If you can't play the new VR version of Myst, why not play the Apple II demake | Hacker News Reader

If you can't play the new VR version of Myst, why not play the Apple II demake

deater.net

127 pointsdeater27 comments

Tangential, but if you're looking for a game to scratch the Myst itch, consider Outer Wilds. It's similar to Myst in a Spaceship. In terms of software ethics the game does have some concerning events in its history, and I know people here are interested in that stuff more than elsewhere. But it's on Game Pass.

I only mention this because I just finished it recently. I'm not affiliated with the game or its owners/makers in any way.

The Witness (by the same person who developed Braid) felt very Myst-like to me as well. Highly recommended, the puzzles are incredibly clever and a lot of fun to solve with a partner.

There's also "Obduction", which was made by the creators of Myst, and "Quern", which is very heavily inspired.

I'd also recommend the Submachine series. They're 2D point-and-click adventures instead of the 3D approach but still very much the same vibes.

It’s one of my favorite games of all time. Unfortunately, like Myst, once you’ve played through, you know too much to truly appreciate it again. Wish there were more games like this.

Is there any replay value in a "rewatching a movie with a twist at the end and noticing all the signs this time" way?

The Outer Wilds isn't linear, I know exactly what I need to know to end the game, the purpose of your journey is to discover that yourself. The game is about exploration and it just isn't the same as the first time.

The only way that I have managed to re-experience the game is by watching others play it, it isn't the same although close enough.

It's also mostly reading, which is hard to do over again compared to passive cutscenes

Not to detract from the amazing work done in this article, but I didn't even know there was a VR Myst game. I'll have to look into both.

it was released a couple of days ago, been playing it on my quest it is good fun

It came out on Dec 10.

Damn pity it's on a Facebook-infested Oculus only. At least for now.

Fortunately, it’s coming to Steam and GOG as well.

https://cyan.com/games/myst/

I've never heard the term demake. That's a clever idea to explore old tech by bringing over newer games and trying to keep their essence.

I also only learned about demakes when this article was published. Good read!

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-10-02-the-power-of-d...

Imagine trying to play this without previous experience. Myst is hard enough in full detail!

Yea, it's very difficult to tell what anything is if you haven't played the game. At first I thought he may have just automated converting all the assets, but no .. there' is a video of the conversation process. Looks like he's doing at least some, if not all of it, by hand.

The stoneship age video looks better/playable, but I guess the developer is just hitting the hard limits of that platform.

It seems it was all by hand. From the FAQ:

> Q. So how did you draw the graphics?

> A. So for 40x48 resolution you can't just take a paint program and have it do this automatically. That tends to lose a lot of important details.

> Usually I take a screenshot and drop a 40x48 grid on top and then trace over it.

Only because they've decided to use the low resolution graphics mode of the IIe. It has higher resolution modes he could have used

That would lower the frame rate.

it's also a matter of size. lores graphics are 1k (they usually compress at least 50%). There are 800 backgrounds in the demake. You want to fit this on a reasonable number of floppy disks, in this case it fits on 3.

If you use "hi-res" (140x192x6 colors) the graphics are 8k, 8 times bigger, so you need 24 disks which is a bit much.

Also with double-buffered hi-res graphics you waste 16k of RAM which is 1/3 of all available RAM on a II+. Double-buffered lo-res only takes 2k.

also note this will run fine on a stock system from 1980: an Apple II+ with 48k RAM (1MHz 6502) and a 16-sector 140k DOS3.3 Disk ][ drive.

If you're a commodore person, you should be comparing this with what you could do with a PET or maybe a VIC-20 in this timeframe (not a C64).

That's nice because all the Apple machines can run the program.

A split the middle might have been double low res, 80x48 with the same 16 colors, but only available on the //e and gs

IMHO, running on all the Apples is the better call.

It was a joke considering it is point-and-click, but the size difference was the real reason that came to mind.

That tracks with my experience of game difficulty from this era of computing. eg Wizard of Oz, the Hobbit, etc. Then again, I was a young kid.

I've never really played Myst (although I have intended to for a while). My Apple IIe has a monochrome monitor, and it was a little bit too hard to follow what was on the screen. I'll have to try it on a color monitor, but both the computer and the appropriate monitor are rather heavy. :)

Obduction was by the myst creator, no? I found that to be too laggy in VR. I bet myst runs faster though

Wow. This is impressive.

You are Awesome!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com