Myst

Myst
Box art, showing an aerial view of the island of Myst, one of the key settings of the game
Developer(s)Cyan[a]
Publisher(s)
Broderbund
  • Mac OS
    Broderbund
    Saturn
    • JP/EU: Sunsoft
    • NA: Acclaim Entertainment
    PlayStation
    3DO
    • JP: Micro Cabin
    • NA: Sunsoft
    Windows
    • NA: Broderbund
    • EU: Red Orb Entertainment
    Jaguar CD
    Atari Corporation
    CD-i
    AmigaOS
    • EU: PXL Computers
    PlayStation Portable
    Nintendo DS
    • EU: Midway
    • NA: Empire Interactive (original)
    • NA: Storm City Games (updated)
    iOS
    Cyan
    Nintendo 3DS
    • NA: Maximum Family Games
    • AU/EU: Funbox Media
    Android
    Noodlecake Games
Director(s)Rand Miller
Robyn Miller
Producer(s)Laurie Strand
Designer(s)Rand Miller
Robyn Miller
Artist(s)Robyn Miller
Chuck Carter
Composer(s)Robyn Miller
SeriesMyst
Platform(s)
Mac OS
Release
September 30, 1993
  • Mac OS
    • NA: September 30, 1993
    Windows
    • NA: March 1994
    3DO
    • NA: March 17, 1995
    Saturn
    Jaguar CD
    • NA: December 15, 1995
    • PAL: 1995
    PlayStation
    • NA: October 15, 1996[1]
    • PAL: November 15, 1996
    PlayStation Portable
    Nintendo DS
    iOS
    • WW: May 2, 2009
    Nintendo 3DS
    Android
    • WW: January 26, 2017
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Myst is a 1993 adventure video game developed by Cyan and published by Broderbund for Mac OS. In the game, the player travels via a special book to a mysterious island called Myst. The player interacts with objects and traverses the environment by clicking on pre-rendered imagery. Solving puzzles allows the player to travel to other worlds ("Ages"), which reveal the backstory of the game's characters and help the player make the choice of whom to aid.

Designers Rand and Robyn Miller had started in game development creating black-and-white, largely plotless works aimed at children. They wanted Myst to be a graphically impressive game with a nonlinear story and mystery elements aimed at adults. The game's design was limited by the small memory footprint of video game consoles and by the slow speed of CD-ROM drives. The game was created on Apple Macintosh computers and ran on the HyperCard software stack, though ports to other platforms subsequently required the creation of a new engine.

Myst was a critical and commercial success. Critics lauded the ability of the game to immerse players in its fictional worlds. It has been called one of the most influential and best video games ever made. Selling more than six million copies, Myst was the best-selling PC game for nearly a decade. The game helped drive adoption of the CD-ROM drive, spawned a multimedia franchise, and inspired clones, parodies, and new video game genres, as well as spin-off novels and other media. The game has been ported to multiple platforms and remade multiple times.

  1. ^ "Psygnosis Wire Vol 1. No 14" (PDF). Psygnosis. October 16, 1996. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 28, 1997. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference ign_2009-08-13 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Miller, Zachary (March 12, 2010). "Myst Review". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on December 13, 2014.
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference nintendolife_2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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