Welcome to Old Games That Don’t Suck Thursday. Each week I’ll write about a game that somehow influenced by life as a game developer and which I can totally recommend to you because the game is flippin’ sweet. It also has to be old or at least forgotten about until recently.

Hey, do you know what a CD-ROM is?  I do!  And back when computers started to get them Myst was starting to take off as a video game.  In a way, it was one of the first 3D games I ever played.  Although it was a slideshow-style point-n-click the world seemed so real it blew my mind.

You click through the environment to move and interact.  The puzzles are click/drag/move based and are scattered across the environment.  The goal is to reach a page on each world segment, to collect the story of two brothers who are brought about in the world.

The puzzles are difficult, but that’s not why play Myst.  It’s just so damn beautiful.  Even now the graphics are spot-on.  In a time and era when games were lucky to even have some simple pre-rendered 2d graphics the game was there to amaze with full quicktime movie renders and screens.  The sound changes with movement through the world and ambient noise really puts you in the space.

This is where Dark Cut 2‘s real foundation is laid.  I loved the environment and sound of Myst, and the slideshow-style interaction really intrigued me.  This very process is one I adopted in my own game.  Myst was the biggest inspiration behind the second version of the Dark Cut series.

Anyway, Myst is on just about any system DS or older.  You should check it out when you have a chance, especially if you are into puzzles or just really polished point-and-click adventures.