MYST DS interview.

[Visualante]

Was waiting for a slow news day to post this interview.

SP: Adventure game fans spanning the internet over have been crying out for some adventure games for the DS. Besides offerings from Cing these cries have been mostly ignored. What makes you bring Myst to the Nintendo DS now?
Manny Granillo: The DS is a fundamentally engrossing platform that once again allows the user to become part of a digital world. Offering such a versatile platform, Nintendo offers a canvas with limitless potential. MYST is the quintiessential story of despair, freedom, and drama. We all felt that the DS, more than any other platform with its touch screen and portability, would find MYST the essential adventure companion. Once again the worlds of MYST and beyond are opened for a whole new audience and those loyal fans once again finding the need to adventure.

SP: Part of the experience of Myst is the isolation, from being alone and using your initiative to unravel the world? Do you think that migrating the game to a portable would lose some of the charm and atmosphere. If not then what have you done to try and maintain the Myst experience on a portable?
MG: As mentioned above, the DS' natural relationship with its user made it the ideal platform to really make MYST shine.

SP: Do you plan to implement any touch screen controls such as note taking or
maps?
MG: We are adding several elements that will support the player as they journey through MYST. Features such as Map generation and Note Pad are but a couple of the unique tools available to the MYST adventurer on the DS.

SP: It is famously claimed that many bought the game but few finished it. What do you intend to do to make the game more flexible if players get stuck, for instance the spaceship's organ puzzle? Not that I got stuck there, of course.
MG: Along with a touch interface, we have given a set of tools to support the player in their adventure. MYST is a vast and magical world that the greatest tool is the players inquisitive mind. We are also allowing players to take snapshots so that they can remember clues easier.

SP: In the island's library there are books full of architecture and writings. Do you think supporting these in the DS' vertical orientation would encourage people to read and appreciate the contents of the books?
MG: Yes, by allowing the players to explore all the elements of MYST as well as the depth of feel, the player will become part of the adventure
itself and trully learn the lore of the land.

SP: If the game is well received would that be enough to warrant Riven coming to the DS? Is that something you'd be interested in?
MG: We'll have to see, but no commitment to it yet.

MYST for the Nintendo DS will be available Fall 2007.

source: me criticism welcome.

[Stumpokapow]

Is this a RealMYST port or a MYST port? The PR said something about Rime Age and I'd hazard a guess they wouldn't backport it, but you never know.

[radioheadrule83]

That first answer is so full of PR speak my head nearly exploded... I like the idea of this though.

[ex0du5]

This sounsd awesome. I can't see this being a RealMYST port at all....the DS doesn't have near the processing power for that.

I don't even see how they'll fit Myst onto a DS cart. Myst was over 600MB at the time. DS cards are 256MB at most right now, so it's going to need some decent compression. Not to mention, profit margins would be down a good amount on a 256MB card, so it might not even be that big.

Either way though, I love Myst, and can't wait to get it on the DS. Here's to hoping they do Riven at some point. A Myst 3 port would also be very accessible, as it was probably the easiest myst game.

[ex0du5]

Features such as Map generation and Note Pad are but a couple of the unique tools available to the MYST adventurer on the DS.

I missed that! Map generation would be....awesome!

[Visualante]

Is this a RealMYST port or a MYST port? The PR said something about Rime Age and I'd hazard a guess they wouldn't backport it, but you never know.

They didn't have anything to show at the moment, so I can't say for sure. However I know they're taking the sound remastered audio from realMYST.

From what I've seen on DS so far I'm not sure they could preserve the islands in the way realMYST did. It would be a pleasant suprise if they could do that, though.

[Stumpokapow]

I don't even see how they'll fit Myst onto a DS cart. Myst was over 600MB at the time. DS cards are 256MB at most right now, so it's going to need some decent compression. Not to mention, profit margins would be down a good amount on a 256MB card, so it might not even be that big.

The compression isn't that hard, actually.

Myst was originally coded for old macs using Hypercard. Basically, all the images were compressed in .PIC(I think) Quicktime compression, the whole game is 8-bit colour, the whole game is 8-bit sound.

A bitmap at 320x240x256 colours would be about 20 megs. A PNG at the same size would be around 30k, depending on how compressable the image is.

MYST could easily be done on a 128meg card.

[Kiriku]

Is this a RealMYST port or a MYST port? The PR said something about Rime Age and I'd hazard a guess they wouldn't backport it, but you never know.

I'm not sure what you're asking for; 3D realtime graphics or just Rime Age?
Either way, I'm pretty sure you will get pre-rendered backdrops and Rime Age, just like for PSP (I have yet to reach Rime Age in the PSP version though, but they probably took screens from RealMYST to use as background stills). Anything more than that would really surprise me, at least.

[Death_Born]

MYST is the quintiessential story of despair, freedom, and drama.

Romeo and Juliet called, it wants its review back.

[dock]

It's a shame that this and Riven weren't released on the Wii.
I would have totally bought these games.

[Pureauthor]

Romeo and Juliet called, it wants its review back.

Wait, I though that was King Lear?

[Prime crotch]

Of all games they had to choose Myst. In my opinion it's one of those games that didn't aged well at all.

It's a shame that this and Riven weren't released on the Wii. I would have totally bought these games.

One day my sanity points will be down to zero and I'll make a thread about how much this pisses me off. And then people will post cat pics on it.

[dock]

I've never actually played any of these games, but the pace and style seemed well suited to playing on the Wii and pointer interface. I could play it whilst enjoying a cup of tea, and having other people in the living room help me out with puzzles sometimes.

[chaostrophy]

Of all games they had to choose Myst. In my opinion it's one of those games that didn't aged well at all.

Seriously. Myst was a huge step backwards from the older Sierra and LucasArts adventures when it first came out in every area but graphics. Now, years after Ico and Silent Hill, it must be painful to play.

[Endow]

Seriously. Myst was a huge step backwards from the older Sierra and LucasArts adventures when it first came out in every area but graphics. Now, years after Ico and Silent Hill, it must be painful to play.

Step backwards?Don't you mean it took a different route altogether?It's not suposed to be the same kind of experience...

[Great Rumbler]

I don't even see how they'll fit Myst onto a DS cart. Myst was over 600MB at the time. DS cards are 256MB at most right now, so it's going to need some decent compression. Not to mention, profit margins would be down a good amount on a 256MB card, so it might not even be that big.

Resident Evil 2 originaly came on two CDs and Angel Studios was able to compress everything to a 64MB N64 cartride. The game looked fine and only had noticeable compression artifacts in the CG.

So, yeah, I don't think they'll have any problems what-so-ever, especially considering the low resolution of the DS screen.

[Vexidus]

Wow I never even thought of the Wii, that would be a perfect platform to see ALL of the Myst games released on (not sure how well they'd sell though, better than the ps2/xbox versions because of the audience?). I have Myst III for PS2 just because it's my favorite of the series and I wanted multiple copies of it. It plays well with minimal loading, Wii would feel like a dream in comparison..

Looking forward to the DS version though, will get it for sure.

[Visualante]

Wow I never even thought of the Wii

I actually spoke to the Miller brothers directly about a console collection. They said it would be up to Ubisoft as to whether this would be financially viable. They seemed keen but an educated guess would say Ubisoft is done, hence why Sega and Midway are publishing these portable low-risk projects. Don't quote me on this but I know they said they were getting a DS dev kit, not sure if they were getting a Wii one too.

A collection on Wii would be a smart move with the Wii's huge install base. One would hope that a publisher would get the ball rolling.

[Endow]

Visualante :You spoke with Rand AND Robyn?
How I wish Robyn would come back to Cyan.And Richard Vander Wende too.

Cyan lost some of their best men after Riven.

[U K Narayan]

I want realRiven, already.

[Vexidus]

I want realRiven, already.

I don't understand this at all, how people could want 3D games instead of pre-rendered, for this series at least. For me, Myst V was a gigantic downgrade from Myst IV (partly due to my wimpy computer), I loved the beautiful 360 degree panoramas and felt so immersed in the worlds, but the shift to realtime 3D was jarring and in my opinion not nearly as effective as node-based.

How bout an updated Riven with 360 panoramas with animated water and trees blowing, like Myst IV? I would love that FAR more!

[IoCaster]

Myst on DS? A very intriguing prospect, to say the least. Who knows how new players would take to it? It's a fun puzzler regardless, so maybe it can find a new audience on the platform.


*shrug*

[U K Narayan]

I only want realRiven, because my copy of Riven won't work on Windows XP. :P

[Kosma]

Will Myst ever die?

[tetrisgrammaton]

Will Myst ever die?

beaten :\

[ItsInMyVeins]

That first answer is so full of PR speak my head nearly exploded... I like the idea of this though.

My first thought too

Along with a touch interface, we have given a set of tools to support the player in their adventure. MYST is a vast and magical world that the greatest tool is the players inquisitive mind. We are also allowing players to take snapshots so that they can remember clues easier.

I also like how the bolded is forced into this part of the text

[Endow]

Myst DS in action : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UTVc_fNYII

[Vexidus]

That looks pretty cool, I hope there's an option for things like transitional fades though, like a 0.3 second fade would make a hell of a difference there..

Also I hope there is a button to hold down or something to select if you just wanna click on the screen for interactive objects instead of moving in the direction of your click..

In any case, instant purchase, this will be very cool to have!

[AlternativeUlster]

Yeah, this looks very promising. I couldn't get that far into Myst. I got stuck with the piano puzzle. Reminds me, I think I got stuck on a similar puzzle in the 7th Guest. Wait, were those the reasons why I wanted and eventually took piano lessons when I was a kid? Its all coming back.

[Visualante]

Got stuck at the organ too, looks rad. I like that they have added the books.

[Gwanatu T]

Resident Evil 2 originaly came on two CDs and Angel Studios was able to compress everything to a 64MB N64 cartride. The game looked fine and only had noticeable compression artifacts in the CG. So, yeah, I don't think they'll have any problems what-so-ever, especially considering the low resolution of the DS screen.

RE-DS. Problem solved.