Without a doubt, one of my all-time favorite computer games is Myst. The Geeklings, having grown up with Gamecubes and XBoxes, aren't impressed by a 1990s point-and-click puzzle game, but for me, Myst is a sentimental classic. There have been many sequels and cheap imitations, but the immersion and elegance of the original Myst has yet to be equalled, as far as I'm concerned.
Given my fondness for Myst, I was delighted to learn of Mike Ando's recent unveiling of a long-term project to recreate the book of Myst in fully playable form. Yes – you read that right: Mike has created a perfect reproduction of the book of Myst from the game, complete with an embedded PC and display that allows the reader, er, user, to play Myst.
The specs for the ultra-compact PC that drives it all are:
- 640x480 5.0" LED-backlit display with matching resistive glass touch-screen
- 3-cell Lithium-Ion battery with a runtime of 1.5 to 2 hours
- Intel Z530P CPU running at 1.6GHz; GPU is an Intel GMA500; system has 1GB of RAM
- Operating System is Windows XP running off a 32GB CompactFlash card
- Software includes Myst Masterpiece Edition and eight other Myst-related titles
Mike's site has the full details, so I encourage you to head over and take a look at the full story.
The Wikipedia page on Myst has some interesting information about the history of the game and is also worth a look.
