BUGHOLDER'S EPIPHANY

or; Myst: Masterpiece Edition sucks (but Myst: Masterpiece Edition is pretty good)

(i was wanting to make this chost before The Announcement came out. i regretted that i never got the chance to, but i still have a few weeks, right? so please forgive my messy thoughts and rusty writing as i try to get this all out in time..)

to clarify, this chost is not about the relatively recent 2021 remake of Myst, nor my thoughts on it as the "definitive edition" of the game, nor is it about any of the other 3d remakes that came before it. instead, it is about the original 1993 pre-rendered point-and-click first-person-puzzler, its ports and remasters on Mac and Windows, and the versions currently available on Steam and GoG, and why i think a majority of players are unknowingly getting an ingenuine and subpar experience.

Note: this chost will spoil the mechanics and solutions of certain puzzles!

disclaimer: i'm pretty much an outside observer, and i wasn't around for most of this Mystory (myst history), so it's likely i got some information wrong. furthermore i've played none of the relevant games on the original hardware, and so some of my observations may be incorrect; however i have tried to confirm them via other peoples' playthroughs. i will also only be covering the original Windows and Mac releases, not any of the console ports or ports to other operating systems.

...but it's come back wrong

Myst, in case you are not aware, is an Old Game. older than me, even; when i was growing up with the series, the first two games were already unplayable on our machines, and soon the march of technology rendered all of them so. Thus, it was a very welcome surprise when, for the series' 25th Anniversary, every game in the series was released or updated on Steam and GoG with Windows 10 compatability! they work great for the most part, and i'm very happy they exist and are allowing people to experience the games again.

...for the most part.
the problem is, the 25th Anniversary version of Myst (or rather, Myst: Masterpiece Edition) sucks!

to show why, let's look at a few comparisons between the version of Myst: Masterpiece Edition currently available on Steam, followed by the original (v1.01) run in an emulator.

our first discrepancy shows itself very early, at the moment of the player's very first click: the Myst book "cutscene."

compared to the original, the Steam version's is almost comically broken. the book just hovers silently in your face for a good few seconds before the music abruptly cuts in. the linking panel is just a solid black box for a few seconds until the video starts, hangs on the first frame for a few more seconds, and then finally starts playing.
in the original, the music plays properly and the video appears instantly, and seems to alternate between the first two frames to give the appearance of water rushing past.

here's another example, and perhaps the 25th Anniversary version's worst offense: the boiler and the big red valve in the cabin.

if you've played Myst before, chances are you've had grievances with this valve. it's just... so... slow...!!!! and it's hard to tell how much you have to turn it in order to get the tree to start going in a certain direction.
but in the original Mac version, not only does the valve turn much more quickly, but the needle on the pressure gauge actually moves up and down dynamically as the valve is adjusted—you can see how it changes speed, and even direction, as the valve is turned—giving the player immediate feedback on which direction the tree will move, and how quickly. (also, it doesn't eat the fire sfx)

and yes, the Mac valve turns a bit too fast in my video, but i'm like 99% sure that's an emulation issue. here's a clip of a video of someone playing on real hardware, in which the valve turns at a more manageable pace.

and it really sucks that a lot of players, including me, are getting the former experience and not the latter, and getting confused and annoyed and thinking that the puzzle was just designed like that, when it truly wasn't!

one more: when the battery in Stoneship runs out, the lights... stay on.

apparently atrus has discovered a limitless energy source...

beyond a broken intro and nonfunctional puzzle mechanics, this version is lacking in many other areas too: most of the soundtrack is truncated (often leaving out the best parts!) and sound effects interrupt the music and each other. many little animations are missing, and screen transitions are disabled by default and play too fast. the game lacks so many smaller details and little bits of polish where the original shined, because it's a revival of an inferior remaster.

and what is a "Masterpiece Edition?"

Myst: Masterpiece Edition isn't a new version by any means. it's a 1999 remaster of the original Myst, made only a few years after the game's original release, with a higher bit depth in sound and graphics. This is the version which is currently for sale on Steam and GoG, made playable with the help of a program called ScummVM.

a small disclaimer: there are A Lot of Myst Releases. i tried my best with the research, but it's difficult to find concrete answers and i'm not sure i have all the pieces in the right place. but, to the best of my understanding:

• the Original game was developed by Cyan for the Macintosh in 1993 (i'm pretty sure about this one)
• it was ported to Windows by their publisher Brøderbund in 1994, which Cyan had little to no part in¹
• Later, in 1999, Brøderbund would develop Myst: Masterpiece Edition for Windows, likely basing it off of the previous Windows version.² (i'm not sure to what degree Cyan worked on it beyond contributing higher quality assets)
• a different company, Presto Studios (who would later go on to make Myst III) would then "port" Myst: Masterpiece Edition back to Mac in 2000, using their own engine and making many significant changes.^3,4

(confusingly, there is also "realMyst: Masterpiece Edition," which is a real-time 3D remake from 2014 and the successor to Myst's first real-time 3D remake, realMyst (2000). its existence has made researching for this chost very difficult.)

likely due to technical limitations and a lack of input from Cyan, many things were lost in the translation to Windows. a certain valve turned way too slowly, sounds interrupted each other, and many tracks had to be shortened (before the increase in sound quality, surprisingly). the original had animations for pushing buttons and unique sliding transitions on many doors, which have been removed and replaced with simple screen wipes respectively. many disappointing little losses, but overall nothing too egregious.

Windows!Masterpiece Edition was seemingly about the same, however it can be said that its improvements came with drawbacks, too: the formerly 8-bit renders are now in 24-bit color, but are now plagued with jpeg artifacts. the sound is higher quality and less bitcrushed, but now has a muffled quality to it, and the music tracks are still severely shortened.

personally, i'd take the dithering over the artifacts, but i understand that it may be subtle enough to not be bothersome. but the music... i cannot forgive the music.

i understand if the bitcrushing in the original is a bit painful to listen to, but that beautiful section in the middle? entirely missing in Masterpiece.

but still, there's not yet anything... catastrophically broken yet, as far as i can tell. based on Dilandau3000's let's play of Myst: Masterpiece Edition, recorded before the anniversary, the pressure gauge and battery did still work as intended (though the Myst book is still like.. two thirds broken already)
for a while, i had assumed that all Windows versions of Myst were just Broken Like That, but clearly our culprit has not yet arrived at the scene.

enter: ScummVM.
according to their website and wiki, ScummVM is actually neither a VM nor an emulator, but instead works by rewriting a game's executable file. ScummVM is capable of "translating"(?) dozens of different engines, giving it a total of over 325 supported (mostly adventure) games, including Myst's Windows versions.

so... while i'm far from familiar with how it works, i assume that ScummVM, while very good if not flawless in many cases (as far as i can tell, Riven and Exile⁵ work fine), must have made some incorrect assumptions about Myst's engine.

i cast no blame towards ScummVM's developers, as it would be impossible to check every single aspect of every single game, especially ones that are easy to miss such as these, plus they have a massive library of other games to maintain. however i dislike how Cyan, who must've seen the state of Masterpiece Edition in ScummVM, decided to sell it as "as close to the 1993 experience of playing Myst as you can get." i suppose it's true, but only because there are no other options that are easily accessible. i dare say the 25th Anniversary edition is one of the worst ways to play classic Myst that i've ever seen, that isn't on the 3ds.
(i suppose, to be fair, that i don't really know what Could've been done for Myst. afaik there isn't a way to emulate old mac games without emulating the whole OS, and remaking the original was most likely not within the scope of the 25th Anniversary rereleases)

some more tidbits about the ScummVM version!:
for some reason, the options menu is severely limited from its true potential. simply by installing ScummVM myself and adding M:ME's Steam folder as a game, several new options were unlocked. (all checked boxes in the second image were disabled by default)

also, apparently GoG sells a different version, with different opening logos and that "Myst fly by movie" enabled by default? possibly there's more differences, but that's what stuck out to me. however, the myst book video and dreaded pressure gauge remain broken.⁶
it seems that ScummVM considers Myst and Masterpiece Edition to be the same game? they both seem to take the id "myst-win," and ScummVM's compatability page and wiki lump both games into just "Myst." curiously, the original Windows version seems to work slightly better: the Myst book and pressure gauge aren't broken in ScummVM, but the Stoneship battery is.
according to store pages, the 25th Anniversary release(s?) have Mac support. i haven't been able to find anyone playing it on a Mac, but most likely it's just ScummVM running the Windows version again.

speaking of Myst: Masterpiece on Mac, however...

...woah, that's different

from the moment i started it up, i could immediately tell this version was very different from what i was used to. i was greeted by a pleasant, unfamiliar piano rendition of the cyan theme, and when i clicked on the Myst book, it rose to meet me with a short animation i had never seen before. in game, the screen transitions have a smooth easing to them, the sliding door transitions are back, as are many of the little touches that were missing on Windows, and the ambient sounds reach further, leaving fewer areas starkly silent. (ok, i'm realizing this doesn't actually sound like a lot. listen, with Myst 1, anything beyond clunky and basic is impressive to me. plus i didn't exactly have high expectations for a Masterpiece Edition release)
it also has a built in hint system, though the interface is a little bit confusing and i don't know how good the hints are (they are written from the perspective of another explorer of Myst, which is neat)
it even has a cute little custom save dialog!

i will say it falls behind in regards to the music slider puzzle though. in the original, you could simply click and hold anywhere on one of the sliders and it would play the note it was set to, but in this version, depending on where you clicked it, its pitch could slip up or down from where it was set previously. (of course, the Windows version also does this)

still, this version has a significantly better understanding of the original than its Windows counterpart, though as a Masterpiece Edition it still suffers from artifacts and shortened tracks; it isn't perfect, but it's remarkably competent and interesting and polished, and is by far the best 2d remaster that i'm aware of.

i'll give you one last set of comparisons, this time a lightning round between all three versions!
(it's actually still pretty long. sorry.)

(made in a different video editor, because davinci resolve fucking hates me)

though both Mac releases are pretty good, if you're seeking out a version of the original Myst to play, i feel like i've gotta recommend, well, the original. it may be a little rough around the edges, but it's by far (...and by definition) the most genuine experience.
(the original 1993 version is "as close to the 1993 experience of playing Myst as you can get." how profound.)
also, and i have no nostalgia for this era, obviously, but it still feels special to play such a significant piece of history, rather than a remake spawned from its success. the original game is humble in comparison, and many of its defining traits—that would go on to define the whole series, like linking books and ages—were driven by the limitations of its medium.

but still i struggle to wholeheartedly recommend new players emulate these versions. beyond the difficulties of setting everything up, there are seemingly emulation-specific bugs too. remember that way-too-fast valve from the cabin? it's not alone; the clock tower wheels are similar and make setting the time very difficult, and making the minute rotations necessary to lock onto a signal in Selenitic Age has become all but impossible, and there might be even more that i haven't found yet. i also ran out of memory at the Stoneship telescope once. Macsterpiece Edition seems to be more stable, however, and it's possible these issues could be fixed with a different emulator, or a different emulated MacOS version, or even just different settings, but i feel like i'm already several times over my own head with this stuff and jf ugghm umnbbgh

but if you're already familiar with Myst, or if you've found a way around these issues or even have an old Macintosh yourself, and you want a more genuine experience, i do recommend giving these versions a try. though i used QEMU to emulate MacOS, i actually moreso recommend SheepShaver as it is a lot easier to setup and use and is solely Mac-focused—i only used QEMU because i couldn't figure out how to fix some crackly audio on SheepShaver, which doesn't seem to be a common problem from what i can tell.

the best version of the original Myst does not exist. a version that is stable, has good colors and sound without sacrifices, and follows the design of the original, has not yet been realized. my ideal rerelease would bring every version's strengths all into one game, while offering configurability and the option to choose between a more polished or retro experience. i believe i heard Cyan still has access to their old 3d scenes...? if so, they could rerender every screen with higher resolutions and better colors (...and better compression) than ever before, though i don't know if they'd consider such a project. also, i feel like people are kinda sick to death of Myst being released at this point lmaoo

something something written

i really wish i could have had more time to polish and research this post. it's messy and not very well written, and for that i apologize. i would've loved to have gotten a better understanding of how MacOS and HyperCard and ScummVM work, concretely laid out every different version and constructed a more solid timeline, and found a fix for my emulation issues that i could share, but unfortunately i just don't have the time or expertise.
beyond cohost, i'd like to improve and adapt this post more. maybe turn it into a blog post or a video? to show 2d Myst players what they're missing, how sloppy an approximation WinMast is of the original. maybe even give Cyan a push to develop and release a better, more authentic version. there were also so many little differences that went unmentioned and i'd love to just go over every single one i could find. still, the thought of being seen remains unsettling to me...

i'm sorry if this is a bit of an odd thing to post this close to cohost's closure... again, i mostly just wanted to get it done and out there, instead of forever regretting that i myst the chance. (sorry)
if you managed to read all the way through this.. thank you for sticking with my ramblings, i really appreciate it.
<3

1: Ars Technica interview with Rand Miller, timestamped https://youtu.be/5qxg0ykOcgM?t=4784
2: ugh... an amazon review... i know... https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2O1F10AW4YSYI/ (screenshot)
i don't know where this person got their information, but it does seem likely that Windows Masterpiece is based on the original Windows Myst, given how similar they are to each other (when i tried the original Windows version in ScummVM, the transitions (when enabled) were basically identical)
interestingly this person seems to disagree with me about this version, saying it's a "straightforward" port, which couldn't be further from my experiences, and makes me wonder if they're even talking about the same version i played? perhaps i'm missing something. another review (screenshot) also mentions an easter egg which i cannot recreate myself (nor can i recreate the cat one mentioned on The Cutting Room Floor... i really want to see that one :c)
3: release information for M:ME on Mac and Windows: https://www.mobygames.com/game/1253/myst-masterpiece-edition/
4: information about M:ME for Mac https://www.uvlist.net/game-166558-Myst+Masterpiece+Edition
this source says it was published in 1999, but i'm pretty sure this is in error
5: Exile's 25th Anniversary release actually runs in ResidualVM, a former sister project to ScummVM, with which it has since merged. (also for some reason, this version of Exile has two identical Ubisoft logos plastered on its main menu, which Already Had a Ubisoft Logo, which is quite ugly but otherwise the game is Mostly Fine)
6: i noticed these differences (and similarities) on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RDamK9saTM which originally had (Steam) in the title; i asked the creator if they were playing on mac as my Steam version was different, and they clarified it was from GoG