As of January 31st our cold weather days have now increased to a season total of 40. On those days the temperature did not reach 0 C or 32 F. On many of those days the temp did not even come close to reaching that level. So it's been very cold, though the winds seem to have died down. The next ten days are supposed to continue cold, so we should reach 50 with no trouble at all. Around here winter usually dies around the 14th of February--we are hoping it does.
Today is a full moon day, and tomorrow is Candlemas. So many holidays and festivals around here! Brigid comes out tomorrow to do her part in encouraging Spring to appear, though we can't get her fresh flowers until Tuesday. We will also reveal our new cross-quarter Tarot card. Deb continues work on her newest film, while her last one just chalked up an award in Toronto for best micro-short (She Makes A Moving Picture). Yay Deb! Next week will mark one month on my newest piano pieces, so I will talk about them then.
There are two films to report, one good and one bad. The bad one was the 1969 b & w horror film It's Alive, starring Tommy Kirk as a dynamite carrying paleontologist, one of four people who get caught and trapped by a crazy man. This is one of the all time bad horror films, with a monster (It) so badly done that it almost makes the film worthwhile to watch. Apparently millions of years ago there were lots of these creatures, but hardly any nowadays. The dynamite gets used at the end, and two of five people and one It come out alive. We barely came out alive ourselves. At any time the prisoners could have walked out of the cave they are trapped in, but I guess it was just too much effort. It features one of the most unpleasant husbands in the history of cinema. What a relief when he is finally fed to the monster.
The good film was Suddenly Last Summer, a 1969 b & w film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katherine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift. A one act play by Tennessee Williams was greatly expanded by Gore Vidal. Taylor is a supposedly violent and crazy young woman being helped by Clift as her doctor. Hepburn is her looney aunt who wants a lobotomy performed on Taylor, which is Clift's specialty. This is high drama, and Taylor acquits herself well. Hepburn chews up every scene she is in, and Clift just rolls along with the punches. This marks the second film in a row with Taylor that I have liked her in her role. The ending is a bit over the top. What inspired the writer to come up with it? I am curious. Not a film to inspire one's love of humanity.
Turning now to Myst III Exile, I would like to share some thoughts on this game from 2001. First the bad news. The game is old. It is rendered in 16 bit colour and appears at a resolution of 640 x 480. Wow. That means it will not run on most newer PCs. However, the game is available cheaply on Steam, and this time we played it there rather than using the CDs. It originally came on 4 discs, with switching required throughout the game. I first played the game in July and August of 2001, spending 30 hours wandering the various landscapes. I was impressed overall, though the game had some problems with sound and the mouse. At the time I did not realize that there was a 5th ending, a happy one for all. Imagine doing hours and hours and hours of work to find that there are no less than 4 bad endings and only one good (very tricky) one. Nice reward for all the work. Idiots! On the good side, the static slideshow was gone. Now players could turn 360 degrees and see things in all direction. Heaven!
I played it again in 2015 on XP and it worked fine. I finally discovered that 5th ending.
Now for the 2026 play, my 3rd time through the game. It really needs an update. The Steam version is the original, and it seems odd to see the low resolution, especially after playing so many new games recently. Even so, it's still quite a pretty game to look at. We played it together,though we needed lots of help. The only way to truly understand what the hell is going on and why is to use the Prima Official Strategy Guide, which we kept handy and used liberally. There are five worlds that require puzzles to be solved to advance the story.
The game opens on Tomahna, the house of Atrus and Catherine and Yeesha that we will see more of in Myst IV. However, we are quickly taken to J'nanin, the world that is central to the game. For most of the images below I have cropped out the bottom of the screen, which shows the inventory items, mostly books. The game play screen is 640 x 480, more square than these cropped images.
None of these worlds were meant for anything except to train Atrus' two criminal sons how to manipulate worlds and get along together to solve problems. I wish the Myst stories had left those two alone, already imprisoned by Atrus at the end of Myst. We now have to deal with a man driven mad by the cruelty of those two boys. Saveedro, played with full force by Brad Dourif (Wormtongue in LOR), is rightly upset with Atrus for not keeping a close rein on the boys, and the game is all about his seeking revenge. He has been separated from his wife and kids for twenty years, and is now a raving madman.
Anyway, there are three main puzzles to solve in J'nanin, also referred to as the lesson age. The solving of each puzzle gains the player a different world to explore. There is also a minor puzzle to solve beneath the main elevator, found in the art nouveau house shown above. The elevator gains the player access to the main tusk, which has solutions to each of the three main puzzles. There are also three smaller tusks, with a major problem to solve for each. We got through J'nanin without much trouble. One of the puzzles I really liked was the light puzzle, shining from one lamp to another across the small island. It's also a great island to walk in, as the player can make a complete circuit of the island without backtracking. It is a death-defying walk and quite exhilarating!
The first world we traveled to from J'nanin was Voltaic, the energy age. The puzzles here are also mostly solved by a bit of poking and exploring, though the three-storey steam pipe one is tedious and overly complicated. especially since Saveedro has damaged part of it, as he has in each world. The puzzles would be difficult enough, but by damaging them things can quickly go from bad to worse for players.
Catwalks, both high and low, an elevator, underground caverns and above ground caverns, along with an airship ride, are some of the highlights of this very scenic age. Once things are up and running, there are some great sound effects. This helps immersion in the game, as the music, for the most part, is quite lame by Myst and Riven standards. Once the age has been completed players are rewarded by a scenic airship ride through the canyon. We get to take a sheet of paper with us which has a mysterious symbol written on it. Back to J'nanin via a handy linking book, and on to the next world.
Amateria, the age of dynamic forces, is still my favourite of the worlds of Myst III, though the puzzles are virtually impossible without spending a lifetime of trial and error. The small island can also be walked in a circle, with indoor and outdoor scenery of a spellbinding quality. The sky was unbelievably dramatic, with lightning, thunder and some of the best dark clouds and lighting to this day. Even in 2026 I still love just walking around that place. Its Chinese themed architecture works perfectly against the drama of the overall atmosphere.
As mentioned, the puzzles here are far too challenging, and with very little in the way of help as to what needs doing, this beautiful setting can quickly become a frustrating experience. Hints and use of a walkthrough are nearly mandatory if the player wishes to exit the game in a spirit of fun and enjoyment. Whereas the payoff in Voltaic was a ride in an airship, this time one gets to ride inside an ice sphere, whizzing through a maze of track. It's best to save the game before the final code is inputted, so the ride can be taken again. Back to J'nanin with another symbol on paper, and off to yet another world.
Edanna, the world of nature, is nearly a complete disaster, and one of the worst Myst creations to ever be thrust upon a devoted gamer of the series. There are many physical levels to this game, but if the player doesn't begin from the uppermost level and work downward, there is no hope of success. Should one wander down into the depths of the jungle first, nothing at all can be accomplished. It's so easy to get lost and turned around down there that I can safely bet that many players likely abandoned the game somewhere below. Even with a walkthrough and a map from the strategy guide, good luck finding and solving everything that needs doing. None of it makes the least bit of sense as far as teaching the boys anything about worlds or nature. The jungle at the bottom features one necessary pathway that is virtually impossible to find. It is easy to get turned around, and can become something of a maze, that dreaded feature of many early adventure games, beginning with the Zork text games and continuing on into visual games for far too long. The less said about Edanna the better; use a walkthrough if you wish to remain sane. Otherwise, expect plenty of anger issues to arise. Upon completing this world the reward is to be picked up by a giant bird and brought up to its nest. A third page with symbol is gained.
The final world visited before end game is Narayan, the age of balance. Again Saveedro (who we bump into here and quite often in the game) has damaged part of the age, in this case destroying some tapestries which hold symbols related to the three we have gathered before arriving here. Again the puzzles are complex and unnecessarily abstruse. Part of the first main puzzle makes absolutely no sense at all. The second one is easier, as it is simply copying symbols from an underground tapestry collection and putting them into a machine. This world is very limited, and there is little to explore. With only three discs, the developers were running out of room. But seeing a gondola that will follow a track leads the player to assume that he/she will soon be riding the vehicle. Not so. The gondola is only for Saveedro, if you make it that far in the game. Once the second main puzzle is solved, the end game sequence begins. Save as soon as you can. Next come the five endings. Choose wisely. It doesn't matter, as the game sets up the player to lose.
Of the five possible endings, three of them end badly for the player and for Atrus. A fourth ending ends badly for Saveedro, but okay for us. A fifth ending, which will only possibly be found by players after all the others have been tried (I missed it entirely the first time I played and never knew of its existence), ends well for everyone.
The game could really use an upgrade, and I would certainly replay it then. Though a fairly good game with lots to see and many places to wander freely, I rank it well behind Riven and a bit behind Myst. Even so, it is one of those games I find myself thinking back to often, with that little dwelling at the crater bottom on J'nanin and the mysterious and entrancing world of Amateria. It was hurtful not to see more of Atrus and Catherine's house, but we get the whole thing in Myst IV.
Happy Full Moon, and Happy Candlemas!
Mapman Mike
