Tag Archives: Video Games

Sep 15 2010
Myst Projects

Myst Project II: Riven Photosynth

The next in my series of Myst Projects.

This one is very theoretical, because I have no idea how it would work, except manually, but it would be very useful, and cool.

You have probably heard of Photosynth before, Microsoft’s tool for stitching together photos to make a virtual re-creation of the place or object in the photos. It lets you swivel around an object, or virtuallyy explore commonly-photographed landmarks. It’s all very cool.

Now here’s the Myst connection. If there was some kind of tool like this, but for Riven, it could take Riven screenshots and stitch them together based on the objects in the game, creating easy-to-use 360° views.

“What good would that be?” you ask. Well, consider the submarine on Jungle Island. If you walk up to the place where you first find it resting, you can see these 3 views (and others in between these) on the way there:

That’s all well and good, but what if you want to see the back of the submarine? Of course it’s possible to see it:

But how do you get there? Here’s how:

So I trust you understand now why this would be awesome. Of course, I don’t plan on doing this project myself, because I have absolutely no idea how it would work. I just had the idea, and figured I should tell people. If you have any idea of how it would work, let me know and maybe we can try to get it working. For now, file it under “hypothetical”.

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Sep 14 2010
1 Comment
Myst Projects

Myst Project I: realMyst on a Mac

I’m starting a series of blog posts wherein I explain all of the Myst projects I’m currently working on (or thinking about working on). This is my first project: realMyst on a Mac!

This was actually relatively simple to do, turns out. Using CrossOver Games 8.0.0 (all I have access to, unfortunately. I can’t guarantee anything about newer versions of CrossOver), I ran the realMyst installer from the Windows realMyst CD (again, all I have access to, though I can tell you that the Steam verison doesn’t work. The GoG verison might be better. If you want to give it a try, let me know and I’ll try to help you out). I let CrossOver set up the bottle for me (a WinXP bottle), and then the installer ran without a hitch.

Patch & No-CD

I then installed the v1.1.1 patch & a no-cd patch (required, seems like CrossOver can’t see the CD drive):

  1. Download the patches from this page (Direct links: patch and no-cd). Un-rar the no-cd patch.
  2. In CrossOver, do Programs > Run Command…
  3. Select the REALMYST bottle (or wherever you installed RealMyst to), type a ” into the Command box, drag your real_myst_patch_v1.11.exe file into the box, and type another “. Something like this should now be in the box:
    "/Users/YOUR NAME HERE/Desktop/real_myst_patch_v1.11.exe"
  4. Run that sucker. Select the right directory for realMyst, when it gets to that part.
  5. Assuming that all went smoothly, you can now install the no-cd patch. In a new Finder window, do Go > Go to Folder… and go to this folder, replacing your name (and Bottle name, if you didn’t install to the REALMYST bottle):
    /Users/YOUR NAME HERE/Library/Application Support/CrossOver Games/Bottles/REALMYST/drive_c/Program Files/Cyan Worlds/realMYST Interactive 3D Edition/
  6. Drag the new realMYST.exe from the no-cd folder to this folder, and replace the old one when it asks.

Ok, that’s realMyst all set up. You can eject the CD now, you won’t need it anymore.

To launch the game, you should be able to just use the shortcuts CrossOver makes for you in its Programs menu. If (for some reason) these shortcuts don’t work, you can find instructions for making a new, working shortcut at the bottom of the post.

Indeo Codec

The game will now run smoothly, but a lot of the videos will be broken. To fix this, you need to install the Indeo Codec (direct link or mirror). To run this properly:

  1. In CrossOver Games, do Programs > Run Command…
  2. Select the REALMYST bottle (or wherever you installed RealMyst to), type a ” into the Command box, drag your iv5setup.exe file into the box, and type another “. Something like this should now be in the box:
    "/Users/YOUR NAME HERE/Desktop/iv5setup.exe"
  3. Run that sucker.
  4. When it asks you what type of installation you want, make it a Custom one. Uncheck “Indeo Video 5 Web Browser Plugin”. You can leave everything else enabled, though I unchecked the help files, as well.
  5. Get through the rest of the installer, and you should now be good to go!

The performance seems to be pretty good, a lot better than Uru in Crossover Games. Then again, realMyst has incredibly low minimum specs (450mhz Pentium II and 64mb of ram, d’awww), so that kind of makes sense.

Windowed Mode

Oh, and one other thing. There’s no “windowed” mode for realMyst, so if you want to run it in a window, you need to do the following:

  1. In CrossOver Games, go to Configure > Manage Bottles.
  2. In the Manage Bottles window, select the REALMYST bottle on the left. Then go to the Control Panel tab, select winecfg, and hit Launch.
  3. When it launches, it will be an ugly Windows dialog. That’s ok, just navigate to the Graphics tab, and enable the first four checkboxes.You can also change the resolution of the virtual desktop (and therefore, the resolution realMyst will run at), but I usually don’t go bigger than 800×600, because it takes up too much space! You’ll also need to run realMyst Setup in order to change the resolution of the game to match the virtual desktop resolution, or it will stretch to fit.

That’s all it takes.

Troubleshooting

If (for some reason) the CrossOver shortcuts don’t work, you can do the following to launch the game:

  1. In CrossOver, do Programs > Run Command…
  2. Select the REALMYST bottle, or whatever bottle you installed the game to. Paste the following into the Command box, putting in your own name (and replacing the bottle name, if you installed it somewhere else):
    "/Users/YOUR NAME HERE/Library/Application Support/CrossOver Games/Bottles/REALMYST/drive_c/Program Files/Cyan Worlds/realMYST Interactive 3D Edition/RealMYST.exe"
  3. Select Run. Happy Mysting!
  4. When you’re done, you can press “Save Command to Programs Menu” so that you get a RealMYST shortcut in the CrossOver Programs menu, and you won’t have to do all this again later.
  5. You can also run realMyst Setup (to change what resolution, etc it runs at) by using this command:
    "/Users/zib/Library/Application Support/CrossOver Games/Bottles/REALMYST/drive_c/Program Files/Cyan Worlds/realMYST Interactive 3D Edition/RealMYST.exe"
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Jul 11 2010
1 Comment
Life in general

Shapeways, Part II

Well, I got another shipment today (well, it arrived on Friday, I haven’t been home in a while). Ripping open the Shapeways box, I discovered the beautiful second half of my Riven Dagger Order: the steel and gold-plated daggers.

They’re gorgeous. The level of detail is amazing, even the tiny little loop I put on the top (for necklace-wearing!) is preserved.

My goal for the gold-plated dagger is to get some form of tiny gold chain, and wear it as a pendant. The steel one is just an awesome thing to add to my collection.

Unfortunately, the edges are a little more wobbly-looking than I would like, but I did violate the recommended minimum thickness to make them, so I was expecting it. It’s not really enough to even see unless you inspect very closely. The other problem is the bumpiness, which is very prominent, giving the daggers a rough texture. They feel like they had cheesecloth pressed into them when they were still ‘wet’. I know this isn’t at all how the process of printing them works, but it’s what goes on in my head.

That being said, I am extremely happy with these. The rough texture makes them feel a lot more authentic, actually, considering that the Moiety were the ones making these, and I’m guessing they didn’t have the technology to really smooth out their metal. Again, I’m not putting them up for sale, but if you’re interested in acquiring one of your own send me a message.

Also yes, I appreciate the irony of a Moiety dagger made out of gold, Gehn’s material of choice.

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Jul 02 2010
Life in general

Shapeways, Part I

I recently discovered an absolutely awesome website, www.shapeways.com. Upload a 3d model, give them some money, and they will send you a printed out, real-life version of your object. The best part is that you can print in a number of materials, including plastic, sandstone, steel, gold-plated steel, and even glass. You can then open a shop and sell your models for a markup, and actually make money.

There’s some pretty impressive stuff on the site. Check out the impressive models (some mathematical, some just interesting) by Bathsheba Sculpture, some awesome D&D dice sets, and a thriving puzzle-building community. The opportunities afforded by a service like Shapeways are virtually limitless. Custom figurines for board games, inexpensive prototyping, you name it. It’s true democratization of the manufacturing industry, and it’s only going to get better over time (as the costs of production drop, as they always do).

Finding out about this service, I immediately did what any respectable Myst-head would do, and launched Blender. After about 3 hours of work (and a somewhat frustrating cycle of uploading, being told there were problems with the model, fixing the problems, and re-uploading), I got a respectable-looking model of my prize, and had managed to get the price down to under $15. I placed my order.

Now, about 2 weeks later, I finally received part 1 of my shipment! Take a look:



As you maybe can tell from looking at the photos, the resolution at which the models are printed is extremely high. You can see places where faces differed in height by a fraction of a millimeter, and the the outside of the ring is clearly segmented into faces. Additionally, the model has a very rough texture, and feels somewhat fragile at the tip of the blade (where a bit actually broke off in shipment, as I expected to happen).

The dagger isn’t going to be put up for public sale, due to copyright issues, but if you’re interested in acquiring one for yourself, send me an e-mail and I’ll see what I can do.

That being said, I am so happy with this model. It came out really, really, well, and I anticipate many bills from Shapeways in my future.

More to follow!

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Mar 07 2010
1 Comment
Life in general

Pictures For Sad Children Game

Inspired by this comic, I decided to make a simple little Flash game. Check it out:


[kml_flashembed publishmethod=”static” fversion=”8.0.0″ movie=”http://www.zibland.com/stuff/pfsc.swf” width=”250″ height=”375″ targetclass=”flashmovie”]

Get Adobe Flash player

[/kml_flashembed]

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Feb 08 2010
2 Comments
Life in general

It Breathes "URU" Again!

YES.

Today, Cyan Worlds announced the return of Uru Live, now called Myst Online: Uru Live Again. It’s like MO:UL was, except that it’s being run by Cyan, and it’s now donationware (meaning totally free, but donations are encouraged).

You can set up an account and download the installer from the official site. The servers are being beaten into a pulp at the moment, but you should get in eventually.

MO:ULA is currently Windows-only, but initial tests seem to point to it being completely compatible with Crossover on Mac OS, as Uru:CC was. More on that in a later post.

Update: Yes indeed, the game runs smoothly in Crossover. Besides the obvious network lag present in all versions of the game, I didn’t encounter any sort of slow-down while playing last night. The one problem is that the audio doesn’t appear to work all the time, ambient noises end up as small buzzing noises and such.

Setup couldn’t be simpler though. Open the installer file with Crossover Games, and let it do its thing. Even the PhysX install goes smoothly.

Update: I’m hosting a mirror of the installer files on my server here to help Cyan out a bit.

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Aug 04 2009
4 Comments
Life in general

Mysterium 2009

Shoom'lah's excellent Mysterium '09 logo

I just got home from Mysterium 2009, the annual gathering of Myst fan(atics). It was held in Spokane, Washington this year (as it is every few years). Spokane is the hometown of Cyan Worlds, the company that made Myst.

The convention was really great, although the last day was somewhat ruined by a flu outbreak in the hotel. It was fun to meet all of the other fans of Myst, and to know that I wasn’t even close to being the geekiest person there (ha).

On the second day we all piled into a few cars and visited the Cyan offices. We got to meet all the Cyan bigwigs, past and present, and they threw a party for us. I had Rand Miller sign my collectibles, including the copy of From Myst to Riven that I bought at their store, and the Myst concept art that Robyn Miller sent me a few years ago. We were given a tour of their awesome workspace, which I filmed, but due to some accident, I no longer have that footage.

After the party, a few members of the Uru community (Blade, Brian Fioca, Douglas Sharper, and Eleri) held a panel about storytelling in Uru, which was pretty cool as they all were (or are) celebrities in our community at one point or another. After that, the real show started with a Q&A session with Rand Miller. He answered all of our questions, covering topics from Something Else, to MO:RE, to the Book of Marrim, to many other things. It was quite entertaining, and also educational!

For those who weren’t present at Mysterium, or those who would simply like a refresher on the convention, check out the video footage I captured over the course of the weekend. The file is about 580mb, so be careful if you have a slow connection (took me about 20 minutes to download on a standard-speed connection). Also, please don’t directly link to the video file, link to this post instead. There is also a torrent of the video file available, for those who would rather use a P2P connection.

If you’re more into photos, check out this thread on MystOnline.com, this Flickr pool, and this thread on UruObsession.com.

In other news, THIS IS THE 500TH POST! Yes, you read that correctly. I have now posted 500 things to this website. Pretty ridiculous. Here’s to 500 posts, and hoping for another strong 500 in the future!

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Aug 04 2009
4 Comments
Life in general

Mysterium 2009

Shoom'lah's excellent Mysterium '09 logo

I just got home from Mysterium 2009, the annual gathering of Myst fan(atics). It was held in Spokane, Washington this year (as it is every few years). Spokane is the hometown of Cyan Worlds, the company that made Myst.

The convention was really great, although the last day was somewhat ruined by a flu outbreak in the hotel. It was fun to meet all of the other fans of Myst, and to know that I wasn’t even close to being the geekiest person there (ha).

On the second day we all piled into a few cars and visited the Cyan offices. We got to meet all the Cyan bigwigs, past and present, and they threw a party for us. I had Rand Miller sign my collectibles, including the copy of From Myst to Riven that I bought at their store, and the Myst concept art that Robyn Miller sent me a few years ago. We were given a tour of their awesome workspace, which I filmed, but due to some accident, I no longer have that footage.

After the party, a few members of the Uru community (Blade, Brian Fioca, Douglas Sharper, and Eleri) held a panel about storytelling in Uru, which was pretty cool as they all were (or are) celebrities in our community at one point or another. After that, the real show started with a Q&A session with Rand Miller. He answered all of our questions, covering topics from Something Else, to MO:RE, to the Book of Marrim, to many other things. It was quite entertaining, and also educational!

For those who weren’t present at Mysterium, or those who would simply like a refresher on the convention, check out the video footage I captured over the course of the weekend. The file is about 580mb, so be careful if you have a slow connection (took me about 20 minutes to download on a standard-speed connection). Also, please don’t directly link to the video file, link to this post instead. There is also a torrent of the video file available, for those who would rather use a P2P connection.

If you’re more into photos, check out this thread on MystOnline.com, this Flickr pool, and this thread on UruObsession.com.

In other news, THIS IS THE 500TH POST! Yes, you read that correctly. I have now posted 500 things to this website. Pretty ridiculous. Here’s to 500 posts, and hoping for another strong 500 in the future!

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Dec 13 2008
1 Comment
Life in general

Uru To Go Open-Source!

Cyan Worlds announced today that they are going to make Uru an open-source project. They plan to release the source code for the client, servers, and creation tools to the Myst community, and allow it to grow and develop as it will in the hands of the public.

Personally, I think this is a great development. The Myst community is very eager to get back into Uru, and in Cyan’s current state, the prospects of an official revival (especially one on the scale of Myst Online) are looking somewhat grim. By releasing the code for the project, the community itself can build and maintain the world of Uru, without having to rely on Cyan’s fluctuating state to keep Uru surviving. Also, it will provide me with the opportunity to run a real Uru server once again, and maybe even get it to a state of popularity…That would be nice, not to mention the way way way more interesting hacks that can come out of Uru once the hacking community gets its collective hands on the source code…

But on the other hand, this is also sad news. Uru has been a big project for Cyan Worlds for a very long time (production started right after Riven, basically), and now that they’re giving out the code to the public, it’s sort of like they’re letting go of the last piece of their effort, finally acknowledging that perhaps the world is still not ready for Uru Live. It’s a sad thing to think about, made only worse by the realization that there could possibly be no more Cyan-made content for Uru, ever.

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Nov 11 2008
5 Comments
Life in general

Oh, the Irony…

Yes, I am writing a third post about LittleBigPlanet. Yes, I promise I’ll keep it short. No, it’s not good news. I just unlocked a mini-game level in the game (no, I’m not quite finished yet, but I’m almost there) called “Spline Rider”. When I saw the title, I died a little on the inside, but when I loaded it up and found myself on a toboggan riding down an environment constructed completely of straight lines, I got angry.

Of course, the level is fun. It’s tricky to get the sled to balance right so you don’t flip over. However, this level is an exact replica of the extremely popular flash game, Line Rider (so popular, in fact, that it has been bastardized into a soulless console game). The hypocrisy is unbelievable, that Sony and MediaMolecule will remove fan-made levels that infringe on copyrights, while there is an official level obviously meant to emulate another commercial game.

On the plus side, I checked the published levels again, and I realized that the Mirror’s Edge and Tetris levels have not been removed (yet), so please, go play them while you still can. I sincerely hope that the Tetris level is not removed, because it is pure genius, and really fun.

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