First iPhone 'Myst' Screenshots
posted by arn on March 26th, 2009 2:12 AM EDT in Upcoming Games
We first reported back in August that Cyan had quietly announced that they were porting their classic graphical adventure Myst to the iPhone.
One beta tester was given permission to post screenshots of the testing version of Myst. The authenticity of the images was confirmed by a Cyan employee.
On the beta version of the game, the tester had this to say:
I think it's Ok to say that It really looks GOOD on the iPod screen, And I am finding the gameplay easy to manage with the touch screen! I am duely impressed
Click on thumbnails for full images:
The Cyan employee also indicated that Myst will "hopefully" arrive in a month.
Thanks ponyboy
This looks nice. A bit like Syberia.
What's the game about?
Myst is about.. pages in a book, two deranged brothers, this other guy, and you. Honestly, I've played through it twice and I still don't get it. But you know what? I don't care. The visuals are awesome and the atmosphere is stunning. And the puzzles are hard as heck but very rewarding.
My question is… is this a port of the free-roaming RealMYST or is it going to be a port of the original with still images?
Also, it's fantastic to see that Cyan's still in it. It would be fantastic for the rest of the series (2-5) to make it to the iPhone as well. I seem to have lost my Myst 2 CD…
From the screenshots, it looks like the original, slideshow-style Myst — not that there's anything wrong with that.
Oh, and danny, it more accurate to say that Syberia looks a bit like Myst. Here's more info if you're curious: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst
I only started following Myst from Exile. My favourite is Myst IV: Revelation, but I don't know, I haven't tried Myst I and II (which I heard is very difficult).
Is this the original Myst?!
I played that on my Performa 5300 in 1995, if I remember correctly. I loved it, but I hadn't the time to finish it. Maybe I can do that on the iPhone soon!
Seems like every console in existence gets some variety of Myst (and also Doom). I don't mean to be a hater but Myst was one of those experiences best left back in 1994.
Let's hope it goes better than the DS port… On that note I think Jack DeVries of IGN is about the only reviewer who's had balls to call out Myst 1 for being sorta the junk it is.
http://ds.ign.com/articles/874/874807p1.html
How about bringing Riven to the iPhone? Even though the gameplay is mostly just clicking puzzles, at least its not as played out.
Myst is the very reason why mindless shooters don't run the market.
To Greg: The very fact that you mention playing Riven on an iphone is proof positive that you have neither an appreciation for the tremendous graphics these games offer nor the soul to appreciate the nuances of the stories they tell.
Agreed with @Greg, everyone now feels the need to port all of their games to the iPhone. The only good games come from indie developers because they actually don't have any IPs to port from different platforms.
First EA dumping all their franchise thrash, and now MYST?!? How about thinking for a moment and figuring out a good game build for iPhone, not a port?
@ Greg, Castor;
You can't blame these guys for brining a classic like Myst to the iPlatform, it not only helps get them up to speed with the iPhone's capabilities, but it's a good test for whether or not there is demand for this type of game on the platform. Same goes for EA.
It was the same deal with the DS. When a platform is young there is a lot of testing the water, and eventually as devs get comfortable not only with the specs of the device, but with what kind of demand exists, for what, you will see much better software, and new IPs.
I would argue that even in it's infancy, the App Store has seen a lot of custom content and games developed exclusively for our favorite device. The App Store isn't even a year old! There are lots of good things to come, and it takes time for custom IPs and big exclusive adventures to be crafted.
Yep, I mean…the Need for Speed game specifically built for and on the iTouch/Phone platform is obviously a "port".
Methinks you need to look up what a port exactly entails. Myst is a port, as it is being brought over from it's original hardware. But taking an existing franchise, a "brand" IP, and building a game up from scratch using that IP isn't a port. So, no, EA, Gameloft, Sega, etc. haven't all JUST done ports of past titles. They've also given us original offerings in addition to the ports, so don't bash them for not doing something that they are, in fact, doing (releasing new, built for the iTouch/Phone offerings), and don't fault them for having backcatalogs that they can port over and/or existing "brand" IPs that they can utilize to sell a new, made specifically for iTouch/Phone game to a larger audience.
And, tbqh, yeah the indie scene on iTouch/Phone is driving a lot of the innovation, but they themselves are also guilty of releasing rehashes of prior games, sheer beta demos, and a small pocketful of them are guilty of out and out copyright infringement. So, please, let's not look past the crap that also comes out of the indie scene as well.
Both camps, indie and established "big brand" companies", are showing great offerings but also showing complete crap as well. Both don't come up smelling like roses, but they aren't full of crap either.
@Castor:
Porting a classic is probably cheaper and a better financial bet than designing a new innovative game from scratch specifically for the iphone. If you don't like the game being ported to the phone, don't buy it. But it's a no-brainer that these companies should do this: invest minimal time to port instead of start from scratch, and bring in additional revenue.
Instant buy for me. Myst was a such a deep experience for me back in the day.
I loved every second. So complex and intelligent. And this game never grows old, so yeah, bring it on….and later on, part 2…these are still my two favs of this series
oooOOOoo.. getting chills already. can't wait! I sure hope Riven comes to the iphone next =)
Chogon, the Cyan employee, implies they are planning on porting over Riven as well. Also it looks like someone may have leaked screenshots of Riven on the forum here: http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17203&start=30
I'll wait for some opinions first. I like the PC game, but the DS version was kind of bad. The problem with it was that Myst was designed to be used with a mouse. The cursor would change when you moved it over something that you could interact with, but on a touch screen, there was no cursor.
That made the game too hard even for someone like me, who has beaten the original a few times.
I doubt the iPod Touch version will be any different from the DS one (although probably cost around $20 less).
Those screenshots are really impressive. I hope those graphics look that good when we get to play it.
@No DPad (nice nick)
The screenshots give you the exact impression of the game, because Myst IS a screenshot game
Riven is also coming…..wow wow wow…..
Slightly disappointed it's not RealMyst, but I can live with it. I'll probably get it just to support Cyan.
Now, if Riven gets ported, I will truly die of happiness.
i'm really excited for this. i never beat it when it came out (i was like… 8?), plus the version i have only runs in classic, so i never really got into playing it on my ibook. it'll be nice to finally have an avenue for finishing the game. same goes for riven (which always seemed way more abstract and hard).
Maybe the iPhone can't handle the full 3D detail of RealMYST, but it would be cool to have 360-degree spherical panoramas (which the iPhone can handle at PERFECT detail) instead of still scenes. The panos could be made straight from RealMYST even, without re-rendering anything. Still, the interactive parts, never made for panoramic use would be a TON of work. So I'm not going to try to tell the developers it's worth that. It just would have been cool
Oh memories… I will definitely be picking this one up
Castor Krieg, you talk BS…is Gameloft "indie"??? Every single one of their games have been good. Also, EA has not been bad so far. So why that stupid hate on big devs bringing their popular franchises???
Because I would take new innovative game over another long-running franchise, esp. EA. Also I don't think Myst will translate well to iPhone (hello, portability?), also given the fact that it's a port, not a new Myst build for iPhone.
I still think myst 4 revelations is one of the bet games ever created.
I can't wait for this one. It's time for a Myst resurgence. I was obsessed with the game when it came out and I've played all the Myst games. I only finished the first 2. The 3rd and 4th games were my favorites. I'd like to see them all on the iPod Touch. I just installed games 2, 3 and 4 on my new Intel iMac. The games hold up surprisingly well after all this time.
Why not Myst IV?
WOW!!
Myst is my favorite PC game, really wowed me when it came out.
I'll be buying this as soon as it hits the streets!
The continuing story…
"The original Macintosh version of Myst [took two years to develop 1991-'93 and] was constructed in Hypercard. Each Age was a unique Hypercard stack. Navigation was handled by the internal button system and HyperTalk scripts, with image and QuickTime movie display passed off to various plugins; essentially, Myst functions as a series of separate multimedia slides linked together by commands". -and more at WikiP.
"… HyperCard had a significant impact on the web as it inspired the creation of both HTTP itself (through its influence on Tim Berners-Lee's colleague Robert Cailliau), and JavaScript (whose creator, Brendan Eich, was inspired by HyperTalk). It was also a key inspiration for ViolaWWW, an early web browser. / The pointing-finger cursor used for navigating stacks later found its way into the first web browsers, as the hyperlink cursor." (WikiP)