Original Myst owner with some questions

[Chris Solomon]

I have the Original Myst game that ran on Windows (i think it was 3.1 but it may have also been 95). I see three different versions of Myst here on steam. I am thinking of getting one of the updated versions, but am unsure which version would be best. could someone please explain what the differences between the three versions (and the original Myst if applicable) are?

[Noitalever]

Originally posted by The Elohim:

I have a similar question, including if the GoG version is better? Myst was the first computer game I ever purchased, while a student on campus back in the 90s. I would love to play this game again, but confused on what the better option is.

The gog version is supposed to support newer versions of windows much better, I have not had reason to try it myself though. They have a 30 day refund policy, so if you want to you can try it and just ask for a refund if it does not work well.

[Chris Solomon]

Originally posted by nilfalasiel:

There are essentially 4 versions of Myst: the original, the original Masterpiece Edition, realMyst and realMyst Masterpiece. Unless you have an old computer or a virtual drive with an old OS (we're talking pre-Windows XP here) on it, it's unlikely that the first two versions will even run, regardless of what you purchase them on (GOG, Steam or physical copy). I know I can't run them.

Between realMyst and realMyst Masterpiece, the latter is unquestionably nicer graphically, but:

1) Some people have trouble getting it to run at a decent framerate. I don't know where the issue comes from, but I've never had a problem on my 2-year-old laptop, and it's not even top of the line.

2) realMyst made many improvements in terms of atmosphere. One of these improvements was the addition of day-night cycles to every age...except for Channelwood, for some reason. realMyst Masterpiece advertised that it would correct this, but so far, it's actually missing the day-night cycles for Selenitic (my favourite cycle in realMyst) and Stoneship. I don't know whether they will be added eventually, but I certainly hope so.

3) Some people have reported randomly losing all of their achievements when playing realMyst Masterpiece, but I've seen the issue crop up in other games' forums, so it's probably something wrong with Steam itself, rather than the game.

i think it would be more accurate to say pre-windows 95 than pre-windows XP. the original copy of myst I have is for windows 3.1

[nilfalasiel]

Originally posted by Chris Solomon:

i think it would be more accurate to say pre-windows 95 than pre-windows XP. the original copy of myst I have is for windows 3.1

True, but what I meant is that Windows XP still offered compatibility settings that would have worked with the original Myst, or at least with Myst Masterpiece Edition. More recent OS don't give the option to go that far back in terms of compatibility. Maybe they play nicer with the GOG version though, as Noitalever said. I haven't tried it myself.

[Chris Solomon]

i would have to check, but i believe XP only had compatibility settings for 95,98, and 2000. aside from that, XP's audio and video subsytem is radically different from windows 3.1. I think that thee changes woould prevent original Myst from working. some of the extensions used be windows 3.1 aren't even used anymore. stuff like .DRV and .386 to name a couple. I don;t believe XP would even recognize them

[nilfalasiel]

Fair enough. In that case, it wouldn't even work with XP then. Myst Masterpiece Edition could, though.

[Noitalever]

There is a fan patch to make the original Myst work on Windows 2000. With compatibility mode it might be possible to use that to make the original disk work.
http://www.fileplanet.com/65862/0/section/Myst/

[Chris Solomon]

the version of quicktime used by the original version of myst is really ancient and is likely 16-bit. the notes on the patch say to run the quicktime install included with myst, because modern quicktme is not compatible, but it is not posible to use or install most 16-bit software on 64-bit machines. also, i don't know if win2k came if 64-bit flavor, but i believe it did not, so patch or no patch, original myst still would not work, the only way 16 bit software will work on a 64-bit OS is if the program does not rely on system files and libraries in order to run. if you put 16 bit copies of the needed system files and libraries in the programs directory, it might work then though.

[Chris Solomon]

another important windows 3.1 extension that isn't around anymore : .VXD

[Chris Solomon]

just thought of something else..... the orginal version of myst ran at either 16 or 256 colors (i don;t remember which) because of technology limitations (no one had even heard of 16-bit or 32-bit color yet) windows 8 and presumably windows 10 do not support 16 colors and only emulates support of 256 colors.