I'm not sure if you read the thread that I linked to, but no, (except for in that footnote) I don't mean the same app, as pixel doubling an iPhone sized game to fill out the iPad will indeed probably look unpleasant. Using a "smart" algorithm to upsize the original assets of the game is a different story though and could look very good if a bit blurry. Riven is such a modest game in terms of processor requirements that this could probably be done on the fly without too many problems. There are licensable as well as open source algorithms that do these things.

Hm, you seem to be thinking that the gist of my argument is that this quote means I was right in the iPad thread. Obviously, it's not, because I'm not right - yet.* The gist of my argument is that it's highly likely that there will be a Riven for the iPad, at some point. With the "I TOLD YOU SO" I really just intended to point out that the fact that there is a time plan for Riven on the iPhone OS brings support to the iPad argument. Guess I thought the intentional exaggeration would come across with that "(almost)" in there...

* Technically, an iPhone game is also an iPad game, so as long as the port will be finished I'm technically right to say that Riven will come for the iPad, but once again, that's not really what my argument is about.

I'm now looking forward to the Gold Medal in Emphasis in the Paraolympics of Arguing on the Internet.

Which, as I already said, doesn't change the gist of my argument (especially since I wasn't even aware of that when I started the original thread). You're the one splitting hairs and being unfoundedly hostile to a perfectly reasonable conjecture.

Riven for iPhone hasn't been "announced" even as we speak - the thread aander91 linked to is the first "official" confirmation of it at all, and certainly doesn't qualify as an announcement. To the best of my knowledge, the only previous official word on Riven for iPhone was "We are not working on Riven for the iPhone/iPod... yet" (my emphasis), which of course doesn't mean anything.

A game like Riven is obviously much better suited for the larger display of the iPad, than for the tiny 320x480 iPhone. If one has both an iPhone and an iPad, and is interested in playing Riven, being able to play it on the iPad is naturally the preferred choice. The iPad and the iPhone is the same platform, and it should typically take very little work for a developer to go from one platform to the other.

Riven might be a little bit harder since it's all prerendered, meaning all the images and videos have to be resized to fit the screen. But after the time and work they've invested in getting the games to this platform, they're essentially leaving money on the table by not moving on to the iPad. Of course, they might want to wait and see how the iPad is doing before they do that small extra investment, but it's hardly going to be a complete flop.

EDIT: Found a Cyan quote from around christmas that mentions Riven on iPhone as well, but it doesn't really change the gist of my argument.

I (almost) TOLD YOU SO.

I think the whole point with them sharing the SDK and everything is that it's pretty easy to develop for one platform and make some adjustments to make it work well on the other. Might be harder with a prerendered game though.

"Artistic value"? No, but monetary, and preservational...

The "extra" stuff was something I mentioned in half a sentence mostly to stress that the limited screen res of the iPhone, that might make Cyan think twice about a Riven port, is not a problem on the iPad... I agree that most likely, a port that is as true to the original as possible is probably best. Otoh, it would make sense to create some simple way to take notes.

I still feel there's a lot pointing to an iPad Riven version.

You seem to question the whole idea of re-releasing Myst games for the iPhone/-Pod/-Pad platform at all. I think it's pretty clever. Not many people would buy Myst for a PC/Mac today, so for Cyan, there's not much value in re-releasing it for those platforms. iPhone users however have been very willing to pay for games, especially since the prices are typically low and it's very easy to do the transaction. And from a technical point of view, porting a game like Myst or Riven is fairly straightforward, so if they make some money off it, why not?

Yesterday, Apple released the silly-named iPad, which essentially is a 10" iPhone without the phone, at a surprisingly low price ($499).
For Myst fans, the most interesting thing about this new gadget is probably that

A. it can run existing iPhone/iPod touch apps, such as the Myst application, and
B. developing apps or games for the iPhone and the new iPad is pretty much the same, meaning Cyan has all it takes to do it.

Cyan has hinted at plans to make an iPhone version of Riven too. There are two problems with the iPhone though - the small screen res and the small storage. Riven screens would need to be downsized to fit the screen, which isn't optimal, and the full install would probably require the majority of the hard drive, which is a big turnoff for a lot of potential buyers.

The iPad however has a large enough screen to fit Riven twice at it's native resolution - which means there's plenty of room to add a note book, map, or whatever else might enhance the gameplay. Or, room for upsizing the original screens and videos with some clever algorithm. The iPad also has up to 64 GBs of hard drive, which is plenty enough to cover Riven in highest possible quality.

Here's the obligatory photoshop mockup:



It's all there - Cyan has all the knowledge and the resources available, and the new device has the perfect specs to do Riven. This pretty much has to happen, don't you think?

By the way, the new "iBooks" app has an uncannily familiar icon...

Nice! Thanks.


And in the long "making of" video.

Not really - it has to be a reliable source, and I don't think that a random website qualifies as such. If it was indeed printed in a "real" magazine though, it is probably considered more reliable.

I did make some additions based on this article, so I'm assuming it was actually printed.

Can anyone confirm that this article was in fact printed in a magazine called Computer Graphics World in 1998? Their website has an archive which unfortunately doesn't go beyond late 1999.

If anyone can confirm that this article was in the magazine, it would be a great source for information for the Wikipedia Riven entry, as it contains a number of statements that are currently lacking.

EDIT: Of course, it's supposed to say "anyone got the issue" in the title.

Wow, this brings back some great memories... in so many ways it reminds me of when I first got online in the late nineties and realized the web was full of Myst related fan pages... Once I even had some semi serious plans on starting a Riven related website myself.

While there are a number of things that could be made "better", I find your website very charming and I can definitely sense the enthusiasm for the games - very heart warming. Thank you!

EDIT: Oh and by the way, the iPhone and the iPod touch are essentially the "same" device, so the game runs on both of them. So it's not two different versions, it's one version that can run on two (well actually, several) devices.

So if "the colors are mostly random" but "their locations are not", that still means the colors have some importance... what baffles me is that the image format is jpg, which means it's almost certain that the colors have changed a bit from the original image.

However, the previous clue seems to suggest that while the image should not be resized, it has more pixels than needed. Maybe we need to chop it into several parts, and combine them somehow, to produce a meaningful image. I've tried a few things but can't seem to find anything.

That the puzzle goes in the spirit of stubbornness, rather than cleverness.

The level of difficulty wasn't what I was complaining about.

So, is this too supposed to be converted to text? Or is it supposed to become an "unscrambled" image?

realXCV, I'm glad you didn't design any of the Myst games, or we'd have a lot more of those "try to combine every one of your quadrillion inventory items with every other one of your quadrillion inventory items, until two of them stick", etc...

Thankfully, the Myst series instead concentrates on clever puzzles.

She had served carrot-flavored kool-aid to the lemonade doctor, Dr. Lemonson. "He is underground and beneath them all - both living, and dead!" - "Oh no, don't forget the gumdrops!" The doc gulped and swallowed...or did he?

(good idea luna)

A beer can?

She served carrot-flavored kool-aid to the lemonade doctor, Dr. Lemonson. "He is underground and beneath them all - both living, and dead!" - "Oh not the gumdrops!" The doc gulped and swallowed.

She served Kool-aid to the lemonade doctor, "He is underground and beneath them all - both living, and dead!"

So what's the point of not just... spilling the beans?

This would really be an illegal post, as you added quotation marks in two places... but we'll let it pass this time.