[I meant to send this to this list a week ago, but forgot -- Miriam's post
indirectly reminded me.]


A trailer for _Myst 3: Exile_.  Gorgeous images, as usual -- a great trailer.
You may have to copy and paste pieces of URL to reach it.  Streaming
QuickTime video, so high-bandwidth connections are best as usual.

http://a1984.g.akamai.net/5/1984/51/627f38ebd669f3/1a1a1aaa2198c627970773d80669d84574a8d80d3cb12453c02589f25382e94ab71c8fbe2ba4178bbe/myst3_480.mov

(For those who find my subject line cryptic: I consider Myst and Riven to
be visually stunning, but when it comes right down to it, they're puzzles
in which the goal is to decode incredibly poor undocumented UIs designed
by Atrus -- control panels consisting of five identical unlabeled buttons,
etc.)

Apparently this new game will be out in early 2001, and features the
ability to turn in smaller increments than 90 degrees.  Cool beans!
...Well, okay, close perusal of the FAQ suggests that it's really gonna
be Journeyman Project-style 3D (like QuickTime VR) -- you can only
travel from point to point along predetermined paths, but you can
stand at each still point and rotate a full 360 degrees to look around.

Another thing to be a bit wary of, perhaps: the game is being put
together by Presto Studios, the Journeyman Project people, rather than
Cyan (the Myst and Riven people).  Apparently Mattel owns the rights.
Relevant paragraph from FAQ:

>Presto Studios from San Diego, California, is designing the game.
>Their animators and management team have been contracted by
>Mattel for this project. Their past work has included "The
>Journeyman Project" series, though everyone we've spoken with at
>Presto has told us that Exile represents an exponential leap in their
>thinking, design, and game quality.




Another intriguing Myst-related project is realMyst
(http://www.realmyst.com/) -- "the realtime 3D version of Myst."  It's
not clear to me what exactly that means, but it sorta appears to be
what I always wanted the original game to be -- full-animation
immersive VR, free motion, time of day changes, all in realtime.  A
recreation of the original game as it was meant to be.  There's a
demo you can download (if you can work your way through the annoying
interface), but it's Windows only and I've only got a Mac here at
home.  Will try and take a peek at it at work sometime.



--jed

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