Myst is one of those games that brought countless newcomers into the world of PC gaming, with it's high-quality visuals and challenging puzzles making it one of the earliest hits of the CD-ROM era. Now GoG.com has reached an agreement with developer Cyan Worlds to put the games up for sale once more, starting with Myst Masterpiece, available now for $5.99.

"Keeping the Myst series alive is incredibly satisfying," said Rand Miller, co-founder of Cyan. "GOG.com allows us to keep the ages of Myst accessible for our fans, and in addition make them available to a whole new generation of gamers."

Masterpiece will be followed shortly after by Riven, which weighs in at a 2.2GB, a truly massive game for its time, and Manhole, Rand and Robyn Miller's earlier adventure game for kids.

Over the years I've probably purchased Myst in one form or another more than a dozen times. I suppose it's nice to have another option.

The original Myst has seen countless rereleases and ports since it originally debuted back in 1993 as a showcase for the then-new CD Rom technology. Now the PSP is added to the list of video game devices that can play the game, with a faithful port of the game, with a little extra gameplay in the Rime Age, which was cut from the original release. While the PSP version has already been released in Europe and Japan, the North American version was canned...until now.

Hit the link for more screens, courtesy of GDN.

It's Official!! Myst is Finally Coming to PSP [Gamers Daily News]

As we posted back in August, Cyan — the developer behind the puzzle-based series — announced it had a small team working on a port of it's 1993 point-and-click classic Myst.

The team may be small, but the game is not: It clocks in at a whopping 727 MB. "Big" iPhone games are typically in the neighorhood of 80 - 100 MB. (I Love Katamari was 84 MB!)

The first puzzle is figuring out why exactly the iPhone Myst port is so darn huge. We assume the answer is something about artwork, sound effects, music and developers taking the piss out of players.

Talking open source anything is well beyond my level of comprehension, but "fully" means what it says, and includes both server and client architecture. So this is a hell of a lot more technical than encouraging or relying on player created content, homebrews, mods and the like. They're seeking to create an actual development community, albeit among gamers.

For certain, many gamers are also coders. It's not mutually exclusive. But are they playing Myst Online, are they interested enough to come to it, is the game's code enough of a toybox for them, and is access to it enough of an enticement — all these are questions that Cyan Worlds will be answering.

Myst Online to Be Released Fully Open Source [CNet]

Is it wrong to suggest that the iPhone is the perfect platform for a Myst revival? Lets hope not, because that is exactly what is coming. Cyan have posted a status report to the Myst Online forums that contains a little announcement about iMyst - a port of the original Myst to Apple's little slab of magic.

It could work really well, actually. Being able to cart those puzzles around with you might make them a bit easier to solve (having to fire up your 486 whenever you had a flash of inspiration was always a pain) and it might well make the perfect public transport companion.

Also, Myst had terrible 3G reception. You see? Made in heaven.

Status Report - Cyan development [Myst Online Forums via Wired]

“Cyan Worlds has been a great partner to GameTap," said content VP and creative director Rick Sanchez. "It’s just the right thing to do, giving Cyan and the fans the opportunity to continue to enjoy this rich universe that has become a second home to many of its inhabitants.”

The fan-favorite Uru Live getting shifted out of GameTap's portfolio for good comes just after Turner's content delivery network shuttered its editorial division and canceled its Galactic Command publishing deal with outspoken developer Derek Smart.

Amid all these issues, we asked Sanchez if there might be some difficulties at GameTap:

Sanchez reiterated that the editorial closing was so GameTap could focus more on other areas, which he detailed. "The reason we are moving away from editorial content is to focus our energies and resources on building our game library and new initiatives such as browser based games and expanded community features," he said.

"Our model hasn’t changed, we will continue to offer our paid subscription service of more than 1000 games, ad-supported free play on GameTap.com, and titles for purchase via digital download in our online store.”

Cyan president Rand Miller says that the newly relaunched game will include features that will allow players to create their own content, which was hinted at during the game's first relaunch. The revitalized title will carry a fee ($25 for 6 months was suggested) to cover the cost of maintaining servers.

There's something to be said for tenacity, but I fear in this case that something is "Just let it die already."

GameTap gives Myst Online back to Cyan. Cyan says it's opening the game to fan development [TXT - Thanks Kyven]]

I lobbied hard [with the video producers] to not make a first-person shooter game but to make it more like Myst, which was a great interesting puzzle you tried to solve — you know, to play with his amnesia or his memory... They weren't interested.

PRESS RELEASE
Myst

Release Date: Nov-2007
Age Rating: PEGI 3+
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Adventure

Myst is an immersive experience that draws you in and won't let you go. You enter a unique setting, venturing alone to varied times and places, the worlds that compose Myst. There are no instructions, and you encounter no living beings but soon realize your actions may help individuals who are somehow trapped in a parallel dimension.

You don't so much play Myst, as experience it. Of course you must solve a multitude of puzzles, mazes, and problems, but Myst's principal attractions are its environment and the underlying intrafamily drama that unfolds as you explore.

Unlike most adventure games, Myst offers no inventory, no death, and no dialogue. Although puzzles don't seem to have much direct connection to the game, they share a commonality. They take on many forms but follow a consistent thread. Some puzzles are very challenging, even obtuse, creating an odd paradox: many buy Myst, but few complete it. It is immensely popular, but most nonadventurers quit in frustration. Fortunately, Myst's popularity has spawned several online sites for hints, walk-throughs, and even saved games .

The nonlinear gameplay of Myst lets players go anywhere at any time. Unlike other adventure games, Myst has no inventory, and players never die. Incredibly detailed, Myst offers more depth than any other CD-ROM game to date.

Features:
All source code has been re-written specifically for Nintendo DS performance and gameplay.
A complete all NEW Age, the RIME AGE, to explore and uncover mysteries on DS
NEW sounds, effects, and video clips added throughout. All newly created graphic sets for the added RIME AGE specifically done for the DS
Newly re-mastered Video and audio
Save Multiple games for various players.

* Truly a Mass Market Franchise targeting Women and Men

And while there are few rational thinkers—excluding helpless extremists who aren't driven by a political agenda or monetary pursuits—who would solely blame violent videogames for violent behavior, there are potentially correlations between the two.

According to a recent Slate piece, there are a number of studies that link behavioral changes and increases in aggression to exposure to more violent content.

From Slate:

In work published in 2000, Anderson and Karen Dill randomly assigned 210 undergraduates to play Wolfenstein 3-D, a first-person-shooter game, or Myst, an adventure game in which players explore mazes and puzzles. Anderson and Dill found that when the students went on to play a second game, the Wolfenstein 3-D players were more likely to behave aggressively toward losing opponents.

Hardly the devil or opening up on your classmates with an assault rifle, but there are some educational links here. Anyone engaging in debate with their parents or peers should read up on the studies linked here.

Thanks, Trumaine. Michael McWhertor

Don't Shoot - Why video games really are linked to violence. [Slate]

GameTap presents the grand evolution of Myst

In anticipation of the February 15th release of Myst Online: Uru Live on GameTap, we take a look back at the history of one of the most famous video game franchises of all time:

September 24, 1993
Designed and directed by brothers Robyn and Rand Miller and developed by Cyan, Inc., Myst is distributed by Br derbund for the Mac. The game sets a new mark as the best-selling video game ever at the time and ushered in the first-person adventure puzzle game genre.

1995
Hyperion Books releases The Book of Atrus, the first book in the Myst series of novels, set in the same universe as the Myst computer games by Cyan. The Book of Ti'ana and The Book of D'ni, the second and third books in the series, are released in 1996 and 1997, respectively.

Making it into the mainstream: In The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror VI, there is a segment in which a 3-D version of Homer Simpson encounters the library from Myst Island.

1997
Br derbund's RedOrb Entertainment division releases Riven, the sequel to Myst. Riven, which is even larger and more beautiful than Myst, is considered the most mind-challenging chapter in the series.

1998
Virgin label releases Myst and Riven soundtracks, by artist Robyn Miller, in the UK.

Selling more than 11 million copies, Myst and its sequels held the title of best-selling computer game of all time throughout much of the 1990s.

2000
Updating the original Myst with the latest technology, realMyst was released featuring realtime 3D graphics. This is the version of Myst that Cyan and the world-famous Miller brothers always wanted to make, but the technology wasn't available at the time. Myst fans could now experience a fully immersive, dynamic world that they could wander through and interact with.

2001
Ubisoft Entertainment Software publishes the third Myst sequel, Myst III: Exile. This game focuses on a new villain whose home world was ruined, so he's out for revenge.

2003
Ubisoft releases Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, the offline version of the planned online game Uru Live, but cancels the online version shortly before it is launched. Since the online version is halted, the offline Uru: Complete Chronicles is released. This special edition includes the original offline game and its two expansion packs, To D'ni and The Path of the Shell, which contain content that had been intended for the online game.

To accompany the game, a soundtrack combining an eclectic collection of various rhrythms, voices, and moods is also released.

2004
Ubisoft releases the fourth installment, Myst IV: Revelation. Myst fans travel through environments pulsing with life to unearth a treacherous scheme involving two of Myst's most sinister villains.

2005
Ubisoft rolls out Myst V: End of Ages, the fifth Myst installment. Players embark on an epic journey into the heart of a shattered empire as the only explorer who can still save it - or destroy it with the wrong choices. Cyan Music Director/Composer Tim Larkin composes the game's original soundtrack with the tell-tale haunting and beautiful sounds that adeptly evoke the Myst series.

2006
GameTap announces it will be publishing Myst Online: Uru Live and opens the door to subscribers to check out the beta version of the game. In conjunction with the beta preview, GameTap launches www.GameTap.com/mystonline, a website that houses videos, podcasts, artwork, forums, wallpaper, game details and a host of other game-related offerings.

February 15th, 2007
GameTap introduces Myst Online: Uru Live, the newest chapter in the Myst story. This title gracefully fuses the social concepts of a traditional massively multiplayer online game with the mystery and problem-solving facets of an adventure game.

Join in, explore and help forge an entirely new Myst story: yours.

####

GameTap has launched a 500-player beta of Uru Live, which could be loosely referred to as Myst Online. The game originally launched several years ago, immediately tanking in February 2004 due to lack of funds, and leaving behind a small but heartbroken fanbase.

These fans have kept the game alive in the form of fansites and a developer-made freeware version of the game called Until Uru.

Says GayGamer:

GameTap has improved the game with new sound support and a new physics engine that makes it much easier and faster to interact with others, something that bogged down the original game, and if things go as planned Uru Live may begin to incorporate content generated by its incredibly creative player community. If that works out, we could be in for ages and ages of fun. Here's hoping.

I am hoping for a less eye-searing alternative to Second Life's very cool content generation tools in something more closely approximating an actual game. I will be attempting to get in on the beta, and if that doesn't work I'll give the game itself a whirl when it launches. Eliza Gauger

Uru Live Lives! [GayGamer]

Myst III was the first time I actually started to dig the whole Myst thing, as the static graphics before then were just too oppressive. Since Exile I haven't bothered with the Myst universe but that may be about to change.

[...] Rand Miller, co-creator of the Myst empire, Myst Online: Uru Live will eventually let users build their own ages. Miller has always had this poetic goal of letting players "write" Myst environments of their own; Cyan Worlds plans to provide its own development tools to gamers to make this happen.

I never played Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, Uru Live, or any iteration thereof. And in fact am so out of the Myst loop that I had never heard of them until now. I've been craving a good zone out lately, so maybe I'll grab ABM to mess with until I can poke at Uru Live. Eliza Gauger

More here [Joystiq]

Enthusiastic young people join the business; the hours and working conditions burn them out; they leave to find a more sane occupation, and a new crop shows up all ready for the flames. Apart from the waste of life and talent this represents, it means that game companies have no institutional memory, and that's partly why we keep making design errors.

Ah ha! I have never thought of it that way, but that makes a hell of a lot of sense. Why, at this very moment, from where I sit in a cafe in Seattle, I see a tring of battered Microsoft employees filing into their storage crates for the night, the old and lame being picked off by men in Andromeda Strain suits with handguns. As they disperse, sprightly young Digipen graduates take their places in line.

The feature covers a litany of game design sins; everything from hard-to-see crosshairs to crappy voice acting. I hope someone is paying attention. Eliza gauger

Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie! [Gamasutra]

Even more than a year after launch, there have been few titles that take advantage of the PSP's strengths. The upcoming portable port Myst should change that. While considered boring by some, the smash hit P.C. game was something you could spend hours in, wondering around, admiring the landscape and getting lost. Sony's portable, with its slick speakers and screen, suits this type of play. The game will go on sale April 20th in Japan. No official word about other countries, but an international release seems likely. Screens after the jump.

More Here [Jeux-France]