Fifteen years after the original Myst released for home computers, it's hard to remember what an incredible phenomenon the game had been. The adventure genre had been reshaped by the innovative use of a first-person view, and many had rushed out to purchase cutting-edge "CD-ROM drives." With millions of copies sold, it still stands as the best selling PC adventure game of all time.

But what was behind the frenzy? Empire Interactive wants DS owners to find out later this month (PSP owners will have to wait a few more months for their port). The entire game is controlled through the touch screen, an obvious design decision considering the hardware's capabilities. Point and click now becomes point and touch -- however, expect to have a bit more difficulty with the handheld version. When using the mouse on the PC, players knew what they can click on by the shape of their cursor. There is no on-screen representation of your stylus, so players will have to simply use their intuition to click on the appropriate items.

There are a few new tools for players to use, however. There's a clever magnifying glass, which allows players to zoom in on objects in the game world. You can even take snapshots of your screen and save them, recalling them for use during a particularly tricky puzzle. There's a map as well, but it won't indicate where you are. Finally, you can save notes, typed via virtual keyboard (no handwriting recognition, sorry). These additional tools should make navigating the game's tricky puzzles a bit less daunting.

If more game-to-film projects got their start like this, we might end up seeing a few of them. Two filmmakers and Myst nuts, Patrick A. McIntire and Adrian Vanderbosch, set out to make a film based on the game series. Without so much as the rights they began work, eventually winning the endorsement of Cyan Worlds, the company behind the Myst games.

Now, they're trying to get some interest for the project with their production blog and website, which you can poke through to find a few different details and hints about the kind of film they'd like to make. The whole shebang is in the early stages, but just looking at the site and the blog, we're encouraged. Even if it doesn't get off the ground, it seems their hearts are in the right place.

The above image was captured from the GameTap client hours ago, with the special note: "Uru: Myst Online Live" with the subtitle "Experience never-ending online adventure." Joystiq readers, say hello to irony.
(Thanks, Patrick)

Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
Metareview - Devil May Cry 4 (Xbox 360, PS3)
Today's nerdiest audio: Street Fighter songs
X3F Week in Review: February 1, 2008 - February 7, 2008

News
React Recharge Dock powers 4 Wiimotes for $50
Finally! Assassin's Creed DS gameplay
GameTap Thursday: Get down with your Bagh Chal self
Atlus signs 'family-friendly' Wii puzzler Octomania for North America
Nintendo says no to MMOs
Sega announces 'English of the Dead' for DS
DICE 08: Pirates director urges creativity in keynote
Legendary to open this summer for Xbox 360, PS3, PC
DICE 08: Quirky indie hit 'Juno' to birth a game
Max Payne filming to start next month
THQ announces Band Mashups, Wii exclusive rhythm game for April
Suda51 talks Xbox 360, American market
Steam hits 15 million users
Cell down to 45nm, PS3 production costs to slim too
ESRB: Number of M-rated games declined in 2007
Pirates vs. Ninja Dodgeball: robot contenders profiled
Twisted Metal PS3 revealed in hidden code
PopCap denies Peggle DS 'rumor'
Call of Duty 4 overtakes Halo 3 again, tops Xbox Live Activity
Burnout Paradise DLC explained
Circuit City to expand used game sales program
Namco Bandai blames Wii for arcade closures
PSN Thursday: Lost Planet demo, Go! Sports Skydiving

Rumors & Speculation
Rumor: Viacom bidding $1.5 billion to take over Take-Two
Rumor: BioWare not involved with Star Wars MMO

Culture & Community
Zero Punctuation hears the Call of Duty
Ziff Davis reorganizes, changes review scoring
Gerstmann talks firing on X-Play tonight
"Paper" Mario comes to life in art project

A little over a year after being reborn on GameTap, Myst Online: Uru Live will be unplugged. GameTap's VP of Content and Creative Director Ricardo Sanchez writes on the GameTap forums that the decision was made for "business reasons" rather than any design or vision issues with developer Cyan Worlds. The game will remain live for another 60 days and then it's over, but MystOnline.com will stay active.

Sanchez went on to say that GameTap looked at a "wide variety of possibilities for maintaining the game," and in a later forum post writes the company "isn't a bunch of evil corporate types who do nothing but count pennies and wear Brooks Brothers suits." Taking a sip from the "glass is half-full" perspective: At least GameTap gave Myst Online a chance for a year.

[Thanks to all who sent this in]

Fans of point-and-click classic Myst will have a chance to relive the experience this March, when publisher Empire Interactive brings a DS adaptation of the title to the US. Myst DS has been out in Europe since last Fall, but this will mark the title's debut in the States.

A tad more than just a straight port, the DS version of Myst features remastered video, a bonus area previously available in the realMyst remake, and touch-screen features such as note-taking and shortcut icons. The game will also feature the ability to take snapshots of certain screens for later reference, hopefully cutting down on all the tedious backtracking and rote memorization made so popular by the groundbreaking PC game. It seems that developer Hoplite Research put a lot of thought into this adaptation, making it a tempting buy for anyone who actually enjoyed the original.

The game that practically launched a genre, Myst has remained one of the most engaging (or boring, depending on who you ask) and mysterious adventure titles ever released. The series has expanded to include sequels, an MMOG, and most recently a release on the PSP. Now, Midway is preparing to port the aging title to the DS so we can finally live out our oldest Myst fantasies: jabbing Sirrus and Achenar with a stylus.

For starters, Myst DS will include a brand new age to explore as well as the Rime Age from realMYST. The game's source code has been re-written specifically for the DS, new sounds and clips are scattered throughout, and the video and audio have been re-mastered as well. Touch screen control is a given, but Midway hasn't revealed how both screens will be utilized. Keep an eye out for Myst DS this November in Europe.

[Via Eurogamer]

[Update: Fixed Rime Age/new age error.]

GameTap announced today that the Mac OS X port of Myst Online: URU Live -- built using Transgaming's Cider technology -- is available for download. Rand Miller, CEO of Cyan Worlds and creator of Myst Online, offered this heartfelt sentiment: "Many of the original Myst fans were Mac users, so for GameTap to reopen the door to this audience really means a lot to Cyan on a personal level."

Though we're sure there's lots of hugging going on in the Cyan Worlds offices this morning, we're just excited to test the Cider-built version and see how it compares to the existing PC client. A reminder: while your $10 monthly GameTap subscription buys you full access to the GameTap service, Mac users should know that Myst Online is the only GameTap offering that will work natively on your computer. Our recommendation for Intel Mac users: play URU Live natively, Boot Camp the rest.

Already a GameTap subscriber and want to take the Mac version of URU Live online for a spin? Head on over to this login page, enter your GameTap login information and get downloading!

As one of the most captivating, if not vastly underrated, titles of last year, any news from the Ages of Uru is good news. GameTap has announced that not only will their MMO adventure, Myst Online be receiving an entirely new world to explore, but a new platform on the Mac.

As GameTap is not yet (will not ever be?) available for the Mac, TransGaming Inc. will be in charge of porting the title over (using their Cider product we presume). With not so much as an estimated time for this release, Mac users will be left sitting on their hands until further information is revealed ... or discovered in a mysterious book. Those in the nether realm of the PC, however, will have new content to enjoy as soon as tomorrow with the release of the Great Zero area to explore.

With a brand new platform of users to engage and a continued push of content, Uru sure has come a long way from the days of Ubisoft's waffling. If Mac gamers are really dedicated (and/or impatient), there's always Boot Camp to get your GameTap fix.

As mentioned in our interview with Rand Miller, co-creator of the Myst empire, Myst Online: Uru Live will eventually let users build their own ages. Miller has always had this poetic goal of letting players "write" Myst environments of their own; Cyan Worlds plans to provide its own development tools to gamers to make this happen.

While Miller states that this is "forward looking" and may change, he thinks ambitious gamers are up for the challenge. He says, "We're always amazed at what our fans are able to accomplish, frankly, and by making those tools available, I think we'll be even more surprised. ... Essentially what we're creating in the mythology of all this is a writer's guild."

Miller anticipates that the development tools will be available in about six months, the time he thinks is needed for them to stop being updated.

Developers rarely give their own game- or level-creating tools to fans. This move is especially uncommon in an MMO with a plot, versus online sandbox games like Second Life. We're interested to see how Cyan Worlds lets players move between its content and community-created ages.

Myst Online: Uru Live will launch this "holiday season" as part of GameTap's standard $10 monthly fee.

[Update 1: fixed ship date error.]

Myst Online: Uru Live will let thousands of players convene in Myst ages to solve puzzles. Touting the persistence of the world as a major feature -- light switches and doors stay how you leave them -- Cyan Worlds thinks the collaborative nature of Myst will make a unique Massively Multiplayer Online game.

Two years ago, Uru Live was canceled just before its initial launch under Ubisoft. Now, after developing it for a total of six years, Cyan Worlds is working with its new publisher, GameTap, to prepare the game for a "holiday" release. Uru Live will be offered as part of the monthly $10 GameTap subscription for the U.S. audience, but GameTap will release Uru Live as a stand-alone subscription in other parts of the world. (GameTap is not yet offered outside of the U.S.)

We recently spoke with Myst co-creator Rand Miller, while Producer, Mark "Moke" Dobratz demonstrated the game. They talked about how Uru Live supports the collaborative sensibility of Myst players, how the game will let you have individual experiences within its MMO structure, and plans to let users build their own ages.

[Update 1: Fixed ship-date error.]

We recently sat down for a quick meeting with David Reid, VP of Marketing for GameTap, the Turner game-download subscription service. GameTap had previously announced that the episodic releases of Sam & Max and Myst Online: Uru Live would be added to the service as part of its monthly $10 fee; these are the first new games to go alongside GameTap's catalog of re-releases. Reid talked about how GameTap is growing, the sort of gamer it attracts, and how -- as Reid says with his marketing prowess -- the site is shifting from the DVD-model to the HBO-model of new content.

Sega recently decided to introduce a whole new generation of mobile gamers to the classic Myst, and will release the bestselling adventure-puzzle game for the PSP next month in Japan. Midway Games will be taking care of business outside the Far East with a European version, although there are no immediate plans for the North American market.

The original Myst has now appeared on at least ten platforms over the past 12 years, including the Sega Saturn, Atari Jaguar, 3DO, CD-i, Amiga, and Pocket PC.

See also: A second life for Uru Live

Myst fans who weren't stymied by installation problems and frequent crashes in the Uru spin-off games were left lamenting the cancellation of Uru Live back in early 2004. The opportunity to build virtual neighborhoods and engage in multiplayer exploration of the Miller brothers' wondrous ages was taken away when Ubisoft decided there were not enough projected subscribers to support an online service.

Enter GameTap. Last week at E3, Ted Turner's on-demand gaming service announced they will team with developer Cyan Worlds to give Uru a proper online home this holiday season. The decision was due in no small part to the active Uru Live community that nurtured the franchise after the plug was pulled two years ago. Read more about these fan-created services in the CNET article, and for more information on the game itself, visit Uru Live where you can sign up for the beta.

Now, maybe Ted can do something about Duke Nukem Forever.

[Thanks to Daniel at CNET]