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To complete the game, the player must fully explore the island of Myst. Players can only carry a single page at a time, and pages return to their original locations when dropped. : 9 Some items can be carried by the player and read, including journal pages which provide backstory. While this provides a rapid method of travel, it can also cause players to miss important items and clues.
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Myst has an optional "Zip" feature to assist in rapidly crossing areas already explored when a lightning bolt cursor appears, players can click and skip several frames to another location. : 5–6 The player moves by clicking on locations shown on the screen the scene then crossfades into another frame, and the player can explore the new area. Players can interact with specific objects on some screens by clicking or dragging them. Myst 's gameplay consists of a first-person journey through an interactive world. The library, visible in the background, contains books that describe each of the different ages the player can link to. Solving a puzzle raises the ship in the foreground and allows the player to reach the Stoneship Age. Screenshot of the eponymous Myst Island, the central hub of the game. The game has been rereleased and remade using real-time 3D graphics. Myst helped drive adoption of the CD-ROM drive, spawned a multimedia franchise, and inspired clones, parodies, and new video game genres, as well as spin-off novels and other media. Selling more than six million copies, Myst became the best-selling PC game until The Sims exceeded its sales in 2002. Critics lauded the ability of the game to immerse players in its fictional world it has since been considered one of the best video games ever made. The game was a critical and commercial success. The game was created on Macintosh computers and ran on the HyperCard software stack, though ports to other platforms subsequently required the creation of a new engine. The game's design was limited by the small memory footprint of consoles (the original intended platform for the game) and by the slow speed of CD-ROM drives. They wanted to create a graphically-impressive game with a nonlinear story and mystery elements. Myst marked a segue for the Miller brothers from the kid's games market to adult-targeted games. The player interacts with objects and walks to different locations by clicking on pre-rendered imagery. From there, solving puzzles allows the player to travel to other worlds ("Ages"), which reveal the backstory of the game's characters and help the player make the choice of whom to aid. In the game, the player travels via a special book to a mysterious island called Myst. It was developed by Cyan, Inc., published by Broderbund, and initially released in 1993 for the Macintosh. Myst is a graphic adventure designed by the Miller brothers, Robyn and Rand.
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