Myst Movie Update!

Oh my goodness! Excitement! Pure excitement! I'm ecstatic! I am overwhelmed with euphoria!

http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=25844

The Book Of Atrus Is A Comic?!

http://mystcomic.smackjeeves.com/

I cannot fathom how much better than Manga this is. Go read it! New pages released regularly!

The author intends to take it to the very end. That means, age 37, Gehn, Myst- everything. Personally, I'm excited. You know why? Because this won't be the first Myst comic, but it'll be the first good one... (ahem) Book of Black Ships (ahem)

EDIT (02/05/2012): I recently noticed that it's tagged "Manga". I disagree. If you think it's Manga, you're wrong.

EDIT (31/08/2012): Nevermind. I guess it might be, but I have no idea. Also, I no longer hate manga. Well, I still find some of it annoying, but not all, y'know?

Oh, How I Wish Thou Would Post

So it's been six months since the last post on mystmovie.com. This is a long time. You see, it used to be that they'd post quite often, once a month at the very least. But I'm pretty sure this is the longest silence since... well, ever. And it's especially annoying, since the comment string sort of has a bug in it (you're welcome) and we had this sort of game of trying to reach 1000 comments, which had been going on for a while. And we kept asking them to post, or at least say hi, when it happened. Well, it's been two days, and still nothing.
I think it's bad for our health. For a while, we were sort of in mourning, and people kept making these posts of depression and hatred. Then the notion came up that we were all just one being in an airless void, and had constructed a huge fantasy world to escape its own loneliness. Then it went to being all optimistic and "no news is good news!", and stuff. And I think there were some really long discussions about linking books and quantum theory.
But c'mon! We're desperate! It can't be that hard to at least say "Yo what's up, we're still alive!". Arggity.

Uru Extra Music

If you have the soundtrack to Uru, you might be disappointed that it has very little of the full soundtrack in it. This means that there are two obvious ways to get the rest; either play the game, or fish through the resource files. Well, I've done some fishing, and now I've renamed them, put them in an order that makes sense, and put them on my Youtube channel!

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB4CC318C1435738D&feature=plcp

Riven Dagger

I ordered a riven dagger replica from a person who... made them, and it arrived today. It looks very nice, actually a lot nicer than in the photo.

So! You might be thinking, "But I want one!". Well, that is easily remedied, but be warned! As of writing this, there are only three left!
http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=25525

And I'm sure the number is going to go down quickly, so order yours now!

YouTube Earth Hour!

Watch this!

Ever heard of the Myst Movie?
mystmovie.com

Honestly, I don't know what this is for, or even why it's here, but honestly, I can't believe this is a thing! And how do I know it's Myst-ish stuff?

Suddenly their 2013 release prediction doesn't seem so crazy. As a "hardcore" Myst fan, I'm excited.

What's Up With The Hands?

So you may have noticed that I've been including little hand (and most recently, lightning bolt) images at the bottom of each post. You might be wondering, what are they for? Well, I started with my post about the MO:ULa update, so basically, they're shameless advertising for the Myst series.
But what are they?
They're a set of cursors from Riven, the second game in the Myst series. Here they all are:


        

So, yeah. By the way, speaking of Myst, look at this:

http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=383439#383439

'Tis exciting.

Vothol

I installed the Gehn Shard yesterday evening.

Shard of what? Well you see, Cyan recently allowed users to host their own servers of MO:ULa, called shards. The Gehn shard is designed to be a showcase for bugfixes, new ages, and stuff before it's implemented into the main thing.

Anyway, in the Nexus, I noticed a thing called "Vothol Gallery". I linked there, and this is the first thing I saw:

A new age? Could it possibly be?

That's right. Seeing is believing.

Hmm, reminds me of D'ni...

I wish I could have some lights like that...

Anyway, go experience it for yourself here.


Oh, and

ONE THOUSAND VIEWS!

If you haven't guessed by the title, I've reached the huge milestone of 1,000 pageviews. This is pretty cool, because I got my first hundred in october or something. Anyway, it's actually 1020, so since I last checked, I got 24 views, from whatever source. Here's the ultimate screenshot:

Here's a little history lesson:

I started this blog out in June 2011. Back then, I didn't post much. I sort of think of it as the "prologue" to what I do now, while I was getting used to the idea of having a blog. The theme looked a lot like it does now, but with different fonts and a way different background picture. It was a screenshot of Todelmer, an age from Myst 5.

Later, I changed it to a long, panel-like version of my frog profile picture. I think it was around here that the "new" era began. I think it was around my Myst Online: Uru Live again on Mac post that I started to post more. And, in retrospect, I think it's when my views began to skyrocket. After a while, I changed the theme to a rather interesting picture I took of glow sticks while I was listening to Vale Decem. I don't even know why I included that. Oh well. After that came the most recent theme. I'll probably make an updated, better looking version of it as soon as I can get my hands on Photoshop Elements. I wish I could post something incredible and shocking as a goodie or something, but I can't. Thanks to everyone who's seen my blog, and even better checked back, and I'm looking forward to another 1000 in the future!

Oh, and

Minkata Sparklie!

Good news from the world of Myst! Cyan recently launched build 905 of MO:ULa, with several bug fixes and features, but the spotlight is certainly that the Minkata Sparklie works!
If you're not familiar with what the Sparklies (or Sparks) do, they're basically these floating, buzzing sparks that you find throughout URU. There are twelve in total, but until recently, you could only collect eleven of them. I wasn't actually sure what happens when you get all of them, but now I do:


SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT 
This basically means that if you want to find out for yourself, you should go here. That's what I'd do.

Fireworks! Hooray for Cyan and open source people! But seriously, it is really great. It's like a reminder that Cyan really is still alive, and that they don't just spend their time resetting their servers every monday. Like a "server monkey". I can just imagine a little monkey sitting there in front of a server, unplugging and plugging it back in every 30 seconds.

Anyway, this is all made possible by URU users/fans making donations, since the game is completely free (technically known as donationware).
It's measured in the CAVCON scale, and, as laid out by RAWA:

CAVCON 5: Unlike some movies, which get the DEFCON levels backwards, CAVCON 5 is the best state. It means that donations are exceeding MO:ULagain expenses, there are a couple of months of MO:ULagain expenses in reserve, and extra money can be put toward server upgrades, bug fixes, new content, incorporating fan created content, etc. 

CAVCON 4: This level means that donations are exceeding MO:ULagain expenses, and we are building a small reserve fund for future slow periods. 

CAVCON 3: Donations are roughly equal to MO:ULagain expenses. 

CAVCON 2: Donations are less than MO:ULagain expenses, and we're currently using the reserve fund to help pay for MO:ULagain expenses. 

CAVCON 1: Donations are less than MO:ULagain expenses, and the reserve fund is empty. This would be A Bad Thing (tm).

(Watson, Richard A. "CAVCON Meter." Myst Online: Uru Live. Cyan Worlds, 26 Feb. 2010. Web. <http://mystonline.com/en/>.)

And right now, I think the CAVCON is at 4. You can find out for yourself here, but since we haven't hit 5 yet, go ahead and ! Let's get those server upgrades, bug fixes, new content, fan created content, etc, coming!

Oh, and

Elephant Bum

How To Play Riven On Mac OSX

I apologize in advance if I've accidentally already made a post like this one.

If you're a Myst-loving Mac user like me, you'll be very frustrated that you can't play most of the Myst games on modern Macs. When it comes to Riven, unless you're willing to wait for realRiven (StarryExpanse.com), there's only one option:

Thanks to the work of a few dedicated individuals, there is now a simple application which allows you to insert your Riven disc(s), and it then installs it so you can play it any time. It's very good, it works with Lion, Snow Leopard, Things, Stuff.
Anyway. So I tried installing it a few months ago, but, much to my dismay, when it finished processing all the discs, the files would self-destruct without warning. So I thought, well, I'll just copy the files over manually. It can't be that hard. I did so, and it was able to play. However, I hit yet another roadblock. Whenever it got to the point where my five-disc version would ask you to insert disc 1, the game crashed. So I decided, arr, the loot belongs to us, matey! In other words, I gave up and pirated the DVD version. It was so much easier. I have no idea why I didn't just do that in the first place. From there, I did the automatic install, and it worked perfectly. Summary: don't use CDs. Use the internet.
Anyway, I'd recommend this method for anyone who doesn't want to spend time looking for their disc(s), trying to get the formatting right or whatever you might have to do. Or, if you have a MacBook Air like me, or any other computer lacking an optical drive, do it as well! So, here are the necessary links:

Riven X:

Click me!

Riven DVD Edition Torrent:

Download!

And, if you've been in a coma for the past 10 years:

Shame on you! (just kidding)

D'ni Font

So as many of you people who may or may not be reading this on a regular basis or just happened to stumble upon my blog...
Um, anyway.
I am a large fan of the Myst series of video games, and also the culture they revolve around known as the D'ni.
The D'ni were a very sophisticated race, and Cyan Worlds has done a very good job at making that sophistication show through. They've thought through every aspect of their race. In fact, one amazing person known as Richard A. Watson, employed at Cyan, has made a language and unique lettering system. As a result, it is inevitable that a fancy font would arise, and therefore it is inevitable that I would have have that font. Here's a sample of it:

As you can see, if you looked at the large version, the detail is very high, and I wasn't anywhere near being zoomed in all the way. Anyway, that being said, you can download the font here:

http://linguists.bahro.com/essentials/Dn______.TTF

You can search pi here:
http://www.angio.net/pi/piquery

Um, yeah, that's just a random thing. I don't have a good reason for including it.

Now, if you haven't noticed, I've altered the look of my blog slightly. It now uses Times New Roman as a font in some places, because I believe it is serious looking enough to make it look like things should be taken seriously, or at at least important, but not so intimidating that it gives my blog that scary, high-tech internet look, which abides by my philosophy of the internet which is that it should be for everyone and not just technology people who don't feel intimidated by this whole "internet" thing. [ALERT ALERT MELODRAMATIC SENTENCE AHEAD] As a technology person who doesn't feel intimidated by this whole "internet" thing, and, as it probably evident by now, is obsessed with detail, I feel that this change of font is a good deed for humanity.

Did you know that the internet was originally developed by a team led by some guy called Tim Berners-Lee? Queen Elizabeth II decided to knight him for some reason. But really, Tim's just this guy, you know? Anyway, I feel way more comfortable with the internet (not that I ever wasn't) now that I know who the people were behind it. And actually, something cool, there was an original webpage for the internet, explaining what the project was about.

http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

More Uru

After installing Myst Online on Mac, I decided to extract the files using a program known as Riveal (warning: extremely glitchy!). This is a piece of software which, aside from OSX MO:UL (Myst Online: Uru Live), works quite well to extract the data files from all the games in the Myst Series, as well as BioShock and BioShock 2. Anyway, during my explorations in the extracted files, I came across an interesting song which I thought I'd attempt to post for no particular reason whatsoever. But, since I can't, I'll just tell you how to get it.
1. Get Myst Online.
2. Get Riveal.
3. Extract the MO:UL data.
4. In the folder "sfx", find a file known as "ahnySphere04-Amb01_Loop.
5. Open using a program which supports .ogg files (I'd reccomend using VLC.).

That's all for now.

Myst Online: Uru Live Again On Mac

The following is how to get Uru Live working on Mac:
First, install XCode. You can download it here:
http://developer.apple.com/xcode/
but I'd recommend getting it off the Snow Leopard disk (if you have it) because the download is extremely large and you have to have some useless membership-mig to do it at all.
After you've installed XCode, you should be able to properly run a program known as MacPorts.
You can download MacPorts here:
http://www.macports.org/install.php
Once you've successfully downloaded and installed MacPorts, you should restart the computer. Afterwards, go to Applications, Utilities, Terminal. Type in the following line of code:
sudo port install mystonline-cider
It will give you a little warning about sudo (administrator privileges in terminal) and will ask for your password, depending on your settings. Once you've entered your password, terminal will start downloading the Uru Client.
Once it's done (sometimes it just pauses with no warning whatsoever, don't worry that it's failed) Uru Live should be in Applications, MacPorts, MystOnline (cider).app.
Open it, then it should start downloading the game itself (will pretend it's "updating").
This, for me, took several hours, but if you have broadband it shouldn't take much longer than half and hour to forty-five minutes. Once it's done, just enter your account information! (if you don't have one, just go to mystonline.com/play/)
It may take a few minutes "updating" once it's played the Cyan Intro video. Don't worry, this is normal. It isn't actually doing much of anything at this point.
After all that, it should work! Please note that the game suffers from occasional and serious lag, depending on the speed of your computer and internet. Don't worry. It usually goes away.
See you in the Cavern!

Thanks to TrapperDave, OptyMyst, and Night something for being in the photo.

More About Probability Waves

First of all, I would like to explain something. In some of my earlier posts I had several "random facts". I was trying to make a "puzzle" that people would solve by going through all the random facts and finding clues and stuff. But I've gotten rather bored with it (i.e. I keep forgetting to do it and am too lazy to go back and edit my posts), so I'm officially giving up. However, I am not throwing the idea away! You (my imaginary followers) can use my master list of random facts, try to solve it (it's not that hard) and use it in your own blog!

Steve!

Rastapopolous

Smallpox was eradicated in 1979

Differences in colour of Labrador Retrievers is based on Pigment.

Yellow labs have little pigment, and cannot distribute it well.

Chocolate labs either have lots of pigment and cannot distribute it well or have little pigment and can distribute it well.

Black labs have lots of pigment and can distribute it extremely well.

Herge, author of Tintin, was from france but lived in england.

Tuvan throat singing does not involve holding your throat.

Amazon sells eBooks.

There's a kindle app for the iPad.

Tarzan used to be a book.

Tarzan's father died from a gorilla attack.

Richard A. Watson says Myst Island is bigger.

Rebecca Black's "Friday" stinks.

Bees cannot talk.

Bees do not smoke.

Jeff smith was wrong.

Horses should be afraid around James Cameron.

I am smarter than Justin Beiber.

"They say of the acropolis where the parthenon is" is not a funny video.

2 2 15 12 19 14 6 21 4 8 1 0 0 21 32 0 0 0 0 0 0

Puzzle, anyone?

So, yes. Now, that being said, let's get to the point of this post.

I said that I was going to further explain probability waves. Well, here's a good website that gives a pretty good explanation (it's at the fourth Q&A from the top):

http://www.fortunecity.com/underworld/riven/473/age.html

But in order for that to make sense, you should read both of these:

http://en.mystlore.com/wiki/Descriptive_book

http://en.mystlore.com/wiki/Linking_panel

And in order for that to make sense, you should read this thing as well:

http://en.mystlore.com/wiki/The_Art

And, probably this:

http://en.mystlore.com/wiki/D%27ni_(race)

And, if you're still wondering what all this is about, these:

http://en.mystlore.com/wiki/Myst_(game)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst

So, yes. I hope these are helpful.

Watch out for loud music gremlins. They'll try to fool your brains!

Probablilty waves

Probability waves are the quantum mechanics theory that, if an object hasn't been observed,  it can be several things at once. It if you think about it, it completely disproves the plot of back to the future. My theory is that in order for the plot to work, the "good" home he returned to would NOT be a changed reality but an alternate one. This means that his original family would never see him again, and since he was able to meet all his siblings, which means that there was another alternate marty whom he never met, and the one with the "good" home and eastwood ravine was probably vaporized by a flying teacup and nobody noticed.

I read about probability waves on a Q&A with Richard A. Watson:
WHICH I CANNOT FIND.....