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Entire Myst Series to be Re-Released for 25th Anniversary

posted by martyb on Sunday March 18 2018, @06:56PM   
from the if-it-ships,-could-it-still-be-called-vaporware? dept.

takyon writes:

The Myst series will be re-released for Windows 10 for the 25th anniversary of the original game:

Last week, we reported on developer Cyan teasing an announcement for the 25th anniversary of Myst. Today, that [tease] turned into a reveal.

If you were looking forward to a new Myst game, then I have some bad news: you aren't getting one, at least not anytime soon. Rather developer Cyan revealed that it will be releasing updated (for Windows 10) versions for every game in the series.

[...] The American developer notes that it has been working hard the last few years to procure the rights to make all the Myst games available (Myst III and Myst IV have been unavailable, legally, for years). However, given that Cyan is a small indie team, resources are limited for development, and acquiring rights wasn't easy. But after a series of talks and arrangement over years, it now can finally bring the entire collection together for a modern release. It's not as exciting as a new entry in the series, or even a remake of the first game, but it is nice to know a classic series will be updated with modern touches to allure old fans and newcomers alike.

I'd rather have The Journeyman Project 4.

Also at PCGamesN and Destructoid.

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Original Submission

• Re:I'd rather have the entire Myst series... (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Sunday March 18 2018, @07:52PM

  by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Sunday March 18 2018, @07:52PM (#654562) Journal

  Prerendered games can hold up, like Shivers [wikipedia.org], which used scanned watercolors with details added using Photoshop and 3D Studio.

  As for Myst, the original game has had several ports and remakes, including real-time rendering:

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst#Re-releases_and_ports [wikipedia.org]

  Myst: Masterpiece Edition was an updated version of the original Myst, released in May 2000. It featured several improvements over the original game, with the images re-rendered in 24-bit truecolor instead of the original Myst's 8-bit color. The score was re-mastered and sound effects were enhanced.

  realMyst: Interactive 3D Edition was a remake of Myst released in November 2000 for Windows PCs, and in January 2002 for Mac. Unlike Myst and the Masterpiece Edition, realMyst featured free-roaming, real-time 3D graphics instead of pre-rendered stills. Weather effects like thunderstorms, sunsets, and sunrises were added to the Ages, and minor additions were made to keep the game in sync with the story of the Myst novels and sequels. The game also added a new Age called Rime, which is featured in an extended ending. realMyst was developed by Cyan, Inc. and Sunsoft, and published by Ubisoft. While the new interactivity of the game was praised, realMyst ran poorly on most computers of the time. Robyn Miller expressed frustration with realMyst, saying: "I only saw realMyst after it was released. As a remake, it was a lapse of reason and directionless; overt merchandising of the original Myst. It definitely wasn't how we originally envisioned Myst, as was promoted."

  realMyst: Masterpiece Edition, a visually enhanced revision running on the Unity engine that also includes the graphics of the original Myst game, was released on Steam on February 5, 2014. The remake was updated to v2.0 on January 28, 2015, receiving a significant graphical overhaul, in which several bugs were fixed and the detail of many models and textures was upgraded.

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