Question regarding unwinnable states (Spoilers within)

[DebonaireNerd]

Hello, just a quick question. Before I get to it - AMAZING GAME! As a child of the 1990s, I tried playing Myst and Riven as an eight and nine year old. I was always drawn into the worlds and immersed by the soundtrack, but was perpetually frustrated by the gameplay I found (at the time) to be cryptic. Now, thirty years of age, maturity has kicked in and I am engaging with the world, along with its puzzles. Loving it.

Is Myst game where you can be locked into an unwinnable state? That is, there were some games from the 1990s (Darkseed, I Have No Mouth and Must Scream) where if the player fails to collect an object or interact with something in the world at the correct time, the game will keep on going without telling the player that they have in fact failed and that they need to start again?

I have made it to the second age via the ship. I am stuck but I have collected the Red and Blue pages. I know their relevance and what needs to be done with them but unsure on how to return to the Age of Myst. But, I am stuck in this age and feel that something I failed to do in the Age of Myst has contributed to it. For example, and all of this was unintentional; although I have activated the furnace, I have not powered up the generator house and allocated power to the rocket.

Additionally, I may have encountered a bug: having found the red and blue pages, i have noticed that my cursor sometimes turns to either a blue or a red page. Funnily enough, if I pick up the blue page after having picked up the red page, the red page is back in the location I originally found it and vice versa.

If possible, please avoid spoilers if you choose to answer as I have gotten to this point without using the Hint system once. Essentially, i am just wanting to know if I need to start all again or just to keep searching and clicking around or if there is some kind of bug.

Thanks so much!

[Gharren]

Hi!
There is no way to get into an unwinnable state (afaik, except for some bug that I wouldn't know of), but your actions can change the game ending. You can revisit ages at any time if you leave them. One of the more annoying old-school aspects is that there is no inventory; you can indeed only carry one item (e.g. page) at a time. You actually have to revisit ages if you want to collect them all.

Cheers

[DebonaireNerd]

Thank you.