. We might do another version, but we want to keep the hype machine going at your expense"

      In all fairness, I'll have to take a look at the trailer and see what the new game looks like, but the preponderance of the "games only sell on Windows" attitude, I'm wondering if game studios are willing to live with the fact that they are making this a self-fulfilling prophesy and if any of them are ever interested in trying to get out from under Microsoft's shadow.

    5. Re:No Macs by pudge · · Score: 2, Informative

      And it never would have had the chance for such popularity had it not broken all the records on the Mac, first. No offense, but, um, duh.

    6. Re:No Macs by pudge · · Score: 2, Funny

      From what i've seen, mac's are primarily used by a few types of users..

      You haven't seen much. No, really.

    7. Re:No Macs by oscast · · Score: 2, Informative

      "Hmmm. I guess its O.K. when Apple shuns other platforms(quicktime for linux *cough*) but its not O.K. when someone does the same to Apple?" No, its not okay, because Apple made MPEG4 Quicktime, which means... they not only made it for Linux... they made it for everybody. You must be talking about sorenson because Quicktime is just a container format.

    8. Re:No Macs by BWJones · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "Let's screw the platform that made the Myst franchise what it is today!"

      Indeed, when Myst was originally created by Cyan back in 1992/1993, it was an all Macintosh operation. They used all of the video and audio built into Macs leveraging Quicktime (on Quadras I seem to remember) for the production and play of the game. All audio and video was a Macintosh operation. When it was ported to Windows, I had a friend complaining it simply did not look as good as it did on my IIci or my Quadra 840av. The really cool thing was, this was created using Hypercard and Hypertalk scripts! and is probably one of the all time greatest Hypercard programs.

      --
      Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
    9. Re:No Macs by Teach · · Score: 2, Funny

      I can't really blame them though... People don't buy macs as "gaming machines"

      DrunkGamers.com would agree:

      --
      Graham "Teach" Mitchell, computer science teacher, Leander HS
    10. Re:No Macs by Cutriss · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why are you mad at UbiSoft? They're just the publisher, not the actual people doing the work of creating the game right? Like when Myst was originally made, broderbrun was the publisher. It was 2 guys in their garage that actually made the game.

      Ubi Soft is not just the publisher, but it is also the company *commissioning* the development of the game.

      Just as it isn't up to Valve to decide to make a Mac port of Half-Life, it's not up to Uru's developer to make a Mac port. Ubi is calling the shots. So, I think the parent poster has a right to bitch at Ubi.

      By the way - The Miller brothers pretty much signed away the franchise during the development of Myst III. One of them (Robin, I think) is still a "consultant" on the series, but they're both pretty much out of the picture now.

      --
      "Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
    11. Re:No Macs by Rozinante · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Let's screw the platform that made the Myst franchise what it is today!"

      If only Hypercard were still around today, they wouldn't be so bold....

      --
      "'Tis a small mind indeed cannot think but of one way to spell a word." -Mark Twain
    12. Re:No Macs by Khomar · · Score: 2, Informative

      Here is the response as seen in the forum on their site:

      Given the state of the computer market, the PC client was developed first, and Cyan has since run out of money for further development of additional platform support. We've been given assurances by a couple of people at Cyan that if the PC version of the game sells well, there will be a Mac version released at a later time, similar to (though hopefully with less of a delay than) realMYST. Of course, if the PC version bombs, it won't matter either way... so talk it up to your PC-owning friends!

      Reference

      --

      I believe in de-evolution. God made the world perfect, man fell, and its been going downhill ever since!

    13. Re:No Macs by randyest · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You just made me think of this:

      Has (or why hasn't) Apple considered developing a DirectX-compatible graphics API, or OpenGL wrapper, or similar? Seems to me that even moderate compatibility with the most popular, most heavily-developed (and by many accounts pretty good these days) graphic subsystem (DirectX 8+) would go a long way toward helping revive the flailing mac gaming market, which would be a good thing.

      I, for one, would certainly love to be able to frag some of my mac-using buddies in Battlefield 1942 (though I'm afraid to consider the cost of a max that could run bf1942 at the resolution and detail settings I'm accustomed to (1280x1024x32bit, all options at max on an XP2400/1GB/GeFX5900U).

      --
      everything in moderation
    14. Re:No Macs by GryphonTech · · Score: 3, Informative

      Cyan sold over 1 Million before the PC version saw the light of day. Besides when Myst first came out on the Mac, PC graphics and CPUs were not powereful enough to run it. I'm sure this was even pre-Pentium days back when the 386 was the dominant seller and the 486 was just out. They were forced to wait a couple of years before it could work decently on a PC.....

    15. Re:No Macs by pudge · · Score: 2, Informative

      Funny, I thought YOU were the troll.

      You said "Macs are not made with gaming in mind."

      Apple has made a very clear effort to make machines suitable for gaming. It's clear in the marketing Apple does of games for Mac, and in the tech specs for the machines.

      What do you want? 128MB DDR AGP 8X video cards? Got 'em. High-speed drives? Got 'em. Digital audio? Done. Audio out, USB and FW ports on the front of the computer? OK. Apple has often mentioned video gaming as part of the reason they make some of these features (some of them as options, like the 128MB video card).

      What more do you want? John Carmack himself, on stage at Macworld saying, "Apple is making all the right moves on both the hardware and software sides to make the Macintosh a great platform for games."?

      Ask and ye shall receive.

  2. Finally.. by fadeaway · · Score: 4, Funny

    A game that will ensure that not only will my GF let me upgrade, but she'll *demand* it!

    Thank you Ubi!

  3. Warning:20MB by MeanE · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is that supposed to be for us or for UbiSoft?

    1. Re:Warning:20MB by Ilgaz · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well, there is BitTorrent, perfectly legal for such stuff and FREE (nobody will come to their door and want $10k)...

      IMHO there is no reason to complain... Also when big companies like that uses that stuff, it will open path for Java (embedded) and ActiveX bittorrent clients which works easily for average user.

      I now download it using Shareaza (http://www.shreaza.com) and I am sure I don't even "touch" any of their hosts, bandwidth...

      Why companies are so slow adopting excellent stuff which would save hundreds of thousands $$$ for them?

  4. warning?!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    oh my god.. a 20mb download?? Where will I get those 3 seconds of my life back?!?

  5. Wow .... someone is Pyst!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I had to!

  6. Okay by Verteiron · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's damn impressive for realtime. Hell, it's pretty impressive even for a prerendering. I wonder what the specs were on the machine that generated it...

    On the other hand, RealMYST had a mind-bogglingly beautiful realtime engine, even by today's standards, so I'm glad to see that they're still making progress.

    --
    End of lesson. You may press the button.
  7. SKU means 'stock keeping unit' by grahamwest · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's a retail industry term for a physical item. After all, you have 1 game on multiple platforms and sometimes multiple versions per platform (PAL vs NTSC, original vs greatest hits reissue and so on) but it's likely they all have the same general description or title but each would be considered a distinct SKU for inventory tracking and so on.

    Hope that helps explain it.

    --
    Graham
  8. BT link? by jehreg · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Any BitTorrent available, or is it already to late for even that?

    1. Re:BT link? by jehreg · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yeah, but you need a gentle soul to be able to d/l it first and then create a BT seed for it. Publishers tend to not know about BitTorrent yet, so they typically don't use it.

    2. Re:BT link? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Give this a shot:

      http://69.56.172.70/trailer2.mpg.torrent

  9. Great community building... by Not_Wiggins · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now instead of being alone and frustrated about what the heck to do next in the game, I can be in a community of people... frustrated about what the heck to do next in the game. ;)

    --
    Diplomacy is the art of saying, "Nice doggie!" until you can find a rock.
  10. Re:3 seconds?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    i dont have to think
    George W. Bush??? Is that you???

  11. I'm certainly not buying it. by SargeZT · · Score: 5, Funny

    I found out a long time ago that I could achieve the same effect as playing Myst in real life by looking at a bunch of photos and making atmospheric noises.

    --
    And why did you staple the trout to the RAM?
  12. Re:the bulkiest game? by saddino · · Score: 3, Informative

    Err, that would be Riven, the sequel to Myst.

  13. BitTorrent Link! by eaglebtc · · Score: 2, Informative
    URU Ages of Myst Online Trailer

    Thanks to suprnova hosting! This torrent originates from my home machine on a cable connection. Shadow's client is in use, and super-seeding is active.

    --
    Homestarrunner.net -- It's Dot Com!
    1. Re:BitTorrent Link! by eaglebtc · · Score: 3, Informative

      dammit, sorry it's not working ATM. stupid moderators. try this link instead: second link

      --
      Homestarrunner.net -- It's Dot Com!
  14. Mirror by inertia187 · · Score: 4, Informative

    The site is slow, here is a mirror.

    Martin Studio Slashdot Policy

    --
    A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
  15. Linux version?? by pair-a-noyd · · Score: 3, Informative

    I found *no* mention of the platform so I *assume* it's M$ only??

    I tried the get the *original* myst to run under winex from transgaming and it's a no-go..

    Any hope of ever seeing a Linux port of any of these games? I really liked Myst, way back when.

    I even have an original copy of "Drowned God" somewhere that I would like to play once again someday. I hate to think of installing M$ just to play a game or two and I can't stand the thought of connecting an M$ loaded machine to my broadband (virus pipe)..

  16. Stupid question... by zapp · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Can anyone explain to me what the hell is going on in the world of Myst/Riven/etc?

    I played about... 75% of Myst, and then oh... I dunno, 50-75% of Riven... and lost interest in them both before I could finish them (usually stuck at some puzzle).

    What is the story, what is going on? Last I knew, people in books were talking to me :)

    I'm sure its quite complex, so if you know of any websites that explain it... just point me there :)

    --
    no comment
    1. Re:Stupid question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Obviously there's some spoilers.

      I haven't played Exile and didn't finish Riven, but I beat Myst multiple times and have read all three novels.

      Chronologically, the story begins in the second book, Myst: the Book of Ti'ana. Anne, Atrus's grandmother (the father of the two brothers stuck in the books) finds her way into the underground empire of D'Ni, where human-like people can link to worlds using books. It's considered an art form, they're in their prime, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah. Long story short, a jealous friend and psychopath destroy the entire empire with a plague, but Anne's family survives by going into a private book world where the jealous friend has a change of heart and decides not to send a body with the plague to them. They return, Anne's husband dies, she takes her son (Ghen, I believe) back to the surface.

      Cut to the FIRST book, Myst: The Book of Atrus. Ghen had a son with another human woman, then headed back to D'Ni to try to restore the empire, or at least to rediscover the art of world-linking, or making as he believed. He leaves Atrus, his son, with Anne until he reaches a certain age where he steals him and takes him to D'Ni, where they work on making worlds. Ghen's tend to be unstable, he uses them as playthings to experiment with, and thinking he 'creates' them instead of linking to them, he has the people of these worlds worship him like a God. Atrus falls in love with a human woman from Riven, Ghen's greatest world. Atrus rescues her and locks Ghen in the world of his creation, destroying the way out and using the final book to get back to Myst, the world he created, while falling into an abyss.

      The book he used is the one you find at the beginning of the first game. You go into the book to find that Atrus and Catherine (his wife) have had two sons. Atrus set the red book and the blue book to trap his sons in as they were corrupt and had thought like Ghen did, but after he had set the trap, before it was sprung, Atrus was trapped in D'Ni and Catherine in Riven by said sons. You rescue Atrus, and he asks you to save his wife.

      Cut to Riven. I'm assuming you save his wife and make it back to Myst.

      In the third book, Myst: The Book of D'Ni, Myst and D'Ni (another section of it, not the collapsed room Atrus was in) are both re-inhabited by people from the book worlds. While going through some libraries, they come across a linker book to another civilization (the name fails me), and go to explore it. It's another group of book-writers, but one which uses the book peoples as slaves and playthings. You get your typical, albeit well written, story of outsiders attempting to free the slaves, slaves uprising, etc, etc, etc.

      As for Exile, your guess is as good as mine, although I do believe it happens between Riven and the Book of D'Ni. Cheers to anyone who can toss in/tweak what I've put.

      The books should all be rather inexpensive now, and they're all easy but satisfying reads. I suggest checking them out.

  17. Re:the bulkiest game? by zakezuke · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Myst, the first version released before CD-rom drives were standard equipment, was a single CD. I can't remember the exact release date, but it was circa 1994 or so.

    I remember being somewhat annoyed at the fact that I couldn't borrow a CD-rom drive to copy it to my hard drive as I only had a 1/2 gig drive in the first place.

    Keep in mind the fact that this was a game designed to run *well* under a 68030 based mac or a 386pc without a math/co if i'm remembering correctly. If my memory is correct, this would mean NO jpeg compression what so ever. I believe they also had to resort to 8 bit graphics in order to actually get the bugger to fit on a single CD.

    I have NO clue about Riven though.

    --
    There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
  18. Online Myst? by DrCode · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm trying to imagine what this might be like:

    I pull a couple levers in one room, then walk around to another room to see what happened. Meanwhile, someone else sets the levers back. Then we get into a duel where the weapons are books, each of us trying to snap ours shut on the other person.

  19. Gametab has a working torrent now by adpowers · · Score: 2, Informative

    I looked at Gametab a few minutes ago and nothing. I search the comments for a working bit torrent link, but nothing. So, one last ditch to check Gametab and what do you know? Here is the link to the torrent:

    http://www.gametab.com/files/torrents.php?fuse=70

  20. URU Beta Test by Andrevan · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, there is a non-disclosure agreement. I can't say anything about it other than I am very disappointed. It's glitchy and not at all Myst-like.

    --
    "All it takes to fly is to hurl yourself at the ground... and miss." - Douglas Adams
    1. Re:URU Beta Test by 75th+Trombone · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Glitchy? No way!! You don't suppose that might be why it's in BETA, do you?

      --
      The United States of America: We do what we must because we can.
  21. Re:the bulkiest game? by 75th+Trombone · · Score: 2, Informative

    It DID allow you to copy all the files to your hard drive, just wasn't an install option (it was 1997, come on).

    If I recall correctly, you can just move the files from the CDs to the Riven/data folder. You can also download Jehon the Scribe's Riven installer to do it for you. :)

    SFT

    --
    The United States of America: We do what we must because we can.
  22. Hard to keep my mouth shut... by LostSinner · · Score: 2, Informative

    ok, as a beta tester, i agreed to a restrictive NDA telling me not to discuss things i see in the game outside of the beta forums... so my apologies if this is lacking in details.

    i'm seeing a lot of comments about killing the myst franchise by going online, the game possibly sucking, etc. let me say this: it is by far the most impressive online game i've seen yet. the graphics are great, the music is incredible, the puzzles and ages are wonderful, there haven't been any lock-ups or timeouts, everything is top-notch. don't worry about killing the idea that is myst.

    a couple people have asked about what kind of computer the graphics were rendered on. i'm getting the same results using a 2.0GHz P4, 512MB RAM, and an nvidia geforce ti 4600.

    overall, absolutely incredible.

  23. No Macs, but open source though by passthecrackpipe · · Score: 2, Informative

    Follow a couple of links around on the UBI soft site, and you will find that the creators Cyan have a complete opensource section around the myst stuff. right here http://open.cyanworlds.com/

    --
    People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.