Latest News:
July 31, 2004
Another Great Review of PotS
Groovalicious gave PotS 8.2. Here's a sample of the review: "While it's not necessary to have actually played Uru to enjoy PotS, it will obviously appeal most to those that favored the original, and for that group, it's practically a must-buy - even more so if you missed out on the To D'ni expansion, since that content is included as well. It's far from being a revolutionary expansion pack, but it's a quality title that provides a satisfying final chapter for Uru fans." Read the full review here.



The Path of the Shell is IGN's Game of the Month
Posted by FF7fan, here's what IGN has to say: "Why we picked it: Though it was a light month for PC games, we nevertheless found ourselves impressed by this adventuresome expansion. In a day when the twitch-happy crowd requires frenzied and constant stimulation, it's nice to see developers opt for a more reserved approach. Path of the Shell succeeds in erasing the boundary between the player and the game, drawing you deeply into a world that makes sense, both from a standpoint of the interface and the story. Forgoing the gamey feeling of most adventure titles, the puzzles in Uru all fit within the game world in a logical fashion and have solutions that make sense. Add to that a brilliant, though spare, musical score and some genuinely impressive graphics and you've got a game that you won't want to stop playing. -- Steve Butts"



Narayani Collective Discussion Forum Returns
Annacat wrote to The Lyst: "As some of you probably noticed the Narayani Collective Discussion Forum was
down for maintenance for much of the past week.
"We now proundly present the fruits of our labors (well, Froggey's labors, really-- he does the tech stuff and I keep the members from rioting-- team work and all ;-) ) at our new location,
Narayani Collective Discussion Forum
"Please feel free to visit us at our new digs or check us out for the first time as the case may be. If you need to, please be sure to update your signature banners (so you won't direct people to the old site ) and
bookmarks accordingly. We'll also be announcing a new location for our website soon.
Thanks! Annacat (on behalf of the Narayani Collective Admin Team)"

July 30, 2004
Gamespot Gives PotS 7.6 Out of 10
Andrew Park has some good things to say. Here are a few: "Like the final episodes of a cult-favorite TV show, Uru: The Path of the Shell may not win over many new followers, but it will surely be appreciated by fans of the original, first-run material."
"The Path of the Shell, like its predecessor, also sounds great, though the sound in many of the environments is a bit more sparse than it was in the original game."
"That said, The Path of the Shell draws Uru's story to a satisfying close, and, by and large, it offers a satisfying experience for anyone who enjoyed the original game."



MystWorlds Buttons
Deg has created some new MystWorld buttons. Check them out here: Myst Worlds Buttons. Please store them on your server and make sure they link to http://www.mystworlds.com/.



Help Design Nick White's Avatar
Futo has announced another contest: "As you may know, a group of explorers are presently working on an Explorer Generated Xpack (EGX). The puzzle I'm calling the D'ni History Puzzle and naturally Nick White is the central character. Since nobody has ever seen Nick, and now probably never will, I thought it would be fun to have a contest to design his avatar. The winner will be decided on by a poll of the explorers and the resulting image will appear in a portrait with him and Sharper in Nick's office.
"Here is how we are picturing Nick. He is something of an excentric character. Fresh out of college he is in his early twenties. He has a genius level IQ and has a wide variety of interests which include languages (of course), photography, riddles, and chess. He is up with the latest technology and owns a laptop computer. If there are any other known characteristics based on your understanding of Nick, you can use them too.
"Once you have designed him in the closet, you can modify him with image manipulation of you wish but the final result must look like an avatar. We will take the poll in about 2 weeks (the exact day will be based on the flow of submissions. It is looks like everyone has their submission in then we will take the poll sooner, if there are requests for a little more time, we can do that too. So have fun! Pa'trick (Futo)"
NICK WHITE'S AVATAR DESIGN CONTEST



Chris Brandkamp Heads a New Venture
Not truly Myst-related, this is an interesting story of what one Cyantist (Cyan’s chief operating officer Chris Brandkamp) is doing: Brandkamp heads new venture.


July 29, 2004
Uru Book Covers
Chris did some exploring in the .prp files within Uru and found the map for the book covers. He noticed a few that we've not seen before, as well. Here's the pixture:




More Avatars in inki's Portrait Gallery
inki has created 6 new portraits and Eleri has created 6 matching buttons, bringing our total to 58! Be sure to check it out: inki's Uru Avatar Portrait Gallery.



Uru Glossary Updated for PotS
Norfren posted: "The Uru Glossary has been updated according to POTS. All suggestions, corrections are welcome!" Thanks, Norfren.



GreyDragon's Blog
GallifreyLady discovered a new entry in Ryan's blog: "Information"
"Something Else" is looking fantastic even though some of it is in a very early stage. Sitting in on some of the meetings I really have learned to appreciate the time and effort the employees here at Cyan Worlds are undertaking. Not too long ago I took a screenshot of "Something Else", printed it and then hung it up on my desk. It tricks some people who think it?s an actual photo. But a photo will never do "Something Else" justice. When this is finally on the shelves I think some will wet their pants with glee over the whole feel of the game. I will say it again "Something Else" is really that... Something else!"

Recap of Futo's Puzzle
As I am unable to keep track of all the goings-on with Futo's puzzles, I've asked him to supply a recap.
"Okay, quick summary...First Anidor assembled puzzle 3 and noticed a missing piece (which happens with jig saw puzzles). Anidor's Puzzle Three. Then Deius assembled puzzle 2 and noticed another missing piece...a pattern is developing. Deius Puzzle Two. Then Toboe, a 12 year old explorer with the help of his grandmother- Mystdee and their family solved a puzzle that was created just for him.  The pieces spell out the question "Don't you just adore those quabs?"  Can you figure out the word they found? Toboe's First Puzzle Solution. It has been reported that Toboe has already assembled his second puzzle but is still trying to figure out the word he is looking for. Rutland1 and his wife did an excellent job of piecing together puzzle one cutting out and assembling puzzle one by hand...here is an in progress shot.... Rutland1's In Progress Shot. They did finish it and noticed another missing piece.  Susanszy54 posted a digitally assembled version of puzzle one that we see here....Rutland finishes puzzle and susanszy54 posts digital version. Ti'Chelle noticed that the Quabs and their shadows didn't seem to be shaped right...too pointy.  Deius had the idea of overlapping the completed puzzles.  Anidor was the first to put it all together.  After putting the correct word into the URL, here is what he saw.... Triangle copy. They are all now working on the second half of Futo's Italian Vacation Puzzle. Pa'trick (Futo)"



Updated Myst4 Specs
Jerle posted an update from Patrick:
Windows
PIII 700 mhz, 128 Mb Ram - 256 Mb on XP, 32 Mb video card, Nvidia Geforce 1, 2, 3, 4, FX, Ati 7000-9800, Matrox Parehlia, Intel i865G - intel i915G, DVD Reader, Win 98, Win Me, Win 2000, Win XP
Mac
G4 667 Mhz or +, 128 Mb Ram +, 32 Mb video card, Nvidia Geforce 2, 4, FX, Ati 7500-9600, DVD reader
OSX 10.2 (jaguar) or better.
And there will be a short demo (200 megs) and a long demo (600 megs). There 2 demos are very close in content, but one contains a rather heavy additional cinematic (and an extra node).



First Parts of Futo's Puzzle Are Solved
Check out the thread: FUTO'S ITALIAN VACATION PUZZLE. Toboe solved the first puzzle, with the help of his family (including Grandmother Mystdee). Futo, unfortunately, will not be going on vacation, after all.



July 28, 2004
Why No Cyantists at Mysterium?
GreyDragon posted in his blog: "Bad quote comes from an IM but in fact I don’t remember who sent it. "Why aren’t there any Cyan Employees at Mysterium? Did the Committee suck this year?" I took extreme offense to this right off the bat. I am on the committee, both me and RAWA.  It was nothing the committee did this year that Cyan Employees didn’t make it to Mysterium.  I didn’t have the money to send myself and Cyan is on the fastest schedule ever to make "Something Else." All and all if Cyan employees could have made it to Mysterium some of us would have."



Guild of Greeters Mysterium Presentation
Dan'ni posted: "Each year during the Mysterium someone does something incredible. This year Guild of Greeters made a presentation that could be called like that. As Tijara writes on the GoG forums, the movie is very touching, but it is not meant to elicit sympathy, but to share other's unique Uru experiences and perspective, and offer inspiration and hope." After watching it, all I can say is "Wow." Guild of Greeters Donwload Page, Low-res presentation (21MB), Hi-res presentation (53MB) and accompanying literature (PDF). Thanks, Dan'ni.



Mysterium Photos
Leesa sent a link to The Lyst: Mysterium Pics. And a blog!



Mystery Solved
The riddle previously mentioned was no riddle, after all, but a teaser for a project involving fan-created areas of Uru. Here's the post by korteenea: " To all those who are following this:
I am newage. Or at least... I was. This was not intended to be a puzzle... it was intended to be more of a Cyan-inspired 'peek' at a fan project.
"The title, "Phase One" does indeed refer to the stages through which the DRC went to release an Age, and as far as I know those stages also represented Cyan's actual progress.
"The model is an inkwell... it does not currently exist in the Uru game files. There were going to be two new images: a pen and a book. The intents of the images were:
1.) To let you know that there is new stuff being "written"--by fans--for Uru.
2.) To show you some of what's been created.
"The project, headed up by futographer and myself, is pretty basic: development of a small environment that can be explored via the Uru game engine. As you know, the folks at COBBS are working on hacking Uru and such and hope to be able to add in objects to Relto or perhaps even add new environments. This is one of the environments.
"What's being developed? Nick's office. Why?
Well... that's futographer's part. Let's just say it's a new puzzle.
"Anyway, unfortunately the plan for the 'peek' got botched. I had forgotten that one couldn't register more than one screen name here per IP... which Dan'ni kindly pointed out to me (my sincerest apologies, Dan'ni!)
"My apologies as well to anyone who thought this was a puzzle, or something more than it was... I hadn't intended such a response. Forgive me? The other two images will be forthcoming.
"On another note... if I happened to catch your interest with this tiny fiasco and you're interested in helping, visit us here. I can't apologise enough.."



July 27, 2004
Riven Dagger Sells for $61 on eBay
And it wasn't bought by CAGrayWolf! Check out the auction here: "Myst and Riven - D'Ni Dagger paperweight."



Jenny H Interviews Kha'tie
Jenny H chats with Kha'tie about her recent trip to Europe. Here it is: "MystWorlds Interview with Kha'tie."



Check Out PlanetMYST
myst-bert at DPWR.net wrote: "PlanetMyst, a website set up by amon-re, is a place where members of the MREDU community can read blogs by the many other members of the community. You can also send a request to join the blog-feed on the page..."



Speculation and Expectation, According to RAWA
RAWA wrote to The Lyst: "Friends, Just a quick note so that hopes and expectations are not set unrealistically.
"Last week, a picture was placed on our website showing "UruVision", a gentle reminder that the idea of Uru Live is not completely dead.
"The speculation it raised is good, and comments along the lines of "Maybe this means <insert theory here>." are great. The problem is that some have set their expectations very high, and presented their interpretations as fact, or at least as something more than just speculation. This will hurt people in the end if those interpretations are believed and do not turn out to be correct.
"Uru Live isn't dead, but rumors of its resurrection have been equally exaggerated. For Uru Live to truly return as it was intended would require a large amount of funding - funding we do not have and do not expect to get in the near future.
"In light of that, it would be wise to set your expectations low. Better to be pleasantly surprised than sorely disappointed. :) RAWA"



More From "DpThrt1"
Here's the latest: "Progress. The remaining returns. Not directly, but . . . to use one of my old favorites ...
http://home.comcast.net/~zardoz99/ides.htm. BTW, Choru and Ubiru existed in parallel." Zardoz recognized that URL immediately: "...that's my eggsite! Wowsers!"
Update from DpThrt1: "You have enough to progress. Discover more, and more will be shown through our eyes. Remember our location. It is important. Don't get derailed. I will now retire to my cloud under the seas, where a new age dawns."



Myst 4's Music is Done
Jack Wall updated his Journal: "Man, it's finally done. Myst IV is in the bag. On Friday, I counted the minutes of music written - 104!! I'm telling you, the whole thing came in waves with rather large breaks in between, but this last push was intense. All the implementation and mixing. The in-game mix of music is really varied (well, with 104 minutes, it would have to be!!). I definitely feel a little like Homer - back from the Odyssey. Traveling to Europe 3 times - Paris, Bratislava, Warsaw, Montreal twice - definitely a journey and it is very satisfying to listen to the music in it's final state. I sincerely hope that the Myst fans feel it a worthly successor to Exile, done me best I have!"



And a Mystery Unfolds...
On the COBBS H'Uru forum, a poster (DpThrt1) wrote: "Perhaps you could use this?"
This was followed by a long list of code, and: "More will come." When Zardoz began to question the poster identity ("The drcConfig.cfg file is for someone who was accessing the Cyan internal servers - parablelive0.cyanworlds.com. As a Choru tester, I accessed ParableLive1.CyanWorlds.com, so I'm thinking our mystery guest was an internal tester?"), DpThrt1 replied: "Yes, Zardoz. I know you. You are mostly correct. However, I am not an Internal tester. As I said, more will come. It has come. Cam. Watch, Choruers. Help them. We will soon. Watch Choru."



The Riddle Continues...

A new riddle has appeared. A poster named "newage" created a new topic: "Phase One, Underway..." with the picture to the left and a note: "Another clue another day..."

"Hmm.. a lantern? That gives off light! This is no lantern; With this you write."

"Do not seek what you cannot yet find."

Great Review of PotS by IGN
Juan Castro at IGN reviewed PotS and he loved it: Here are just a few of his comments:
"Path of the Shell closes the spin-off series with gusto. It's mysterious and satisfying. It fulfills its promise of delivering an immersive, unforgettable journey. It even delivers a few great surprises for old-school Myst nuts. It's an adventure gamer's wet dream. Maybe I'm just that nerdy, but I loved it. Everything just worked the way it should. A few of the puzzles roasted my mind ever so slightly, but most called for logical solutions. No abstract views of alien physics required."
"But it's not the puzzles that drive you too keep playing Path of the Shell. And it's not the graphics or music either, although the game owes its sublime level of immersion to them. It's the mystery that drives you. The feeling of genuine exploration and discovery. This single element elevates Path of the Shell, and the Uru series for that matter, above most modern adventure games and seals its status as a classic. You want to look around every corner, go through every door and investigate every inch of game space available. Every piece of the world, whether it is a symbol etched on a wall, a diagram sewn unto a magnificent tapestry or a large island looming off in the distance simply begs you to come over and have a closer look."
"Suffice to say, Path of the Shell delivers. Some may complain about the ending. I know I had a few issues with it. But remember, Uru was never supposed to end in the first place." Warning: The review contains spoilers.



July 26, 2004
Mary De Marle Responds to Criticism
There's a thread at UO where some fans are getting quite critical of Myst 4 without much cause. In response, Mary had a few things to say.
Here's just a few comments: "After talking to people at Mysterium, I realized that many of you do not know the full story behind how Myst 3 and Myst 4 came into existence. You’ve heard that a company other than Ubisoft (Dreamforge) was originally hired to create Myst 4 – but did you know that Dreamforge was hired to create their game before Presto was hired to create Myst 3? In fact, Dreamforge’s "story of the brothers" was originally intended to be released as Myst 3. Presto was only hired after it became apparent that Dreamforge’s game would take at least 4 years to develop.

"The game’s publisher (at that time it was Mattel, not Ubisoft) wanted a Myst game to come out sooner than that, so Presto was given only 18 months to create Exile. Cyan told us not to tell the story of Releeshahn, so we couldn’t expand the mythos in that direction. Nor we could we tell the full story of the brothers, since that one was being developed by Dreamforge. To complicate things even further, we had to be very careful not to create a story line that might conflict with anything Dreamforge put in their game – the details of which were still being worked out and not known to us when our development of Exile began.

"A very interesting challenge, you might say, but one that all of us at Presto were committed to accomplishing."

Here's one comment she wanted to respond to: "Exile went nowhere, and the graphics made me angry, angry that people didn't have the dedication to create something that would raise the bar over Riven."

Mary: "I am sorry that Exile’s graphics made you angry, but the assumption that your statement makes is flat out wrong. The creative team who made Exile were some of the most dedicated people I know. They routinely worked over 20 hours a day trying to perfect the game – one of the artists worked so hard that when Exile was finally released, he literally didn’t know what to do with himself. After spending more than four months of his life never leaving Presto’s offices for more than 4 hours at a time – literally eating and sleeping at work every day (and weekends too!) just to get everything finished on time – he was almost afraid to go home because he didn’t remember what his life had been like before Exile began. He had lost touch with almost all his friends and family, and he didn’t know how to restart relationships that had lain fallow for so many months.

"So you see, the team definitely did have the dedication and commitment to create something that would raise the bar over Riven; they just didn’t have the time. Riven took 4 years to complete. Presto had only 18 months and a limited budget in which to do it. As it was, they practically killed themselves doing it.

"The result was Exile – which admittedly does have its flaws – but it’s still a game of which I’m proud to have been a part."

Another negative comment: "I find it annoying that people think so lightly about the Art of Writing a great game.
Mary De Marle is the Gehn, whereas Vanderwende is the Atrus in this."

Mary: "If Pat were answering here, he might say something like, "That’s your opinion and you’ve got every right to have it, but I find it annoying that people make sweeping statements about how other people think without knowing those people or looking at the bulk of their life’s work and efforts." (Apologies in advance, Pat, for putting words in your mouth! )

"In my case, I most certainly do not take the Art of Writing a great game lightly. It’s a subject that is very near and dear to my heart – so much so that I have put hours into researching the field, learning everything I can about the challenges of writing games, and even trying to educate others in the game community so that the quality of writing in games can improve. So surely I must be misconstruing Ageren's statment here. The "people" referred to must be somebody else..."
"(Admittedly, as a diehard Myst fan, it made my eyes bulge to see myself cast in one of these comments as a cruel, sadistic, megalomaniac who routinely tortured people who didn’t agree with him, but then Van Gogh wasn’t appreciated in his day, either. So I stick by my previous statements.)"

Her view of criticism: "Actually, an unfavorable critique of a given work definitely hurts the feelings of the artist on some level, but you’re right, Areth: We’re artists and we must learn from both the positive and negative criticism we receive. It is the only way to become better artists. And that is why I will also defend the right to make those criticisms until the day I die."



Something Else Entirely™?
This post appeared, from newage: "Something Else? No. This is Something Else Entirely™



Uru's Silver Lining?
asa160 posted: "URU: Complete Chronicles : Prima Official Game Guide has been shipped and it really is an outstanding publication. on the last page - "And the true silver lining is that the vast majority of the Ages and stories created for Uru Live will see the light of day, in one form or another."



A new riddle...

A new riddle has appeared. A poster named "newage" created a new topic: "Phase One, Underway..." with the picture to the left and a note: "Another clue another day..."

Futo's Italian Vacation Puzzle
futographer: "See this thread to find out what it is all about. Introduction.
This is actually a wager between the following people and myself. Others are not allowed to help.
SmileyMe, Ti'Chelle, Rutland1, Mystdee, GallifreyLady, Inki, Loki, Deius, susanszy54, BrettM, EtoilePB, Tapeduper, ireenquench, Andromeda, longomp, Toboe, and Anidor.
Like Picasso being in his blue period, I'm in my Jig Saw Puzzle Period. They have until June 7th at noon MST to solve all the puzzles.
Once the puzzles are assembled and connected a child could solve most of them in a flash.
Toboe has two of his own puzzles to do, but others can help only if he requests it.
To win, "The Team" must solve all of the puzzles completely with nothing missing. There are more puzzles involved than the ones posted below. Puzzle One, Puzzle Two, Puzzle Three and Toboe's First Puzzle. Here is the url to use when you have solved a previous puzzle...http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-6/7558...___________.jpg
You know what to do with it from my past puzzles.
I will be around for a few days or more if I don't get my passport. I will not give any more clues, so please don't ask. There are plenty of clues in the puzzles.
On my last puzzle you all said that you really enjoy working as a team. Let me tell you that if you don't work as a team on this one, you will probably not finish it in time. If a few are working to solve them, and the rest just sit around watching, hoping they will solve it...time will run out.
Have fun! Pa'trick."

From the Guild of Greeters:
Should There Be a Meeting in the UK?
samsbase: "What about holding a greeters meeting in the UK somewhere? There are many places I can think of that would be cool.
London: capital easy by train (bad traffic though)
Birmingham: very central but not the nicest looking of places
Brighton: biggest city closest to the rest of europe lots of places to go and see (also my hometown lol) also I know guild leader Tijara lives in the Uk (looking at her avatar lol) so maybe a favourable choice for her. I know its not mysterium but for us in the UK and our european counterparts I think it would be a nice substitute."
Guild Welcomes Their 2000th Member
samsbase: "Welcome Tyrion our 2000th member. I told him to wait till he was 2000th to register and it worked YEY. ps. he is my brother."

The Latest on the Aussie Mini Mysterium
Simon wrote to The Lyst: "Dear all,
"Sorry for the super late response... several things in real life inevitably delayed the progress of the planning of the Aussie Mini Mysterium. Now that things have settled down somewhat, I'm attempting to pick up where I left it.
"Now, to my complete relief, there were no objections to the previous (tentative) itinerary that I listed in my last announcement. To this end, I have explored the various activities further, and have the pleasure of presenting the 2nd draft of the tentative itinerary.
But before we get to that, I am pleased to offer the following hotel for the Aussie Mini Mysterium - Carlton Crest Hotel Sydney.
"Situated near the southern boundary of Sydney city, you will have access to most of Sydney City's main tourist attractions in under 15min of easy travel (whether it by walking or via the city's famous internal transportation system - monorail). Details of the hotel can be found at: www.carltonhotels.com.au.
Approximate prices for the rooms (if you book directly with the hotel) are as follows:
- a standard room (for up to 2 people) is AU$120 per night (for late March of 2005)
- for each additional person over 2, it's an extra AU$30 each person (ie. $150 for 3 people, $180 for 4 people etc).
Prices do not include breakfast.
"Cheaper rates can be found at www.hotelclub.net, but be warned that I have never used the system so I cannot vouch for its reliability or security.
"Now, BEFORE you all go and made a booking, please let me know first and wait for my confirmation. When notifying me (email address given at bottom), I'd appreciate it if ONLY the person who will be making the booking email me - this will allow me to keep an accurate count of how many rooms people are intending book in total. While I am not delusional enough to hope for a group discount, I am hoping the number of people will allow the group to gain access to a public room away from the guest rooms during late evenings, so that attendees will have a place to socialise loudly outside their room without disturbing other guests. A small meeting room to fit around 10 people will cost around AU$100 for the evening, without additional services such as food/drink. If we get more people than expected, then I will attempt to negotiate a better rate for people.
"Now, onto the itinerary...
"Day 1, 25th of March 2005 (Easter Friday): 3pm shall mark the official start of Aussie Mini Mysterium. We'll have initial introductions in the lobby of the hotel, then we'll head off on a short self-guided tour of Sydney*. After the tour, we'll stop by a restaurant of the group's choice for dinner.
"Day 2, 26th of March 2005 (Easter Saturday): We'll head out around 10am for a national park with BBQ facility. I have looked into various national parks that are available, and have located the following that have an easy walk to the park after getting off public transportation:
- Botany Bay National Park
- Georges River National Park
- Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
- Lane Cove National Park
"Each one of the above national parks offer their own walks and unique sceneries. The Botany Bay National Park one looks especially impressive. Anyways, for more info, please visit www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au. While things are cooking, some people can choose to go off and see if they can spot some wildlife in the area**. The rest of the afternoon will be filled in whatever activity and games people can dream up or bring. Free time in the evening.
"Day 3, 27th of March 2005 (Easter Sunday): This day will begin the expensive version of the Aussie Mini Mysterium, which may include (window) shopping, visiting the Sydney Centrepoint Tower (tallest building in the south hemisphere), getting a guided tour of the Sydney Opera House, climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Laser Tag (costs around AU$10 per game per person - it'll take about 45min to reach the facility from the hotel), visiting the museums and zoo etc. Your imagination and desire (and of course, your budget) will be the only limitation on what you will end up doing. I will be happy to accompany whoever remains - to the extent of my own personal budget :P
* On research into the cost of a properly guided tour, it has been discovered that the cost will be unnecessarily adding to the financial burden of many attendees, especially people with low budget. For those curious, rates are AU$19.00 for adults, and AU$10.50 for children (10 –16yrs). There are not "student" rates.
** I am crappy at preparing BBQ. Full stop. My Asian heritage (actually, my laziness) has resulted in me not picking up this particular trait of being an Aussie... if we are going to have a BBQ, then someone's going to need to help me out here - otherwise we'll end up having some sorta picnic instead.
"Well then, I think that's it for now.... if you have any questions, do not hesitate to point them my way. I look forward to hearing from people about this exciting event!
Best regards to all, Simon Lai (aka Magician)."

Mysterium Pictures
Erithan sent along some pics: Erithan's Mysterium Pics.



July 25, 2004
Mysterium Reflections
Posted by Daedalus on Sunday, July 25, 2004
"Hey guys, we're all chillin' here at PostMysterium and there's lots to say about the entire M2K4 experience. I noticed only Graham has posted his thoughts, so I hope you don't mind if I get the ball rolling on the goods! :)

"Meeting everyone from the community was truly incredible. Seeing other fans really helps to remember how absolutely important each person is to this community, and how we are all connected through the friendships we share online. Mysterium exceeded my expectations in every way, and made the trip well worth it. ;)

"With that said, here's the goods on Revelation. The Myst 4 presentation blew me away, and I could tell it had a significant impact on the entire crowd. The technology used in Revelation is so beyond what we've seen before, and is breathing new life into the series in ways I could only have dreamed. As a long time fan, I can say without a doubt that the talented people from Ubi are delivering just what we fans are craving; an even more immersive environment to get lost in and enjoy.

"Hearing Pat, Genevieve, and Mary answer fan questions settled all doubts I had about the game's development, and I can feel that they each have a unique passion towards the game that could only be expressed by true fans of the series. I believe Ubi Team knows exactly what they're doing, and to me nothing is more reassuring than that. Thanks Ubi!

"I'll be sure to post soon about the awesome fan presentations. So much to talk about..."

Check Out the Latest From Mysterium House's Animation Department
From lonelyto25's Mysterium presentation: this is it lonely.




July 24, 2004
A Picture From Mysterium
Thanks, Aquila:

Two New D'ni Words From RAWA
Jerle posted: "Just in time for Mysterium and DLF's puzzle packets, RAWA kindly took time away from Something Else™ and released a new D'ni word! de-see-kay - {DesEKA} - n. puzzle, enigma. Thanks so much, RAWA!"
and "<IMForeman>: Hey, RAWA... give us a tidbit about Yeesha. Something we don't know. <RAWA>: IMF - her name means "laughter."

Greeters' WebCam
Check it out: Greeters' Webcam. And don't forget the other links, to various blogs: : Mysterium Itinerary (Just so you'll know what's happening), Mysterium Reports (On The Revelation Forum), Guild of Greeters Blog, Guild of Greeters Photos, Guild of Greeters Mysterium WebCam, and Blue Max's Blog. And a new one: MystBlogs.



Mysterium Presentation Q&A in Cyan Chat
Dusante: "After Pat from the Ubi dev team does his presenation at the Yonge room here at mysterium there will be a Q&A time where the dev team will be able to answere your quesions in CYAN CHAT. As well the greeters will have a live webcam where you can see our reactions to the demo starting at 12:00 noon EST but you will not be able to see the revelation demo taking place, much like Cyan couldnt show or allow photos of the Uru trailer in Carlsbad. FYI the webcam is allready live and you can see us preparing right now." Cyan Chat.



July 23, 2004
Vivarium Mysterium Tour a Success!
Myridean wrote to The Lyst: "Shorah b'shemtee!
"I'm currently writing from Toronto from the Mysterium 2004 fan convention. I've been able to meet lots of people here who we've seen from other MRED communities.
"This is just a short message to let you know that the Merril Collection Library Tour that we organized was a success. Instead of the 25 registered fans who had registered, TP did a head count and said there was like 40!
"Lorna Toolis was a great speaker and she was able to appeal to many of the people who came. We presented her a copy of the Complete Chronicles on our behalf while Scraper who is responsible for the Mysterium tour presented to her to be added to her collection autographed hardcover copies of all three Myst novels.
"Overall, it has been a great first here in sunny Toronto. Shorah! Myridean"



Server Development?
Futographer posted: "I and several other explorers are working on a new puzzle called the D'ni History Puzzle. Our idea was to release it on UO like SSRP or even on it's own web site, but If you people are actually going to have the ability to create the equivelent of an Explorer Generated Xpack (EGX), then this puzzle might be the ideal test project.
"I have been in contact with Chris Brandkamp over at Cyan and in an email to me he said: The Cobbs group (if it's the same group) is working on the Live version of Ages. We have been in touch with them and we don't have a problem with what they're doing, but we may be able to provide something very helpful in the very near future. Your puzzle there might be appropriate.'"
This, in combination with a recent quote by Richard A. Watson ("True or False? If Cyan were really interested in Live they would do what they could to try to get it resurrected. True.") and the recent appearance of UruVision makes one wonder.

More Info on UruVision
IMForeman posted: "UruVision was a monitoring utility used by Cyan to keep an eye on Choru when it was running. It could tell you who was on, where they were, and other relevant data. S'all I know. Choru was Cyan's internal Live Server. It was from Pre-Alpha state through close to launch."

Mysterium Links
Courtesy of Aquila (who sent these to The Lyst): Mysterium Itinerary (Just so you'll know what's happening), Mysterium Reports (On The Revelation Forum), Guild of Greeters Blog, Guild of Greeters Photos, Guild of Greeters Mysterium WebCam, and Blue Max's Blog. And a new one: MystBlogs.



Something New at Cyan Cam?
Queue wrote to The Lyst: "saw chip in cyan chat. said there ought to be a new picture up on the cyan cam page [http://www.cyan.com/?page=cam] Friday July 23 around 11am/noon pst. said we'd like to check it out. *curious* i don't know anything more than that. guess we'll wait and see. :-) cheers, Queue." Well, here it is: UruVision.




July 22, 2004
Mysterium Links
Courtesy of Aquila (who sent these to The Lyst): Mysterium Itinerary (Just so you'll know what's happening), Mysterium Reports (On The Revelation Forum), Guild of Greeters Blog, Guild of Greeters Photos, Guild of Greeters Mysterium WebCam, and Blue Max's Blog.



Uru Tapestry
Gadren pointed out a thread at the Great Tree forum by Eric L: "Shorah, everyone! I'm hoping to get this ready for public consumption by the start of Mysterium, but I wanted to invite anyone interested to come and help me test it before it becomes official.
"I'm working on a site that will, as much as a website can, preserve the social interaction aspects of Uru Live. I'm attempting to rebuild the neighborhoods in web form. The neighborhoods were always the social hubs in Live, and the people were really what made Live special for me. I'm working on a place where people can come and carry on as they did in Live, or if they didn't get the chance to join us there, catch a glimpse of what was.
"Now, a website with realtime chat and no plugins is a very complicated undertaking. Especially when I've tried to build a site that runs on almost everything (Just about any modern browser, anyway). I've learned ways of creating websites that never would have thought possible, and I hope you like the result.
"Right now I'm working on the "big KI" functions like managing buddy lists and doing 'hood invites. I really need more beta testers though. I'm hoping to open it up to public beta by Mysterium, but I want to get in there and do a good solid stress test.
"The main page for Tapestry (mostly an announcement of things to come) is at http://www.urutapestry.com. I have a forum set up there that mostly has news of how things are progressing, but I also have sections available to anyone that is interested in helping me test--some more in-depth news as well as a place to report and work through bugs. The direct link for that forum is http://www.urutapestry.com/phpBB2. If you're interested in helping me test things, PM me after you've registered and I'll add you to the beta tester group."



Laloona at the Myst 4 Press Conference
As noted earlier, German Myst fan Laloona was present at the press conference and posted her impressions. She wrote in German, but she has posted again, this time in English, on the MO Forum. Check it out: Press event about "MYST IV Revelation" in Paris.



A Glimpse at Dreamforge's Myst 4
As reported by Dusante, Areth did some hunting around and found some images from Dreamforge's efforst at Myst 4 and they're pretty nice. Check out the thread here: Tons of IMAGES of Dreamforge Myst IV., Screenshots and info. Atrus in 3D. I'll be putting up a page of Dreamforge Myst 4 Images later today. Thanks, Areth! Here they are: Dreamforge.

July 21, 2004
inki's Portrait Page Grows
inki has been busy turning avatar screenshots into great colored pencil drawings. If you haven't checked it out, take a look: inki's Uru Avatar Portrait Gallery. Eleri's designed a page to feature them, plus she's created buttons for each that link to inki's PhotoBucket gallery. We're at 52 portraits, including one of Rand Miller! Thanks, inki and Eleri!



Greeters' Mysterium Blog Goes Live!
From Tijara: "Welcome to the GoG Mysterium Blog. Throughout the convention we will have a group of dedicated Greeters avidly reporting all the Mysterium happenings, back to us poor unfortunate explorers who are unable to attend this year. They will be writing stories and sharing their photos straight from the scene, in addition to waving frequently at our Live Greeter Cam! Make the GoG your online venue for Mysterium 2004, bookmark this page and check back often for updates." Be sure to check out the Welcoming comments from CAGrayWolf on that page. And, soon to come: Greeter Cam.



Hold Your Breath and Dive!
Jürg has posted today's puzzle: "Hold your breath and dive, Secret 08." Follow the puzzle here: secret08. Update: Puzzle solved! Check it out at secret08. For those who do not want to read through all of that, here's the reward image: http://www.mysterium.ch/hidden/entertheworldsofmyst.jpg. And it's huge: 1.9 megs and 2480x3508 pixels. Thanks, Jürg!



PotS Journal Synchroniser
MagooChris posted: "Hello All. This here is a program that will allow users to synchronise their Journals to and from Outlook's Notes feature. Useful to link your Journal to a PDA.
Have only tested it on Windows XP and Outlook 2003 (only computers I can access...), so I hope others can help me in testing this out!
I haven't written a Help file as yet..... If people have trouble then I will, but I still consider it to be in Beta stage... Just place the mouse over the buttons to read what they do.
Any and all questions, feedback or error reports are welcome.
Edit: Helps to add the file... but where is the add file button thing? - Found it Enjoy!"
PotSJournalSyncSetup.zip.



Changes and Updates to MystNews Site
Changes: A few have been made, most notably breaks between stories. This was done to make it easier for briley's Myst Updater to read the site. Check out the thread at UO to see what Myst Updater is all about. Thanks, briley!
Updates: I've added several new images, mostly from The Path of the Shell (regular and Fly Mode) now that I've finished the expansion pack. Here are the sections with added pictures (all spoilers): Ae'Gura, Neighborhood, Kadish, Relto, Miscellaneous, Ahnonay, Ercana, Rolep and, of course, Fly Mode.
And some news about news: I've been invited to post news at MystCommunity! Thanks, Jerle!


July 20, 2004
Change of Venue for Revelation Demo at Mysterium
Kha'tie wrote to The Lyst: "Hey Mysterium-goers ~ Please note that the venue for the Revelation Demonstration for Saturday has changed. It will be held at the Official Mysterium Hotel, the Days Hotel, in the "Yonge Room", at the pre-arranged time, 12 - 4 PM. Thanks to Scraper for the quick website changes! See you all there. ~ Kha'tie"



Jack Wall Gives More Info About Myst4 Score
Jack posted some great info to the MO Forum. Here's just a portion of what he had to say: "I want to tell you all this - without the knowledge of URU since it was released during this very busy time in my life (can't wait to actually play it!!) - Myst IV Revelation is really one of the most amazing games I have ever played, worked on, etc. The team at Ubisoft is so incredibly dedicated to it, obsessed with it. They have expended so much time and effort on this project - never have I experienced so much support from any developer or publisher to give me total freedom to "get it right". I don't believe that film composers have as good a time!!

"What I'm saying is that you are in for a treat! To me, all the weaknesses have been addressed, fixed and all gameplay has improved. Spread the word, tell your friends. In the video game world, this is high art. I'm so proud to be a part of it.

"Here's a little exclusive for you - There are over 80 minutes of music in this game. Together with my assistant, Brian Didomenico, we actually had the tools to implement a large portion of the score ourselves. If you know anything about game production, usually composers must work with and rely heavily on audio programmers. For Myst III, I designed along with Presto and their audio programmer Roland Gustafsson, the music playback engine. For Myst IV, we have expanded on it and the team at Ubi made me a tool so that I could implement it directly. So 80% of what you hear in the game, I'm directly responsible for how it sounds. Yes, you may email me and blast me directly! Oh, and the Peter Gabriel contribution? Well, we actually worked together on the implementation side to make it work with the gameplay. Peter did a fantastic job! (great song...he's just incredible on so many levels)"

Stan's Back: "Something"
Stan just posted: Extra. (Spoiler warning). "Want more? I'll be back, Stanley." Follow the story here: Something. For those who want to cut to the chase, here's the reward image: http://revelation.patchallel.com/images/hvnsswmp.jpg. Warning: it's 6000x3000 pixels!



Revelation Collector's Edition
Halvor noticed that the UbiSoft French Store is offering a Revelation Collector's Edition, which includes an original soundtrack, a making of video and a deck of cards.



Updated FlyMode Patcher
Hastin: "Created a new version (1.3). This new version makes you select your /Python/ folder for Uru. Also, error messages are more detailed, and scripts are refined. If you've allready updated with the older one, then you do not have to use this one. If this is your first time, use this. FlyMode Patcher 1.3.zip."



New URU Video from KlyX
KlyX posted yesterday that a new video was available. Not long after that post, however, KlyX wrote that the file was corrupted and promised to have a working file up within 12 hours. Well, here it is: Uru Video. Note that the file is over 50 megs and requires DivX 5.2 (Download the last Codec from www.divx.com).



July 19, 2004
Round 3 of the DPWR Golden KI Contest Sponsored by MystWorlds
Just posted at MystWorlds: "Myst Worlds is very proud to announce that we will be sponsoring the next round of the DPWR Golden Ki Contest- a special editon of the Ki photo contest with an extended entry period (2 weeks) and the chance to win a grand prize of a copy of Complete Chronicles signed by Rand Miller and the Cyan Worlds team!"



Journey Cloth Sells for $79.99...and Guess Who Bought It
Our venerable CAGrayWolf, of course, who has one of the most extensive Myst collections around. Congrats, Wolfie! Here's the link: Journey Cloth on eBay.



Interview with Yeesha
Because the answer to Jürg's puzzle appears at the end of the thread, I wanted to put a note about it here. As a result of solving Jürg's puzzle, we've been treated to an interview with Juliette Gosselin, the young actress who portrays Yeesha in Myst4. Here it is: http://schaeppi.bahro.com/revelation/juliette_interview.mov
And, to go along with the interview, inki has created a portrait of her: Young Yeesha.



ChangeAvatar 1.0
From Almlys: "From Almlys Studios, here comes.... ChangeAvatar 1.0
ChangeAvatar is a small tool that will allow you to change the avatar name, gender or type of your offline game avatar in the games: "Uru: The Path of The Shell" and "Uru To D'ni". Now you can copy avatars, rename avatars, change the gender of your avatar, and play as a DRC character. Warning: This software is still in the Alpha experimental phase, I don't know if it will work with all versions, I will love to see some feedback."



Jürg's secret07 Puzzle
In an attempt to "clean up" the News page, I'll be putting the puzzles (Stan's and Jürg's) on their own page. Here's Jürg's secret07 Puzzle.



Golden KI Round 2 Winner!
Alahmnat: "Congratulations to Jerle, winner of the second round of the Golden KI competition, with her image Jerle hunts for JUST the right Crystal for a new Sword® ;-). Details on Round 3 will be released soon - hopefully by the end of the day Monday, so stick around! We've got actual prizes to give away this time!"



Great Article on Revelation
MartG posted: "An article about Myst on the BBC website." Sex appeal of Myst games. Jo Twist mostly discusses, with Genevieve Lord, the perception that women prefer puzzle games. Notice that there's not a single word about Uru.



July 18, 2004
Stan's Last Step Puzzle
In an attempt to "clean up" the News page, I'll be putting the puzzles (Stan's and Jürg's) on their own page. Here's Stan's Last Step Puzzle.



New Build of vault_patcher Available
Deledrius posted: "vault_patcher v1.2. corrupted vault.dat endgame patcher. More info (including latest download link): vault_patcher Wiki page. This version adds support for vaults modified by The Path of the Shell expansion. Proper instructions and information are available on the wiki page above. vault_patcher.zip."



Kitchen Panorama From Myst 4 Available
Foo has produced a great Quicktime VR, based on the flat panorama recently discovered. Download it here: MystObsession>Downloads. Looks great! Thanks, Foo!



July 17, 2004
Do You Need 100 Copies of Myst Masterpiece?
If you do, this is the auction for you: Myst Masterpiece (PC Games) - Lot of 100 Units. Starting bid: $500.



Inki's Portrait of Rand
inki, who has done dozens of great portraits of player's avatars (see inki's Portrait Page) has just done one of Rand Miller. Check it out at the Ubi Forum. Great job, inki!



Play Uru as Yeesha, RAWA, Rand or Zandi!
Dusante announced a thread posted by Gadren, taken from COBBS. Here's the original post by almlys: "I remember that some time ago someone asked if it was possible to play the game with one of the DRC avatars. Nobody has posted about it, so well, I'm going to post how to do it." Be sure to backup your saved games. Have fun! Here are the avatars available: DrWatson, Engberg, Kodama, Quab (although almyls says that one doesn't work), RandMiller, Sutherland, Victor, Yeesha, YeeshaNoGlow and Zandi.



GameSpy Reviews "Uru: The Path of the Shell"
And they weren't too crazy about it. Here are a few snippets from the review: "Shell continues the story of the D'Ni and takes you into the future of the D'Ni. It's too bad, however, that The Path of the Shell lacks much of what made Ages Beyond Myst enjoyable."
"A key element of the Myst series has always been an assortment of devilishly difficult puzzles, but they're mostly missing from The Path of the Shell. The expansion technically includes five Ages, but you'll spend most of your time in only two of them, with only small forays into the other three. Even the two primary Ages only had a handful of long, but very tedious puzzles. Very few of the puzzles stood out as interesting, and one in particular has you jumping back and forth between Ages using the shell cloths you find on the walls."
"Then there are the two "waiting" puzzles. These are completely unforgivable because each requires waiting and doing nothing for about fifteen minutes. One of those literally requires you to leave your character standing in one spot, unmoving, for about fifteen minutes. It's not much of a puzzle when you're leaving your game to put on a load of laundry or give the cat a bath. Why anyone thought this would be a good idea is hard to figure out; the only reasonable explanation is that it was meant to pad out the gameplay a bit."
"Standalone, The Path of the Shell misses most of what made the original Uru an interesting game to play."



Sharper's Spy Room Puzzle, Part Two
futographer has released the link to the Secret Forum where the second half of the puzzle is being played. "For those of you who are playing SSRP for the first time and you would like access to the Top Secret Forum after you have finished the first half...here is the key...The Top Secret Forum. This will give you clues to the second half of the puzzle. Enjoy! Pa'trick."



Stan's "Can You Find It?" Puzzle
In an attempt to "clean up" the News page, I'll be putting the puzzles (Stan's and Jürg's) on their own page. Here's Stan's "Can You Find It?" Puzzle.



Don't Forget "Shell-Shocked" Today
The Guild of Greeters Third Gathering is titled "Shell-Shocked." From LaReh: "Our 3rd Gathering will be Saturday July 17th, 2004 starting at approximately 6 pm ET. "SHELL-shocked!" is the theme as we trade our first impressions of the new Ages and puzzles from URU: Expansion Pack 2: The Path Of The Shell. See you there!"



Day Two of Stan
The day begins with this post from Stan :"Seek the Path of the Stan..." inki discovered that by looking in Stan's UO Profile that his home page was www.esso.com. Hmmm...



Path of the Shell Flymode Patcher Available
Hastin posted: " Hi all. I finally made a patcher for FlyMode. Please test it on a clean installation of POTS. It should work. It worked on all my computers.
"I was a lazy bum, and used Clickteam's freeware patching program, but it does work.
"Download, Run. Change the install directory if needed.
"NOTE: Since all it does is patch, you must have a clean POTS installed (no edits on python.pak). Also, it might be a smart idea to backup the old python.pak in the /Python/ directory of your Uru folder. There is no uninstall option.
"If you are at all confused by this, then just download it, and run it. If things are not right, it will tell you.
"Check it out." Note: According to Ravin on the UO Forums, the ability to turn is not included in this patch.



July 16, 2004
Stan's First Step Puzzle
In an attempt to "clean up" the News page, I'll be putting the puzzles (Stan's and Jürg's) on their own page. Here's Stan's First Step Puzzle.



Next Step in Jürg's Puzzle
As noted earlier, Jürg at MYSTerium.ch has asked us to send in pix of Atrus (Rand) and here's the result:

What do the symbols mean?
Solution: The characters are Wingdings, that translate to Rand Miller is Atrus, or http://www.mysterium.ch/hidden/randmillerisatrus.jpg. Nice puzzle, Jürg!



Gas Station Stan "Speaks"
As mentioned earlier, Stan has returned. You might remember him from an earlier puzzle, that produced a great concept shot from Revelation. Well, he's started another thread, called "Tonight." He just posted a link, Beginning, that when clicked leads to an mp3. The best interpretation I can make of it is:
"Each journey begins with a series of steps.
The first step will be the easiest.
The journey begins with a riddle,
the riddle leads to the beginning of the journey.
Collect information, make the connection, and reveal the revelation."



Words of the Watcher Deciphering Project
Gadren has begun an interesting thread: "This thread is for us to try and figure out the meaning of all the verses in "Words." As time goes on and more verses have their meaning figured out, I will note them in this post.
Some of these verses are obvious, and tomorrow, I'll try to upload the ones I've thought of. But for now, let's see what you all think. -Gadren." Be on the lookout for endgame spoilers.



Fly Mode for PotS
Anonymous54321 posted: "Here's version 3.1 of UruPython. It correct two bugs found in version 3.0 which are:
- Problem handling quote in pathname (like "To D'ni")
- Handling of tuple with one element in Decompyle
Apart from those two changes, this version is identical to version 3.0 (see post #18 in this thread). The two files that has changed are UruPython.exe and decompyleXX.pak where XX is either 98 or NT."
But will it work on PotS? Here's an answer from LiquorCooChee: "It works great in POTS! Grab the new "URU Python3.1. It contains everything you will need."



Another Puzzle From Jürg
This appeared this morning on MYSTerium.ch: "48 | more |" When you click More, this appears: secret06.jpg. Lots of shots of Atrus (Rand) with an email address: atrus@mysterium.ch. Send in your shots now!



Revelation Release Date
Also posted by Jürg was a link to the German Ubi Release List, with this for Myst 4: "23. Sept. Myst® IV Revelation PC & MAC."



Gas Station Stan Strikes Again
This was posted today on the MO Forums: " Are you ready?"



Online Games a Massive Pain 
Here's an analysis of the ongoing failures of online games: Online Games a Massive Pain.



July 15, 2004
Walkthrough for Futo's Sharper's Spy Room Puzzle in the Works
futo posted: "Walkthrough under construction...check back soon" but there is a full-sized shot that offers clues. Be sure to check it out!



A Twist to Jürg's Puzzles
If you've been following the last few days, you know that Jürg at MYSTerium.ch has been feeding us puzzles, that when solved reveal cool stuff (images, sound files, etc) from Myst 4. Well, we were waiting for the next puzzle when he said that we needed to look at the previous puzzles again. SmileyMe noticed this in the comments of the mp3: 071514091415221513.231322. It took us awhile, but we figured that each number was a letter, so 01=a, 02=b, etc. This produced goninovom.wmv. Made no sense. By rearranging the letter, we finally came up with: http://www.mysterium.ch/evenbetterhidden/nowmoving.mov. Not much, but worth watching.



More 'Revelation in Paris' Shots
On an UbiSoft French Uru Forum, I found more shots from the press conference, including a look at the hint system. Check it out here. Also, I found a much better version of one of the shots we've already seen. It's a panoramic (2358x802 pixels): Myst 4 Panorama.



Bonus Content in Uru Strategy Guide
Gadren pointed out to Dan'ni, who posted: "As reported by M&UO's member Gadren, the Complete Chronicles Strategy Guide contains a whole section called "The Making of URU," which contains details about the history of Cyan, Myst and Riven, and a lot of new information about URU. What might interest fans most are the numerous sketches and some screenshots from unreleased Ages of URU!" Included in the post is a scan of Kahlo, an unreleased age from Uru. Thanks, guys!



More on worrenw's Efforts
worrenw posted: "Stop the presses! Let me catch my breath! Asustek Computers, the Taiwan based computer component maker that many people love to bash just sent an email to the American Legion post after reading about our veteran's project and pledged to ship 6 fully equipped machines to us for donation. They're even going to include Windows XP home, speakers and flat panel monitors. Now we only need 8 more. I'm so happy I could bust. To any who may have doubted just how far and wide UO was read, put those doubts to rest. We're World Class all the way. Thank you Asus."



Solution to Yesterday's Mysterium Puzzle...and a New One!
I've been asked to refrain from placing the spoiler images from Myst 4 here and, as it turns out, SmileyMe (the solver of the latest puzzles) has created a site to track the puzzles, Mystery on MYSTerium.ch. So, in the future I will reference SmileyMe's page rather than showing the puzzles/solutions here. Thanks, SmileyMe and good job in solving the puzzles!



Update on Eric Anderson's Uru Video
Janet DeVore has alerted me to the fact that Eric's video and homepage have moved; the video is now here and the homepage is now here. Thanks, Janet!



July 14, 2004
Great Story
As many know, worrenw has been collecting PCs to give to shut-in Vets. Here's his latest post: "We're still 14 machines short of our goal but that's not why I started this post. As I posted, we donated machines to veteran's nursing homes. Those places are depressing. It gives me chills thinking about them. Two days ago something occurred in one of them that was way out of the ordinary. An 82 year old World War 2 veteran who has spent the last 50 years sitting on the sun deck in his wheel chair spoke for the first time in a decade. His words were to a fellow veteran who was busy in Teledahn. I was there as were his doctor and some of the staff and I may not ever forget what he said. He rolled his wheelchair up and said " Boy, get your butt outta there and let a man play that game" The "boy" was not racially motivated but the fact that he spoke and came alive again just floored everybody. Friends, if that's the last great thing I hear about URU and POTS it will be remembered for the rest of my life."



Jurg's secret01, 02 and 03
In an attempt to "clean up" the News page, I'll be putting the puzzles (Stan's and Jürg's) on their own page. Here's Jurg's secrets01, 02, and 03.



Update to PotS Survey
As noted below, Eric Votava from Cyan Worlds asked for specific info from users who have had problems after installing PotS. Here's the results, so far: "Everyone, thanks so much for your help. There are a couple of things that Ubisoft Customer Service has been informed about regarding player corruption, but not sure how widespread the information is on these things.
I want to post it here so you all can be aware of what to watch out for and let others know if you want:
- If people were using directories that had a Uru Live update when they made their player to begin with, and then try to use said player to run To D'ni or TPoTS, the player will most likely become corrupted and we can't do anything about that, as Uru Live was discontinued and is no longer supported.
- Also, if people install TPoTS, then uninstall, then install Prime, and run the game, they'll screw up their players because that's an unsupported install method, i.e., players can go to newer products, but not to older ones. Never hurts to backup players prior to uninstalling/reinstalling."



The Watcher's 'Book of Words'
Farlesis (at The Great Tree) posted: "The Watchers 'Book of Words' has been added to the Encyclopedia." Here's a link to the Encyclopedia and a link to the Book of Words.



Updated inki's Avi Portrait Page
If you haven't been there for awhile, check it out: inki's Avi Portraits. We're up to 42 portraits!



Secret Rooms Found in Rolep
Shangra posted at COBBS: "Ok. There are 3 secret rooms in Rolep (behind the canvas curtains) that can be visited. Unfortunately a blocker stops you from getting in. Fly-mode is a way to bypass such issue. Alternatively by prp editing (a well known and old hack).
In this case the related file is: RestorationGuild_District_Main.prp
Open it with a hex editor or urufun. Invert all bits and locate the following five instances:
CanvasCollision01 - 05
Just replace the first letter with, say, a K (but any other letter will do). Invert again all bits, save and make the checksum update (either with urusum or urufun). You are all set. You can start the game.
Warning! One of the five canvas courtains (the one semi-opened) has no room behind and if you go past that one after the steps you'll fall through the floor. (I didn't know which one of the five it was, so I had to edit all five instances). Enjoy."



URU Video by Eric Anderson
Dan'ni posted: "Eric Anderson, one of the Cyan employees, updated his website with a two and a half minute video showing the areas and Ages on which he worked on. The video is 10MB big and includes some spoilers from URU: Ages Beyond Myst and Path of the Shell. Eric's URU Video." Thanks Eric and Dan'ni!



Myst Updater Announced
Briler posted: " Well, it's not exactly purdy, but it does what it's supposed to do, and before I start polishing it up I'd like to both see what people think of it and test it out on as many other computers other than my own...
- The MystUpdater is an Active Desktop for your Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP PC. Using top-secret, space-time-continuum-defying methods, it gathers up the headlines from the Myst Worlds site, Myst Obsession, and Uru Obsession and displays them in three boxes on your desktop. You can instantly refresh the news for all three sites with the push of a button. Kinda hard to explain beyond that, you'll have to try it for yourself.
- Now, I've only tested it here on my own XP computer, though I am assuming it will work on the previously stated Windows OSes - but that's where you come in If you're feeling particularly adventuresome, I invite you to download it and give it a try and help me make sure everything works.
- The file can be downloaded here, it includes a Readme.txt file with setup instructions. If they aren't clear, please let me know and I'll try and help in any way I can.
- On a side note, I hope that the webmasters of MO, UO and MW don't mind me using their respective logos for the boxes, I guess I should have asked before I started, but if you'd rather me take them off, just let me know.
- Sooo, that's about it! It's nearly 4:00am here, so I'm gonna hit the sack and grab a couple Zs before work - it's such a relief to finally have this in working condition
- Again, I'd love to hear any comments, suggestions etc. that you may have. Bring it on!"



July 13, 2004
SHARPER'S SPY ROOM PUZZLE: We now have all five winners!
Futographer posted: "Deius, Mystdee, Ti'Chelle, susanszy54 and tapeduper makes 5! Congratulations all! All of you are actually winners. You played by the rules and put up with my silly clues. I hope you all had fun and enjoyed yourselves. For those who wish to continue to work together to solve this puzzle...go ahead.
I will put spoilers here in a bit and will start another UO thread soon that will have a complete walk through.
I had lots of fun too..Pa'trick"



Path of the Shell Problem Survey
Eric Votava at Cyan has asked for specific info from those who are having problems after installing PotS. He asks: "What configuration was the player you had prior to installing TPoTS? Was it:
(a) A player that had made partial progress in Uru
(b) A player that had completed Uru
(c) A player that had made partial progress in both Uru and To D'ni
(d) A player that had completed Uru and made partial progress in To D'ni
(e) A player that had completed To D'ni and made partial progress in Uru
(f) A player that had completed both Uru and To D'ni
(g) A player that had participated at one point in Uru Live (knowing the
progress of that player in the single player games would help too)
(h) New player that was created after installing TPoTS that ended up being
corrupted somehow (please explain)
(i) Other (please explain)
"One thing I really want to know is if players that are becoming corrupted after TPoTS is installed are players that were previously used in an UruLive directory (Uru Lives updates were made to the directory that the old
player was in before To D'ni or TPoTS were installed)." Send your answers to Eric at votava@cyan.com.



New Puzzle from Futographer
futographer posted: "Okay, so I'm going on a two week vacation to Italy (Lord willing) on July 30th. I have decided to create a puzzle for you wonderful explorers to work on while I am gone. (that means I will not be around to give any clues) I bet you that you as a team won't be able to solve it by the time I get back. Care to wager?
- To play, you must be willing to throw something in the kitty. Ti'Chelle said she would wager a globe pencil sharpener in memory of the Sharper's Spy Room Puzzle. Anything will do, but you have to be willing to actually send it to me if you as a group can't solve it.
What do I wager? Ti'Chelle, since you are putting something in the kitty so will I. Since this is My Italian Vacation Puzzle, I wager a picture of you doing your favorite thing in Italy! Would you like a photo of yourself holding up the Leaning Tower of Piza?
- So for everyone who puts something in the kitty, tell me what you want a photo of yourself doing and I will take the picture when I am there. If you send me your picture (in the appropriate pose), I will put you in Italy doing that thing and send it back to you! If you don't put something into the kitty...no picture.
- So when you declare what you are putting in the kitty, tell me what picture you want to see yourself in. We are going to all the traditional tourist places. Rome- the Coleseum, Vatican City, Sistene Chapel, Curcus Maximus, Mt. Vesuveus, City of Pompeii. Florence- David, Leaning Tower of Piza. Venice- the Grand Canal, St. Mark's Square. Verona- Juliet's Balcony. Malan- La Scala Opera House etc.
- But if you as a team don't solve it...you have to send me what you put in the kitty. Only one of you needs to solve it for everyone betting to win and there are no secrets to keep from the others. You can share the solution...if you can figure it out.
- The puzzle will be posted on July 29th at 6 pm. MST and your time runs out on Saturday August 14th at Noon MST...that will give you actually about 16 days. (We futonians are so generous)
Perhaps you would like to buddy up with the Pope. or tickle David's toes (the statue)?
Anything you wager is fine, but if you had confidence in your problem solving abilities you would wager something cool! I live in Arizona in case you are concerned about shipping costs."



More Info and Pictures From Revelation Press Conference
Jürg wrote: "German Myst fan Laloona had the chance to attend the Revelation press conference in Paris last thursday. She posted a report on her website, www.looriva.de, with a lot of new photos. It's in German." Click here to see the thread. Thanks, Jürg! I grabbed a few of the pix that I liked:

(Left: Revelation on a Mac!) (Center: Laloona with Kha'tie) (Right: Hey, I want one of those!)


Reminder of Guild of Greeters' 3rd gathering...This Saturday
As reported last month, LaReh posted: "Our 3rd Gathering will be Saturday July 17th, 2004 starting at approximately 6 pm ET. "SHELL-shocked!" is the theme as we trade our first impressions of the new Ages and puzzles from URU: Expansion Pack 2: The Path Of The Shell. The game will be out for at least a week by then and we should all have stories to tell and opinions to share. See you there!"



Update on UruLive Hosting
almlys posted: "Well, I think that is time to start revealing some stuff to the public..., but I'm going to be very careful What happens with *this* Uru server.
* First the server code/software server that I know about it, it is not public, and I'm not expecting to see it public until some months...
* The windows port has been abandoned several months ago, so it only Works under Linux, and it doesn't compile under any other system. It can be ported to other unix like systems, but forget windows. Windows is a hateful OS to develop software, and you need to waste too much €€€ to get it working..
* Also, Uru To d'ni and The path of the shell work well with the server, but there are some other big problems that doesn't have Uru Prime.
* The server wastes a lot of bandwidth, and bandwidth is too expensive.
* I'm expecting to see LAN play someday soon, but you will need an independent Linux box running the server.
* The whole stuff is on hold, waiting for a miracle..
More questions?
Well, If someone wants to know why I know all this server stuff, it is because I'm in contact with one of the guys that is coding this stuff, nothing else..."


Bwing back zhe Quabs
G'ildor posted: "Ask and ye shall receive. Just point this little beauty at your main URU folder (if you did a normal install it should find it for you), select your player, and enjoy! This utility is pretty paranoid, so it *shouldn't* screw anything up, but I make no warranties of any kind; use at your own risk! Source code is provided, but you *really* don't want to go there--it's a mishmash of several hastily written utilities that were never meant to see the light of day..." BwingQuabs.zip.



July 12, 2004
Myst Series Tribute Video
Gehn posted: "he Myst Obsession staffers and I are proud to present you with a small video we've put together, A Tribute to the MYST Series. Beware that the video has spoiler images from URU's expansion pack, The Path of the Shell. A Tribute to the Myst Series. (Note: The file is in the Windows Media Player format; right-click and choose "Save As.")


Update to Sharper's Spy Room Puzzle
Here's the latest from futo: "We have 2 winners so far who have completed the entire puzzle. Deius and Mystdee. We now have by my count about 20 other people working on solving the second half. There are still people solving part one. Right now someone just starting part one can still win a prize if they get through part one and finish part two before the others. When we have 5 winners I will post everything here. The avatar names of all the winners, a picture of what they won, the final solution etc. On another thread I will post a walkthrough of the entire puzzle."



July 11, 2004
Journey Cloth on eBay
For the collector: URU: Ages Beyond Myst JOURNEY CLOTH .... !!! The auction is by "mrflibbles." If nothing else, you gotta check it out. Doesn't look bad, but $40?


Updated Uru Images Section at MystNews
I've moved the Path of the Shell images to their own pages, based on the Age: Ahnonay, Er'Cana and Rolep. I've also updated the Uru Images page. Caution: Lots of spoilers on the PotS pages.


Shots From Myst 4 Paris Press Conference
Jürg at Mysterium.ch posted a link to the French site that shows pix (at the bottom of the page) from the press conference, including shots of Rand Miller and Jack Wall. Jürg also has the shots on his Myst 4 image page (scroll to the bottom).


Cast of Revelation Revealed
Gehn at MystObsession posted: "According to the French gaming article recently released, the actors playing Sirrus and Achenar in Revelation are Brian Wrench and Guy Sprung respectively. Patrick Fortier of the Revelation team has also told the Myst Obsession forum members that Juliette Gosselin is the actress who plays Yeesha. We will be posting links to additional information about these actors shortly.
French Revelation Article
Brian Wrench IMDB
Guy Sprung IMDB
Juliet Gosselin IMDB"



July 10, 2004
Update to Revelation Demo News
Dusante asked: "Will the demo be Mac and PC too?" Pat answered: "Yeah yeah, MAC & PC. It will have Most of the game elements (picture-taking device, journal, zip-mode & amulet???, but not the help-system... Not yet at least...And yes, size WAS a problem with this demo..."


Tons of New Revelation Images
And I mean tons! Martin Sabran, CG Lead Artist for Myst IV Revelation, posted this: "Here are some links to new images released and a new review of a recent press coverage done in France for the European market." I have created pages for them all: Revelation Animals, Revelation Sketches and Revelation Images2. Warning: Most of these have never been seen before and are very much spoilers! Oh, and here's the review: Premier voyage dans le monde de Myst IV. Yep, it's in French.
Update: Oops, I missed a page: Yeesha Posed. (I differentiate these from the others because these are obviously posed publicity photos, while the others are either in-game or concept art.)


Corrected Timeline
Thanks to the eagle eye of Zubeller, an error was found on my Timeline page;the sequence of discovery of the first two images was reversed. Instead of gremlin4128 noticing 1016 57 -86, followed by grilox finding Pub.jpg, the first image discovered was actually Library.jpg. Dohati Endetan saw the coordinates (56965 99 -77) first and Arowin found Library.jpg. I have corrected the order of discovery. Thanks, zub!


worrenw Needs Help
worrenw successfully donated 32 computers, with PotS installed, to shut-in vets and needs 14 more. If anyone can help, read this thread at UO and PM him. Thanks, worrenw!



July 9, 2004

Revelation Playable Demo is Complete
Patrick posted: "Our playable demo is now DONE. It should be available within 3-4 weeks! (we're trying to follow your advice and NOT make it available too close to POTS )."


In-Game Journal Available Outside of PotS
One of the cool new features of PotS is an in-game journal (if you haven't tried it, you should), but if you want to check your notes, you have to launch PotS, right? No, says Mowog: "Just an observation that might prove helpful -- the Journal that we get in PotS is a pretty decent tool for keeping notes, but it's a bit clumsy to edit. Plus, you have to run Uru to see the contents, and if you're just brainstorming ideas, that might be inconvenient.
"It turns out that the Journal contents, as you enter them, are saved as an HTML document in your "Uru - Ages Beyond Myst" folder. Look for a folder called "MyJournals," and it will be in there. You can open it with any browser, and edit it with a text editor, all outside of Uru. The changes will be reflected next time you run Uru."


Using IM to Explore the Path Together
Pa'lua wrote: "Unlike a number of community members who have already experienced much, if not all, of the Path of the Shell. I have only ventured as far as my Relto and only did this to insure that I had installed my download properly. I am waiting so that I can enjoy sharing the experience with my good friend Lash. "Sharing?" you say, "Live is no longer….how can you share?" Well, I'll tell you how we do it, but first a little background.
Lash and I met on the balcony overlooking what is commonly called the shopping district of D'ni during Uru Live. As I had been fortunate enough to have come down during the early days of exploration, I was more than happy to share my knowledge of places and events with a new adventurer.
" Both of us were very saddened by the loss of Live, but continued our friendship through MSN Messenger. Eventually, we added headsets and microphones, even web cam, so that we could stay in contact with one another.
"When To D'ni was released, we wanted desperately to be able to explore together and then finally we hit upon a plan.
"With our headsets on, we started the audio feature in Messenger. We then booted up the game, clicked on the Graphics Tab in the Setup Window and clicked on the Windowed box. Once the game started up, we enlarged the window so that it was almost full screen. After that we were off to explore every inch of D'ni and the Ages together.
" It was great! We worked on puzzles together and each other's breath catch as we spied another stunning vista. I could almost imagine Lash standing right beside me. And I could definitely hear him breathing in my ear.
"No, it's not the perfect solution I admit. But being able to share the exploration in this manner makes the experience so much more enjoyable for me.
"Lash is on Australia time, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow morning to play when he's home from work. But that's ok….for me being able to share the PotS experience with him is worth the wait. Pa'lua"


Complete Walkthroughs For All Areas Available at UruObsession
Dan'ni posted: "All walkthroughs are now available. I'll add pics to them asap." You can find them in the UO Library. Thanks, Dan!


Walkthrough by Coelho Buda
Coelho Buda has written a Path of the Shell walkthrough and it's available on the Guild of Greeter's site. Also on that site is an updated FAQs, showing the locations of the Relto pages in the new ages.


We Have a Winner!
Deius is the first to completely solve the entire Sharper's Spy Room Puzzle! Congratulations, Deius!



July 8, 2004
Update to Sharper's Spy Room Puzzle
We now have six! And a clarification from futographer: "Just to make sure everyone understands....there are 2 parts to this puzzle. Those5 who have solved it up till now are not the "winners." They are only half way through. You too can still solve the first half and join them in the Top Secret Forum to work on the second half...and you can still win. Nobody has solved the entire puzzle yet. There is still plenty of time for you to catch up."


Note to European PotS Downloaders
Aquila sent this to The Lyst: "Was just reading at http://www.adventuregamers.com/newsitem.php?id=617
that European customers will need to go to: http://shop.ubi.com/prod_extdesc.asp?catalogid=123&id=89
To get their downloadable version of TPotS. The procedure differs from the North American instructions, in that one needs to: "Add the game to your basket, validate and follow the order process to play instantly."
This has been a Lyster PSA :) Aquila." Thanks, Aquila.


Winner #2 in Sharper's Spy Room Puzzle
Futographer announced: "We have another explorer who has solved the first half of Sharper's Spy Room Puzzle. That makes 2 so far...are you next?"
Update: Two more have solved the puzzle, bringing the total to four!



July 7, 2004
Pre-Orders Marked as "Shipped" Not Shipped
knottyboy had the same experience as some and he called UbiSoft Customer Service. He posted what happened: "I was wondering why my POTS is still sitting on the Ubisoft site as shipped, yet I've not received any word as to a shipping verification or tracking #. So I called the 800# and talked to a very nice guy who proceeded to tell me that all of the shipments marked as SHIPPED as of the 1st of JULY are still sitting in the shipping dock waiting for UPS to give them tracking #'s so they can go out!
"Cust. serv. did take my suggestion for a new tag saying awaiting shipment verification and sent it to management. My plea to anyone else that is getting burned by this again is to complain to customer service to send the same suggestion to finally fix this mess."


Only Five Installs for Downloaded PotS?
indy posted the following, copied during the install of a downloaded copy: "Be carefull before you download and buy the electronic version. I did it and regret it already. From my receipt:
Thank you for your purchase of Myst® Uru™: The Path of the Shell. You have purchased an *electronic* copy and now have FULL access to the product. No CD-ROM will be shipped since it is not required. The license you have purchased is only valid for your computer. In the event of a license loss, a change in your computer's configuration or if you wish to install the software on additional computers, you will have to RENEW your license by providing us with your: ACTIVATION CODE: (removed) You have the right to acquire 5 RENEWALS without charge.
It doesn't say how many times you are allowed to install it on the same computer. I did get a new Trymedia folder with a key in it maybe I should make a backup of that.Conclusion: The download is quick but you are not allowed to install it on as many computers as with the disk version. I also wonder if you can still install it again after a couple of years."


Installation Help
Gretch posted some help at UO, as the install process for PotS can be stressful. No spoilers, just good advice. Thanks, gretch.


The Path of the Shell is Available for Download!
From MystWorlds: "As part of the launch of Uru: The Path of the Shell, the online download version is now live! The second expansion pack to Uru can be purchased online by following these instructions: Download the game (ftp://uruxp2-downloadus.ubi.com/mysturutpotstm.exe. Install and Launch the game. Purchase the game
You will see a screen that says you need to purchase the game. Click on ‘Buy Full Version”." You may have to wait a bit. Early reports are that the download server is swamped.
Update: The Ubi Store has been updated with a "Download the Game" button.
More follow-ups: 1) Aquila wrote to The Lyst: "I think Ubi might have reset the servers, as I'm seeing more people around the various forums having some sucess :)
2) Gadren posted: "If you look at the MystWorlds information, one downloads the file, then unlocks it via purchase. This means that it is perfectly legal (and encouraged, with the current server issues) to share the downloaded file."
3) Srikandi posted: "Keep trying, and as mirrors become available, will folks please post them here?"
Bit Torrents Available: This is from DataSage: http://www.theworldisgrey.com/uru/mysturutpotstm.exe.torrent. This should work; let me know if anyone has problems. I'm currently the only seed, so if anyone has the file, I would appreciate it if you help seed the download. You can do so by opening that torrent in your client and telling it to save the file where you have the file downloaded."
And Etceteral posted this at UO:"Torrent link here:
http://mirror.redwire.net/private/mysturutpotstm.torrent
Credit: Redwire Broadband"


UruObsession Has It All!
Just added to their Library are Hints, guides and Walkthroughs for The Path of the Shell, as well as all the Journals and letters from the Expansion Pack. Also added are the locations and actions of all new Relto pages and Linking Stones. (Man, it's hard not to peek!)


Jenny Retiring as Guild Master
Jenny of the Guild of Greeters is retiring. Here's her post: "Hello all you Wonderful Greeters:
I wanted to take a moment to let you know that I have retired as a Guild Master. This is a good decision for me because of health, family, and time issues. I have enjoyed being here and interacting with you. I think that the best people in the Myst Community are here in this forum. You guys have made being a GM so rewarding. Thank you for all of your support and your friendship. I will continue to visit with y'all because some of my friends only post in the GoG forums and I don't want to lose touch with you. I will still be involved in other areas of the MYST Community, but only as time allows. I have reprioritized my life and I don't feel sad about it at all. I feel very happy. I am opening a new chapter in my life. Once again Thank you. You all are the Best"



July 6, 2004
And So It Ends, Where It Began
The message on the shell.html page has changed from a question mark to this: The ending is tied to the beginning. almech realized what that meant; look to where the journey started, which is the DRCSite.org Forum. Sheldon first posted: "A new path is created. Will you find it? Tomorrow." Thus began a turbulent time, through obscure clue after clue. Looking at the last post in that thread, we find this:


I'll take my thank you list from Adven Turer, who posted the following: "Thanks to:
Dhiammara, Animan, Tehl Nava, korteenea, frontmullet, Camann, schloi, Brad'li, Jenson, nathan12343, Nina Redbone, b'squared,
Dohati Endetan, J'on-a'than, Ravin, CaZiNoJo, moody, jarelav, Azador, SmileyMe, Mystlander, Rizpah, TheMYSTerious1, grilox, patchallel, Kehra, starfyre72, Professor Askew, Ri'Huai, Din'nen, EyeDE, BlackRaven, Gadren, Ashtar, Banzai, Preachr46, Linkin' Imp, Durane, FifthEcho, Kevin8020, Eleri, L'lee, Chris, Alec, Zardoz, tapeduper, Murray, Nick, yo yo joe, BrettM, ireenquench, Goofling, dadungeon, Pepsi, juri1at, Old Man, maztec, Gehn, Ides, Miranda, Deius, Journeyman, help, OuterBody, Altairien, Trail_Mystic, halvor, koozie, asa160, KaokanDBZ, *JP*, korinth111, almlys, Loki, Jack, Maureen115, darkest, Swift3, syzygy, Magic88889, Ehd, Cradok, Slackmum, sploo22, Falopio, Sir'neir, Devokan80, inki, wolfgray, gelf56, pandarve, Nagash, fallstar, frolain, Jenniran, Mysty Fried, Zubeller, Derdiu, Zeus12345, frankenscarf, orrinjelo, eyoung100, Adian, NWRefund, tkwiggins, pietrobr, JayBee, Azsedcf, ChizuMan, immikeed, HannaGertie, kyven, Tweek, Louly, joclyn, Aeronie, Rutland1, ammaka, zazu, Deg, Haru ko, mcrib, JSteele1234, kevbo111, behle, Adven Turer, achren, Arowin, LunaOnAir, stuff, Astar, A'lan, Mystdee, bines, Rakka, Erithan, NCC-1701, Andromeda, reg-loh, Rol'an, Aitrus81, Yired Unywin, West Wind, tobes, McBeorn, Marein, M'buhir, Elle-Meme, Fatal_Exception, TeaL, Jargon, Lull, budye, Gehn123, AmO, magoochris, domahreh, uruspiral, Chuxter, almech, gremlin4128, mikrasov, ulme69, The Broken Light, KnightOwl, tmaster, tsrblke, *Gehn*, Miguel Salazar, Rookie, KateVa, Bedford, MystMan, Falii, Ti'Chelle, TheMarinater, futographer, carterhawk, Melawa, MYSTeriousSage, KnightKXP4, JWPJ,
Sowden, SallyStudios, Melein, Eric, GallifreyLady, RAWAnnabe, SuperGram, Mystic_Al, quahog42, Ascalion, Adreth, and, of course, SHELDON."


Here's to an Outstanding Gesture
I'll let worrenw say what he posted: "Regardless of "agreements", etc. In this sleepy southern town we had a ceremony at 2pm today where we donated 32 computers to shutin veterans. The computers have Windows XP home, Uru, XP1 and POTS. I don't want to get anybody in trouble but a very good Compusa manager made sure we had copies of POTS in time for the ceremony. They say it won't ship until the 7th and the stores won't get it until the 9th. I really don't care. 32 disabled veterans are playing POTS right now. Thanks to CompUsa and a fine lady who risked her very job to get it into our hands. Almost 100 people attended the ceremony but we asked the local tv stations to hold the story until tomorrow to protect the innocent. I'm a veteran but I can still get around. These people who received our donation are stuck in the house 24/7. I can't spill anybody's hand but POTS is worth every minute of the wait." Outstanding.


Sheldon's Puzzle is Complete!


The clue (His obsession with cavern expansion might have come from Watcher prophecies) was noticed by Zubeller, who then found the image (Jaron.jpg)! Great job, Zub!
We still have the bonus page to deal with. Well, just as I typed that, it did:
Rutland - Best photograph
Imp and Laura Reno - Most photographs submitted
Arowin and Korteenea - Best Sheldon fan sites
And this in the source code: Thanks to everyone who follows the Path!
One mystery remains: Clicking "Shell" on the main page brings up this page ?
All pages updated: PotS Puzzle, 900x720, My adjusted version as a jpg, Timeline and My labelled page as a jpg.


What is a Coordinate?
Based on work he has done creating puzzles, futographer has valuable information about the nature of coordinates in Uru: "In creating the Sharper's Spy Room Puzzle I discovered that it was possible to be in the same coordinate and be in two different places. Based on some quick experments I had previously thought that a coordinate was an area about 3 ft. by 3 ft. to scale. I was wrong." Read more here.


PotS Webkit Available at MystWorlds
Apparently, the webkit mentioned earlier was created by Tweek and is now available for download at MystWorlds. As I mentioned before, the webkit includes many spoiler images, so be cautious.


UbiSoft May Release PotS Early
From Dusante at UO: " In light of the recent premature releases of POTS and CC, Ubisoft is currently working on releasing POTS today in the Ubisoft store, including the download store!" Follow-up: Dusante posted: "After trying to move the release dates forward for POTS and CC, they cannot be moved due to prior agreements between Ubisoft and the retailers (stores like Wallmart, and EBGames). So we will have to wait untill tomorrow for the official release date."
Also from UO: " It's the day before Path of the Shell's official release and we worked hard to get as much content to you as possible as soon as possible. And so we present to you the first of the Path of the Shell content in the Uru Obsession's Library!
AHNONAY: Age Page uploaded!
ER'CANA: Age Page uploaded!
D'NI - ROLEP: Age Page uploaded!"


PotS Webkit Available at the German Uru Site
Offlar posted: "The German site has a nice PotS Webkit. Click for Download." The kit includes some spoiler content, so use carefully.


Update on the Sharper's Spy Room Puzzle
According to futographer, Deius is the only person (so far) who has solved the first part of the puzzle. Good going, Deius!



July 5, 2004
A Very Busy Jack Wall
Jack updated his Journal. Here's a quick quote: "I'm finishing up and the in-game mixing today and tomorrow before I leave to do a major press event in Paris tomorrow. The event takes place on Thursday, July 8th and Ubisoft was very generous to invite some key members of the development team to speak about making Myst IV to over 60 prominent music, game and mainstream entertainment journalists in Europe. The buzz on this game is really great - so far every write-up has been more than positive - some calling it the best ever in the series - and one saying "this Myst fixes all the problems we've ever associated with Myst." I totally agree. I think this game will be an absolute joy to play."


All Five Winners Announced in the Triple Jig Saw Puzzle
futographer posted: "The winners in the order that they solved it are...
Elkae
Altairien
RAWAnnabe
Kevin8020
ireenquench"
The word that everyone was searching for was "mystery," and here's the image: mystery.
And here's the page that you got if you solved the puzzle (and it shows the prize): mystery.Congratulations, everyone!


Some Have PotS Early
Dusante reported: "It seems *some* stores are putting POTS on the shelves early! There have been a few reports of people who have allready recieved their box and are playing the game right now." Dusante included three links: from the French forum with a screenshot, POTS already in stores thread and POTS gameplay discussion. Caution: There are already tons of spoilers in the last thread.


One Clue From Sheldon Plus a New Page!
Andromeda found the clue (Pushed his religious convictions on the D’ni people) and solved it: Veesha. And Zubeller noticed something in the source code: bonus.html. Andromeda correctly noted that the first "The" on the Follow the Path page now goes to that page, which is titled blue flowers in the desert. On that page is just one word "Coming." All pages updated: PotS Puzzle, 900x720, My adjusted version as a jpg, Timeline and My labelled page as a jpg.


Two Winners, So Far, in the Triple Jig Saw Puzzle
futographer posted: "Yes someone has solved the Triple Jig Saw Puzzle again! Like before their name will remain confidential until we have 5 winners so that the other players don't request hints or the solution from them.
This means that there are prizes left for 3 of you! Solve the puzzle while there are still prizes left. So get out there and start solving! And have fun!"


First Golden KI Winner!
Alahmnat announced the first winner: Great Zero Calibration Chamber Access by Natika. Congratulations, Natika! The competition is now open for the next round. Here are the rules.


Itinerary for Aussie Mini Mysterium
Simon wrote to The Lyst: "Hi everyone,
After taking into account many people's limited budget, I propose the following format for the Aussie Mini Mysterium.

"Easter Friday Day 1: Early afternoon (2pm) shall mark the official start of Aussie Mini Mysterium. We'll have initial introductions in the lobby of the hotel, then we'll head off on a short tour of Sydney. After the tour, we'll go somewhere cheap for dinner - we can find out from the tour guide a nice and cheap place that we can go and have dinner in, and just socialise and laugh really loudly.

"Easter Saturday Day 2a: Assuming great weather, we'll head out around 10am or 10:30am for a national park with BBQ facility. I will attempt to find one with a short track/bushwalk nearby so that while things are cooking, some people can choose to go off and see if they can spot some wildlife in the area. The rest of the afternoon will be filled in
whatever activity and games people can dream up or bring. Free time in the evening.

"Easter Saturday Day 2b: Assuming poor weather, we will probably end up spending the day at one of the museum (the cost for transportation to a national park will probably be equivalent to that of an entry cost for a museum), followed by general socialising back at the hotel. Alternatively, we could spend the day at Starcity, Sydney's largest casino. They do have non-gambling facilities such as restaurants and areas where we can relax and socialise, so don't get worried. Generally speaking, the facility and architecture will probably impress people who haven't been to Las Vegas :P Keep your fingers crossed for no rain though - I'd prefer the BBQ to go ahead. I'll even ask my dad to not wash the car the day before (it seems to always rain the day after my dad washes his car).

"This will end the budget version of the Aussie Mini Mysterium, which involves only 1 night of hotel for those wanting to come in right at the start. For those with severely limited budget and living around Sydney, you can come in during Easter Saturday just for the BBQ lunch and meet the people there and then, before heading home for the night.

"For those wanting a slightly more fancy Aussie Mini Mysterium, we can always extend to day 3 or even day 4 with laser tag, tour of the local Taroonga zoo, Sydney Aquarium, other museums, Easter Show etc (ie. activities involving more hefty costs)...

"In the draft itinerary that I plan on releasing the coming week, I will outline as many costs of each activity as possible. I'd appreciate opinions from anyone on what I wrote above. Thanks for your attention!"



July 4, 2004
The 8 Days of the Path... Day 4
Four newly released pieces of concept art, 2 from Kadish, one from Ahnonay: Official Gallery. Not sure where the fourth is from, possibly ErCana:



Random Musings on Something Else
From Dan'ni at UO: "In a resume of a Cyanist Robert Emanuele we can read that his Professional Experience includes working on a game called "Myst 5" (working title). Therefore it seems that the "Something Else" Cyan Worlds is currently working on could be the next sequel to the Myst series!" Robert Emanuele's Blog & Robert Emanuele's Resume. Note: From Robert's Blog I noted him saying that he wrote the bulk of the low-level networking code for UruLive.
And I found this at Bill Slease's blog: "Cyan is starting to feel again like why I came here. We're tapping into something. We're quickening. It's Something Else, and I feel like I'm on fire...in a good way."


Happy 4th of July!
Hope everyone has a safe holiday!
The MystWorlds Uru and Myst 4 Forums are all back up. No reason has been given for the outage, although Tweek commented: "its infopop need I say more."



July 3, 2004
Place Your Vote!
Don't forget to vote in the "Special Poll- Our Thanks to Some Outstanding Folks!" at MystWorlds. Here are the choices: Which outstanding effort to get the word out about The Path of the Shell is THE very best? (special thanks to GreyDragon)
Eleri and Foo for the awesome Path assets CD
Tweek for awesome Path banners (etc...)
LR Bolt for drop cards and various other ideas
Professor Askew for Demo CD's dropped off in Manhattan!
Sheldon for the Path of the Shell site
Eric L for drop cards
Deg for outstanding (and entertaining) ongoing efforts to make Path a great success!
All will receive a copy of PotS or Chronicles, but the winner's copy will be signed by Rand and the staff at Cyan!


Great PotS Shot at German Fansite
I was searching for Uru images that I had not seen before and found one at a German fansite: ErCana. It's 1600x1200 and it looks great.


Update on Ubi Forum Outage
The issue is with all of the Ubi index pages. You can still access the forum via history pages. Here are direct links to the various forums: Uru General Discussion - Spoiler Free, Please, Uru - The Journey Continues - Spoiler Free Please, The Gathered Will Tell..., and Myst IV: Revelation - General Discussion and Speculation (Spoiler Free, Please).



July 2, 2004
MystNews Uru Image Section Complete
I've added the latest page, Teledahn, to the Uru Images section. Now all I need is more screenshots from The Path of the Shell!


Only One From Sheldon
Zubeller saw the clue (No control, leadership, trust, or hope) and BrettM solved it (Behnashiren) and placed it properly. Great job! All pages updated: PotS Puzzle, 900x720, My adjusted version as a jpg, Timeline and My labelled page as a jpg.


Three Screenshots for the PotS Countdown
Actually, only one is new: Tunnel. Check out the rest in the Official Gallery at MystWorlds.


Aussie Mini-Mysterium Time/Location Confirmation
Simon Lai wrote to The Lyst: "Hi everyone, It's now confirmed. The 2005 Aussie Mini-Mysterium is going to be held during the 2005 March Easter holidays in the City of Sydney. That is, sometime between 25th of March 2005, to 28th of March, 2005.
"The event will be between 2 to 4 days, depending on people's budget and the number of activities planned. For those planning on attending the event, please email me if you have any special request for activities, such as laser tag (which I am already exploring). I will try my best to accomodate everyone's inputs.
"Regarding budget contraint for activities, I will attempt to keep it to AU$150 a day (equivalent to US$106.92 or NZ$165.8). This should hopefully include hotel, food, transportation, and all activity costs. For those attending, please let me know your opinion on this proposed budget constraint (ie. you can't afford it or you are willing to pay a bit more or it's fine etc).
"A tentative itinerary will be released 2 to 3 weeks from now. Submissions of preferred activities should be submitted preferably within 1 weeks time. If anyone would like to help me out in co-organising the event, please let me know."


Update on Mysterigon
As reported last month, there's a mini-Mysterium set for August 13-15 in the area of the cities of
Bend & Sisters, Oregon and K'laamas is asking "Who's coming?" If you plan on attending, let K'laamas known.


Interesting Image on UbiSoft Site
This image is appearing on the main UbiSoft site, along with Splinter Cell and Rainbox Six, in a Flash header:



Difficult to tell what age it is, but it's a nice shot and it's gratifying to see UbiSoft promoting Complete Chronicles so strongly.


Ubi's Uru and Myst 4 Forums Down
The problem started last night and continues today. No statement has been made as to cause or estimated uptime.



July 1, 2004
Another Two-fer! Two From Sheldon!
Melawa found one clue: Informed the public of the existence of the Relyimah. Miranda found it: Lanaren. I noticed the second: Self-gain and jealously. Miranda found that one, too: Tejara. And she placed them both in the right place. Good job! All pages updated: PotS Puzzle, 900x720, My adjusted version as a jpg, Timeline and My labelled page as a jpg.


Two New Wallpapers For Day 2 of Countdown to PotS
Two new images today and I have the 1280x1024 versions here: path wallpaper 1 and path wallpaper 2. Plus a bonus image (although it's been available before): To D'ni. If you'd rather download the zip files or get the smaller images (800x600 & 1024x768) click here.


Chucker Comments on LiveJournal
Chucker has a few things to say about Myst 4, Something Else and the Myst series in general. Check it out:
Something else.


New The Lysts Website Released
Aquila previewed the new site last month and announced to The Lyst yesterday that it is complete! Check out the new site now: www.TheLysts.com.

If you're looking for a previously released story, be sure to check the archived pages, listed below.