Myst, One of the Most Influential Games Ever, Turns 25 (fastcompany.com)

harrymcc writes: On September 24, 1993, Myst debuted as a CD-ROM game for the Mac. The mysterious, puzzle-laden adventure went on to become the best-selling game title of its era, inspiring a devoted following and multiple sequels. But for all the people who loved Myst, it was disrespected by many in the gaming industry, who found it less engaging than previous adventures and even blamed it for killing of the earlier genre of more action-packed adventuring. Over at Fast Company, Benj Edwards provides an appreciation of Myst but also talks to game designers about the game's still-complex legacy.

Comments

Puzzles

[fluffernutter]

Myst immersed me in its world. There was nothing jumping out at you or time limits on anything, but you wanted to solve the problems for the graphics and the story. Last one I played like that was Syberia II that came out in 2004; although now I have just noticed there is a Syberia 3 that came out in 2017. There doesn't seem to be a lot of games like that since first pirson shooters became popular.

Re:Puzzles

[arth1]

I guess graphical adventure games are lost in the mysts of time.

Personally, I'd go a bit farther back. Infocom text adventures is what I remember with the most fondness. From before they became semi-graphical. Trinity and Leather Goddesses of Phobos were just awesome.
These days, however, they are kind of pointless, because you can find solutions online. Which defeats the purpose of these games, which were meant to be difficult.

Re:Puzzles

[commodore64_love]

Myst didn't impress me too much. It reminded me of Activision's text-graphics adventure Mindshadow (1984) which also had lots of still images, and puzzles to solve.

Of course people brand-new to PC computing had no idea about the older pre-crash games. To them it was a new experience (even though it really wasn't).

I thought later efforts like ICO were far more impressive and fun (thanks to random battles).

Re:Pyst

[commodore64_love]

No Pyst came 3 years after Myst, so it's only 22. I like the description from wikipedia: "The basic concept of Pyst was to show what Myst Island (from the best-selling game) would look like after four million people (players) had visited....... the island is full of litter, most of the buildings are ruined, and graffiti reveals secret doors and solutions to puzzles that challenged players in Myst."

Re:Pyst

[OrangeTide]

Pyst was a gag that was more fun to read about than to play. It would have gotten rave reviews if it were a free bundle to promote a magazine subscription. Most people who paid full price for it felt kind of cheated.

Fond Memories of Myst

[Only Time Will Tell]

I remember it was one of the first games I got that came on CD. I had first seen the game at a friend's house and was enamored with the graphics and music. I even ended up getting a collector's edition later that came with a Myst t-shirt and a game music CD which I listened to numerous times. I went on to read the Myst book trilogy (they were OK, but still a fun read), but never really explored the computer games beyond the first one. I still have fond memories of the game and can envision the various worlds if I close my eyes.

Re:I have Myst

[Rei]

My expectation was that this "25 year anniversary" thing was supposed to make me feel old, but it really doesn't... because I associate Myst with me being young.

What made me feel old was learning that Serial Experiments Lain turned 20 this summer. Apparently there was a 20th anniversary party at Club Cyberia hosted by Wasei "JJ" Chikada, the real-world DJ who played the voice of JJ, the DJ in Cyberia, as well as composing much of the soundtrack (and co-composing the Cyberia Mix CD). I've been listening to his cover of ScummV's cover of Duvet a lot on Youtube recently.