Myst Released For Pocket PCs

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=16983&associateid=204' target='_blank'>http://www.pocketgear.com/software_...associateid=204</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Cyan Worlds, Inc., the makers of the Myst and Riven series of photo-realistic completely immersive adventure games, together with Mean Hamster Software, brings you all of the rich detail, sounds, music and challenging puzzles found in the original release version of Myst, but now in a very portable form designed especially for the Pocket PC. Requires Macromedia Flash Player (if not already installed on your device)"</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20050218-Myst.jpg" /><br /><br />I'm not sure about the Flash requirement. Does it mean these guys have designed one huge SWF that contains Myst? Or do they use it for individual animations? If anyone decides to jump the gun and buy it, let us know how it is... and if I come across any reviews on the 'Net I'll be sure to post a followup. [Affiliate]

[DavidHorn]

It is Flash, but according to PocketGamer readers, it performs very well, which is opposite to my own personal experience of Flash on the Pocket PC... ;-)

[marcm]

I have it :D because I'm writing a review on it for Mobile Tech Review, and it seems to perform well on my X30H. I'll let you know more once I play more, and when the review goes up.

[foebea]

It is one big exe file. Not exactly flash as I am used to it. I think they used flash in order to recreate the game as closely to the original as they could, and I tell you they did an excellent job.

One problem I have found is that since the graphics have been resized to 320x240, the text in the books is almost impossible to read. They should have added a fix where the pages are blown up to full screen when you are reading them.

By default, the game plays portrait, as seen in the image above. this makes everything super skinny, and I am not certain why that is an option :). There is a setting to make it landscape, so that is not a problem, but it has to be set each time you start the game.

If you get this, I would recommend getting a small (pocket sized) notebook to track clues and such - it does not have an ingame journal for keeping notes.

Other than a few wishlist items though, the game is perfectly translated to this platform. If you were a big fan of Myst, this is a musthave game. If you have no idea what Myst was, this is a great way to experience it for the first time, but to get the full storyline you may have to google for the content of the illegible books and messages throughout the game. Even without the book content this game is playable and enjoyable. Besides the story never really made much sense anyway.

If you are a fan of Zork, this shows it is possible, and if we bug Mean Hampster enough, Return to Zork and Grand Inquisitor may be in our pocketpc future. For now, this will have to do, and I think it does nicely. :mrgreen:

[Rod3]

This is great news! I'm a big Myst fan, and am delighted to get it on my PPC at last!

[JonathanWardRogers]

You can read the books, but it is very difficult. I purchased this game because while I have never played Myst, my wife loved it. It is very beautiful, and as smooth as can be. I do wish it had a VGA version so I could read the books better, though.

As far as I can tell, it is a flash file embedded in an exe, but no performance problems. Of course, I have not had performance issues with flash and my X50v, so I couldn't say if it is my device or their flash.

[takotchi]

I have to say, I don't see the point of this.

First of all, it's a very old game, and who hasn't played it? I've had Myst, Myst Masterpiece (which seems to come free with every Myst sequel I've ever bought), and of course the sluggish (at the time of release) realMyst.

Then comes this thing. For some odd reason, it's taken them quite a long time to port this (Myst is not a very long or complex game, it's figuring out the puzzles that makes it long), and I guess they were too busy doing whatever they were doing because it's not even in VGA (jeez!). As far as I know, it has no extras (like the lost age included with realMyst... I suppose that's too much to ask)... plus it's $30.

I suppose I'm just surprised there are people left on this planet that haven't played Myst (because if you've already played it, I can't see the point in buying it again).

[Rod3]

I have to say, I don't see the point of this.

First of all, it's a very old game, and who hasn't played it? I've had Myst, Myst Masterpiece (which seems to come free with every Myst sequel I've ever bought), and of course the sluggish (at the time of release) realMyst.

Then comes this thing. For some odd reason, it's taken them quite a long time to port this (Myst is not a very long or complex game, it's figuring out the puzzles that makes it long), and I guess they were too busy doing whatever they were doing because it's not even in VGA (jeez!). As far as I know, it has no extras (like the lost age included with realMyst... I suppose that's too much to ask)... plus it's $30.

I suppose I'm just surprised there are people left on this planet that haven't played Myst (because if you've already played it, I can't see the point in buying it again).

First of all, it's $24.95, not $30. Secondly, it's a great game, and deserves playing again. Also, it's kind of a nostalgic thing to hear the music and wander around the game after not playing it for a very long time. It's running fine on my Loox, and seems to be very compatible with WM2003SE. I haven't tried it with SE_VGA, but it's fine on regular VGA.

[JonathanWardRogers]

First of all, it's $24.95, not $30. Secondly, it's a great game, and deserves playing again. Also, it's kind of a nostalgic thing to hear the music and wander around the game after not playing it for a very long time. It's running fine on my Loox, and seems to be very compatible with WM2003SE. I haven't tried it with SE_VGA, but it's fine on regular VGA.

It runs in VGA compatibility mode, which means not VGA at all.

[Jerry Raia]

I've have it and have been using it on my 4705. It is fun to play it on a PPC I think. Even if the text is too small :)

[JoshB]

Eh. Wake me up when there's a real VGA version. ;)

[takotchi]

$24.95 is pretty close to $30. The point is, it's a big chunk of change for an old game with nothing new to see. :roll:

If you want to play Myst again, just play the PC version of realMyst. It's a total remake with an extra age, so it's actually got new stuff to see. Since Myst is.... Myst, it should only take you an hour or two to finish. At least, that's what it took me. Once you do the puzzles in a Myst game once, that's pretty much it. If you can remember how to do them, you can breeze through the game over and over.

I guess the appeal is just the... "novelty" of seeing Myst on the PocketPC. I can just think of better ways to spend $25 and 29MB (eek!) of storage space.

[foebea]

Here is the appeal for me, as far as Myst on a pocket pc.

I have tried to play myst and games like that on a regular sit down computer. I cant stand to sit there that long, i never finished the game because i never went back to it. I got the ppc so i can do things when i have a few minutes to spare, rather than doing everything ina 4 or 5 hour session at the desktop.

Myst on the PPC was great. I beat it over the course of a week, probably 6 hours all told (no cheating, and having already familiarized myself with the style of gameplace and solving one age on the desktop computer years ago). I have never played Riven, though I have looked around a little bit, and I look forward to it coming out on ppc.

I just wont sit at a computer for hours on end to play a game. For those of you that can, it would be better to get the game for 1.99 in the bargain bin. For me however, this is great.

I would prefer it to have cost 8 dollars, but I can live with 25 as long as they come through on Riven - which is supposed to be much larger than myst, and as long as they continue in this vein in the future.