Mean Hamster Software presents Myst for PocketPC - Page 2

symonphoenix · 03-05-05, 08:22 PM

Wait wait wait... you mean there's a way to play those old LucasArts games on PDA? Share please! :stickpoke

Theophilus · 03-05-05, 08:39 PM

Originally Posted by symonphoenix

Wait wait wait... you mean there's a way to play those old LucasArts games on PDA? Share please! :stickpoke

It's called ScummVM, it emulates the SCUMM engine. You can play the old games, Maniac Mansion, Zak McKraken, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Loom, Monkey Island I & II, and so many others...

It works perfectly, I use it myself

Look here. Then you use your old PC games or download them in some dusty Abandonware site.

symonphoenix · 03-05-05, 11:06 PM

YES! I've been looking for a way to revive my old favorites. Thanks bunches!

Vric · 03-06-05, 09:11 AM

Originally Posted by francesco_q

? ?

pocketscumm
http://arisme.free.fr/PocketScumm/index.php

Monkey Island 1 and 2 work perfectly.
Curse of Monkey Island (Monkey 3) run fine on an Axim X30 Mid ( kinda big, 130mb with no audio, near 1gb with full install)

You need to have those game for pc. Pocketscumm is only an emulator. (this is a really great emulator)

Sadly those game are quite old and very hard to find.

03-07-05, 07:40 AM

Originally Posted by Raynne413

I was going to buy the game, but someone on a site pointed out that the text in the book graphic is not readable, and that makes the game impossible unless you get online to see what the books say.

Well, demo or not I had to get this just because I'm a big fan of MYST (books and all.) I WAS able to read the text in the book graphic. The script that's used in the book graphics makes it a little more difficult than just reading a Word document, but I didn't have any trouble actually reading it. Maybe having an x50v had something to do with it? (Not knowing what the person from the other site was using.) Another possibility is that they might have been trying to read the book graphic while in "tall" mode (portrait, but the game calls it "tall" as opposed to "wide," landscape.) The game looks natural in landscape but everything is stretched in portrait and it looks a little weird. I can see where the books would be unreadable in portrait, "tall" mode. It gives you the option, but i've just kept it in landscape.

03-07-05, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by kelford

Well, demo or not I had to get this just because I'm a big fan of MYST (books and all.) I WAS able to read the text in the book graphic. The script that's used in the book graphics makes it a little more difficult than just reading a Word document, but I didn't have any trouble actually reading it. Maybe having an x50v had something to do with it? (Not knowing what the person from the other site was using.) Another possibility is that they might have been trying to read the book graphic while in "tall" mode (portrait, but the game calls it "tall" as opposed to "wide," landscape.) The game looks natural in landscape but everything is stretched in portrait and it looks a little weird. I can see where the books would be unreadable in portrait, "tall" mode. It gives you the option, but i've just kept it in landscape.

You should definitely post some screenshots when you get a chance. I know I'd like to see them.

03-07-05, 12:40 PM

Originally Posted by forkyfork

You should definitely post some screenshots when you get a chance. I know I'd like to see them.

I'll try to do that unless someone beats me to it. I'll have to get the screen capture app first since I've never actually done that. Even still, we're probably looking at Tuesday night before I'll get a chance to play around with that. I'll see what I can do.

03-07-05, 05:31 PM

OK, I'm 0-2 in screen capture, so I should throw this out for anyone who's had more experience with this than I have. I've tried two, Rapigrab and MagicSS neither of which appear to grab a "full screen" image. Either that, or I'm doing something wrong. Does anyone know a screen capture app that will capture an image from an app that takes full control of the screen?

03-07-05, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by kelford

OK, I'm 0-2 in screen capture, so I should throw this out for anyone who's had more experience with this than I have. I've tried two, Rapigrab and MagicSS neither of which appear to grab a "full screen" image. Either that, or I'm doing something wrong. Does anyone know a screen capture app that will capture an image from an app that takes full control of the screen?

I use DotPocket (which is also a PPC controller). Load it up, go make a screenshot, and it will take a 640x48 picture of your screen in .bmp format. You can then convert it to whatever you want, if you think it's necessary.

Raynne413 · 03-07-05, 07:46 PM

Well, I bought the game, but I seem to be stuck since the elevator in Channelwood won't open.

c.hilding · 03-10-05, 02:30 PM

EXTREMELY lackluster conversion of an excellent game. Graphics have been ridiculed, and it's clear that this was converted quickly and for the sake of the money, not for love of the game. The same goes for the audio, beautiful (and long) background sound sequences have been cut into shorter looped sections to save space, which is understandable with the limited space on most pocket pcs. But the editing has been done PISS POORLY. There's audible clicks and abrupt cuts whenever the background music repeats, meaning about every 5-6 seconds you wake up from the magic of the Myst environments by these clicks and cuts, immediately removing any chances of actually enjoying the game. This is comparable to reading a good book while an alarm clock goes off every 6 seconds. So not only are the graphics and sound disastrous, there's also many game mechanical bugs or disrepancies from the real game. To top it off, the conversion does not seem to be sanctioned by Cryo (myst creators), and has simply been done in Macromeda Flash, leading to abysmal performance.

I've been a Myst fan ever since the first game came out in '93, having all games, books, collectors editions, remakes and so on. Trust me on this, you do not want to spend 24.95 on this trash!

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!

Best Regards,
Christopher Hilding

PS. The best way to enjoy Myst is realMyst, Cryo's own PC remake from 2003 which is exactly the way they wanted the original game to be in '93 but couldn't achieve with the technologies of that time.

03-10-05, 03:26 PM

Originally Posted by c.hilding

EXTREMELY lackluster conversion of an excellent game. Graphics have been ridiculed, and it's clear that this was converted quickly and for the sake of the money, not for love of the game. The same goes for the audio, beautiful (and long) background sound sequences have been cut into shorter looped sections to save space, which is understandable with the limited space on most pocket pcs. But the editing has been done PISS POORLY. There's audible clicks and abrupt cuts whenever the background music repeats, meaning about every 5-6 seconds you wake up from the magic of the Myst environments by these clicks and cuts, immediately removing any chances of actually enjoying the game. This is comparable to reading a good book while an alarm clock goes off every 6 seconds. So not only are the graphics and sound disastrous, there's also many game mechanical bugs or disrepancies from the real game. To top it off, the conversion does not seem to be sanctioned by Cryo (myst creators), and has simply been done in Macromeda Flash, leading to abysmal performance.

I've been a Myst fan ever since the first game came out in '93, having all games, books, collectors editions, remakes and so on. Trust me on this, you do not want to spend 24.95 on this trash!

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!

Best Regards,
Christopher Hilding

PS. The best way to enjoy Myst is realMyst, Cryo's own PC remake from 2003 which is exactly the way they wanted the original game to be in '93 but couldn't achieve with the technologies of that time.

I am sorry to hear that. Perhaps you can ask for a refund?

03-10-05, 03:44 PM

Originally Posted by Raynne413

Well, I bought the game, but I seem to be stuck since the elevator in Channelwood won't open.

So how do you like it so far?

Raynne413 · 03-10-05, 06:44 PM

Surprisingly, since I've never really liked adventure games, I love it. I never played the PC version, but really like having this on my PPC. There have been several bugs, but the author has released a fix. The main thing I don't like is that when you save and leave the game, although your progress saves (i.e. if you have solved a particular puzzle) but your position isn't. So if I am in the elevator at Channelwood and save, then exit the game, I have to work my way back to the elevator when I load the game.

da1writer · 03-11-05, 01:34 PM

Sorry a few feel this games porting was lackluster but in my opinion I thought it was great. I'm also a big fan of Myst as well! I have Myst 1 (Playstation, PC, and now Pocket PC), Real Myst, Riven (PC and playstation), Myst 3 (PC and PS2), The Uru Complete Collection (3 in 1), all the myst soundtracks and Uru soundtrack, and the Myst Reader, and much more. So I try my best to get anything that deals with Myst. Anyway, Here's my review:
Overview-
After hearing Myst was coming to pocket pc, I became as giddy as a schoolgirl. But soon after it was released, I heard rumors that kept me kinda skeptical. Music was pulled out (maybe a little bit), voices as well, and the videos were replaced with flash cards and text. There's another thing that people were whispering about, It was in flash. I have nothing against flash but a few others do. I'll tell you, so far, this is the most perfect port I've seen for an adventure/puzzle game, I would go far into the deep region to say it is better than Atlantis Redux. Atlantis Redux was kinda perplexing when it came to the story and the game abruptly ends with a "to be continued". So Pocket Myst in my opinion is way better, especially versing the 120mb required for Atlantis Redux and Pocket Myst is only a little over 27mb! I'll replace my Atlantis Redux with Pocket Myst... there I go. Anyway, let's continue on to the rest of the review.
Gameplay-
Well, I see that the rumor of this game being flash was no lie. As soon as I pasted the game onto my storage card, it tells me right off the bat "requires flash to proceed with program". So you have to get that first before playing the game. In my opinion, flash is not that bad as to what some people are making it out to be. I kinda can't even tell that it's using it except when loading different worlds when you first get into one (it has this weird picture draw-in when you first enter into a world, it doesn't happen after that) and the videos seem to look a little strange (except the beginning scene and ending scenes). Everything has also been kept intact with no world pulled out the game for Pocket Pc's limited storage capacity (Which Atlantis Redux did and they murdered their story, I grabbed the pc version [Atlantis II] and I missed out on alot). Walking around Myst is just as easy as it was on the computer except now you can tap where ever you want to go. Flash makes the experience a little slow when loading up worlds but other wise it's an awesome journey thorugh the worlds of Myst. Now down to the sound and video.
Sound and Video-
Surprisingly the rumors were false on this account. Everything in the sound and video department are still intact as well and I'll elaborate on it. The music and sound effects are all still there and it's great to hear Atrus's voice again with very high quality sound. I personally use X50mixer to make my experience more surreal, 3d surround rocks (X50v users only)! Now the video is kinda a mix bag and I quickly overlooked it because they kept the opening video, which is still a classic to me and a personal favorite of mine. Most of the video used in certain scenes (the linking books especially) and the ending scenes are pretty descent but the videos in books with Atrus's sons look like they were done in low quality mpeg (really low). Again, I overlooked it when I saw the opening scene in perfect form, I love the scene when you go to the Myst Island! Flash also makes you have a better experience as walk through the vast locations of the worlds created in Myst. A quick tour will totally mesmerize you
Verdict-
Well, is it a worthy purchase? **** yeah! It's a great game to gain that classic nostalgia back into your life. Grab some headphones, turn up the x50mixer's 3d surround, bass, and treble and grab a good snack. Turn out the lights and lock your door, this game is going to be great experience once you step inside the immersive world... of Pocket Myst. I promise you, you will be reminded of how much you liked Myst ! Can't wait for the Riven Pocket PC Port... I'll definitely buy that as well!