Have you played the games from the Myst series? What's your favorite 
age?  (Try to avoid spoilers, probably. No serious spoilers below.)

I liked Channelwood (and the path to its linking book) a lot from the 
first Myst, and the path to get to the Shipstone age on the original 
Myst island.  (I.e., Shipstone itself wasn't that great, but getting 
access to Shipstone was clever.) Selenic was kind of silly, with the 
maze and all, completely out of character I thought. I enjoyed the 
mechanical age too, just figuring out where the pages might be (spoilers 
avoided). I was kind of stuck on Myst for a while, even opening up the 
clues and going "huh?", until I realized I really needed to get my sound 
card fixed to be able to understand what the blinking "tower rotation" 
light was all about. :-)

I think Myst did a great job of driving a plot without being obnoxious 
about it. There's a natural boundary - you're on an island. You get 
suckered into it, so there's no need to accept any particular backstory: 
could have happened to anyone. It almost made sense that you'd leave the 
combination to combination locks sitting around but obsfucated (altho, 
again, why would you lock doors on an uninhabited world?).

Riven was fun, too. I liked getting into Gehn's lab, and the ride to get 
there. That, and realizing that "hey, I can actually look to see where 
the walkways go, and from that deduce where I need to go to get onto 
them." That, and of course, the circularity with Myst (intentionally 
obscured so as not to spoil it: you know what I mean). Oh, and the 
school house. Overall, quite cool! (Altho the rebel age left much to be 
desired.)

As for Exile, I think Amateria was best (the one with the rolling 
balls), both finding the book and the island itself. Possibly because I 
did that first and hence didn't expect the end, along with still being 
mildly phobic of heights and playing it late at night in the dark the 
first time. Voltaic (rocky with power supplies et al) was fun, kind of 
silly too (lava routing controls *inside* the volcano??). The very final 
age was neat too, with all the different endings. I'm not sure why it 
seemed so difficult the first time I played it and so easy the later 
time, in terms of transliterating the symbols. "There's one think I've 
learned about linking books: The doors they opened don't close behind 
you."  I'm a bit disappointed with where you don't get to go ... I can't 
figure out how to say it more clearly without spoilers.

Revelation was nice, but come on. If you could write an age, wouldn't 
you make it possible to work *both* elevators at the same time? (Yes, I 
know there aren't two elevators: If you already played it, you know what 
I mean. If you haven't played it, I've avoided spoiling it.) At least it 
was fun to see the rest of Tomata. At this point, I think the series 
started going downhill: silly puzzles having little or nothing to do 
with the story. At least Exile had a *reason* for there to be blatant 
puzzles-for-the-sake-of-puzzles. (Altho I dunno. The idea that you'd 
build a door across a bridge over a lake to keep the birds out indicates 
you're at least a bit crazy. Maybe building locks onto stuff when you 
know you're the only person in the world is just the same sort of crazy? 
But singing dieties needing help with neurosurgery?) And at least, if 
you're expected to copy characters from one place to another, don't 
compress the images so much the characters are illegible. At least they 
explained where, in the world with only 3 people, the rest of the people 
went.

Uru was pretty sucky, altho some of the effects were nice. Lousy 
puzzles, lame journals, stupid goals. Of course, it was supposed to be 
continued as an MMORPG, but it was still lame. Altho it was kind of 
cool, after reading the first Myst novel, to see some of the places 
described therein. (Not that I'd recommend the novel; it too was pretty 
awful.) I couldn't get Path of the Shell to run - something weird with 
the video driver. (In case you wonder, for example, the giant vertical 
tunnel at the end of Uru is where the heroine gets into D'ni in the 
novel, after finding geological anomolies in the desert (which you see 
at the start of Uru) caused by digging said tunnel).

I played the demo for the fifth Myst series, but I haven't bought the 
game. Anyone who has, care to comment? It looked like they couldn't 
really come up with a game idea, and I didn't really want to spend $50 
on it, but it's probably pretty cheap by now.

Compare to seventh guest (which I gave up when I realized it was all 
classic puzzles like 8 queens set in a haunted house for some reason), 
Lighthouse (which railroaded you into (say) not letting you leave the 
house before you listened to your answering machine, and otherwise was a 
stupid pixel hunt), or Schizm (which had a great premise of having two 
characters you could switch between to solve puzzles, but started out 
with you rescuing an expedition which by the end you find out never 
actually existed (what??!) and which involved absurd rituals on the part 
of the natives obviously designed to just drag out the game without 
needing to actually create more content). Longest Journey had its 
moments, but the puzzles were lame, as well as frustratingly timed 
(e.g., you have grungy clothes. You can't go into the clothes store 
because it's too expensive. You go talk to someone in the next store 
over, who points out you're improperly dressed, so *now* you can go in 
the clothes store). It was more a "string together a bunch of 
conversations with long walks between" than an actual game, altho the 
story was indeed kind of cool. Also I'll admit some of the conversations 
were excellent: "What do you mean these things crash all the time? I 
heard they were the safest mode of travel!"  "Well, sure, as long as 
you're not flying one. They almost never land on pedestrians." I think 
there were maybe three puzzles in the whole game I had to think about, 
but dozens of times where the right thing to do was obvious, but I 
hadn't triggered the game into letting me do it *yet*.

So have you played the fifth Myst game? Have you played something else I 
haven't mentioned?

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> Have you played the games from the Myst series?

  I have two games of the series, and both are too difficult for my taste.

  Don't get me wrong. I hate nothing more than games which are too easy and
which can be played through in some hours. However, there's a limit in
difficulty after which the game becomes exasperating. When you get up to
a certain point and then play the game for three hours without getting
anywhere, it starts becoming boring. There are clues alright, but they
just make no sense and don't really help you figuring out what to do.
They are too random and they don't really help you deduce anything.
Some of the worst puzzles are those where you have to find a certain
combination and you have no idea if you are supposed to figure out the
combination by using clues or if you are simply supposed to try every
single one of the 2000 possible combinations. When nothing in the game
seems to give any hint about the combinations, it becomes exasperating.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

>   I have two games of the series, and both are too difficult for my taste.

Which ones? The only absolute must play IMO is the first. I also played it
with my family so we had three people working on the puzzles, which probably
helped a lot.

I stopped halfway(?) through the fourth because the acting made me sad. Plus
the story was getting pretty silly. Myst worked because it was simple. Riven
had good characters. The guy in Exile was bearable (mostly because you
didn't see him too much), but Sirrus and Achenar in Revelation were just
ridiculous, which was extra painful because of how cool they were in the
first game. I think they missed the point that it's more fun to learn about
the characters by exploring the environments they've created.

I tried Uru but got stuck and had no motivation to continue; merging
everything with the "real world" was really, really lame. It looked cool
though.

Can't really pick a favorite age.

 - Slime
 [ http://www.slimeland.com/ ]

Post a reply to this message

Slime <fak### [at] emailaddress> wrote:
> >   I have two games of the series, and both are too difficult for my taste.

> Which ones?

  Riven and Exile.

  I actually got pretty far in Riven, but then I hit a wall as I described.
Exile seemed so difficult right from the beginning that it wasn't very
addictive. Perhaps I should try it again.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

Warp wrote:
> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>> Have you played the games from the Myst series?
> 
>   I have two games of the series, and both are too difficult for my taste.
> 
>   Don't get me wrong. I hate nothing more than games which are too easy and
> which can be played through in some hours. However, there's a limit in
> difficulty after which the game becomes exasperating.

Ah yes, the delicate art of "game balancing".

Too easy is boring. Too hard is boring. Gotta hit the part just in the 
middle. Not easy...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/

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Warp escribió:
> Slime <fak### [at] emailaddress> wrote:
>>>   I have two games of the series, and both are too difficult for my taste.
> 
>> Which ones?
> 
>   Riven and Exile.
> 
>   I actually got pretty far in Riven, but then I hit a wall as I described.
> Exile seemed so difficult right from the beginning that it wasn't very
> addictive. Perhaps I should try it again.
> 

Similar experience here with Riven. Maybe it would have helped if I had 
played Myst before...

Post a reply to this message

Warp wrote:
>   I have two games of the series, and both are too difficult for my taste.

I'd be happy to give hints. Playing Riven without playing Myst is sort 
of like coming into a soap opera in the middle, tho. Lots of the fun is 
seeing how it links back to what you learned in Myst.

There's also a great web site called "UHS" (Universal Hint System, I 
think). Google for "UHS Riven". You ask a question like "How do I work 
the elevator?" The first hint will be "It needs something somewhere 
else." The second will be "you already passed it getting to the 
elevator." The third will be "It needs a power source." The fourth will 
be "The power source is electrical."  By the time you get to the 15th 
hint or so, you have a pretty complete walkthru on how to solve that one 
puzzle.

Which particular part did you get stuck on? One of the things I liked 
about Riven was that when I got stuck, and then later figured it out, it 
was like a "duh!" moment. Oh, well of course! That was obvious! (Like, 
where the dome on the island with the frogs is, for example; that took 
me quite some time to figure out.) But there were some really unobvious 
things, yeah.

Exile, I thought, was a bit more straightforward. Pretty obvious what 
you're supposed to do (except right at the end). At least you know what 
the goal of each age is. :-)

If you find Riven difficult, I'd suggest staying far away from 
Revelation. The skinny brother's Age (sirus?) was pretty much impossible 
to figure out without cheating. :-)

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

"Darren New" <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote in message 
news:475d8547$1@news.povray.org...
> Warp wrote:
>>   I have two games of the series, and both are too difficult for my 
>> taste.
>
> I'd be happy to give hints. Playing Riven without playing Myst is sort of 
> like coming into a soap opera in the middle, tho. Lots of the fun is 
> seeing how it links back to what you learned in Myst.
>
> There's also a great web site called "UHS" (Universal Hint System, I 
> think). Google for "UHS Riven". You ask a question like "How do I work the 
> elevator?" The first hint will be "It needs something somewhere else." The 
> second will be "you already passed it getting to the elevator." The third 
> will be "It needs a power source." The fourth will be "The power source is 
> electrical."  By the time you get to the 15th hint or so, you have a 
> pretty complete walkthru on how to solve that one puzzle.
>
> Which particular part did you get stuck on? One of the things I liked 
> about Riven was that when I got stuck, and then later figured it out, it 
> was like a "duh!" moment. Oh, well of course! That was obvious! (Like, 
> where the dome on the island with the frogs is, for example; that took me 
> quite some time to figure out.) But there were some really unobvious 
> things, yeah.
>
> Exile, I thought, was a bit more straightforward. Pretty obvious what 
> you're supposed to do (except right at the end). At least you know what 
> the goal of each age is. :-)
>
> If you find Riven difficult, I'd suggest staying far away from Revelation. 
> The skinny brother's Age (sirus?) was pretty much impossible to figure out 
> without cheating. :-)
>

Riven was the only one I played, and like some others here I got stuck, then 
lost interest, then one of the discs was damaged 2 years later when I tried 
installing again. It was absolutely beautiful though. I would turn off all 
the lights and wear some headphones like suggested. I was totally in awe. I 
should go back and play the original then?

Does anyone have a site that has high quality screenshots of Riven? It would 
make for some good desktop background I think. Off to search for some :)

Post a reply to this message

Ross escribió:
> Does anyone have a site that has high quality screenshots of Riven? It would 
> make for some good desktop background I think. Off to search for some :) 

I wish the makers would release a new version with HD-size images, 
instead of 640x480 and palleted colors.

Or better: release the 3d files :>
(I wonder what software they used)

Post a reply to this message

Ross wrote:
> I should go back and play the original then?

You should go back and buy Myst Millenium Edition (which is exactly the 
same Myst, on re-rendered to 16-bit color). There's also RealMyst, which 
has a true 3D engine and one more mildly-silly age at the end that isn't 
really part of the story.

Then do Riven. Then Exile.

> Does anyone have a site that has high quality screenshots of Riven? It would 
> make for some good desktop background I think. Off to search for some :) 

They're out there.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

"Nicolas Alvarez" <nic### [at] gmailisthebestcom> wrote in message 
news:475dac2d$1@news.povray.org...
> Ross escribió:
>> Does anyone have a site that has high quality screenshots of Riven? It 
>> would make for some good desktop background I think. Off to search for 
>> some :)
>
> I wish the makers would release a new version with HD-size images, instead 
> of 640x480 and palleted colors.
>
> Or better: release the 3d files :>
> (I wonder what software they used)

I think I remember them having used LightWave.

Post a reply to this message

>   Riven and Exile.
>
>   I actually got pretty far in Riven, but then I hit a wall as I
described.
> Exile seemed so difficult right from the beginning that it wasn't very
> addictive. Perhaps I should try it again.

I would recommend trying out Myst. I remember Riven having some extremely
difficult puzzles in the middle, probably around where you got stuck. Myst
wasn't a cakewalk either, but it didn't require figuring out a new number
system or anything like that.

 - Slime
 [ http://www.slimeland.com/ ]

Post a reply to this message

Slime wrote:
> I would recommend trying out Myst. I remember Riven having some extremely
> difficult puzzles in the middle, probably around where you got stuck.

That is true. There are a few things in Riven where you're expected to 
work out arbitrary relationships, rather than figuring out things based 
on reality. (And a couple places where it's like "I know four of the 
five things I need to know, gotta guess the fifth.") Revelation had even 
*more* of those, which is why I ddin't like it as much.

In Exile, what you need to do is pretty straightforward, I think, even 
if how you accomplish it wasn't. Altho I admit there were a couple of 
places where the first time I just futzed with a puzzle until it went 
"ding!" and only after realized what I was *supposed* to be doing.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

Darren New wrote:
> So have you played the fifth Myst game? Have you played something else I 
> haven't mentioned?

If Myst is too hard, try this...


http://pac-txt.com/


-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

In article <475cd321@news.povray.org>, dne### [at] sanrrcom says...
> Have you played the games from the Myst series? What's your favorite 
> age?  (Try to avoid spoilers, probably. No serious spoilers below.)
> 
> I liked Channelwood (and the path to its linking book) a lot from the 
> first Myst, and the path to get to the Shipstone age on the original 
> Myst island.  (I.e., Shipstone itself wasn't that great, but getting 
> access to Shipstone was clever.) Selenic was kind of silly, with the 
> maze and all, completely out of character I thought. I enjoyed the 
> mechanical age too, just figuring out where the pages might be (spoilers
 
> avoided). I was kind of stuck on Myst for a while, even opening up the 
> clues and going "huh?", until I realized I really needed to get my sound
 
> card fixed to be able to understand what the blinking "tower rotation" 
> light was all about. :-)
> 
> I think Myst did a great job of driving a plot without being obnoxious 
> about it. There's a natural boundary - you're on an island. You get 
> suckered into it, so there's no need to accept any particular backstory:
 
> could have happened to anyone. It almost made sense that you'd leave the
 
> combination to combination locks sitting around but obsfucated (altho, 
> again, why would you lock doors on an uninhabited world?).
> 
> Riven was fun, too. I liked getting into Gehn's lab, and the ride to get
 
> there. That, and realizing that "hey, I can actually look to see where 
> the walkways go, and from that deduce where I need to go to get onto 
> them." That, and of course, the circularity with Myst (intentionally 
> obscured so as not to spoil it: you know what I mean). Oh, and the 
> school house. Overall, quite cool! (Altho the rebel age left much to be
 
> desired.)
> 
> As for Exile, I think Amateria was best (the one with the rolling 
> balls), both finding the book and the island itself. Possibly because I
 
> did that first and hence didn't expect the end, along with still being 
> mildly phobic of heights and playing it late at night in the dark the 
> first time. Voltaic (rocky with power supplies et al) was fun, kind of 
> silly too (lava routing controls *inside* the volcano??). The very final
 
> age was neat too, with all the different endings. I'm not sure why it 
> seemed so difficult the first time I played it and so easy the later 
> time, in terms of transliterating the symbols. "There's one think I've 
> learned about linking books: The doors they opened don't close behind 
> you."  I'm a bit disappointed with where you don't get to go ... I can't
 
> figure out how to say it more clearly without spoilers.
> 
> Revelation was nice, but come on. If you could write an age, wouldn't 
> you make it possible to work *both* elevators at the same time? (Yes, I
 
> know there aren't two elevators: If you already played it, you know what
 
> I mean. If you haven't played it, I've avoided spoiling it.) At least it
 
> was fun to see the rest of Tomata. At this point, I think the series 
> started going downhill: silly puzzles having little or nothing to do 
> with the story. At least Exile had a *reason* for there to be blatant 
> puzzles-for-the-sake-of-puzzles. (Altho I dunno. The idea that you'd 
> build a door across a bridge over a lake to keep the birds out indicates
 
> you're at least a bit crazy. Maybe building locks onto stuff when you 
> know you're the only person in the world is just the same sort of crazy?
 
> But singing dieties needing help with neurosurgery?) And at least, if 
> you're expected to copy characters from one place to another, don't 
> compress the images so much the characters are illegible. At least they
 
> explained where, in the world with only 3 people, the rest of the people
 
> went.
> 
> Uru was pretty sucky, altho some of the effects were nice. Lousy 
> puzzles, lame journals, stupid goals. Of course, it was supposed to be 
> continued as an MMORPG, but it was still lame. Altho it was kind of 
> cool, after reading the first Myst novel, to see some of the places 
> described therein. (Not that I'd recommend the novel; it too was pretty
 
> awful.) I couldn't get Path of the Shell to run - something weird with 
> the video driver. (In case you wonder, for example, the giant vertical 
> tunnel at the end of Uru is where the heroine gets into D'ni in the 
> novel, after finding geological anomolies in the desert (which you see 
> at the start of Uru) caused by digging said tunnel).
> 
> I played the demo for the fifth Myst series, but I haven't bought the 
> game. Anyone who has, care to comment? It looked like they couldn't 
> really come up with a game idea, and I didn't really want to spend $50 
> on it, but it's probably pretty cheap by now.
> 
> Compare to seventh guest (which I gave up when I realized it was all 
> classic puzzles like 8 queens set in a haunted house for some reason), 
> Lighthouse (which railroaded you into (say) not letting you leave the 
> house before you listened to your answering machine, and otherwise was a
 
> stupid pixel hunt), or Schizm (which had a great premise of having two 
> characters you could switch between to solve puzzles, but started out 
> with you rescuing an expedition which by the end you find out never 
> actually existed (what??!) and which involved absurd rituals on the part
 
> of the natives obviously designed to just drag out the game without 
> needing to actually create more content). Longest Journey had its 
> moments, but the puzzles were lame, as well as frustratingly timed 
> (e.g., you have grungy clothes. You can't go into the clothes store 
> because it's too expensive. You go talk to someone in the next store 
> over, who points out you're improperly dressed, so *now* you can go in 
> the clothes store). It was more a "string together a bunch of 
> conversations with long walks between" than an actual game, altho the 
> story was indeed kind of cool. Also I'll admit some of the conversations
 
> were excellent: "What do you mean these things crash all the time? I 
> heard they were the safest mode of travel!"  "Well, sure, as long as 
> you're not flying one. They almost never land on pedestrians." I think 
> there were maybe three puzzles in the whole game I had to think about, 
> but dozens of times where the right thing to do was obvious, but I 
> hadn't triggered the game into letting me do it *yet*.
> 
> So have you played the fifth Myst game? Have you played something else I
 
> haven't mentioned?
> 
Hmm. I would have to look at various images to figure out which ones in 
"each" game really. Think Channelwood was nice in the original. Not sure 
in a lot of the others. Now, in Uru, I would have to say Gahreesen. Mind 
you, all of them in that one are just incredible, even by Myst's 
standards, but its just insane to climb up through all the bits of the 
insides, where you arrive, only to find yourself standing on the top of 
a platform that is like 400 feet or more in diameter, and slowly 
rotating around the center of the ages, like a giant top, and 
occasionally lining up with another structure, which you jump to, that 
starts out so far away you *literally* can't tell how big it really is 
at first. Its just jaw dropping.

The other ages are, to varying degrees, similarly unbelievable.

Oh, and for anyone that doesn't know, they reopened Uru: Live a while 
back. You can now go in there with other people again, and I believe the 
are adding new puzzles and things to it as well.

To get some idea of what the stuff in it looks like, for those that 
don't know, check out the Dn'i Explorer's guild, which has screen shots:

http://www.uruexplorers.com/reference/dni/locations.php

Or here for some screensavers from it:

http://www.uruexplorers.com/about/downloads.php

-- 
void main () {
  If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
    if version = "Vista" {
      call slow_by_half();
      call DRM_everything();
    }
    call functional_code();
  }
  else
    call crash_windows();
}

<A HREF='http://www.daz3d.com/index.php?refid=16130551'>Get 3D Models,
 
3D Content, and 3D Software at DAZ3D!</A>

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Patrick Elliott wrote:
> Think Channelwood was nice in the original. 

I think I was speaking more of the puzzles than the visuals, as such. Of 
course the visuals help drive the puzzles, so there's some interaction 
there.

> Now, in Uru, I would have to say Gahreesen. 

Agreed, visually speaking. It was just that the puzzles were rather 
lame, is all. Very artificial "run around and collect these points to 
prove you've been every place we've drawn."

Actually, as I think about it, it wasn't *too* bad. I remember the level 
with the treasure room, and thinking halfway thru "how lame, just a 
bunch of locks", and then realizing yah, it's a treasure room, so it has 
locks on it. :-)

> Oh, and for anyone that doesn't know, they reopened Uru: Live a while 
> back. You can now go in there with other people again, and I believe the 
> are adding new puzzles and things to it as well.

Oh, really?  Very cool.  I'll have to see if I can get Uru to install. 
(Damn video card: had to upgrade the driver to play Revelation, which 
broke Uru. D'oh!  Maybe a reinstall at this point will fix..)

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

"Darren New" <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote in message 
news:475db67d$1@news.povray.org...
> Ross wrote:
>> I should go back and play the original then?
>
> You should go back and buy Myst Millenium Edition (which is exactly the 
> same Myst, on re-rendered to 16-bit color). There's also RealMyst, which 
> has a true 3D engine and one more mildly-silly age at the end that isn't 
> really part of the story.
>
> Then do Riven. Then Exile.
>

I can't seem to find anything by that name. There's a 10th Anniversary DVD 
Edition that contains the first 3 games. Is that it?

Post a reply to this message

In article <475ec6c6@news.povray.org>, dne### [at] sanrrcom says...
> Patrick Elliott wrote:
> > Think Channelwood was nice in the original. 
> 
> I think I was speaking more of the puzzles than the visuals, as such. Of
 
> course the visuals help drive the puzzles, so there's some interaction 
> there.
> 
Frankly, the puzzles in a lot of them bugged the heck out of me. Then 
again, I am not that great at those sorts of puzzles. Pretty much all of 
them I had to refer to a walkthrough to figure something out. lol

That said.. Yeah, even in terms of the puzzles I think I preferred 
Channelwood. It didn't require absurd timing issues, match that sound (I 
am not tone deaf, but I ain't Mozart either, and I can't even remember 
the lyrics of stuff I play all the time, never mind the notes of 
something I heard 2-3 times, and then had to repeat a few minutes 
later), or a number of other things that bugged me in some places in 
them. I hated the old electronic Simon Says game, frankly. lol

-- 
void main () {
  If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
    if version = "Vista" {
      call slow_by_half();
      call DRM_everything();
    }
    call functional_code();
  }
  else
    call crash_windows();
}

<A HREF='http://www.daz3d.com/index.php?refid=16130551'>Get 3D Models,
 
3D Content, and 3D Software at DAZ3D!</A>

Post a reply to this message

Ross wrote:
> "Darren New" <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote in message 
> news:475db67d$1@news.povray.org...
>> Ross wrote:
>>> I should go back and play the original then?
>> You should go back and buy Myst Millenium Edition (which is exactly the 
>> same Myst, on re-rendered to 16-bit color). There's also RealMyst, which 
>> has a true 3D engine and one more mildly-silly age at the end that isn't 
>> really part of the story.
>>
>> Then do Riven. Then Exile.
>>
> 
> I can't seem to find anything by that name. There's a 10th Anniversary DVD 
> Edition that contains the first 3 games. Is that it? 

Well, since it's "Millenium Edition", it might have only come out around 
seven years ago. I suspect the DVD will have the newest traces on it.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

I played the first two, don't think I played Exile.  The Mechanical age 
was fun for me, though I also liked Channelwood a lot.

I also have to admit I liked the bit in Riven with the roller-coaster 
like bit.

Jim

Post a reply to this message

Jim Henderson wrote:
> I played the first two, don't think I played Exile.  The Mechanical age 
> was fun for me, though I also liked Channelwood a lot.
> 
> I also have to admit I liked the bit in Riven with the roller-coaster 
> like bit.

You'd love exile.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

On Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:00:21 -0800, Darren New wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> I played the first two, don't think I played Exile.  The Mechanical age
>> was fun for me, though I also liked Channelwood a lot.
>> 
>> I also have to admit I liked the bit in Riven with the roller-coaster
>> like bit.
> 
> You'd love exile.

I'll have to find myself a copy, after I see if it runs under WINE. :-)

Jim

Post a reply to this message

Jim Henderson wrote:
> I'll have to find myself a copy, after I see if it runs under WINE. :-)

I'd send you a copy of mine for evaluation purposes, but it's copy 
protected. If you want to try it out and you want to (say) download a CD 
crack, I can send you (say) the first two of four disks, and you can see 
if it runs under your system. Then you can track down a legal copy if it 
works for you. (I don't think there's a demo out.)

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

On Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:55:17 -0800, Darren New wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> I'll have to find myself a copy, after I see if it runs under WINE. :-)
> 
> I'd send you a copy of mine for evaluation purposes, but it's copy
> protected. If you want to try it out and you want to (say) download a CD
> crack, I can send you (say) the first two of four disks, and you can see
> if it runs under your system. Then you can track down a legal copy if it
> works for you. (I don't think there's a demo out.)

I'll take that offer under consideration - there might be some info on 
Cedega about it, and worst case, my kid's got a Windows PC and I could 
buy it for him and then fiddle with it. :-)

Jim

Post a reply to this message

"Jim Henderson" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote in message 
news:47605b79$1@news.povray.org...
> On Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:55:17 -0800, Darren New wrote:
>
>> Jim Henderson wrote:
>>> I'll have to find myself a copy, after I see if it runs under WINE. :-)
>>
>> I'd send you a copy of mine for evaluation purposes, but it's copy
>> protected. If you want to try it out and you want to (say) download a CD
>> crack, I can send you (say) the first two of four disks, and you can see
>> if it runs under your system. Then you can track down a legal copy if it
>> works for you. (I don't think there's a demo out.)
>
> I'll take that offer under consideration - there might be some info on
> Cedega about it, and worst case, my kid's got a Windows PC and I could
> buy it for him and then fiddle with it. :-)
>
> Jim

Now that I think of it, maybe my Riven discs are OK still. Because for what 
it's worth, I tried Riven briefly in Wine a few months back (maybe a year 
ago) without success. I didn't really try hard though. I'm willing to give 
it a shot again.

also, http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=1820 
looks like Exile works well as of Spring of this year. Riven looks promising 
too, I never tried anything listed on it's help page.

Post a reply to this message

Ross escribió:
> Now that I think of it, maybe my Riven discs are OK still.

I have Riven on a DVD; I can imagine the CD swapping gets annoying :)

Post a reply to this message

On Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:14:54 -0500, Ross wrote:

> "Jim Henderson" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote in message
> news:47605b79$1@news.povray.org...
>> On Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:55:17 -0800, Darren New wrote:
>>
>>> Jim Henderson wrote:
>>>> I'll have to find myself a copy, after I see if it runs under WINE.
>>>> :-)
>>>
>>> I'd send you a copy of mine for evaluation purposes, but it's copy
>>> protected. If you want to try it out and you want to (say) download a
>>> CD crack, I can send you (say) the first two of four disks, and you
>>> can see if it runs under your system. Then you can track down a legal
>>> copy if it works for you. (I don't think there's a demo out.)
>>
>> I'll take that offer under consideration - there might be some info on
>> Cedega about it, and worst case, my kid's got a Windows PC and I could
>> buy it for him and then fiddle with it. :-)
>>
>> Jim
> 
> Now that I think of it, maybe my Riven discs are OK still. Because for
> what it's worth, I tried Riven briefly in Wine a few months back (maybe
> a year ago) without success. I didn't really try hard though. I'm
> willing to give it a shot again.
> 
> also, http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=1820
> looks like Exile works well as of Spring of this year. Riven looks
> promising too, I never tried anything listed on it's help page.

Cool, that's good to know, thanks.

Jim

Post a reply to this message

Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> I have Riven on a DVD; I can imagine the CD swapping gets annoying :)

It's not too bad. There are six islands. Prison island and age 213 (or 
whatever it's called) are on one disk, and each of the other islands are 
on another disk.

Hence, you really only change disks at the end of a ride or while 
crossing a really long bridge. It's only *annoying* when you click "go 
there" and then realize you forgot to do something and want to go back. ;-)

I was also under the impression there were unofficial ways of putting 
all the content on your HD, but I don't think I ever bothered.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

In article <47607804$1@news.povray.org>, dne### [at] sanrrcom says...
> Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> > I have Riven on a DVD; I can imagine the CD swapping gets annoying :)
> 
> It's not too bad. There are six islands. Prison island and age 213 (or 
> whatever it's called) are on one disk, and each of the other islands are
 
> on another disk.
> 
> Hence, you really only change disks at the end of a ride or while 
> crossing a really long bridge. It's only *annoying* when you click "go 
> there" and then realize you forgot to do something and want to go back. ;
-)
> 
> I was also under the impression there were unofficial ways of putting 
> all the content on your HD, but I don't think I ever bothered.
> 
Easiest way under Windows, and probably Linux and WINE too, is to use 
something like DaemonTools. Make an ISO image of the disk(s), then set 
of the tools to support as many virtual CD drives as you need, and 
assign them to the ISO images. Never had the disk space for it, and 
finding something that *can* make an ISO from most of the damn CDs they 
make now is a bit hard, since a lot of them have bloody encryption on 
them. DaemonTools will emulate some of the scemes needed to "read" an 
ISO that has been encoded with them, but you "still" have to get the ISO 
on the drive somehow.

-- 
void main () {
  If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
    if version = "Vista" {
      call slow_by_half();
      call DRM_everything();
    }
    call functional_code();
  }
  else
    call crash_windows();
}

<A HREF='http://www.daz3d.com/index.php?refid=16130551'>Get 3D Models,
 
3D Content, and 3D Software at DAZ3D!</A>

Post a reply to this message

Patrick Elliott escribió:
> In article <47607804$1@news.povray.org>, dne### [at] sanrrcom says...
>> I was also under the impression there were unofficial ways of putting 
>> all the content on your HD, but I don't think I ever bothered.
>>
> Easiest way under Windows, and probably Linux and WINE too, is to use 
> something like DaemonTools. Make an ISO image of the disk(s), then set 
> of the tools to support as many virtual CD drives as you need, and 
> assign them to the ISO images. Never had the disk space for it, and 
> finding something that *can* make an ISO from most of the damn CDs they 
> make now is a bit hard, since a lot of them have bloody encryption on 
> them. DaemonTools will emulate some of the scemes needed to "read" an 
> ISO that has been encoded with them, but you "still" have to get the ISO 
> on the drive somehow.
> 

Well, for Riven, you can just copy the .MHK files from all disks into 
your Data directory. In fact, you could "build yourself a DVD version". 
I think you need to edit one .ini file that maps datafiles to discs, and 
disc numbers to disc labels.

Post a reply to this message

Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> Well, for Riven, you can just copy the .MHK files from all disks into 
> your Data directory. In fact, you could "build yourself a DVD version". 
> I think you need to edit one .ini file that maps datafiles to discs, and 
> disc numbers to disc labels.

Having worked on multi-disk programs back before hard drives were 
common, let me guarantee that any program that requires you to swap 
media has a mode that will let the developer do it without swapping 
media. ;-)

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

I was bored last night, so after reading this post, I decided to play Exile.  After
about thirty minutes, I was even more bored that before.

I had forgotten how tedious the interface is.  Move forward, wait, move left, wait,
oops - gotta go back, turn around, move forward, wait, move forward, wait...  
Arrrggg.  

I reckon I'll try to finish it this time, though.

Post a reply to this message

Kyle escribió:
> I was bored last night, so after reading this post, I decided to play
> Exile. After about thirty minutes, I was even more bored that 
> before.
> 
> I had forgotten how tedious the interface is.  Move forward, wait,
> move left, wait, oops - gotta go back, turn around, move forward,
> wait, move forward, wait...   Arrrggg.
> 

It needs keyboard navigation... would make it faster.

Post a reply to this message

Kyle wrote:
> I reckon I'll try to finish it this time, though.

I noticed that. Reinstall with the full-install, so it copies everything 
to your hard drive. You're waiting for full-screen high-color images to 
be copied off a CD after a seek. :-)

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:05:13 -0300, Nicolas Alvarez
<nic### [at] gmailisthebestcom> wrote:

>It needs keyboard navigation... would make it faster.

Indeed.  I like the puzzle aspect of the game, but when it takes 20 "moves" to go to
point B...
It'd be nice to just speed run over there.  How about Myst Source?

Post a reply to this message

Kyle wrote:
> Indeed.  I like the puzzle aspect of the game, but when it takes 20 "moves" to go to
point B...
> It'd be nice to just speed run over there. 

Actually, there's one puzzle in Exile with five settings that correspond 
to five buttons. No real reliable way of figuring out which goes with 
which. The first time I played it, going between the "try this one" and 
the "set the switches" involved literally going all the way around the 
island each time. Maybe 100 or more clicks. I figured they'd done it to 
keep you from just trying a bunch of combinations, but it was annoying 
as anything.

When I replayed it, I realized you could basically climb the rock 
sticking up out of the water and hoist yourself up onto the railroad 
tracks, and it turned into maybe 8 or 10 clicks to get between. Sheesh.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

Interestingly enough, it looks like Uru is done in a combination of Java 
and Python. Faaascinating.  I wonder which is used for what.

Post a reply to this message

On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:24:49 -0800, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:

>Actually, there's one puzzle in Exile with five settings that correspond 
>to five buttons. No real reliable way of figuring out which goes with 
>which. 

Are you referring to the puzzle with rings of reverberating sound waves that block the
sphere?  If
so, there is a logical solution.  I'll tell you if you want to know.

>The first time I played it, going between the "try this one" and 
>the "set the switches" involved literally going all the way around the 
>island each time. Maybe 100 or more clicks. I figured they'd done it to 
>keep you from just trying a bunch of combinations, but it was annoying 
>as anything.
>
>When I replayed it, I realized you could basically climb the rock 
>sticking up out of the water and hoist yourself up onto the railroad 
>tracks, and it turned into maybe 8 or 10 clicks to get between. Sheesh.

There have been a few times that I've passed walkways because they were hidden in the
surroundings,
only to find them later during frustrated run-arounds.

Post a reply to this message

Kyle wrote:
> On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:24:49 -0800, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> 
>> Actually, there's one puzzle in Exile with five settings that correspond 
>> to five buttons. No real reliable way of figuring out which goes with 
>> which. 
> 
> Are you referring to the puzzle with rings of reverberating sound waves that block
the sphere?  If
> so, there is a logical solution.  I'll tell you if you want to know.

I know the logic. Guessing which way the tracks go at an intersection 
wasn't easy, is all.

> There have been a few times that I've passed walkways because they were hidden in
the surroundings,
> only to find them later during frustrated run-arounds.

Yep. This time, I got to the end of the step stones, and thought "geez, 
a dozen clicks, and you come to a dead end?  Wait a minute..."

I *did* manage, in the nature age of Exile, to go across the bridge, 
make the bridge impossible to cross back, not emplace the other bridge, 
and get back to the pre-bridge side somehow. I had to restart the age to 
get around that one. I think it was a design bug.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:08:42 -0800, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:

>Kyle wrote:
>> On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:24:49 -0800, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>> 
>>> Actually, there's one puzzle in Exile with five settings that correspond 
>>> to five buttons. No real reliable way of figuring out which goes with 
>>> which. 
>> 
>> Are you referring to the puzzle with rings of reverberating sound waves that block
the sphere?  If
>> so, there is a logical solution.  I'll tell you if you want to know.
>
>I know the logic. Guessing which way the tracks go at an intersection 
>wasn't easy, is all.

Yeah, that's true.  Once you go under the center section, it's like "Hmm, it kinda
looks like this
way, but it could be that way.  Hmm..."  I guess I was lucky to pick the right
direction at that
juncture.

>> There have been a few times that I've passed walkways because they were hidden in
the surroundings,
>> only to find them later during frustrated run-arounds.
>
>Yep. This time, I got to the end of the step stones, and thought "geez, 
>a dozen clicks, and you come to a dead end?  Wait a minute..."
>
>I *did* manage, in the nature age of Exile, to go across the bridge, 
>make the bridge impossible to cross back, not emplace the other bridge, 
>and get back to the pre-bridge side somehow. I had to restart the age to 
>get around that one. I think it was a design bug.

Since I'm replaying it, that's where I'm at now.  It's a visually confusing area, and
the puzzles
are not so logical.  I think I may have stoped here when I quit playing it before, but
I don't
recall for sure.

Post a reply to this message

Patrick Elliott wrote:
> insides, where you arrive, only to find yourself standing on the top of 
> a platform that is like 400 feet or more in diameter, and slowly 
> rotating around the center of the ages, like a giant top, and 
> occasionally lining up with another structure, which you jump to, that 

Actually, this was a bit annoying in its own way. For the sake of the 
physics engine, they made it so it's not the buildings rotating, but 
everything else. Whatever building you're on stands still, and the rest 
of the world resolves around you. (At least, that's what they said in 
the video, and that's how it behaves.)

The only problem is when you jump, and halfway thru the jump, they 
switch your frame of reference. Makes it really hard to line up. You 
have to almost wait until you're past your landing point to jump, 
because you don't have any momentum from the rotation, because it isn't 
really rotating.

But yes, replaying that Age, it's definitely the prettiest of Uru.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

Darren New wrote:
> But yes, replaying that Age, it's definitely the prettiest of Uru.

Altho I'll admit the foofing mushrooms were pretty cute too.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:34:49 -0500, Kyle <hob### [at] gatenet> wrote:

>On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:08:42 -0800, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>
>>Kyle wrote:
>>> On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:24:49 -0800, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Actually, there's one puzzle in Exile with five settings that correspond 
>>>> to five buttons. No real reliable way of figuring out which goes with 
>>>> which. 
>>> 
>>> Are you referring to the puzzle with rings of reverberating sound waves that block
the sphere?  If
>>> so, there is a logical solution.  I'll tell you if you want to know.
>>
>>I know the logic. Guessing which way the tracks go at an intersection 
>>wasn't easy, is all.
>
>Yeah, that's true.  Once you go under the center section, it's like "Hmm, it kinda
looks like this
>way, but it could be that way.  Hmm..."  I guess I was lucky to pick the right
direction at that
>juncture.
>
>>> There have been a few times that I've passed walkways because they were hidden in
the surroundings,
>>> only to find them later during frustrated run-arounds.
>>
>>Yep. This time, I got to the end of the step stones, and thought "geez, 
>>a dozen clicks, and you come to a dead end?  Wait a minute..."
>>
>>I *did* manage, in the nature age of Exile, to go across the bridge, 
>>make the bridge impossible to cross back, not emplace the other bridge, 
>>and get back to the pre-bridge side somehow. I had to restart the age to 
>>get around that one. I think it was a design bug.
>
>Since I'm replaying it, that's where I'm at now.  It's a visually confusing area, and
the puzzles
>are not so logical.  I think I may have stoped here when I quit playing it before,
but I don't
>recall for sure.


... and now I'm stuck ...

Post a reply to this message

Kyle wrote:
> .... and now I'm stuck ...

At where are you stuck? I'll admit the nature one was the 
least-obvious-how-to-proceed one. :-)

(Feel free to take it to email, also. :-)

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 20:03:53 -0800, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:

>Kyle wrote:
>> .... and now I'm stuck ...
>
>At where are you stuck? I'll admit the nature one was the 
>least-obvious-how-to-proceed one. :-)
>
>(Feel free to take it to email, also. :-)

I figured it out.  I was walking past a path that I needed to go down.  I seem to have
done that
quite a few times in this game, and continue to do so now.

Post a reply to this message

Kyle wrote:
> On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 20:03:53 -0800, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> 
>> Kyle wrote:
>>> .... and now I'm stuck ...
>> At where are you stuck? I'll admit the nature one was the 
>> least-obvious-how-to-proceed one. :-)
>>
>> (Feel free to take it to email, also. :-)
> 
> I figured it out.  I was walking past a path that I needed to go down.  I seem to
have done that
> quite a few times in this game, and continue to do so now.

That age is notorious for that. Down by the big flowers at the bottom, 
especially.

Me, I'm going thru Uru again, and trying to figure out how to access the 
Ki. My F2 isn't working, which is what Google says, so I'm trying to 
figure out if I'm missing a patch, it just installed wrong, or what. I 
do remember that last time I played it, I could get a screen shot with 
the Ki, so it's not fundamentally broekn.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

Darren New wrote:
> the Ki, so it's not fundamentally broekn.

I take that back. Upgrading my video driver made (some time ago) Uru 
unable to display shadows properly. Altho you can "turn off shadows" in 
the graphics control panel, it means you can't solve the puzzles where 
you have to arrange things to cast the right shadows.  Which kinda 
sucks, because it means you can't finish the game. Foo.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message

On Sun, 16 Dec 2007 20:38:37 -0800, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:

>I take that back. Upgrading my video driver made (some time ago) Uru 
>unable to display shadows properly. Altho you can "turn off shadows" in 
>the graphics control panel, it means you can't solve the puzzles where 
>you have to arrange things to cast the right shadows.  Which kinda 
>sucks, because it means you can't finish the game. Foo.

So, did you figure out how to get it to work?

Post a reply to this message

Kyle wrote:
> On Sun, 16 Dec 2007 20:38:37 -0800, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> 
>> I take that back. Upgrading my video driver made (some time ago) Uru 
>> unable to display shadows properly. Altho you can "turn off shadows" in 
>> the graphics control panel, it means you can't solve the puzzles where 
>> you have to arrange things to cast the right shadows.  Which kinda 
>> sucks, because it means you can't finish the game. Foo.
> 
> So, did you figure out how to get it to work?

I found someone's screen shots. Never fixed the actual display, tho, but 
since the floor is all sliced up, it wasn't hard to figure out where to 
walk to follow the light/shadow properly.

If you've played Uru, you'll get a giggle out of the formatting of these 
walkthrus:

http://chabarts.celeonet.fr/Uru/

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     It's not feature creep if you put it
     at the end and adjust the release date.

Post a reply to this message