How Myst Almost Couldn't Run on CD-ROM | War Stories | Ars Technica

Related, the video How Myst Almost Couldn't Run on CD-ROM[1] is actually more fascinating and entertaining in my opinion. [1] [VIDEO]

The game Myst was originally written in HC, and a game engine (Mohawk) had to be written for Windows to provide similar functionality in order to port it. There's a documentary about it: [VIDEO] Definitely one of the rare indie game success stories. They really poured themselves into making it as awesome and expansive as technology would allow. IIRC, they're still writing games for fun.

If you want to hear more about this from the man himself, Rand Miller has a great video with Ars Technica: [VIDEO] And extended edition: [LINK]

CD-ROM didn't make Myst a no-brainer, as Rand Miller discusses in this excellent Ars Technica piece: [VIDEO] More info in the extended cut starting at this timestamp: [LINK]

I love the artistry and creativity around the HyperCard community. Years ago I stumbled on this (wonderfully dorky) episode of Computer Chronicles, that focuses on HyperCard: [LINK] I love how the used-car salesman created his own application to help potential buyers find the right car. This was truly the “bicycle of the mind” era for computing; the user base was fairly self-selected, and people wanted to take full advantage of this new tool. [1]. The range of HyperCard was pretty amazing — famously, Myst was originally created with it: [VIDEO] 1: [LINK]

One of the creators of Myst (Rand Miller) credited the original game with being why he got into game development in the first place [1] Myst inspired many people to go into computer science and game development as well, so it's interesting to see how much of a snowball effect this Lunar Lander game had [1] [VIDEO]