MYST III: EXILE, A Look Back

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 out 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.

 

From our DVD collection. 

 

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.

 

We watched a great print of it on Criterion. 

 

Turning now to Myst III Exile, I would like to share some thoughts on this game that emerged in 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.

 

J'nanin, where the puzzle solving begins.

 

Heading down into the crater towards that amazing little building within it.  Inside is an important elevator puzzle, as well as an office and desk that must be studied closely.  Here is the only bed in the game; a hammock in the office.  Deb and I took turns sleeping on it while we rested from our journeys.
 

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 and intensity 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 summit, 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.

 

Players first appear on a tiny islet in Voltaic.

 

Voltaic is the energy world.  Water power and steam power must be engaged in order to progress here.

 

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.

 

For its time, Amateria was a wonder to behold.

 

I still enjoy taking leisurely walks here. 

 

As mentioned, the puzzles here can be 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 if by chance some puzzles are solved, you will never figure out what they mean.  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.

 

Saveedro has painted murals in most of the ages, telling of the deeds of Sirrus and Achenar, the evil sons of Atrus.  This one is located in the jungle of Edanna.

 

There are some truly beautiful areas in Edanna, especially deep below.  As to fair or logical puzzles, there are none. 

 

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 an airborne 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.

 

A mysterious door in Narayan, which, unfortunately, we never get to enter.  This is a micro age, with very little to see.

 

This screenshot gives the true 640 x 480 screen dimensions of the game, with the bottom uncropped.  If the game ends properly Saveedro gets to go for a ride. 

 

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 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PC Woes

A few weeks ago we found a top flight gaming PC on sale, so we ordered it.  Deb spent the usual several hours setting it up, killing off the bloatware, and transferring our files from the older PC.  The new one has a much faster processor and a kick-ass video card.  Except that over two weeks the system crashed on us 6 or 7 times.  So Thursday it was back to the store with it.  It has been sent back to the manufacturer for repair.  We could have exchanged it for a new one, but decided to wait a week and get this one fixed, which would be far less work for Deb than starting all over with a new PC.  So the old one is back in service for a while.  It runs fine, but it is a bit on the slow side for some games, and the graphics card is quite outdated now.

 

Original plans had us leaving for Europe on Sunday and staying for two weeks.  However, it was not to be.  Deb took pretty long to recover from recent invasive medical tests, but that wouldn't have stopped us.  Her breathing difficulties seem to be exacerbated by her new RA drug.  And my foot is not yet ready for airports and London transport.  There is good news, however.  I am now walking daily again for up to half an hour, but still at slow speed (2.2 mph versus my normal 3.5 mph).  Foot pain has subsided but is still present.  The big toe feels like it is always sprained, most noticeable when walking on cement or asphalt.  Despite the improvements I will still attend my bone scan on Saturday in Windsor.  Anyway, we took a couple of walks near our local ponds this week, before the weather turned grouchy.  I also managed (so far) 4 astronomy outings in October.  I am very happy about that.

 

Hard to see, but a pair of swans were enjoying the warm autumn weather.

 

Since our walks early in the week the weather turned cold and windy, and we've been indoors a lot.  The wood stove is in action, but we spent time preparing the gas boiler for its seasonal labours. 

 

In movie news there are a few to report, including one that we saw a few weeks ago and I forgot to mention.  Though Hollywood often misses the mark with big budget pictures and actors, we quite enjoyed The Sandpiper (1965) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.  She is a single mom living off grid on the California coast at Big Sur, in probably the best location for a house in the entire world.  She is an artist raising a 9 year old boy.  When he gets into minor trouble one time too many, the local judge orders him sent a boarding school.  It is run by Richard Burton, playing a married religious man.  Of course they fall in love and all the rest of the Hollywood crap, but there are some memorable scenes.  In one of them Taylor could be talking about herself in real life as she describes how men have hounded her since she was 12, and that she doesn't want to be tied down to any kind of normal life.  We're with you, Lizzie!  Burton's character, despite being happily married, can't keep his lust at bay when near Taylor, and the ending is a strained one for all concerned.  This is a beautiful colour film to watch, and it does carry an emotional impact.  Altogether very well done.  And of course that famous song, "The Shadow of Your Smile" by Johnny Mandel...

 

A Hollywood film worth catching on a big screen. 

A Chinese Ghost Story 2 is from 1990, with the same characters (and a few new ones) keeping things lively and pretty funny.  If you liked the first one (we did) then the 2nd one will contain much of the same things.  Good effects and the sad and tragic love story keep the pace lively and interesting, up to a point.  Having seen two of these things, and knowing that a 3rd one awaits, I can't say I'm terribly excited.  Still, there are worse ways to pass the time, and obviously a lot of stunt work and fun effects went into this feature.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Lastly comes Robert Altman's Gosford Park, from 2001.  With an all star cast, it's kind of a mash up of Renoir's Rules of the Game, and the Upstairs Downstairs series for TV.  It inspired Downton Abbey to be created, and is well worth watching.  There are so many characters involved, each with their own mini-plot, that the pace is very quick and the time flies past (135' running time).  The events take place over a weekend of "shooting", as a ton of birds are massacred by the gentry for the sake of a pleasure outing.  There is so much story, given out in pieces separated by pieces of other stories, that one has to really pay attention to keep track of all the happy people (sarcasm, dear readers) and their doings.  There is also a murder, with Stephen Fry recreating Monsieur Hulot as an ineffective detective.  Great fun by a master director.

 

Leaving Criterion Oct. 31st.  

 

Mapman Mike  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Egypt and Beehives

It is sunny and heading towards 72 F today.  Soon bars will be crowded with people drinking green beer.  What fun.  Way back in 1976 on this day, I asked Deb to marry me.  I was in college and she was still in high school.  It seemed to work out okay, so far.

The word is out--testing at the border returning to Canada will be dropped April 1st.  Hopefully soon afterwards I will make my way over to Detroit for the day, the first time in over two years.  Deb is still unable to go.  If she leaves the country she can't visit her mom for two weeks.  Not much else planned for the near future.  A visit to Sudbury in May.  Hopefully some autumn hiking in NM.

Now on to the Egypt part of the blog title for today.  We finally finished watching Cleopatra, the 1963 Hollywood blockbuster film starring Elizabeth (Cleavage) Taylor, Richard Burton, and a whole bunch of other people.  Lots and lots of other people.  The opening scene of a Roman battlefield reminded me of similar scenes in Russia's War and Peace, which we saw several months ago.  Only the director here did not have the Russian army at his disposal.  There are many truly magnificent scenes, many of them shot in Rome and Egypt.  Cleopatra's lavish entrance into Rome has to be one of the highlights of movie making.  Beautiful set design, camera work, lighting, outstanding costumes, and a decent story make this a must see film.  It looked totally amazing on our 40" widescreen TV, but how much better it would look on a really big screen.

Following a jaw dropping Las Vegas show, Cleopatra arrives in Rome.

 

Now showing on Criterion, until March 31st.

Costumes and headgear were astounding, as were sets, lighting, etc. 

The film clocks in at four hours and eleven minutes, including Overture, Intermission, and musical epilogue.  Unfortunately the music was mostly bad Hollywood schmaltz.  The visuals made up for it.

Turning now to the beehives of the blog title, we arrive at a little Spanish film from 1973 called Spirit of the Beehive.  This truly wonderful movie concerns a small family living in a tiny village on the outskirts of Franco's last years.  Two sisters, ages about 6 and 8, attend a local showing of the 1931 Frankenstein movie in 1940s rural Spain.  The little one, Ana, becomes transfixed by the monster, especially after her sister tells her that it is possible to talk to him if she closes her eyes and whispers to him.  She leads her little sister to an abandoned farm building and water well where she says he lives.  The film is not easy to describe, as it really doesn't have much story.  What it does have is an insight into childhood rare in book or film, and a way of expressing emotion in a most subtle fashion.  The visuals are nothing less than haunting, and the acting by the children is perfectly directed.  This is one of Guillermo del Toro's favourite films, in his top three, and it's not hard to see many of his ideas coming from here.  We still have a ton of film extras to watch about this film, adding up to more minutes than the 98 minute film itself.  The film is unforgettable.

Spirit of the Beehive, on Criterion. 

Mom plays piano, in a Vermeer inspired shot.

Ana (left) and sister Isabel overlook an abandoned farm building and well, where the monster is said (by Isabel) to live.

And I'll finish with a few more early family slide scans.  The project is now complete, and soon I will move on to the slides of our earlier European journeys, and the earlier Valley of Mexico ones.  Still lots of work ahead.

Our front yard in Sudbury, looking towards the Copper cliff smokestacks of INCO.  Those bare mountains at the end of our street are now forested.  That mountain was also a local ski and toboggan hill.

 

  Me holding younger brother Stephen, alias the burrito boy.

Winters were endless in Sudbury (and still are).  We briefly lived in a different house, the upstairs of a duplex.  I had a ski hill in our backyard! 

Today also happens to be a full moon.  The party commences soon.

Mapman Mike