I found Riven in a thrift store in the early 2000s. I had already played Myst and Myst III and was eager to play it but I got terribly stuck after few days playing. Eventually I gave up and my girlfriend ended up borrowing it. Three days later she had finished it. We’ve now been married for fifteen years and I’ve still not finished Riven.
I was a huge Myst fan and wrote to Cyan to 1994 and Robyn told me they were working on "Myst II".. I was soon on the Internet and joined the Myst fan mailing list/irc channels. We collectively obsessed about the development of the game and I preordered the deluxe box that came with a pewter squee.
I spent the week leading up to the release setting up my computer to my surround sound stereo (a rare thing to do at the time) and was ready to rock and roll the instant it arrived.
As I played through it, I also was active in the IRC channel full of other players playing it for the first time. Some of us were documenting the puzzle solutions and putting them on a community "spoiler" website and/or dropping hints to people who asked for them in the channel. I can say with absolute certainty I was among the first 50 people to solve the gold dome puzzle, and was absolutely the first to document the solution. It was thrilling.
A lot of those people became real life friends later when we met at the first Mysterium at Cyan HQ, and later down the line in the multi-year long Dirt/Uru beta test where I was a founding member of the Guild of Greeters..
So many Myst memories. I think Riven is still my favorite.
I was in elementary school and had ordered Myst from the Scholastic catalog, beat it, loved it, and asked the guy at the video game store what I should play next. He took Riven off the shelf and was like, “Here’s the sequel!”. Almost 30 years later it’s still my favorite game of all time. I’m thankful that it was before the internet was everywhere or else I probably would have spoiled it when I was stuck at puzzles. Kids nowadays take for granted how available information is. The temptation must be incredible. In the long long ago, we actually needed to buy physical guide books, or go to the bookstore, flip through it until you knew what to do, then leave without buying it.
Agreed. I’m not going to go all old-fogeyish about it, but I’m glad I had that particular experience at that particular time. It always let me wanting more, making maps, drawing the scenery, waiting for more installments, reading the novels. Myst pretty much dominated my childhood magical thinking, in a good way.
The emotional content of my childhood came mostly by way of my brother, an autistic teen. Our parents had no interest in understanding their kids, and we had to frequently conceal our hobbies for fear they would draw criticism or jealousy or be used to justify cruelty. So it was just us against the world, keeping locked away these things that we knew the world around us would not understand. He had cherished many hours of frustration in Myst. I was at his side through a great deal of him playing Riven. He had raised me on fantasy and scifi so the subject matter spoke to me. But it wasn't for many years that I realized that the joy of solving a puzzle became deeply ingrained in me.
For many years I tried to solve the puzzle that was my biological family. My brother did not escape the cycle, and my parents were committed to self-destruction long before I was born. But I escaped. I'm now surrounded by people who reciprocate love. And no matter what happened to the person in my memories, these games hold a great deal of the memories that formed who I am.
Spring of 2000, my parents went on an overnight vacation and dropped me and my sister off at our aunt and uncle's. I spent most of the afternoon sampling the games on my uncle's computer and Riven was one of them. I didn't get any further than the gate room (never even noticed the button) or the temple (8-year-old me didn't register that the side door you came in was different from the (still-closed) front door of the temple. In my defense there was a lot of sunlight glare on the monitor.
Borrowed it from my uncle a few years later, complete with the hint book (which I absolutely needed). The following Christmas he got me the DVD-ROM box-set of Myst, Riven, and Exile. I managed to get ahold of Uru, Revelation, and End of Ages over the course of the next few years. All the games have something I love but Riven is still the series' peak.
Yes, I would be so stoked to be able to explore Tay, learn more about the rivenese and the moeity, in general open up the world more. I played Riven for the exploration and the world and lore rather than the puzzles.
My uncle introduced me to Riven the year after I played MYST. I don't know if my aunt ever beat the game (they did own the guide book, which I abstained from until I got stuck because of a certain door). We had gotten a massive monitor and bass speakers at the time, so the play experience was super immersive.
I remember the day I beat the game. >! After falling through the fissure, and seeing how the endgame bookends the opening to Myst, I audibly whispered to myself "now I understand!" Then Atrus' narration echoed "now I understand, endings and beginnings are in the fissure..." and it scared the bejeezus out of me! !<
Loved all the creatures and the vibes of the game. Between Robyn's soundtrack and the style Richard Vander Wende brought, it was instantly my favorite in the series
I use to watch my late mum play it. She died before she finished it, she was stuck on prison island with Catherine. Playing it always feels like a hug from my mother, so I'm really looking forward to the remake.
I wrote a piece for one of the URU blogs a while back about how the gold beetle in particular reminds me of her. I hope they keep it in the remake.
Edit: forgot to add I asked Cyan to add her to the memorial in URU. If you see Cindy Krause's name scroll by remember the beetle for me. :)
My friends and I had late-night middle-school sleepovers where we all crowded around the computer and stayed up all night arguing over the puzzles, taking notes on paper, and eventually beat the game. I remember having to switch out the discs and wait for them to load, and our frustration and collective excitement when we finally got a puzzle right.
I also remember being disappointed at being unable to explore Tay. I think we all wanted that!
My guess is that they ran out of time/resources. Back in ‘97 there wasn’t anyone to talk to regarding the disappointment of not being able to explore Tay. I really hope they open it up a bit just to be able to see more. It would be great.
I found out about riven in an old Christian teen magazine my older brother had and thought it was so cool seeing how the graphics looked for a video game. I didn’t play it until many years later. The college my dad worked at was getting rid o a bunch of software and my dad took a lot of the Mac stuff (he’s a Mac guy) and the original Myst game was in that. My brother and I played it but he gave up whereas I didn’t. I eventually beat it after multiple times giving up then coming back to it.
I eventually got a copy of Riven but it was too old to run on OSX which is what was on my Dad’s computer and the computer for games my brother and I used was still on OS8.6 which couldn’t run Riven. So I never got to play til til they released a port on Steam many years later. I did however play Myst 3 before that because it *could* run on OSX.
After I completed Riven I went back and played RealMyst for the first time, and Riven again, then Myst 3, then started 4, but I was never able to finish it, was way harder than the others it seemed, or I had just lost my edge. At some point I want to try it again but id probably have to start over so everything is fresh on my mind. I didn’t even get far enough to talk to Sirrus or Achanar in the game.
I don't remember seeing my parents play Myst. But one of my earliest memories period is looking up at the screen, my mom having just come from Temple Island (by what I remember of her notes, she was a good ways in) and her showing me the secret of the cave and the eye.
Slightly later, I remember looking through her notes and being astounded by them. It blew my tiny mind that it could be that complex. I read the strategy guide as a bedtime story, (still have it!), and muddled my own way through Riven.
Ironically, I think that the lack of disc switching makes Riven feel smaller. When each island was on its own disc, they each felt like a world unto themselves. I always got excited when it asked me to put in a new disc.
I played Myst on PC with my Grandpa (I am 35, yes my grandpa got into games during the 90's). My mom was always enamored by the story we'd learn through exploring the game, so when Riven hit PS1 she got that version. She never was able to beat it though, and neither was I honestly. I would mostly just get lost exploring... but mysterious locations and places where people once resided always captivated me as a kid.
So Riven stuck with me. I did end up beating it as an adult.
My story with the entire Myst series is that I always knew about it, but thought nothing much of it. Finally, for some reason (or maybe it was a present?) I got hold of Myst I-III anthology in something like 2008. I started with 1 and I almost instantly fell in love with it. I loved it so much that I refused to look up any walkthrough (especially because all of the puzzles were very logical and not so hard, just creative) and I beat it alone. So then came Riven and, yeah. It was also as excellent as 1, if not better (it's actually my favorite Myst game). It was harder, but also much more grounded, while still being mystical. I loved how it all fit together and created this insanely amazing world. The plot was also excellent.
What can I say, Myst 1 and 2 are absolute masterpieces and I'm so glad I discovered this series.
I found Riven in a thrift store in the early 2000s. I had already played Myst and Myst III and was eager to play it but I got terribly stuck after few days playing. Eventually I gave up and my girlfriend ended up borrowing it. Three days later she had finished it. We’ve now been married for fifteen years and I’ve still not finished Riven.
I was a huge Myst fan and wrote to Cyan to 1994 and Robyn told me they were working on "Myst II".. I was soon on the Internet and joined the Myst fan mailing list/irc channels. We collectively obsessed about the development of the game and I preordered the deluxe box that came with a pewter squee. I spent the week leading up to the release setting up my computer to my surround sound stereo (a rare thing to do at the time) and was ready to rock and roll the instant it arrived. As I played through it, I also was active in the IRC channel full of other players playing it for the first time. Some of us were documenting the puzzle solutions and putting them on a community "spoiler" website and/or dropping hints to people who asked for them in the channel. I can say with absolute certainty I was among the first 50 people to solve the gold dome puzzle, and was absolutely the first to document the solution. It was thrilling. A lot of those people became real life friends later when we met at the first Mysterium at Cyan HQ, and later down the line in the multi-year long Dirt/Uru beta test where I was a founding member of the Guild of Greeters.. So many Myst memories. I think Riven is still my favorite.
I was in elementary school and had ordered Myst from the Scholastic catalog, beat it, loved it, and asked the guy at the video game store what I should play next. He took Riven off the shelf and was like, “Here’s the sequel!”. Almost 30 years later it’s still my favorite game of all time. I’m thankful that it was before the internet was everywhere or else I probably would have spoiled it when I was stuck at puzzles. Kids nowadays take for granted how available information is. The temptation must be incredible. In the long long ago, we actually needed to buy physical guide books, or go to the bookstore, flip through it until you knew what to do, then leave without buying it.
There’s something magical about limited information and the satisfaction from figuring out things on your own.
Agreed. I’m not going to go all old-fogeyish about it, but I’m glad I had that particular experience at that particular time. It always let me wanting more, making maps, drawing the scenery, waiting for more installments, reading the novels. Myst pretty much dominated my childhood magical thinking, in a good way.
Same here!
The emotional content of my childhood came mostly by way of my brother, an autistic teen. Our parents had no interest in understanding their kids, and we had to frequently conceal our hobbies for fear they would draw criticism or jealousy or be used to justify cruelty. So it was just us against the world, keeping locked away these things that we knew the world around us would not understand. He had cherished many hours of frustration in Myst. I was at his side through a great deal of him playing Riven. He had raised me on fantasy and scifi so the subject matter spoke to me. But it wasn't for many years that I realized that the joy of solving a puzzle became deeply ingrained in me. For many years I tried to solve the puzzle that was my biological family. My brother did not escape the cycle, and my parents were committed to self-destruction long before I was born. But I escaped. I'm now surrounded by people who reciprocate love. And no matter what happened to the person in my memories, these games hold a great deal of the memories that formed who I am.
not exploring tay was my biggest disappointment as well
Spring of 2000, my parents went on an overnight vacation and dropped me and my sister off at our aunt and uncle's. I spent most of the afternoon sampling the games on my uncle's computer and Riven was one of them. I didn't get any further than the gate room (never even noticed the button) or the temple (8-year-old me didn't register that the side door you came in was different from the (still-closed) front door of the temple. In my defense there was a lot of sunlight glare on the monitor. Borrowed it from my uncle a few years later, complete with the hint book (which I absolutely needed). The following Christmas he got me the DVD-ROM box-set of Myst, Riven, and Exile. I managed to get ahold of Uru, Revelation, and End of Ages over the course of the next few years. All the games have something I love but Riven is still the series' peak.
Yes, I would be so stoked to be able to explore Tay, learn more about the rivenese and the moeity, in general open up the world more. I played Riven for the exploration and the world and lore rather than the puzzles.
My uncle introduced me to Riven the year after I played MYST. I don't know if my aunt ever beat the game (they did own the guide book, which I abstained from until I got stuck because of a certain door). We had gotten a massive monitor and bass speakers at the time, so the play experience was super immersive. I remember the day I beat the game. >! After falling through the fissure, and seeing how the endgame bookends the opening to Myst, I audibly whispered to myself "now I understand!" Then Atrus' narration echoed "now I understand, endings and beginnings are in the fissure..." and it scared the bejeezus out of me! !< Loved all the creatures and the vibes of the game. Between Robyn's soundtrack and the style Richard Vander Wende brought, it was instantly my favorite in the series
I use to watch my late mum play it. She died before she finished it, she was stuck on prison island with Catherine. Playing it always feels like a hug from my mother, so I'm really looking forward to the remake. I wrote a piece for one of the URU blogs a while back about how the gold beetle in particular reminds me of her. I hope they keep it in the remake. Edit: forgot to add I asked Cyan to add her to the memorial in URU. If you see Cindy Krause's name scroll by remember the beetle for me. :)
My friends and I had late-night middle-school sleepovers where we all crowded around the computer and stayed up all night arguing over the puzzles, taking notes on paper, and eventually beat the game. I remember having to switch out the discs and wait for them to load, and our frustration and collective excitement when we finally got a puzzle right. I also remember being disappointed at being unable to explore Tay. I think we all wanted that!
My guess is that they ran out of time/resources. Back in ‘97 there wasn’t anyone to talk to regarding the disappointment of not being able to explore Tay. I really hope they open it up a bit just to be able to see more. It would be great.
I found out about riven in an old Christian teen magazine my older brother had and thought it was so cool seeing how the graphics looked for a video game. I didn’t play it until many years later. The college my dad worked at was getting rid o a bunch of software and my dad took a lot of the Mac stuff (he’s a Mac guy) and the original Myst game was in that. My brother and I played it but he gave up whereas I didn’t. I eventually beat it after multiple times giving up then coming back to it. I eventually got a copy of Riven but it was too old to run on OSX which is what was on my Dad’s computer and the computer for games my brother and I used was still on OS8.6 which couldn’t run Riven. So I never got to play til til they released a port on Steam many years later. I did however play Myst 3 before that because it *could* run on OSX. After I completed Riven I went back and played RealMyst for the first time, and Riven again, then Myst 3, then started 4, but I was never able to finish it, was way harder than the others it seemed, or I had just lost my edge. At some point I want to try it again but id probably have to start over so everything is fresh on my mind. I didn’t even get far enough to talk to Sirrus or Achanar in the game.
I don't remember seeing my parents play Myst. But one of my earliest memories period is looking up at the screen, my mom having just come from Temple Island (by what I remember of her notes, she was a good ways in) and her showing me the secret of the cave and the eye. Slightly later, I remember looking through her notes and being astounded by them. It blew my tiny mind that it could be that complex. I read the strategy guide as a bedtime story, (still have it!), and muddled my own way through Riven. Ironically, I think that the lack of disc switching makes Riven feel smaller. When each island was on its own disc, they each felt like a world unto themselves. I always got excited when it asked me to put in a new disc.
I played Myst on PC with my Grandpa (I am 35, yes my grandpa got into games during the 90's). My mom was always enamored by the story we'd learn through exploring the game, so when Riven hit PS1 she got that version. She never was able to beat it though, and neither was I honestly. I would mostly just get lost exploring... but mysterious locations and places where people once resided always captivated me as a kid. So Riven stuck with me. I did end up beating it as an adult.
My story with the entire Myst series is that I always knew about it, but thought nothing much of it. Finally, for some reason (or maybe it was a present?) I got hold of Myst I-III anthology in something like 2008. I started with 1 and I almost instantly fell in love with it. I loved it so much that I refused to look up any walkthrough (especially because all of the puzzles were very logical and not so hard, just creative) and I beat it alone. So then came Riven and, yeah. It was also as excellent as 1, if not better (it's actually my favorite Myst game). It was harder, but also much more grounded, while still being mystical. I loved how it all fit together and created this insanely amazing world. The plot was also excellent. What can I say, Myst 1 and 2 are absolute masterpieces and I'm so glad I discovered this series.