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GOG.com gets Cyan Worlds' Myst games

by David Hinkle { Dec 4th 2009 at 6:30AM }

If you consider the daily crossword puzzle a suitable mental exercise routine, then, buddy, you've got it all wrong. That's child's play for baby brains and yours needs a bit more stimulation than that. Thankfully, GoG.com is here to put a few wrinkles in all the right spots, as it's announced Cyan Worlds' beloved Myst series is coming to its library of DRM-free titles.

You can actually check out Myst: Masterpiece Edition right now for $5.99, but you'll have to wait a bit for Riven: The Sequel to Myst and The Manhole: Masterpiece Edition -- the latter of which is admittedly not part of Myst canon, but comes from the Myst creators and should interest fans nonetheless. Both will also be priced at $5.99 and can be yours "soon."

Myst 'demo' free on iPhone

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 7th 2009 at 7:01AM }

In lieu of an upgradeable demo (they're not allowed on the App Store) the original Myst's iPhone and iPod Touch incarnation now has a "free version." Myst FREE is a glorified demo that allows players to explore Myst Island, but entering any of the "Ages" will require a full download and $5 charge -- a $1 price drop from when the title was first announced.

At 123MB, the demo's download is substantial. But that's nothing compared to the full game's 700MB footprint ... and it still beats having to hook up a CD-ROM drive to your iPhone.

iTunes - Download Myst FREE at the iTunes App Store

Myst novel optioned for film

by Justin McElroy { Jul 29th 2009 at 11:15AM }

No, this isn't one of the huge stories of the day, but we thought you might like an update after our post from March of 2008 about Myst nuts Patrick A. McIntire and Adrian Vanderbosch trying to turn the game into a film. Sixteen months later, the duo has made some more headway, optioning the rights to Myst novel The Book of Ti'ana. "This option is a major victory," McIntire said. "Cyan has placed a lot of faith in us, and we have no intention of letting them down."

Though we wish the guys all the best, we're still not sure we're ready for a full-length feature film about a guy staring silently at pretty, albeit confusing things ... especially since The DaVinci Code has already covered that ground so completely.

PSP version of Myst hitting PlayStation Network July 16

by Griffin McElroy { Jul 11th 2009 at 6:30PM }

We know you've probably bought Myst eight or nine times by this point, but we thought you'd still like to know that a new iteration will soon be available -- this time, for the PSP. Hoplite Research, who collaborated with the adventure game's original developer Cyan Worlds to put the game on DS in December 2007, is dropping the game on the PlayStation Network next Thursday. Much like the DS version, the PSP port will contain all the Myst non-action you know and love, as well as the bonus Rime Age that appeared on Nintendo's handheld.

What the press release that revealed all this information lacked, however, was a price. We've contacted Hoplite to try and discern this crucial piece of information. We'll let you know as soon as we find out.

Myst can now frustrate iPhone users

by Alexander Sliwinski { May 4th 2009 at 12:30PM }

The classic brain bender Myst has arrived for iPhone and iPod Touch, notes WhatTheyPlay. The $6 app is a hefty 700MB, so the developers at Cyan Worlds probably aren't kidding when they state the "original Myst sights and sounds have been meticulously re-assembled ... in a format where a simple touch or swipe moves you through the world."

The game features the full Myst experience -- allegedly "better than original Myst" -- with auto-save, bookmarking and (most importantly) quick access to the hint guide. We haven't had a chance to check it out, so let us know how Cyan Worlds did porting the game for portable play.

iTunes - Download Myst at the iTunes App Store

Bury the Shovelware: Resident Evil - Deadly Silence

by Kaes Delgrego { Oct 29th 2008 at 11:00AM }

Seeing as we're fast approaching Halloween, I thought it would be appropriate to try to find a "scary" game to examine for Bury the Shovelware. I could have easily gone the "it's so bad, it's SCARY" route, but I thought it would be nice to avoid lame sarcasm. I spent most of this week's Top 5 gushing over Resident Evil 1 & 4, which reminded me that the PSOne original was ported to the DS in early 2006. Surprisingly, I never looked into it. Perhaps it had something to do with the mixed (but not terrible) reviews it received. To get to the point, now's the perfect time to take a closer look. Is Resident Evil: Deadly Silence shovelware? Let's find out.

Pedigree

On paper, this project looks easily reasonable. The original was an instant classic, and this version was both developed and published officially by Capcom. They could have easily farmed this out to a lesser company, but they decided to keep it in-house. The DS is perfectly capable of supporting PSOne-era graphics and audio, as we've seen fairly impressive graphics on the handheld before. And from what I'd read before playing this version, Capcom was adding touch-based controls and minigames into the mix. Although use of the phrase "minigames" in this neo-casual market can elicit a full-hearted "uggh" from most core gamers, I had faith in Capcom as a developer. After witnessing their beautiful port of this same title for the GameCube take full advantage of the system's capabilities, I expected the same for this version.

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Bury the Shovelware: Myst

by Kaes Delgrego { Sep 10th 2008 at 1:00PM }

Ports are tricky. Indeed, the DS's big brother gets a lot of flak for hosting PS2 ports with tacked-on waggle. Yet, if the original game is good and a reasonable amount of bonus content is added, we generally give the game a pass.

But things get even trickier when discussing the retro-port. I touched on this at the end of the Petz Dogz Fashion post, but it's worth restating: would you pay full retail price for an exact copy of your favorite retro game? As the Super Mario Advance series proved: yes, you will. Apparently, identical or near-identical copies of older games at standard market prices can still sell extremely well. It'll be interesting to see how successful the Chrono Trigger port will be (my prediction: very). It'd be especially nice if we could determine how many of those purchasing the game have never played it before (my second prediction: not very many). Information such as this would allow us to determine what effect -- if any -- retro-ports have on the current state of gaming.

Examining Myst for the DS has been on my queue for quite some time. The reason for the delay was simply because I was unsure if it was fair to put it under the spotlight since I never played the original. But upon deliberating the sentiments above, I realized the DS port of the 1993 graphic adventure would be the perfect opportunity to put the question to a litmus test.

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Myst + iPhone = iMyst, cue iGag over iNaming iScheme

by Kevin Kelly { Aug 22nd 2008 at 8:00PM }

Oh Myst, whatever happened to you? We loved you when you were original, and we loved you even more when Riven came out. Then we were rudely slapped in the face when the game left Cyan and Ubisoft released Myst III: Exile and later Myst IV: Ages of Revelation. We tried to be chipper when you went back to Cyan and Myst V: End of Ages came out, but honestly too much water had passed under the bridge. Maybe because of the Uru: Ages Beyond Myst / Myst Online: Uru Live debacle.

But... what's this? You're coming to the iPhone? And you're being developed by Cyan? Well, glory be. However, you promised as a PSP version, and we're still waiting on that. It came out in Europe in 2006, so what gives? We know your DS version came out recently, but it is not being universally loved.

We know you might be too busy and Hollywood now, with your movie deal and iPhone announcement. But, we're still smarting from our past experiences. We'll give you another chance, but you'll need to hurry along while we're still smitten with the iPhone. And please, don't call it iMyst. Myst will do just fine. You wouldn't want us to get Pyst all over again.

[Update: We just heard from one of the gents working on the game (Yeah, that's the kind of pull we have) and they tell us "I'm pretty darn sure we're only calling it iMyst internally as a goofy moniker. I really doubt you've got anything to worry about with regards to rebranding of the game. Who knows, maybe if it does well, other Cyan games will follow." Good news all around!]

WRUP: Tactical insects edition

by David Hinkle { May 16th 2008 at 11:45AM }

For us, this week's releases only come down to Drone Tactics and Myst DS. Sure, we could check out Prince Caspian (it did launch the Dgamer network, after all), but we're not really ones to enjoy the licensed games too much.

What about you all, though? Are you digging on Atlus's SRPG action or the classic Myst? Are you resorting to busting out a dusty, old cartridge and seeing what that's all about this weekend? For us, it looks like mostly rain, so it's the perfect excuse to sit indoors and spend some quality time with our DS.

Gallery: Drone Tactics

DS releases for the week of May 12th

by Alisha Karabinus { May 12th 2008 at 12:30PM }

It's a good week to be a DS owner, no matter where you are in the world. For once, every major region has at least one interesting title hitting shelves this week, and while Australia's line-up isn't necessarily the most exciting, it's at least varied. If you are a) desperate for a new game and b) a citizen of some place with DS games, it's probably okay to be you.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Drone Tactics
Myst

What's out in the rest of the world's major markets? Take a little trip past the break to find out.

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DS Daily: Would you publish Myst?

by JC Fletcher { May 9th 2008 at 9:00AM }

Imagine you're in charge of a video game publisher. You've been given the opportunity to publish a DS version of Myst. Myst is one of the most popular games of all time, and the DS is one of the most popular systems of all time. Do you decide to pick up the project, or do you pass?

Are your reasons financial or artistic? Do you think Myst is a timeless classic, bound to sell on the most adventure-friendly system in ages, or is it an archaic slideshow? Does that matter business-wise?

Top publishers snubbed Myst DS

by Candace Savino { May 8th 2008 at 8:00PM }

Sometimes, we really wish that we could be flies on the walls of game company offices. Maybe we're just huge nerds (actually, that's a fact), but still, we'd love to hear the reasoning behind some of the business decisions made -- just because we're curious when it comes to those types of things.

Every so often, though, we get a little insight into the industry. Most recently, MTV Multiplayer learned some things about Myst DS from it's license owner, Manny Granillo, regarding why the game was turned down by many of the "top publishers." Granillo doesn't mention which companies refused to publish the title for Nintendo's handheld, but he divulged the reasons they gave.

Gallery: Myst

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Joystiq hands-on: Myst (DS)

by Andrew Yoon { Apr 5th 2008 at 7:30PM }

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.

Gallery: Myst (DS)

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Follow the progress of the Myst movie

by Justin McElroy { Mar 14th 2008 at 8:50AM }

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.