Tips for how to make Myst: Masterpiece Edition to work

This guide is here to offer some tips and hints how to make this game to work properly. It's an old piece of software, so it's not going to work "out of the box".

Introduction

This game is old, so you are most likely gona face problems when trying to play it. Thus here is an attempt to assist with making it to work. It is very, very likely that one solution does not work for everyone, as biggest difference between setups is OS and its version. What works for Windows 7, may not help with Windows 8 at all, or vice versa. Then there is hardware, driver and other software differences.

I will be updating this guide IF there will appear people providing exact enough information, expressing their personal experience. I won't be browsing thru the forum, especially since there is loads of information that I actually can not be certain of if it is just relaying information or if it is actually tested by the person who is sharing it. Quick peek I took earlier suggests that there is plenty of repeats for directions copied from GOG.

This is my first guide ever on Steam, so please, be gentle with the comments.

Requirements

You need Quicktime[support.apple.com]. Newest should work, at least did for me (v7.7.6).

Windows 7

Here is my personal experience.

Working setup

• Windows 7 home premium 64bit.
  
• Newest Quicktime (by the time of writing, 7.7.6).
  
• Compatibility mode: Windows 95.
  
• "Disable visual themes" enabled.
  
• 640x480 resolution (automatic by game), fullscreen (can it be windowed??), "fit on screen" (640 vertical pixels stretched to 900 pixels on my screen, horisontal with 4:3 ratio).
  
• (Using Synergy[sourceforge.net] as a client - just mentioning in case someone happens to wonder about it)

Full detail about how I ended up to these settings

At first I launched the game without changing anything, and it worked all fine, with one exception - no movies, including movie-based animations (blue and red books were "dead", holo-pool had no animation, etc). Other than that, there were no crashes, I was able to save the game, sounds played out great. I played through Selenitic Age.

After returning with a page and seeing only black box on a book, I decided to try to get the movies working as well, thus I changed compatibility mode to Windows 98. With quick test, movies started working, but sounds played rather distorted. Then I switched compatibility mode to Windows XP SP3. Movies worked fine, sounds played great, everything seemed to work just good. I played a little while, until I found a spot where I could repeatedly cause the game to hang. It was not even related to movie-animation. On the Myst isle, in the room where you set the voltage, moving pointer over the red buttons caused the game to halt. With this knowledge, it was easy for me to go through the compatibility modes and see which ones would be working completely. Eventually, even Windows 98 mode was out of the window. As last option, Windows 95 mode proved to be working, although sounds played distorted.

I had played for quite a bit, when I realized that I had not done a single save. This is where I got an error-dialog, instead of save-dialog. No problems, I played the whole game in one instance. Took something like 7 hours (including time for playing mobile-game while sitting in toilet).

After finishing the game, I opened compatibility-settings again, and turned on option "Disable visual themes", and tested the game. This time, saving was possible.

Windows 8

User The Great Grape Ape, Ph.D Provided this information:

For Windows 8.1, this was my solution:
Setting Compatibility Mode to Windows XP (SP2)
Select Run in 640x480
Select Reduced Color Mode and choose 8-bit
Run as Administrator
Open regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Layers and find your Myst Masterpiece key. Right click and select "Modify." Append DISABLETHEMES DISABLEDWM to the entry and click OK.

I tried with Win95/98 compatibility but got sound stuttering and could save but not load.

Update: I experienced freezes at random points in the game, rendering it unplayable. I ended up downloading an ISO of the original Myst, mounting it, and running it from Windows 3.1 inside DOSBox. Runs like a charm. Totally worth the effort.

Other tricks

Are movies/movie-animations working?

This is easily spotted right away when you start the game. If there is no start-demo, there won't be any movies or movie-based animations. You are going to need to do some tweaking.

Suddenly sounds distorting badly and game lagging heavily

I found this happening now and then, usually caused by my own hastiness, when there was user-action related animation/sound ongoing and I initiated yet another. I noticed that doing application switch (alt+tab) helped to this problem, especially if I kept the "switch-menu" open, and Myst selected on it. After the animation/sound had finished, I released the menu and returned to the game. After a moment of black screen, game returned to normal.

Avoid right-click

Right-click acts equal to left-click, so there is no need whatsoever to use right mouse-button. I do not know whether this is fixed or not, but Readme.txt file that comes along the game files states following:

Using the right-mouse button may cause unreliable behavior in the game. The game does not require right-clicks. Use the left-mouse button only.

On the other hand, same file states this:

Make sure the CD-ROM is in your CD-ROM drive when you launch the progam.

So go figure.

How to change compatibility settings

First, you need to locate the game executable (.exe). Here's how to find correct folder:

• In Steam, in Library-view, right-click the game.
  
• From resulting menu, select Properties.
  
• From the window "[Game name] - Properties", select LOCAL FILES tab.
  
• Click button "BROWSE LOCAL FILES..." - this will open a new window in filemanager.
  

Then you find the correct exe, select it (that's important, because right-clicking without selecting first will give you a menu with options for the current folder) and right-click it, and choose Properties. Then you select Compatibility tab. Then you tweak the settings. At this point I currently cannot provide screenshots nor correct file-name, as my desktop-PC is out of order (GPU fan broke, waiting for replacement part to arrive).

Just remember to be careful when you're dealing with the actual game-files, as too careless behavior will lead to reinstall. Like, don't delete/modify anything without knowing what you're doing - cache-files, or basically anything that is subject to change without update/patch should not be located there. But sadly there still is lots of game-devs who are still living in Win98 era, which is why you may find even such relics as "save" and "cache" located in game folder under C:\Program Files.

[lioness63]

Done everything to get the ship up in myst. When I try to turn symbols green (leaf, beetle, & snake) they won.t stay green. HELP!

[F-3000]

@ethelredhardrede Most excellent! It's good that this game works at least for someone with newer Windows. Maybe it's because of Win11? Would be very strange albeit positive change.

[ethelredhardrede]

At this time I didn't have to do anything other than start the game. It ran fine and saved fine with no fiddling. Windows 11 latest beta, AMD 2700, 32 GB, Nvidia 1060 3GB.

[F-3000]

@jay_moh I don't remember exact spots of the game (except some of the main island), so I cannot help with that. But there should be a guide somewhere that could help, if you're completely stuck, or perhaps someone reading here could give a hint.

[F-3000]

@smiller1701 yes, that's how the saves work as far as I remember. You get thrown back to the library when you resume a saved game.

[jay_moh]

I'm in The Stoneship Age and I entered Achenar's Bedroom but there is no light on. It's dark and I can't see anything. How do I get the ribcage lamp to light the room?

[smiller1701]

I played Myst when it first came out. It was great fun! I was looking forward to playing it again but am having trouble with it. I can't save games. When I try to restore a saved game,no matter the location, I fiind myself back in the library. I don't believe this was how the game save worked n the original version. It certainly isn't in the iPad/iPhone version. Is the game defective or am I doing something wrong?

[Mr. Skyrim]

@fabrown same issue :/

[fabrown]

I cannot get the fortress in the Mechanical Age to turn at all! I pushed the red button and went down the ramp to turn the wheels until the hole in both symbols matched (just like in the original Myst) then got to the real control to try to turn the fortress just like I practiced in Achenar's room.
I tried using 2 sec-6sec delays for the right lever but the fortress never moved at all. I finally used
the solution from the original Myst guide and it opened the exit Myst linking book site. Other problem reports mention the same issue.

[F-3000]

@*artixSUPER
Steam shop says that it's available only in english. I have no other knowledge, except playing it in english.