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Comment by dmix | Hacker News Reader

Is this better than the Real Myst version in the store?

New https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/myst-mobile/id6444813759

Real Myst https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/realmyst/id524988885

Real is $10 (CAD, probably $7.99 usd) and the new one is "free" with in app purchases. Not sure what that means in practice.

Edit: unlocking new is $13.99 CAD which is probably $10 USD

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Real Myst was the first fully 3D remake of Myst, it came out for PC in the mid 2000s so the graphics are good but still a bit dated (it looks kinda like Half Life 2). This newest Myst remake is a big leap in quality beyond Real Myst--you can see some trailers and such on YouTube to get an idea.

I thought you had to be wrong, but you’re right. Real Myst was around 2000. I would have placed it far later (the updated version was 2014).

I remember when it (or a demo) was first released.

Wow.

Yeah it was one of the first games that didn't run great on my Nvidia GeForce 256 (the very first GeForce card they made). The game had pretty amazing graphics for the time.

I had that same card. I think that was the last desktop I used for gaming. I must have done the same thing.

I became a mostly laptop person shortly after with most of my gaming going to consoles.

This is a nice visual comparison of the five major releases over the past 30 years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdZGXTTB65k

Maybe it’s just because I’m old and Myst was such a big deal at the time, but though the quality of the graphics is way better I find myself disappointed that the modern versions look so different from an artistic point of view.

Yes it’s recognizably the same game, but the color pallet is so different. I can see changing some objects because the original modeling was so constrained it seems like they went further than necessary.

It’s sort of too different to be a remaster but not different enough to be a remake. So it feels oddly like messing with history a bit to me.

I’m kind of amazed the game is still popular enough to justify something like this commercially. I’m glad to see that.

>Yes it’s recognizably the same game, but the color pallet is so different

What was the color depth of the original? Was it limited to 8bit or was it 16bit? I'd imagine 24bit can have quite the affect on color palettes when compared to lesser bit depths

Edit: just watched the linked video. it's like they decided on the cinematic trend of washing everything in a color tone, and they chose the orange/gold pallet like it's perpetually golden hour

The rock on the island seems to have gone from a granite like grey to something kind of reddish. The trees looked like redwoods over dark green grass, but both are very different. The spaceship is now more copper than light brass. There are very dark shadows on a path with no shadows before.

It’s not minor changes like going from a very red red to something with more orange in it. It’s just flat out different colors.

They’re art direction changes.

The original game used 8 bit colour.

Agree completely. This would have been interesting if they had tried to capture the look and feel of the original but still made it look contemporary. That could have worked perfectly with nostalgia and the recent popularity of vaporwave. Instead they made it look like every other modern game but kept the poorly aged 30 year old puzzles.

Yeah the latest remaster is a genuinely modern experience. Must nicer than RealMyst by a decent margin. If you are used to playing modern games, RealMyst would be a worse experience than just playing the OG FMV Myst.

Myst Island is free on the new one but the ages are a one time IAP. Kind of a neat way to let folks try the game out IMO.

Incidentally, I think that was Apple's original intent for the IAP... until it got "creatively" repurposed to sell spendable resources.

Is it though? Games used to be a one time purchase. Now, it's multiple purchases just to play the one game

I don't think it's multiple purchases to play the game. The beginning of the game is free, then there's a single purchase to unlock the rest. It's the same as the old "free demo" model.

Another recent example of this working pretty well is Dragon Quest XI. The demo allows you to essentially play the full game, with no restrictions, for the first 5-8 hours of the storyline before you purchase to progress further.

Of course, the risk in this model is as follows: Someone hears that DQXI is supposed to be good, so they go to try it. There's a demo, so they download that. They play for ~5 hours and realize they're not having much fun, so they stop playing before even being prompted to pay.

Which is what happened when I tried playing DQ.

If I was a developer of the game I would say “well, that was working as intended, this clearly wasn’t the game for you”.

If I was a bean counter, however, I would say to axe the demo and add some micro transactions to the game. It’s a bad idea to let people try it beforehand and make their own decision on whether the game is good or not. Clearly we haven’t traded enough goodwill of our players, excuse me, customers, in exchange for some short term profits.

Ah, I misread "ages are a one time purchase" as each age is purchased separately. read it too quick i guess

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