Archive of June 2004

Latest News:
June 30, 2004
The 8 Days of the Path... Day 1
Beginning today, MystWorlds will be counting down to the release of The Path of the Shell by posting a piece of concept art. Today's image is from Kadish.

bURUxelles Gather...and Take Pictures!
As reported earlier, fans in Belgium were organizing an event and it happened! As reported by Dan'ni, Qlex sent along pictures: bURUxelles.

One From Sheldon
Here's today's event: Zubeller noticed the clue (Born directly under the Arch) and orrinjelo solved it: Ahlsendar. All pages updated: PotS Puzzle, 900x720, My adjusted version as a jpg, Timeline and My labelled page as a jpg.

Jolt Gets a First look at Myst IV: Revelation
Eleri posted a link to this article: First look: Myst IV: Revelation. No true spoilers, although some of the facts are questionable. Here's a glimpse of what they have to say: "While the franchise creator, Cyan Worlds, is working on its fully 3D exploration of the extended Myst universe with the slightly less-than-successful Uru games, a development team at Ubisoft’s Montreal studios has been quietly working on the latest game that looks to be the final chapter in Myst-proper." That's interesting...
"If you’d been thinking that recent Myst efforts have lost their way, then Myst IV is set to correct that, not only with a return to the events of the original game and the deeply immersive worlds that made it so well-loved, but to the kind of embracing of current technology that helped the game become so popular in the first place."
"In Myst you could explore worlds that were ‘contained’ within books, and your task was to track down two brothers, Sirrus and Achenar, who were corrupt with power and madness; and then imprison them in two books created by their father, Atrus, where they would be isolated and unable to cause harm." I don't remember "tracking them down."
"Whether you’re excited about the story or not, Myst IV promises pure escapism. Although much of the game leaves you alone with the environment, there will be the occasional character interactions – in fact, around an hour of live action has been recorded, although the game will offer multiple alternative scenarios and endings depending on key choices that you make."

What Should Myst/Uru Fans Collectively Be Called?
Kha'tie posted the question: "What Should Myst/Uru Fans collectively be called?" Make your voice heard!

Progress on Futographer's Puzzles
ireenquench made a breakthrough last night and they are on the verge of making another discovery....maybe tomorrow! Read about it in the ANOTHER PUZZLE!, Look what I found! thread at UO. Also on Sharper's Spy Room Puzzle, although they are missing some clues....they are about to solve the first half of the puzzle! If you like puzzles, it's not too late to join in!

Interesting PotS Summary in MystWorlds Newsletter
MystWorlds sent out a newsletter yesterday, covering the various events and included the following to summarize PotS: "A new path has been opened in the great underground city of D'ni. It is a path to new Ages, massive in size, filled with new puzzles, new environments, and new ways of thinking. The rules have changed. Yeesha, the daughter of Atrus, has grown in power and ability. Time no longer limits her, and restrictions that have ruled the Art of Writing for so long have vanished. Millennia-old prophecies spoke of such a time: a time when the ways of old would change, and new ways would be ushered in with never-before-seen powers.
"Players must act. They must swim the waters of Ahnonay and navigate the machinery of Er'Cana. They must read the ancient writings and understand the rock paintings. They must observe, watch, wait, and think. They must walk the Path of the Shell. Only then will things become clear."

$10 Gift Voucher Offer at EB Games
EB Games is offering a $10 gift voucher (redeemable only at EBGames.com) when you purchase Complete Chronicles between now and July 30th.

Guild Master LaReh's Journal and Interview With Dusante
MystWorlds has put up a journal written by the Guild of Greeters' own LaReh as he works through the first expansion pack "To D'ni." Makes a great read. Also featured on MystWorlds is an interview with UruObsession's Dusante.

New inki's avi portraits Page
With the kind assistance of the talented Eleri, here is the new inki's avi portraits page. Thanks, Eleri!

June 29, 2004
Two Images From Sheldon Today
GallifreyLady found the first clue (Friend of Lahkeer, a great sculptor) and solved it: Needrah. inki found Needrah, found the next clue (Improved education system; added nine years to schooling) and solved it: Mararon. Gadren placed them both in the correct spot. Congrats to all! All pages updated: PotS Puzzle, 900x720, My adjusted version as a jpg, Timeline and My labelled page as a jpg.

New Category at MystCommunity: Something Else®©™
For those who wish to speculate on the next Cyan game, this is the place for you: Something Else®©™. There are already two threads: Soooooo... is it Myst V or Something Else®©™? and What do we know? If you're interested, join in!

Interesting Uru Server News...in a Month?
This just posted today by anahm at COBBS in the Server development (ideas and speculation) thread:
"HOT NEWS: Interesting news due in a month or so.... YAY!"

Italian Box Art for M4
Animan found this at the Italian M4 site: Young Yeesha. Thanks, Animan.

Shorter WWDC Movie Available at Mysterium
Jürg has posted an edited version that contains just the Myst IV portion, for those of you who do not want to watch Steve Jobs talk for 28 minutes before he gets to the Revelation demo. Warning: Karen Conroe (the presenter from UbiSoft) says it's a demo puzzle, but it's still a spoiler. (Note: If you look carefully, you might glimpse randomos, who's running the demo.) Thanks, Jürg!

Article: "PC gamers face slow summer, blockbuster fall"
Here's the mention of M4: "Ubisoft Montreal hopes to make puzzle gaming more accessible to the average gamer with Myst IV. The latest entry in the genre-shaping series provides novice players with hints and solutions when they get stuck as well as a new interface that offers the impression of a more interactive environment."

June 28, 2004
More About the Myst 4 Demo at WWDC
Just found this at Mac News World: "The beautiful new Myst 4 Revelation is demonstrated, and developers at Maya announce that finally their industry-standard 3D software is ready for OS X." Update: Dusante at MO has just posted a link to a streaming video from WWDC that has a major spoiler or two.

Myst III: Exile Available for Download?
Nigel found that Myst 3 is available for download at Fileplanet and wrote to The Lyst. According to the site: "Myst III: Exile [Digital Purchase] NEW. Filename:m3exilesetup.zip / Author:Ubisoft / Size:2,225.3 MB / Date:6/28/2004 (Not rated) Downloads:10." No mention of a price. Interesting.

Today's PotS Clue and Image
Zubeller found the last clue and found today's: Approved public ferry system. This led to Emen.jpg. Gadren correctly placed it to the left of Rikooth. All pages updated: PotS Puzzle, 900x720, My adjusted version as a jpg, Timeline and My labelled page as a jpg.

The First Golden KI Competiton is Now in the Voting Phase
Be sure to check out the Gallery and vote for your favorite!

Sehv Tsahno Website Has Been Updated
Sehv Tsahno is a fan-created game based on Myst and the developers of the game have updated their site. Included are new wallpapers and videos. Thanks to Dan'ni at UO, who posted this first.

Steve Jobs Demos Myst 4 at WWDC
Rumors has been spreading (Jack at UO posted) that Steve Jobs had demonstrated Myst 4 at WWDC (Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference). Well, Patrick posted his reply: "Well, you guys always find out everything one way or another, right?" Follow-up: This just appeared at MystWorlds: "Myst IV Revelation was showcased as one of four exceptional third party applications developed for the Mac platform today in Steve Jobs' keynote speech at the Mac developers conference WWDC. The stunning visuals and hints of further wonders were very warmly received by the 3500 Mac developers in attendance at the presentation."

inki's avi portraits
For those not following the Avi Portraits thread at UO, here's an introduction to a very special artist: inki. After producing several beautiful sketches from Uru called Field Sketchbook (which I hope to feature soon), inki began doing portraits from folks' avatars. Here are the results: inki's avi portraits. Each image on the page links to her full size image hosted by photobucket. Enjoy.

June 27, 2004
New Moderators at the Guild of Greeters
CAGrayWolf posted: "It is my pleasure to announce that we have new moderators joining the ranks!
Please join me in welcoming our new Forum moderators!
coelho_buda
Shadowcats
Dragonball
RR_Caz
Kehrin
CONGRATULATIONS. They will help to keep our forums running smoothly and keep it a comfortable place as well ... you can still expect to see us Guild Masters helping as well." This comes as the size of the Guild has grown to over 2000 members!

Excellent Review for Jack Wall's "Wrath Unleased" Soundtrack
Music from the Movies has some wonderful things to say in their review of his soundtrack for Wrath Unleased. Here's just a sample: "Jack Wall’s ‘Wrath Unleashed’ is an enthralling epic work that is full of impressive orchestral mayhem. Any one of the three sections would each supply enough bombastic action music for a Hollywood blockbuster and the score is likely to leave any ‘Wrath’ gamer drained after prolonging exposure."

A New "Live-like" Game
A group of German Uru Explorers have developed Mysteri-house, a site that attempts to recreate at least some of the look and feel of Live. Through the combination of Adobe Atmosphere (Windows only) and a chat room, players are able to interact. It is currently available in German only, however the German players will try to speak their best English. Here are the threads at COBBS and Guild Of Greeters. To play, go here.

First Something Else [tm] Website
Tweek wrote to The Lyst: "Shorah all. I'd like to announce the communities first Something Else Website at http://www.agesofmyst.net. Not much there at the moment as information is scarce.. but the forums
are open for your discussions and speculations.
Tweek, Webmaster & Admin - Something Else [tm]" http://www.agesofmyst.net

SHARPER'S SPY ROOM PUZZLE
futographer posted another puzzle! "Shorah Explorers! Something about Sharper's fish tank has been bothering me for months. I recently linked to Teledahn where my suspicions were confirmed. I won't say how I accessed another hidden compartment, but some interesting items spilled out on the floor. Fortunately, I took a KI shot because it all disappeared the next day.
"I can’t make heads or tails of it, my friends. Will you help? One page says that there is a special prize for the first five of you who can follow the trail to its conclusion.
"The last time I was in Uru my in-game gamma control needed to be turned up at least half way to see well. You might try that too. Enjoy! Pa'trick." So, if you want to be in on the "ground floor" of this one, check it out here.

Futographer's Puzzle Gets More and More Interesting
For those not following this thread, futographer "found" a puzzle in Uru that he has shared with us. The puzzle uses jigsaw-shaped pieces that contain Uru coordinates. It began with one piece and has morphed into 20 plus. BrettM, ireenquench and Andromeda are the strongest contributors, with BrettM producing a map, a layout of the actual puzzle and a grid. Yesterday, ireenquench made a discovery: there are words hidden in the puzzle and there is a secret word and URL that must be found! So, if you want to help solve the puzzle, check out this thread.

June 26, 2004
Journals of Myst & Uru Archive
For those who are looking for a detailed rendering of the journals from all of the Myst games, this is the spot: Journals of Myst & Uru Archive. frankenscarf created this site and it's not transcriptions; as he says: "A collection of every journal from realMyst, Riven, and Exile and almost all the documents from Uru. Not just transcriptions, the very documents themselves." Great site. Thanks, frankenscarf. If you're those looking for a D'ni Timeline, here are two choices: Kehrin's D'ni Desk Timeline and The Great Tree Timeline.

The Latest Myst 4 Info From Patrick
When asked today why it's taking so long to release the game, Pat responded: "Actually (this HAS been discussed in other threads, but anyways...) it's because the final rendering with all the shadows, lighting, top-quality textures, compositing of different scenes, etc, etc, takes quite a bit of time. And then, we're also hoping to tweak things (size of hotspots, mixing the sound correctly, final playtests, etc, etc).
"It's like putting together a model airplane. Taking all the pieces out of the box is fast, but putting them together, putting on the glue, taking off the excess, painting it, etc, etc, takes quite a bit longer. So even though all the pieces are there, it still takes a while.
"Trust me, we are working as fast a we can. Most people on the team have been spending their nights and weekends at the office since last christmas! And even now, they are putting in 12 to 15 hour days, every day (including weekends!)! But, we are also getting closer to the end and I really like what I see!!! Now about that demo..."

Great Response to PotS Download Option
So far, the reaction from the various forums (UruObsession, MystWorlds, MystCommunity and The Great Tree) has been very positive. The only concern seems to be from those who pre-ordered the disc; can they still get the download? Yes, according to UbiSoft (via Paula465). Those who want the download instead of the disc must contact Ubi to cancel their pre-order. Here's how: Customer Service can be reached toll free at 1-888-824-7038 (1-888-UBI-S0FT (with a “zero” instead of an "o")) or via the email help form at http://store.ubi.com/contact, or by submitting an "Ask a Question" form by clicking the "Ask a Question" tab at http://StoreSupport.ubi.com.

New Message From Sheldon
KateVa found the following in the Source Code of the main Follow the Path page: "" This led Arowin to Patient.jpg. It's not a puzzle piece, but an unseen image from the game. Great work, guys! Here's the picture:

June 25, 2004
New Official Screenshots From Path of the Shell
Just posted: "Check out the new screenshots and concept art in the Official Gallery from Uru: The Path of the Shell (coming out... July 7th!)." I've added two of them to my Path of the Shell images page. Also mentioned on the MystWorlds site is a reminder of the Revelation Screensaver that's available.

Prima's Myst URU: The Complete Chronicles Guide
Timed to arrive at the same time as the game, Gamestop has the guide for sale for $19.99.

More on the Aussie Mini-Mysterium
Simon wrote to The Lyst: "Good morning everyone,
News about the Aussie Mini-Mysterium... We are taking an extraordinarily long period of time to finalise the month and location of the Aussie Mini-Mysterium. To enable people to start planning their schedule ASAP
around the event in case the time is not as favourable for them, I've decided to try a different approach in tallying people's opinion to come up with a definite time/location:

"If there is a chance you are able to attend the Aussie Mini Mysterium, please list the following time/venue in the order of preference:
1) January, in Melbourne
2) April Easter Holidays, in Melbourne
3) January, in Sydney
4) April Easter Holidays, in Sydney

"If one of the above option is totally out of the question for you, then please do NOT include it in the response (eg. you may do 2 then 1 only, leaving out 3 and 4). If you include it then I will assume that such time and venue will be plausible, provided nothing unexpected happens in real life. Please email the response to me.
"Even if you have emailed me or shadowcats in the past please do so again
- this will allow me to keep track of things better.
Thank you for your cooperation and your support in this event!
Warmest regards, Simon aka Magician"

Sheldon's PotS Image
Now that the release date is closer, perhaps Sheldon will pick up the pace? Zubeller was the first to find the clue (Larger city, divided classes, large variety of religious beliefs), solve it (Rikooth) and find the image: Rikooth. Miranda correctly placed it: "Looks like it touches the southeast corner of 'Watson.'" All pages updated: PotS Puzzle, 900x720, My adjusted version as a jpg, Timeline and My labelled page as a jpg.

New Launch Date and Online Download for The Path of the Shell
From MystWorlds: "Cyan Worlds and Ubisoft announced today that the launch date of Uru: The Path of the Shell had been resheduled to earlier than expected. The new launch date will be July 7. In addition, in a first for both companies, the retail expansion will also be available via online purchase and download, in addition to the standard retail boxed version. You can pre-order the boxed version and find out more about the digital download at the Ubisoft Online Store."

Myst News Site Update
I'm been working to clean up a few issues with the site, such as missing images on the Uru Images>The Hood page (thanks, Janet!) and bad links on the Links page. If anyone finds an issue let me know via email. Thanks. Follow-up: I added images to the Hacks page in the Uru Images section.

A New PotS Speculation Site
TheMYSTerious1 posted: "My Path of the Shell Speculation site!, Or, Yet Another M1 Speculation Topic. Or YAM1ST for short. Right now I only have Ahnonay's page up, and most of the site is rather 'rough' but the info is there. TheM1's Speculation. It sure did take me on quite a journey to A) Gather all of those pics. Wrangle the links, but I think it turned out fine."

June 24, 2004
Inside Info on Path of the Shell
Brian Fioca, Site Admin at The Great Tree, posted the following: "I've been holding on to this for a while, but I figure I can let loose now. So, I went on a trip to Cyan last month. I signed my life away in a giant NDA but I can tell you that I did get to play PotS. I got to see quite a bit of it, actually.
"From what I saw, it rocks.
"The story is MUCH more involved than To D'ni. I got to see a bunch of the puzzles and even solved some of them and they are very engaging and interesting. There are some that will eat your brain, though, so be careful.
"The new ages are awesome. I don't want to give any spoilers but there are some deep connections. The scenery is every bit as good as you could imagine, and for the most part everything just fits in very well with the story.
"To summarize, it just makes sense. It manages to recapture the spirit of Prime. I'm anxious to get my hands on it again and dive in. I only got to scratch the surface before.
"Wish I could say more, but... NDA.
(P.S. - Thanks GD) ~Brian Fioca"

Q&A with Bill Slease
Here's a transcript, supplied by Gehn123 and Gadren at UO:
Foo: For those who don't know already, what was your role in the development of Uru? What is your role now in the development of Something Else ™? Are they similar, or is there a different feel to working on a different project?
Bill Slease: I had 3 different credits in Uru - but mainly for live I was the live content director. For Ages Beyond Myst I was "technical game design." On The Path of the Shell I ended up "producer" which means I, um, worked with all the produce. I'm partial to bananas.
Hastin: What do you think the best new thing about path of the shell is?
Bill Slease: Wow there's so much to choose from... In some ways it's a return to things I think we do best... puzzles that require more thinking than maneuvering. But we still added features like swimming that enhance exploration. Ahnonay should be a real challenge. It would be for me. I'm looking forward to how you all handle it
athena510: Will there be any Uru in Something Else?
Bill Slease: I can't say much about it right now.
Aloys: Now that Uru will soon be 'over', how do you look back at it?
Bill Slease: Well, I'm sleeping more now. Boy we wanted that to work out so much... we're still all just processing it all. I think it'll be a wound that needs tending for quite some time.
Deg: Bill, do you plan to attend Mysterium this year?
Bill Slease: Unfortunately I won't be able to make Mysterium this year
spokanejeremy: Bill, how long have you been with the Myst project, and how does it feel working on what has become such a large project?
Bill Slease: I came to Cyan in 1999... so almost 5 years now. I've learned tons in that time and worked on all different parts of a few different projects. It feels good where we've arrived at now despite the hard road getting here.
mszv1: On the difficulty of the new puzzles. You said they were hard. The trend in adventure games seems to be going in the opposite direction - easier puzzles. Any comments?
Bill Slease: We're all about selling hint books. Just kidding... honestly we thought that with an expansion pack like this we could take some liberties and make something to really challenge folks.
Gadren: Can you enlighten us any more regarding your recent blog post?
Bill Slease: Heh. Recently it seems like I come in and everyday see something new and cool. What we've got going now looks better if you can believe it than Uru. And it has a feel... We're tapping back into something I think we may not have fully been working with on Uru. I think that's all I can say. It feels right.
BlackRaven: How large do you think the fan community for Something Else ™ will be if you compare it with the fan community for Uru and why?
Bill Slease: I think it will be bigger because of people like all of you and Katie and Ron. Either that or it won't. It could also be very much the same. [I wouldn't make a very good prophet - or maybe I'd make a good one - I can never tell.]
AoW: Myst were made today, with today's technology and audience do you think it would have been handled differently?
Bill Slease: RealMYST was a shot at that. I don't know if 2000 counts as 'today... ' There were alot of unique factors that came together to make Myst what it is. If we could bottle that, we'd sell it... wait...
Eleri: What can we, the fans, do to support you guys?
Bill Slease: We have a meeting every morning with Rand, Tony, Josh, etcetera - I was thinking of reading a fan letter at every one of those to keep people excited... If you want me to read something email me at slease AT cyan DOT com. [I must be insane - did I type that out loud.]
Jerle: My only question is to ask Bill if he's finally gotten to drive Tim's Porsche yet.
Bill Slease: No. *grumble*
TheM1-4: Bill do you know when we might start seeing some marketing/previews for Something Else ™?
Bill Slease: I don't know any dates - I do know that you'll see Something Else come to light in a much shorter time than we usually take...
chip: What is your favorite place to eat lunch in Spokane and why?
Bill Slease: I'm lame - I like to eat lunch in my office. The service is miserable but the price is right.
Deg: Do you prefer working on prerendered or realtime 3d games?
Bill Slease: realtime 3d without a doubt (course I never worked on the prerendered games). Realtime is so... dynamic--you can really bring places alive.
tokzic: What games/projects, outside of Cyan Worlds, pique your interest these days?
Bill Slease: I've been poking around the World of Warcraft beta... They're doing alot of things very well and doing a fantastic job running their beta.
spokanejeremy2: Have you guys had to travel to places other than Spokane for further "inspiration" for the games?
Bill Slease: In Terry Brooks's book about writing he said "Go somewhere you've never been then come back and tell us all about it." He was talking about imagination, but we do also travel for inspiration... haven't done that recently as a company. But individuals will go places and bring inspiring stuff.
Eleri: How do you feel working for Cyan has changed you?
Bill Slease: It's made me older... one day at a time... um, but seriously... there is no seriously sorry... I'm not sure I've changed in ways I wouldn't have any way... it's a great place to work - full of talent and creativity.
Foo: Have you played Revelation yet, or are you looking forward to it?
Bill Slease: I haven't seen anything other than the E3 demo that looked really good - we're all eagerly awaiting it here
TheM1-: Can you tell us anything about what Ages are in The Path of the Shell?
Bill Slease: The two big Ages are Ahnonay and Er'cana. There are other places to go that are cool and that you folks of all people should really enjoy seeing.
JBrigsMcAndrews: What will happen to the unreleased ages and areas designed for Uru Live?
Bill Slease: That's hard to say. TPoTS is the end of what was really "ready to go". Over the years we've built up basements full of ideas... They all just kind of hang out there.
Linkingbookmaster: Will there be any beta testers for Revelation? [Kha'tie says: There already have been. There won't be a public beta.]
BlackRaven: (for Eric L) Is there anything we can do to help The Path of the Shell get a good start?
Bill Slease: You're already doing a great job, keep doing things like you have been (the demo cd, the participation at mystworlds etcetera). But it wouldn't hurt to purchase prime time commercial space for oh a month or two and produce a 60 second commercial... just throwing that out. You know, in case no one's thought of it.
MYSTeriousSage (and many others): Is Negilahn or Noloben in TPotS?
Bill Slease: this is where I think of some clever way to say "no" that makes you still wonder if they're there. Neg and Nol didn't make the cut.
Foo: What is the meaning of life?
Bill Slease: Not sure about life specifically... but life, the universe and everything is of course 42.
BobFM: What do you think makes a good adventure game?
Bill Slease: Me personally? Places I want to explore filled with epiphanies that are well-paced.
Eleri1: What do you think of the fans' marketing efforts?
Bill Slease: You all are GREAT!
TheM1-: How good is Rand at DDR?
Bill Slease: Bob is good at DDR. Good in a way that precludes just about anyone else in the world from being good at DDR. Bob will hate me for describing it like this but it's like tetris that you play with you're feet... to music.
Ian-Atrus: Is there a chance for The Book of Marrim to get published now that Uru has been published and the other books have been reprinted?
Bill Slease: The book of Marrim is... the same place it was yesterday... and the day before that. It hasn't moved in a while...
mganus: Can you give us an idea of where Cyan is going with the D'ni? Will the story continue through it's creators?
Bill Slease: Rawa has instructed me to respond "no" and "yes".
JBrigsMcAndrews: Why aren't the linking books in Uru animated?
Bill Slease: In the beginning - there were some technical issues...and just rendered movies wouldn't have portrayed the Ages correclty. as dynamic (esp. in live) as they are.
Kha'tie: I want to thank Bill for coming and taking his time to answer so many GREAT questions! Thanks to all who attended and asked these cool things. Also SPECIAL THANKS to Chucker who set this chatroom up in a VERY short time for us today! Also very big thanks to our Moderators Kehrin, Deg, mszv, and Randomos for their question-taking abilities extraordinaire! The chat transcript will be available on the MystWorlds.com site by tomorrow. See you all again soon!" Note: My thanks to Gehn123 and Gadren for putting the chat log at UO)

Don't Forget Today's Chat With Bill Slease
It's set for 1PM PST (4 PM EST). Hosted by randomos and Kha'tie, questions will be taken during the chat, which Bill will answer. Here's the link: Ubisoft URU Chat Room. Once in the chat room type /join #uruchat to enter the private room. Have your questions ready!

More Uru Images on This Site
I've been a busy boy; added to the Uru Images page is Fly Mode. If you'd like to try Fly Mode, check out this thread at Cobbs. I'll be adding Great Shaft pics later today. Update: Great Shaft pics added as well as Relto. All I have left to do is Teledahn and Hacks.

Myst Worlds Banners
Kehrin posted: "Does anyone have any banners for linking to the Myst Worlds web site? Would anyone like to make some? It would be good for new people to know where to come for more information about the games, and to connect with the rest of us. What do you all think about spreading the http://mystworlds.com URL around with some attractive banners? If you find or make any banners to link to the Myst Worlds site, would you post them here?" Great idea. In a matter of minutes, Tweek had produced a series of gorgeous banners. So, either grab one of Tweek's or design your own and post it here.

June 23, 2004
Late Image (and Source Code) From Sheldon
inki noticed the clue (Left his son a population that was slowly dying, both physically and emotionally), Gadren solved the clue and found the image: Gan.jpg. Plus inki pointed out new Source Code:



All of my puzzle pages are updated: PotS Puzzle, 900x720, My adjusted version as a jpg, Timeline and My labelled page as a jpg.

Live Chat with CyanBill
Just announced on MystWorlds: "Live Chat with Cyan's Bill Slease Thursday. Ubisoft Community Managers Randomos and Kha'tie will be hosting a Live Chat with Bill Slease of Cyan Worlds on Thursday, June 24 at 1 PM PST (4 PM EST) in the Ubisoft URU Chat Room. Questions will be taken during the chat, which Bill will answer for the fans, so think of some great things you can ask Bill and we'll see you there!"

Jack's Back!
Jack Wall updated his journal on his return from Europe. He wrote: "Overall, the trip was a tremendous success! We got some great tracks recorded. The Warsaw Village Band mixes came out great - really unique and different. Hopefully, people will embrace them. They are an incredible band.
"Also, will be taking a quick trip back to Paris on June 8th for a European press event for Myst IV. I will finish mixing the Main Theme before then, so we can give them a preview."

URU: The way it REALLY happened, the REAL story behind the tattooed gal
Dan'ni over at UO has been relating his experiences in Uru and they are worth a look see. And, yes, he says he's fine. URU: The way it REALLY happened, the REAL story behind the tattooed gal.

More Uru Screenshots Available on this Site
I've added shots to the Miscellaneous (mostly Concept Art) and Kadish sections. I've also updated the Uru Images section with new categories I will populate in the near future.

Restorers Guild Interview with Dr. Watson
Keith Lord had an interesting chat with Dr. Watson. Here's one snippet: "Unfortunately, for now, we're all working on other things. The former members of the DRC still keep in contact with one another, but we are not the DRC anymore. We still are holding out hope that we can continue the project at some point, maybe in a different way. In the meantime, we're all just trying to pay our bills."

June 22, 2004
The Path of the Shell Community Buzz
From MystWorlds: "The Path of the Shell has generated a lot of excitement in the community- catch the buzz in the forum, or check out the very exciting stuff going on at two awesome sites dedicated to bringing the Path to life (so to speak) Path of the Shell and The Path of the Shell. Both sites are creating great stuff for what looks to be an impressive addition to the Uru canon- check them out!"

Path of the Shell Puzzle Timeline...And New Images!
To help clarify when all of the clues/images were found (and by whom), I've created a new page: Timeline. And an update from Sheldon: Created Karim, a civic district, as a distraction from religious arguments and Rumors say his first son was born underneath the King’s Arch. Animan found Solath and GallifreyLady found Koreen. All of my puzzle pages are updated: PotS Puzzle, 900x720, My adjusted version as a jpg, Sheldon's original images as a psd, My labelled page as a psd and My labelled page as a jpg.

Poll for Mysterium Attendees
Kha'tie has posted a new poll at MystCommunity to see who's planning on attending. She wrote: "Please enter your reply so I can bring the appropriate number of gifts for you guys! Thanks!"

New Shots from Path of the Shell at MystWorlds
Three new images have been released, concept from the Linking Chamber and Kadish, plus a screenshot from the Temple. Note that the second image has been available on Stephen Martiniere's site. It's called "Kadish Pyre." And more good news: MystWorlds will be putting up new shots weekly until launch!

The Golden KI Competition
Alahmnat announced: "I'm happy to announce the creation of a new ongoing competition here at DPWR: The Golden KI. This is a concept that was originally created for The Echo, Uru Live's community-created online newspaper, which I had a great fondness for. In essence, this is an Uru photography contest. There are no real "prizes" beyond simple recognition (though Kha'tie has said she'd like to feature it on MystWorlds.com).
The competition will run on a bi-weekly basis, so you'll have two weeks to send in your entry each round. Additional rules and information can be found on the new Golden KI page."

More Uru Screenshots
I've updated my Uru Images page to now include shots taken in The Hood.

June 21, 2004
A Little Guild of Greeters History
In reply to a query, CAGrayWolf wrote: "... the GoG was formed out of another group during the beta called PartyTown. This was a neighborhood that had the basic idea of helping but never quite got off the ground for a couple of reasons. Out of this group four of the main leaders then with suggestions and support from Randomos (Ron Myers Myst Worlds Community Manager) formed the Guild of Greeters. This was in August of 2003.
"About this time Tijara was appointed Grand Master and with help from appointed Guild Masters posted in the Uru Beta forums for volunteers to be Greeters. A sub forum was set up within the beta forums just for the GoG. It was from here that the GoG grew and gained experience to the upcoming release of Uru and for Prologue (open beta).
"Tijara and the Guild Masters had been working of the forums you see now since October but were not allowed to make them public until the actual release of Uru and the ending on our NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). Around the first of October Tijara had asked me if I would be a moderator for the forums ... and I agreed. I was not even a Greeter yet. About a month after the opening of these forums I became Lead moderator and then on 31 December 2003 at about 11:30PST Tijara IM'd me on MSN and announced the invitation to become a Guild Master myself. After a few minutes and a couple of questions ... I accepted. My main concern was these forums as I did not want to give them up and so remain as Lead Moderator / Forum Administrator.
"On 17 November 2003 the Guild of Greeters website and forums officially opened to the public ... the same day Uru: Ages Beyond Myst was released. We have steady grown since this time. Even with the demise of Uru Live (prologue) on 9 February 2004 we stayed strong although we did lose about a 1/3 of our members cause they couldn't handle the loss and felt so totally empty. This was a very saddening time for all of us and many did feel that the GoG would fall without Uru Live. Again, we held strong to our beliefs and the rest of us stayed on and as per our original goals ... continue to help, nudge and support fellow explorers ... both old and new (like yourselves).
"As you have already noticed and made comments about ... we have a great community here that are very special and very friendly. We base our reputation on this for obvious reasons. The same goes with my GoG forum and Live Chat staff ... they were all selected for what they do best ... keeping things organized and running smoothly."

More on Revelation's Minimum Requirements
Patrick wrote: "...it will be higher than the minimum requirement for Exile, Pentium III (800+) most video cards with 32 Mb, Win 98, Me, 2000, XP and DVD only!"

Second Feast of the Maker and Happy Birthday, Jürg!
Happy Second Feast of the Maker, everyone! For more info, check out D'ni Holidays. Plus, it appears that it's the birthday of the webmaster of MYSTerium.ch, Jürg. Happy birthday!

Help Beta Test Puzzles
futographer posted: " Hi Explorers.
I'm looking for a few good beta testers for some puzzles have created lately and need beta testers to play through them looking for errors or improvements that can be made. I want people who know how to give positive criticism and even make creative suggestions.
You should be a good communicator, enjoy solving puzzles, and be willing to spend some time each day for the next week or so. You need to have good computer skills, be able to take screen shots add text and email them. You need be willing to work with Windows Instant Messager to discuss issues.
Beta testers must also be willing to vow to not discuss the puzzles with anyone else both during the development as well as after. You will get credit for your work as well as a special momento.
If this sounds like you...please email me. Pa'trick"

Another Puzzle!
futographer posted: "Hi Explorers... I was just taking a stroll through Uru today and look what I found." Check out the thread here.

New Build of PRPExplorer Released
IngisKahn posted: "You asked for it (so I hope it works)" PRPExplorer 0.2.1632.

The Name's Official: Aussie Mini-Mysterium
Shadowcats posted: "Just an update after a long night and no sleep the Official name has been decided.
Drum roll please.......... Aussie Mini-Mysterium. Yes we know not very original but it fits. More updates soon."

How Fast Can You Uru?
Arowin has put out the challenge: "I present to you all: Speed Uru===------ - - -
The rules are simple. Finish an age with the shortest time from the time you originally click on the linking book into the age to the time when you enter the bahro cave door.
For the cleft its from the time you link in to the time you link out.
Here follows are the rules:
- You must start a new age. (Delete the age and start again)
- You must collect all the journey clothes.
- Side quests etc don't count.
- You mustn't use notes that you already have. You must get all the clues again (That means going to the Gallery for those that don't realise)
- Loading times count (Sorry those peoples with slow computers...) It'll be a little difficult to do properly if it isn't.
- You can use a stopwatch to check
- If you panic link out of an age cause you falled down and goed boom, too bad, keep the timer rolling.
- Edar Gira and Edar Kemo count as one age.
Any questions?"

June 20, 2004
Revelation Insights from Pat
After asking "What Are You in the Mood For?" Pat got some answers:
Any bits of the story that didn't make the final cut?
Pat: "Oh yeah, tons. Tons. And some parts that some of us (Mary!) we're really not about to part with...
Also,when you try to undertstand characters, you really have to flesh them out fully and to their complete timeline even if you end up using but a fraction of that.
"The "creature" is the biggest story element we dropped... I kind of miss it sometimes cause it was something VERY cool. It would have had a major impact on the Myst universe and it could have opened up a lot of doors for new stories & adventures!
"But, ultimately, I felt it was too big and too intrusive on the family story that we're trying to tell in Revelation. I think it would have become maybe too confusing and/or certainly too HUGE to develop on time..."
Dreamforge?
Pat: "Especially since our original release date was MARCH 2004! (it would have been a nightmare to make that deadline... The game would REALLY have suffered...)
"I guess I already talked about the original dreamforge design, right? The complete,finsihed design doc they had worked a year on putting together and which we basically threw away to make Revelation? They had some interesting ideas to say the least..."
Mary's contribution?
Pat: "Did you know Mary was originally hired to spend 6 weeks in MTL at the beginning of the project and then work on and off for 3 or 4 months (at a distance) during the middle and at the end of the project?!"
And she ended up staying 2 years (pretty much full time...! ) And thank god she did!!!"
Milestones?
Pat: "As for milestones, yeah, that might be a good idea. Keep a thread open to our current milestone,let you guys know what is happening on the floor. Right now, we finished (well, NEARLY) all of W1. The sound-hotspots were put in too, so it's really a good taste of what the finished product will feel like! I can't wait!!!
Alright, gotta go get some of that sun I keep hearing about..."

DPWR.Net is Back!
Alahmnat wrote: "As many of you have no doubt noticed, things are back to what may be deemed "normal" around here. The server transfer has been completed and if you're reading this message, you've arrived at the new location. As a result of the server move, there are a few things to mention, including new features: New Gallery, New user album controls, E-mails, Newsletter, Staff additions and Subscriptions." Check it out here: Welcome to the New Server!

Video From "Graphics: Then & Now" Available
Dusante posted: "Gamespot recently posted a stream of the "Then and Now" conference with Will Wright, Jordan Mechner and Rand Miller, it's 47 minutes long with some very interesting discussion about various games and creative processes." Special Feature: Graphics - Then and Now.

June 19, 2004
Patrick Asks "What Are You in the Mood For?"
In the UbiSoft Myst IV Forum, Patrick posted :"Hey,it seems things have been slowing down on this forum a little bit, anything we could do to "spice things up"? What are you guys in the mood for?
Do you have any questions?
Would you like to see the blog brought back to life?
Do you want to meet more people from the Dev. Team?
Any ideas? Any suggestions?" Now's your chance. Go here: WHAT ARE YOU IN THE MOOD FOR?

Latest Version of Fan Created Uru Demo CD
Be sure to download the latest version, whether by ZIP or ISO. Also, Eleri is asking for donations to help those who want to burn alot of CDs but can't afford to. There's a link on the site. If you'd like to spread the word, add this banner to your site and/or signature:

New Uru: The Complete Chronicles Video
This is a must see, at least for those who like spoilers: Path of the Shell. There are glimpses of at least one area not seen before, plus a terrific ending shot at The Great Zero. Also included on the site are new fan produced banners.

Feedback Request Regarding Vivarium's Work
Myridean wrote to The Lyst: "Shorah b'shemtee! Two weeks ago, it was announced that final approvals of resources for the D'ni Pathfinder had changed from peer to editorial review. Since the decision making process has been reduced from a quorum to a triumvirate, it was decided that the group's work in creating the evaluation checklist, the "guidelines" that our group will be using to evaluate MRED sites, should be available for public consultation. We are inviting the MRED community to give us feedback on this document so that it continues to foster a spirit of equity. We ask all those who are interested to please submit their feedback to vivarium@rogers.com by June 30, 2004. The link to the Evaluation Checklist for the pathfinder can be found at http://members.rogers.com/vivarium/checklist.html.
"Also, as it was mentioned, the new editorial board will be made up of three members. Currently, we are still looking for another member of the MRED community to volunteer as the third editor to read & discuss website
assessments submitted by our members, edit entries for the D'ni Pathfinder and help in creating a keyword index for easier searching capabilities. The one thing that we do ask is that the volunteer can spare a couple of hours per week to meet with the other two editors and that they are not a webmaster, moderator, administrator, or guildmaster of another MRED community. Thanks! We're looking forward to hearing from you. Myridean, Vivarium of D'ni"

June 18, 2004
Announcing Mysterigon---Oregon Mini-Mysterium Aug 13-15
K'laamas wrote to The Lyst: "I'm happy to announce the upcoming "Mysterigon", a Mini-Mysterium to be
held Friday Aug 13 through Sunday August 15 in the area of the cities of Bend & Sisters, Oregon. It's nothing big, fancy, and formal like the official Mysterium--there's just a few of us Myst fans who are all going to
be in central Oregon for various reasons, so we decided to get together (especially since I'm one of the many people who can't make it to Toronto :'( ). And we'd like to invite anyone who would like to attend to come :)

"Bend and Sisters are 2 towns, about 25 miles apart, in central Oregon, just east of the Cascade mountain range. Bend is named thusly because it was built on a "bend" of the Deschutes (deh-SHOOTS) river, and Sisters is named after the "Three Sisters" mountains directly to the west of it. From Portland OR, it's about 155 miles and a 3-hr drive to Sisters, and 180 miles and a 3.5 hr to Bend. From Boise ID, it's about 340 miles and a 6.5-hr drive to Sisters, and 365 miles and a 7-hr drive to Bend.

"We don't have a really structured schedule--we just want to get together with our fellow Myst-fans and have a good time as friends :) With that in mind, we do have a few ideas for things we can do in the Bend/Sisters area, which I'll put at the bottom of my post. If anyone has any suggestions for what we can do (whether you plan on attending or not ;)), don't hesitate to speak up.
"I'm gonna post this entire thing over at the Myst Community and D'ni Linguistic Fellowship Web Boards."

Today's PotS Clue and Image
Shorter clue (and image title) today: Immature and weak. This led to Ji.jpg. All of my puzzle pages are updated: PotS Puzzle, Sheldon's original images not corrected, My adjusted version as a jpg, Sheldon's original images as a psd, My labelled page as a psd and My labelled page as a jpg.

DPWR.NET is Moving
Alahmnat posted: "Good evening ladies and gentlemen. At present, I am in the process of moving this website to our new server. During that time, things will be disabled until I can ensure that everything is working correctly. With any amount of luck, this downtime won't exceed 2 days. After I've gotten the forum transferred and ensured that things are where they need to be, I'll set up the domain to point to the new location, at which time it should take approximately 48 hours to update the DNS information.
Many thanks to those of you who have stuck with me and this site during its earlier rough periods and keep coming back. With luck, this will be the last bump in the road for a good long while."

Mysterium T-Shirt Design Finalized
Scraper wrote to The Lyst: "We are pleased to congratulate NetWatcher for designing the winning image for the Mysterium 2004 Tshirts! To see his and the rest of the images submitted, you can go to http://www.mystcon.com/back2004/ A very hearty thanks to everyone who contributed! Mysterium 2004 Tshirts will be available shortly in our CafePress store. Mysterium 2003 Tshirts will be discontinued at that time, so order yours now if you haven't yet! Again, thanks to all the artists who have submitted their wonderful artwork for Mysterium this year. We couldn't do it without you!
- Scraper - Mysterium Committee -"

June 17, 2004
Updated Release Date for PotS...Earlier!
Instead of July 17th, as mentioned, the new date is July 13th! Check out the official notice at MystWorlds. Note also: the system requirements have been lowered for the Path of the Shell, and the companion release of the full Uru series: The Complete Chronicles.System Requirements:
Supported OS: Windows® 98SE/2000/ME/XP (only)
Processor: 800 MHz Pentium® III or AMD Athlon™ or better
RAM: 256 MB RAM or more
Video Card: 32 MB DirectX® 9.0-compliant video card (see supported list*)
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0-compliant audio card
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0b (included on disc)
CD-ROM: 4x or faster
Hard Drive Space: 2.5 GB free hard disk space
Peripherals Supported: Mouse, Keyboard
Display: 800x600 16-bit display
* Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:
ATI® Radeon™ 7000/8000/9000 families
NVIDIA® GeForce™ 256/2/3/4/FX families
Intel® Extreme

New from the Guild of Greeters
Tijara posted two bits of info: "Gallery diskspace restrictions have been doubled. All those of you who ran out of room, can be happy and start uploading again." And "New Quiz today!"

Uru Screenshots Added
I've updated my Uru Images...Which Age? page to include Great Zero images.

Demo CD News from Eleri
Eleri posted: "For the curious, since the page went live the evening on June 1st, we've had:
3,131 Page Loads
1,895 Unique Visitors
1,676 First Time Visitors
219 Returning Visitors.
If every visitor burned *just one* cd... that'd be almost 2000 cds out there."
Plus: "Yet another page update includes some new label art, and mini-cd labels. The ISO WILL fit on Mini cds!"

Great CGI Video with an Homage to Riven
nootilus posted: "Check out the CGI short movie located on this page. Just watch it, you'll see a very nice hommage to Riven. Besides, this short is very well done and nice to see."

Hacking Reveals the "Other" Bahro Cave
By using FlyMode, Hogarth has made an intersting discovery: The *other* Bahro Cave. He also shows a petroglyph texture pulled from the .prp files, via another hack.

UbiSoft Turns a Nice Profit on Increased Sales
Two articles show how well UbiSoft is doing: Strong full-year results for Ubisoft as sales rise 22.5% and Press Release. A few noteworthy comments from the articles: For the coming year, Ubisoft CEO and president Yves Guillemot said, "we plan to pursue our strategy centred on our studios, which we are going to strengthen even further by hiring 400 new high-potential talents." Another: "We created two new brands (Prince of Persia(R) and Far Cry(TM)), successfully refocused our development activity on high-potential games and strengthened our in-house production and marketing operations."

June 16, 2004
Today's Sheldon Image Released
Here's the clue: Established the Minor Guild of Illusionists. This led to Lemashal.jpg. All of my puzzle pages are updated: PotS Puzzle, Sheldon's original images not corrected, My adjusted version as a jpg, Sheldon's original images as a psd, My labelled page as a psd and My labelled page as a jpg.

It's in the Trailer, So It's in the Game? Right? Maybe Not...
Kha'tie clarified this point in a recent post: " I can't say what specifically but there WERE things in the Trailer that will NOT be in the game. It was put in by marketing Europe to make the game seem more exciting... not that the game isn't exciting but just that they needed to add certain things for dramatic effect and to fill out otherwise "drab" scenes (Myst fans would love a nice, quiet look at some of these worlds but in a short trailer the marketing team tried to fill it all up with a lot of punch! Does that make sense?). I roomed with one of the gals who created the E3 trailer when I was in Los Angeles. Several things I mentioned about the trailer she said "oh, we put that in" or "we changed that" or "we added that". Fans will not be disappointed... or if they are it won't be for the things they saw or did not see in the trailer."

June 15, 2004
Guild of Greeters is Growing Fast
ydontuknow wrote: "I was looking through this here thread and 1000 members happened 1000 and the 1000th member was. Now it is at 1778 that is 778 new members in 5 months at an average of 115.6 a month and Live is not here anymore. Imagen how many more will be joining after tPotS hit."

New Build of UruTrainer Available
Check out COBBS, where LiquorCooChee has posted Trainer 2 2 Special Release. "Grab the latest trainer with user preferences. It is very nice and allows customization with savable prefs. There are a few other minor fixes and some code cleanup also."

June 14, 2004
More Details Emerge About Myst IV's Style
When asked for specifics on Revelation, Pat clarified that it will be nodular (like Myst and Riven) and in a 360 degree bubble (like Exile), but that the level of detail (from the 15 layer technology used) will be the difference. Also, he clarified one point; there will be no animated transitions between bubbles, as in Journeyman 3 and 9: The Last Resort. "We actually considered doing that for a long time," he said. The reason? Too much disk space. The transitions, however, will not be noticable. "Only for about 5 minutes (cause then your mind fills in the blanks and you're HAPPY not to have to put up with a slow transition), but indeed, these initial 5 minutes leave a negative impression on a lot of people's minds..."

Four More In-Game Videos at GameSpot
These are very spoilerish, so don't click if you don't want to get spoiled! Gamespot. Lots of views of Er'Cana. No new screenshots, however. (It can be frustrating to watch another avatar run around in circles.) Note: As clarified below, I am unable to host these videos on my site. My apologies.

Only One PotS Image From Sheldon Today
The last image was on Thursday, the latest today. Sheldon must be slowing down the pace to match the new projected release date of July 13. There are now only 15 images left and more than 15 days to go. The latest clue: Married a woman of non-D’ni blood. A quick Google search led to DPWR: DPWR.NET » D'niPedia Information Archive » DRC Research Notebooks. Hinash.jpg. All of my puzzle pages are updated: PotS Puzzle, Sheldon's original images not corrected, My adjusted version as a jpg, Sheldon's original images as a psd, My labelled page as a psd and My labelled page as a jpg.

High-Res Shot of Tomahna Available
Jürg posted: "GameWallpapers.com have a bigger version of a Tomahna shot. We've seen it before, but not that huge! Tomahna." Great ! It's 1600x1200. I think that's the biggest from Rev yet. And it's gorgeous.

New Look for Lysts.com
Aquila wrote to The Lyst: "Hello Lysters.....I've been working, for about a month now, on a new format for TheLysts.com site. Here is what I have so far: http://www.thelysts.com/index.php
Keep in mind... the links, words, and just about everything... is a work in
progress :) My question? Is the site displaying correctly in *Your* Browser? Please send any feed back to Aquila@thelysts.com and title it "New Site"."

June 13, 2004
Guild of Greeters' Third Gathering Will Be July 17th
LaReh wrote: "The Guild Of Greeters announces the THIRD Gathering of Tribes to be held on Saturday July 17th, 2004 starting at approximately 6 pm ET in the LIVE CHAT room on the Greeters web site and forum. This month's theme will be SHELL-SHOCKED as we gather to share our first impressions of The Path Of The Shell expansion pack. Hope to see you there!"

"Then and Now: Computer Graphics in Games" Feature at Gamespot
nathan12343 posted: "I just stumbled on this, it's about a game conference sponsored by nvidia that had Will Wright of SimCity fame, Jordan Mechner who made The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and Rand Miller..."
Spot On: Do better graphics make for better games?

Vote for Uru at G-Phoria
Be sure to vote for Uru for Best Graphics at G-Phoria. Registration is required (but painless).

Ubi Forum Guidelines Now Online
Kha'tie posted: "Hello forum-goers! The Myst Worlds Moderation team has kindly written, edited and finalized a list of Forum Guidelines for us all to abide by whilst we chat with each other here. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with these Guidelines, which can now be found at the top of each of the forum pages.
Thanks to the Mod Team for their contribution, to Alahmnat for posting them, and to JennyH for taking the lead on organizing the entire project.
And to the fans in advance for abiding by them.
If you have any questions or concerns, please start a Private Topic with me, or any of the Moderators.
Thanks!"

More News and Pictures From Jack Wall
Jack has added some new comments (and pictures) to his Journal, including: "Made it to Montreal! Today and tomorrow we're going into Pollack Hall at McGill University to record the Dragana Choir."

Clarification of Uru for Linux Story
Much has been said about the apparent porting of Uru to Linux (From UO: "Uru on Linux. The fine people working on H'Uru are making steps towards creating an Uru engine that works on linux! It's all in preliminary stages but there are allready screenshots of the engines capabilities so far.") but this was received to The Lyst this morning, from Joseph Davies: "Before anyone gets too excited, let me clarify that no one has ported Uru to Linux. What Grunchkev *has* done however (as far as I understand it) is create a utility that allows him to render and view the in-game models (and textures) that uses an open-source OpenGL rendering engine.
This is very useful, and very wonderful. It is *not* a linux port of the game. Such a feat would take far more time, and likely more than a single person to accomplish." Here are the relevant threads: http://www.cobbs.ca/bbs/showthread.php?t=794 and http://rechner.lst.de/~okir/grunchkev/.

Vivarium Sponsored Tour During Mysterium
Myridean, of the Vivarium of D'ni, has invited attendees of Mysterium to tour the Merril Collection at the Toronto Public Library. For more information on how to register, please go to the website at http://members.rogers.com/vivarium.
Also, Myridean wrote to The Lyst: "With news a couple of weeks ago that Path of the Shell being the final instalment in the Uru story, I had to pause and reflect as it came around the same time as our announcement in the change of procedure for doing the D'ni Pathfinder. If there are no more expansion packs, is Vivarium still relevant to the MRED community? Is D'ni librarianship dead?
"Being one of the gathered, I think that instead we're getting a unique opportunity at having more freedom in discovering D'ni librarianship. We have the games and the novels and after POTS has been released, we can build on what Cyan has given us. We'll leave it to Cyan if they want to embrace our research or not if they ever create another game based on D'ni culture and society. I think as the MRED grows and evolve, we can be there still to create tools for them to find the information they need to get the most out of the multitude of sites out there." For more info, check out Vivarium's site: http://members.rogers.com/vivarium.

Did You Do Comedy Night?
For those who did not attend yesterday's Guild of Greeter's Stand-up Comedy Night (or missed some of it), logs of the event have been published here.

June 12, 2004
Another Fan Gathering...This Time in Brussels
Dan'ni reported: "Fans from Belgium are organising a fan gathering in Brussels on the 26th and 27th of June!
It's called bURUxelles and fans from Belgium and France will take part in it." Here are the sites:
Event Info and French Uru Forum.

Aussie Mini-Mysterium Plan Progresses
SImon has been spreading an email around (much too long to post here) that requests feedback (where? when?) to help plan an Aussie Mysterium. Post your input here.

Guild of Greeters Stand-up Comedy Night
Don't forget that tonight's the night: Stand-Up Comic Night. LaReh wrote: "The Guild Of Greeters cordially invites everyone to their SECOND GATHERING: Stand-Up Comic Night, Saturday June 12th, 2004. As with the first Gathering back in May, this will be centered around a "prime-time" schedule starting at 6 PM ET (calculate and enter your own time zone here please), but will be a day-long event to encourage participation from all corners of the globe. So, save your jokes and come on down and get silly!"
CAGrayWolf added: "I am sorry to report that because of recent issues with trouble makers we have been forced to set our Live Chat for registered members only. So in order to use the Guild of Greeters Live Chat feature you must register on the GoG forums in order to gain access to the Live Chat.
Registration is no more complicated than registering here or any other forum. You do not need to be logged into the forums though to use the Live Chat. Just enter your forum user name and password.
Look forward to seeing you all there."

June 11, 2004
Path of the Shell is Gold
From GreyDragon's blog: "“Gold” Uru: The Path of the Shell went gold. For more on this product you can go to these 2 sites. The Path of the Shell & Complete Chronicles.

Updated Uru Images Section
I've added three new pages: Eder Gira, Eder Kemo and Gahreesen, to go with Ae'Gura, The Cleft and Path of the Shell. I'll be adding the additional ages to my Uru Images section soon.

New Version of UruPython Available
Anonymous54321 over at COBBS, has announced a new build of UruPython: "Finally, my new version of UruPython. This new version is very easy to use compared to my first version. It has a graphical interface and does not require the installation of Python or Decompyle. I have included a pretty long readme file in RTF format (8 pages). You can read it using WordPad (or Word). There are three complete examples in it. One to activate all clothing, one to see Shroomie near the shore each time you feed it and one to activate fly mode. This tool is mostly for Python programmer who wants to enhance Uru with new functionality. But it is easy enough to use for others, as long as there are step by step intstructions (like in my readme file)."

Community Today Opens at UO
Dan'ni announced: "Today we are launching a brand new news section called Community Today! Built to highlight interesting fan made events and discussions going on in the community as well as showcase some new site focus articles you may see in the future. We hope that you will find this section helpful and that it'll become the largest resource of information about the community." Community Today. Update: Dan'ni announced the new News staff at UO: "Please welcome our newest staff! Animan, EyeDE and The Psion are from now on the News Correspondents Team and will be helping with bringing you the latest news from all over the community!"

Report from "Then and Now: Computer Graphics in Games"
A few fans attended last night's "Then and Now: Computer Graphics in Games" at the Computer History Museum Hahn Auditorium, Mountain View, including Toh'mas, who wrote the following to The Lyst: "I have just returned from the panel session that included Rand Miller. This was quite an informative and entertaining event. I finally met another MREDU fan face to face (Pheener) and was again able to meet and speak with
Rand.
"The exhibits were entertaining if not unexpected. They had an original Pong system, an Atari 2600, a Commodore 64, an original Nintendo and just about everything in between. They had several stations set up
demoing four new games and then 3 dedicated stations to the newest game foreach of the three panelists. (Rand-Uru, Jordan Mechner-Prince of Persia & Will Wright-The SIMS) Each panelist gave a brief introductory presentation on what they have done over the years and then the Q & A session began.
"Most discussion was based around each panelists opinions on graphics related topics although there were certainly some entertaining stories each panelist told. What was interesting was the fact that the three panelists all had different views as the genre were all different. When the issue of photo-realistic graphics came up, Will (and to a lesser extent Jordan) tended to not see that as an important a subject but were interested in seeing what other things modern graphics technology could do (abstract, etc.). Rand, on the other hand, would place much more importance on this as the realism is all part of the immersiveness of the worlds Cyan creates.
"All-in-all, a very fun time. In speaking with Rand, we didn't jump at the opportunity on tid-bits of Something Else (tm) as we should have, but I did ask him about Robyn. Rand said that he is currently working on some music projects and even a movie script. His quote was "If you ask him (Robyn), he says he's working on a
bunch of projects. If you ask me, he's retired." Thanks for listening, Toh'mas." Thanks, Toh'mas.
Fadookie also attended and promised a report later on.

No "Official" Release Dates for MystIV or PotS
Kha'tie posted: "The reason we haven't posted any official date as news yet is because it isn't nailed down yet. As soon as we know the official dates for Europe and US (yes, they could be different slightly) we will announce it and let you all know for certain. Thanks!"

June 10, 2004
Traffic Limit Exceeded
I am no longer able to host the videos that I have put up, as I have exceeded my hosting company's traffic limit. If I go over the limit, it gets quite expensive. I apologize if this inconveniences anyone, but it's out of my control. The videos are currently being hosted at UruObsession (Thanks, Dan'ni!) and Mysterium.ch (Thanks, Jürg!). I will obviously continue this site for it's original intended purpose, that being finding and posting (daily!) all the interesting Myst related information I can find. Please feel free to email me with any comments. Thanks for your support.

Enhanced Myst IV Trailer Music
Gas Station Stan strikes again. He wrote: "I found something you might find interesting." Myst IV.

Updated PotS Image
When GrayDragon's Path of the Shell site appeared, there was some mixed feedback about the quality of one of the images, lake. In response, GD has put up a cleaner version. Thanks!

Confirmation: Videos on Complete Chronicles Site Are Silent
Many people have commented on the fact that the videos on the Complete Chronicles site are eerily silent and Kha'tie has confirmed that's how they were recorded: "Yes, unfortunately, when they were recorded there was no sound available on the software used..."

Only One Image from Sheldon Today
MystMan found the clue (The first Grand Master of the D’ni Writers Guild), deciphered it and found the image: Ailesh.jpg. All of my puzzle pages are updated: PotS Puzzle, Sheldon's original images not corrected, My adjusted version as a jpg,