Myst (series)/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Acting for Two: In the first game, Rand Miller plays both Atrus and his son Achenar.
  • Follow the Leader
  • Genre Killer: Of the inventory management Point and Click.
    • Ironic since the original game had no inventory management to speak of (you could only carry one page at a time).
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Brad "|Chucky/Grima Wormtongue" Dourif as Saavedro, in Myst III: Exile. He joined up mainly because he was a fan of the previous Myst games. You may have your nerdgasm, now.
  • Killer App: Originally, it was one of the selling points of the Mac. And when it was finally ported to the PC, PC owners actually bought a sound card and a CD-ROM drive along with the game (the latter was necessary as the game only came on CD-ROM, the former was necessary to enjoy the game fully since a typical PC of the era had no built in sampled audio capabilities; also, sound cards of the era included a built in SCSI controller, which is actually necessary for adding a CD-ROM drive to a PC because IDE CD-ROM drives weren't developed yet and all CD-ROM drives of the era only had SCSI interfaces). In other words, it was the killer app that nudged the PC towards the built in audio and multimedia path that it is following today.
  • Let's Play: YouTube user shadyparadox has two professional and comprehensive Let's Plays of the Myst series.
  • The Other Darrin:
    • Katran was played by Sheila Goold and voiced by Rengin Altay in Riven. She was played by Maria Galante in Myst III: Exile.
    • At least Goold and Galante SOMEWHAT resemble each other when in wardrobe and make-up. The actors who played Sirrus and Achenar in Myst IV: Revelation look and sound NOTHING like the Miller Brothers other than basic body types.
  • Port Overdosed: Perhaps the most widely-ported graphical adventure game in history.
  • Real Life Relative: In the first game, the brothers Sirrus and Achenar are played by real life brothers Rand and Robyn Miller. Rand also played (voiced, in Myst V: End of Ages) their father Atrus in all games.
  • Trope Namer: Douglas Adams coined the term "Beautiful Void" in his review of the game.
  • What Could Have Been: Riven was almost called Equiquay. Also, there was an early meeting where the Millers briefly considered making Catherine the bad guy.
  • Word of God: Possibly the most frustrating instance in any fandom ever, as Myst's Word Of RAWA specifically contradicts onscreen canon.
    • However, this may be assuaged by the fact that EVERYTHING that goes on in-cavern is automatically canon, regardless of who did it or what it is. If it happens in-game, it's canon (i.e. a player character sitting down in a specific spot).
  • Write What You Know: The process of creating worlds by writing books is remarkably similar to creating worlds by making games.