History Trivia / Myst

** The infamous maze runner puzzle was originally meant to be [[http://twitter.com/chuckcarterart/status/1105593746694029313 a walk-through maze]] but that would have taken far too long to render.

** The original design idea wasn't a hit with many publishers, until one resembling the final design was pitched to Sunsoft. Sunsoft loved the idea... but only wanted the console rights in anticipation of the [[UsefulNotes/{{SNESCDROM}} SNES CD-ROM]]. Cyan took the PC and Mac rights to Creator/{{Broderbund}}, and the rest is history.

* LetsPlay: Website/YouTube user shadyparadox has two professional and comprehensive Let's Plays of the ''Myst'' series [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX6E_XbVq44&feature=BFa&list=PLABB18F1C44D5F9D9&lf=plcp like this one of realMyst]].
** And ''LetsPlay/Dilandau3000'' did Let's Plays of the other games of the series, later asked by popular demand to do the same games shady did. He even did URU Live with a friend.

* AmateurCast: Cyan did not have the money to hire actors so Rand and Robyn Miller played all the roles themselves. After ''Myst'' became a bestseller, Cyan was able to afford professional actors for later games (although Rand continued to play Atrus for the sake of continuity and because fans would not accept anyone else in the role).

* TheWikiRule: There's the [[https://dni.fandom.com/wiki/D%27ni D'ni Wiki]], the [[https://archive.guildofarchivists.org/wiki/Main_Page Information Archive]], the [[http://www.mystwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page MYSTAges wiki]], and the French [[https://www.mystpedia.net/mystpedia/index.php Mystpedia]].

* KillerApp: Originally, it was one of the selling points of the Mac. And when it was finally ported to the PC, PC owners actually bought a sound card and a CD-ROM drive along with the game (the latter was necessary as the game only came on CD-ROM, the former was necessary to enjoy the game fully since a typical PC of the era had no built in sampled audio capabilities- also, sound cards of the era included a built in proprietary pre-IDE controller, which is actually necessary for adding a CD-ROM drive to a PC because IDE CD-ROM drives weren't developed yet and all CD-ROM drives of the era only had either the SCSI interface or a non-IDE proprietary interface). It also caused PC owners to buy a mouse and a copy of Windows if their PC was old enough to not come with it. Microsoft conveniently sold a bundle that included both for people who wanted to upgrade from plain MS-DOS. In other words, it was the killer app that nudged the PC towards the built in audio and multimedia path that it is following today. Most CD-ROM titles prior to ''Myst'' sold poorly due to PC owners' mindset (that sound and CD-ROM drives were unnecessary luxuries) of the period. Many CD-ROM releases of the era were simply {{Compilation Rerelease}}s or "enhanced" re-releases of existing games that were also sold on floppy that didn't really offer anything new. ''Myst'' was one of the first games to be released exclusively on CD, had full-motion video, and had smashing reviews that coaxed computer owners to check it out.

* TropeNamer: Creator/DouglasAdams coined the term "BeautifulVoid" in his review of the game. (And then he proceeded to FollowTheLeader with ''VideoGame/StarshipTitanic''.)

* OffModel:
** In the original version's flyby of Myst island, the giant gears are open when shown in the Linking Panel, but closed when the player arrives. This was fixed in later versions.
** Sirrus' video recording in Channelwood was replaced with a different one in the Mac and realMyst releases, since the original video shows Robyn Miller with just a T-shirt and lacking his mustache and goatee.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The addition of the Rime Age in ''realMyst''. Not only did it provide more of a tie-in to ''Riven'', it also served as a reward for players who wanted a new place to explore after winning the game (something the original version lacked).
** The VR version of the original Myst has a "puzzle randomizer". Given the game's original puzzles are rather well-known at this point, it's easy to slightly increase the difficulty for experienced players to keep it fresh by turning this on without drastically changing the mechanics.
** The VR version of the original also allows you to take ''both'' brother's pages from an Age without needing to traverse the Age twice, which is particularly helpful with nasty entrances/exits like Selenitic and Channelwood.

* FollowTheLeader: Kicked off a slew of first-person adventure puzzle games. Even on Wiki/ThisVeryWiki, see how many 1990s adventure games are called "''Myst''-like". For example: ''VideoGame/AtlantisTheLostTales'', ''VideoGame/BlueLacuna'', ''VideoGame/DustATaleOfTheWiredWest'', ''VideoGame/GadgetPastAsFuture'', ''VideoGame/LighthouseTheDarkBeing'', ''VideoGame/{{Manhunter}}'', ''VideoGame/MissionCritical'', ''VideoGame/{{Obsidian}}'', ''VideoGame/TheDameWasLoaded'', ''VideoGame/TheJourneymanProject'', ''VideoGame/TheTaleOfOrpheosCurse'', ''VideoGame/TheWitness'', ''VideoGame/{{Timelapse}}'', ''VideoGame/AlidaTheEnigmaticGiant'', ''VideoGame/TheCrystalKey'', ''VideoGame/{{Morpheus}}'', ''VideoGame/ZorkNemesis''.