Myst: Masterpiece Edition Walkthrough by Dan Kennedy

Myst:
A Walkthrough

By Dan Kennedy
November 2001

Your Virtual Tour

Falling! Listen to Atrus
speak as his book falls into the starry chasm. Once the book lands,
give it a mouse click, and wait for it to open up. Watch the island
flyover mini-movie play on the first page. Should we touch the picture?
Of course…oops, looks like we’ve been transported to Myst
Island.

Your starting point on
the island is the dock. Since this game is about immersion
and exploration, feel free to wander around and get to know the island.
Try your hand at some of the puzzles, and fiddle with knobs and such.
If you want to dive right into the story and start solving puzzle,
skip down to the Getting Started section below. Otherwise, let’s
take a tour of our new surroundings. Don’t worry about getting lost
– the island is relatively small, and a few clicks will most likely
get you back somewhere that you recognize.

Leave the dock via the
rounded staircase straight ahead, and go to the right up a longer
staircase to the lookout point (with what looks like a gigantic
gear sticking out of it). By now you’ve noticed the wooden signal
markers that are located at various points around the island –
there’s one at the lookout, and one on the dock near the stairs. A
click raises the switch on the top of the marker, which effectively
turns the signal marker on, and another click lowers the switch, turning
the marker off. More about that later.

Go back down the stairs,
past the dock, and turn right to go up towards two buildings,
both on your right as you travel up the incline. The first building
(located next to another signal marker) is round, and contains what
looks like a dentist chair. The other, a little further along the
path, is 8-sided, and contains books, some pictures, a fireplace and
a map. Back outside, go to your right again – you’ll see a Spaceship
off in the distance along a raised walkway (there’s another signal
marker by the Spaceship as well). You can also veer off to the left,
down towards the brick tower that supports some electrical wires running
from the Spaceship.

Go back up the hill to
the octagonal building, and go to the right towards the water basin
surrounded by 8 small boxes on platforms (and another signal marker).
Each box has a symbol on it that glows red when the mouse cursor passes
over it. There’s a sunken ship in the fountain – more about this later.
Go four clicks past the basin, and turn to your right – here’s the
entrance to a small brick building (plus another signal marker).
Notice a second brick tower hidden behind and to the right of the
small brick building.

Return to the path and
go towards the big waterlogged clock – click once ahead and
turn to the left – here’s a small wooden building with equipment
inside (plus another signal marker by the door). Behind the cabin
(off to the right) is a path and staircase up to a tall tree
surrounded by a fence. Interesting. Backtrack and go towards that
clock to check out the last destination on the island. Notice that
the final (eighth) signal marker on the island is located beside the
clock – looks like it’s untouchable for now.

Getting Started

Did you notice that note
on the ground as you came up the hill from the dock towards the round
building? If not, its time to go find it (the note is located on your
left going towards the dock or on your right moving away from the
dock). Click on the note and read the message from Atrus to Catherine
(if your name isn’t Catherine, then obviously the note’s not for you
– but feel free to be nosy anyway).

Go back to the dock to
the end opposite the stairs and turn to your right. Click on the door
and go down the staircase into the fore-chamber.

Altered Images

Go to the imager (the round
basin with the water image displayed). Try pressing the button located
on the front of the imager – the water changes to a grid with circular
markings. Hit the button again, and the water image returns. Turn
around towards the stairs again. Notice the shiny spot on the wall
just left of the staircase. Click on it – it’s a list of numerical
commands for the imager.

Hit the hard-to-see button
just up and to the left of the list, and a numerical entry panel comes
into view. Currently, the dial shows "67" which matches
the "Water Turbulent Pool" setting. You can try changing
the setting to Marker Switch Diagram "47" and Topographic
Extrusion Test "40" by changing the numbers using arrow
buttons – to view them, click on the red light to close the panel,
go back to the imager and click on the button on the front.

But what about Atrus’ message
to Catherine? For that we need the number of marker switches on the
island, which we already counted as eight (lookout, round building,
water basin, Spaceship, brick building, wood building, dock, water
clock). Punch in "08" into the panel, close it, hit the
imager button and listen to the message. Catherine is Atrus’ wife,
and their two sons are up to no good. He also mentions something about
the "tower rotation".

Time to hit the 8-sided
library building. Leave the dock, go up the hill past the round building
and into the library.

The Library Room – Shh!

There is quite a bit of
material to go through in the library, so if you don’t relish the
thought of some journal reading, you could probably just skip the
books in the bookcase entirely.

Approach the room’s bookcase,
and try clicking on a few of the books – most if not all should be
burned beyond repair, as Atrus mentioned. There are, however, five
books that can be perused. The contents of all but one of the books
are journal entries of Atrus’ travels – try to soak up some of the
atmosphere and the story, but don’t worry too much about the specific
details or sketches.

The first book (with a
vertical green and red spine near the left end of the top shelf) tells
of Atrus’ first visit to another world of water and trees called the
Channelwood Age. Keep in mind that Atrus originally constructed
this world (and the others you’ll be visiting) by writing a book about
it, however the book you are reading is simply a journal of his travels
there.

The second book (with a
vertical grey spine near the right side of the top shelf) speaks of
Atrus’ visits to the Stoneship Age, and a few of his experiments
with altering worlds after he created them (i.e. the failed ship in
his story). You’ll need to access the constellation maps and symbols
at the end of the book later on (do those symbols look familiar to
you??)

The third journal (with
an angled blue spine on the second shelf) describes a world that Atrus
created which was not particularly stable – the Selenitic Age.
Be sure to copy down the piano keyboard as it is shown in the journal
– this information will be very important a little later on.

The fourth book (a brown
horizontal spine on the bottom shelf) tells of the Mechanical Age,
and Atrus’ attempts to help the people there defeat an enemy.

Note that Atrus makes mention
of a number of other ages throughout the journals, but we will only
be visiting these four during the course of the game.

The fifth and final book
(the burnt book at the right end of the middle shelf) contains 300
pages of a strange grid-like code. You’ll need this much further along
in the game.

Meet the Brothers Grim

Move on to the Blue book
located 2 walls to the right of the bookcase. Click on the book, and
click again to open it up – all you get is static. Close the book,
and now try picking up the page beside the book. Click on the book
to add the page, and open it up to see a very static-y message from
Achenar – he seems a bit off his rocker, but wants you to bring more
blue pages.

Try the same routine with
the red book located across the room. This time you’ll meet Sirrus,
who certainly seems more even-keeled that his brother. Sirrus wants
the red pages brought to him.

Map o’ Myst

Have a look at the map
of the island located to the left of the red book. If you haven’t
turned on any of the signal markers on the island, the only highlighted
areas of the map will be the library, and a blinking circle representing
the island’s tower. If you’ve turned on any of the 7 accessible signal
markers already, the corresponding landmark will be displayed. This
is a good time to go back out to turn on any markers that you have
not done yet.

Return to the map in the
library – all seven of the landmarks should be highlighted. Try pressing
the left mouse button on the blinking tower symbol – a line coming
from the blinking circle will rotate around the island, and TOWER
ROTATION will appear at the bottom of the map. Notice during the rotation
that the line turns red when it is over one of four locations: the
Spaceship, the Lookout, the Dock, and the Tree behind the wood building.
Listen to the tower creak and moan afterward as it changes position.

Now its time to travel
to the four Ages. Note that you do not have to visit the ages in the
order that I have listed them here. However, remember that once you
transport to an Age, you cannot return to Myst until you find another
Myst linking book.

A note about the pages
– if you are holding one loose page (red or blue), and click on another,
the second replaces the first in your grasp. The original page will
immediately be transported back to the location you found it in.

Selenitic
Age

A Shocking Clue

The Selenitic Age is accessed
via the Spaceship. Let’s first have a look at it through the tower.
Revolve the Tower so that the rotation line on the map lies directly
above the location of the Spaceship (in the top-right corner of the
island – the line should turn red when it is in the right position).

To get to the island tower,
move 2 walls over to your right, and click on the picture of the wood
staircase. Right away, the picture does a swirly dance, and the bookcase
immediately to your right folds down into the floor revealing a passage.
Also note that the building’s exit is now blocked – you will have
to click on the picture of the doorway located immediately to the
right of the bookcase in order to close up the passage and reopen
the door.

Proceed down the new hallway
until you reach an elevator – get in, and press the button to the
right of the door. The elevator will creak upwards, and let you out
on the Tower level. Go up the ladder located immediately in front
of you (its beside a "book" symbol on the wall), and enjoy
a view of the Spaceship.

Turn around, and go back
down the ladder. Walk around the level to the opposite side of the
tower where an identical ladder is located by a "key" symbol
on the wall. Again, proceed up the ladder, and jot down what is written
on a plaque on the wall: 59 Volts. Go back down the ladder,
take the elevator back down to the Library level, and go back out
the passageway to the library room. Click on the doorway picture to
open up the outside door again, and go back outside.

Fight the Power

If you’ve already visited
the Spaceship, you know that the door is locked, and you have probably
seen the wires running from the Spaceship back to the brick building
located past the water basin. We gotta power this sucker up. Walk
past the water basin, and turn to your right to access the brick building.
Go in the doorway, down the long staircase, and open the door at the
bottom by pressing the button to the right. Straight ahead is a power
control panel for the Spaceship’s generators. A guide to the control
panel is posted on the wall to the right of the door behind you.

According to the tower
plaque, 59 volts are required to power up the Spaceship. Too much
power and we’ll overload the system, and have to reset it. The buttons
for the individual generators, however, are not marked, so we are
not sure what combination of buttons will get us to 59 volts. Some
trial and error will show that pressing each button adds a certain
amount of voltage to both the Power and Power to Spaceship dials.
If we number the buttons one through ten, with Buttons 1 and 2 along
the top row, through Buttons 9 and 10 along the bottom row, the voltages
associated with each button are as follows: #1 – 10 volts, #2 – 1
volt, #3 – 7 volts, #4 – 2 volts, #5 – 8 volts, #6 – 22 volts, #7
– 16 volts, #8 – 19 volts, #9 – 5 volts, and #10 – 4 volts.

Several combinations of
these buttons will get the Power to Spaceship gauge up to exactly
59 volts; for example the combinations of Buttons 1, 5, 6 and 8 will
do the trick, or Buttons 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, and 9 will also work.

If for whatever reason
you add in too many volts, the Power to Spaceship gauge will go back
to zero and you will have to reset the electrical system before trying
again. To reset the system, you have to first turn off all of the
generators, then go to both of the brick electrical towers on the
island, climb them (via a conveniently placed ladder), and pull down
on the handle located at the top of each tower. The first tower is
in plain sight when looking towards the Spaceship’s elevated walkway
– just go left towards the tower to access it. The other tower is
a little more hidden – stand facing the door to the brick building,
and click immediately to the right of the building to get to the second
tower. Remember to pull down on those reset handles with some force
– the system had not reset until you hear a distinct clicking sound
at each tower after pulling the handle.

Tickling the Ivories

Proceed directly to the
Spaceship, and open the door. We now have to input an aural access
code into the mechanism to your left as you walk in. You’ll also notice
a piano conveniently placed opposite the mechanism. According to Atrus’
journal sketch, you have five piano notes to play (marked in order
1 to 5) on the piano keyboard – they are easy to find, since the left
side of the keyboard drawing corresponds to the left side of the keyboard
on the ship.

What makes this puzzle
difficult is that you have to reproduce the exact same five notes
on the other piece of equipment in the Spaceship. The notes must be
set using the 5 sliders located on the front of the equipment, again
in order 1 to 5. Pull down the lever to the right to see whether you’ve
got the right five notes – if you do, a linking book will appear in
the window above allowing you to enter the Selenitic Age. If not,
try again.

A lot of people have trouble
with this puzzle – namely people that have hearing difficulties, or
who are just plain tone deaf. I suggest you beg or borrow a musical
instrument (say a keyboard, or guitar) and use it to "transfer"
the right note from the piano over to the sliders. Or ask a musically
inclined friend for help.

Once you solve the puzzle,
click twice on the book to reach the Selenitic Age. You’ve arrived
in a rocky, sunny world. Proceed along the walkway (yes, the door
shuts behind you, and you can’t get back into the Spaceship) until
you reach dry land, and turn to your right to check out a doorway.
Notice the entry panel – on closer inspection it looks very similar
to the music panel in the Spaceship. Try pressing the bottom right
button – a whistling sound is heard 5 times. Looks like you need a
series of five sounds played in order to get in. We’ll have to come
back later.

Turn it On

Go ahead one click on the
path and turn to your left. Take the path straight ahead – go up and
down the stairs, across a bridge, and up a short treed incline towards
a water basin with a dish suspended above. You’ll also see a small
table with a red button on it – press the button to activate the signal
dish for the water basin. Note the symbol here (dripping water). Turn
around and note the location of a blue page – gee, Achenar
will be happy. Go back along the path to its starting point.

Turn to your left, and
go towards the water. Turn left again, and climb the stairs to another
signal dish – this one is for the lava bubbling away below. Activate
it by hitting the red button, note the symbol here and retrace your
steps. This time keep going straight towards those big clocks in the
distance. There should be another signal dish to turn on for the ticking
clocks (hit the button, and note the symbol). Back on the path, click
two steps forward, and turn to the right. Follow this path into the
chiming crystals and activate the signal dish there (note the symbol
again, and the fact that there is a red page by the red button
– go Sirrus!). Retrace your steps back to the main path, and go right.
Continue along this path until you reach the fifth signal dish and
activate it (this one is for the whistling wind). You will also note
that there is a ladder sticking out of a vertical passageway. Go down
three steps, and turn the light switch to the up (on) position (the
switch is on your left).

Turn around, and travel
along the underground passage until you reach another ladder, and
go up to surface. Climb up the short staircase, and click on the two
metal doors to reveal a piece of equipment with several buttons and
a view screen.

Searching for Sound

This equipment can be used
to find the precise compass direction of each of the 5 sounds that
we activated the signal dishes for (clicking clocks, chiming crystals,
whistling wind, dripping water and bubbling lava). First press one
of the five symbol buttons (for instance, if you want to search for
the clock sound, you must press the clock button beforehand), and
use the left and right arrow buttons to change the compass direction.
Once you get within 5 degrees of the sound’s location, you will begin
to hear the sound over the general hiss of the sound system, and one
of the two directional arrows will blink to point you in the direction
to turn. Note that you must find the one and only compass point where
the sound is crystal clear with no interference.

A good sound to start with
is the clocks – they are easy to spot. Hit the clock symbol button
(the middle one) and using the arrow keys pan across the horizon –
the clocks should come into plain view. Once you get close, listen
for the ticking sound, and follow the blinking green arrow to make
your move. The precise location of the clock sound is at 55.6 degrees.
The lava sound is also in plain sight to the right of the clocks (at
130.3 degrees), and the wind signal dish can easily be seen as well
(212.2 degrees). The other two sounds are harder to find since the
dishes aren’t really visible. The chiming crystal sound is found to
the left of the clocks at 15.0 degrees, and the dripping water sound
is found just to the right of the lava sound (at 153.4 degrees). Remember
to change the symbol button each time you search for a new sound.

Once you’ve located the
five sounds exactly, press the big button at the bottom of the panel
– if you’ve got the five sounds located perfectly, it will play them
in an order that you must jot down – chiming crystal, water, wind,
lava and clocks – we’ll need the order to get into the locked doorway
you passed earlier. On your way back to the locked door, go back to
the chiming crystals, and pick up the red page by the signal dish.
You will carry it until you link back to Myst Island.

Back at the doorway, click
on the panel, and adjust each of the five sliders to play the sounds
in order. Note that there are a number of other sounds on each slider,
so try not to get confused. Once you’ve got the order correct, press
the button, and the door should slide open. Proceed in, down the stairs,
and around the corner to the underground train car.

Booo! Underground Maze

Press the blue button to
the right of the door to open it, and step into the car. Sit down
in the pilot’s seat and press the button marked "FORWARD".
Your car will be lowered into the starting point of the tunnel maze.

From each point in the
maze there are eight sets of tracks leading away from your car, corresponding
to the directions north, south, east, west, northeast, northwest,
southeast and southwest. You can always tell which direction you are
facing by the abbreviated direction displayed on the right. You can
rotate your car to face a different direction by clicking on the two
arrow keys. Most of these tracks are blocked – if you see a red light
in the distance, you cannot proceed in that direction. For instance,
from the starting point the only direction open is to go north.

Be forewarned: if you save
your game before you complete the maze, the game will place you back
in the Selenitic Age Spaceship when you return to the game, and you’ll
have to start the maze over again. I would also be careful about using
the BACKTRACK button – it takes your car back to the last place you
left – I found it an extremely efficient way of becoming disoriented
very quickly.

There are three methods
for getting through the maze:

(i) Map the whole thing:
This isn’t really that hard since you always know which direction
you are facing, but it certainly takes some time. If you do map,
watch out for some of the twisty paths that curve around to have
you facing a different direction that the one you left on.

(ii) Use the sounds to
guide you. As you come to a stop at each location, listen for a
sound – this sound is your guide as to which direction to select
next (if you miss the sound, hit the red button on the left to replay
it). A "Ting" sounds indicates go north, a "Clong"
sound (like a cowbell) indicates south, a "Prrrrrrip"
sound means to go west, and a "Foish" sound means to go
east. The sounds are combined for the other four directions (for
example, southwest would be represented by a "Clong" and
a "Prrrrrrip" sound together). Be forewarned though- I
found it difficult to make out some of the sounds at certain locations,
and if you wander off the correct path, sometimes the sounds send
you down dead ends (the dead ends are easy to spot since they don’t
have any sounds associated with them).

(iii) Just follow this handy guide to find the end of the maze!
N-W-N-E-E-S-S-W-SW-W-NW-NE-N-SE.

Once the car stops at the
end of the maze, get out of the chair, and press the blue button on
the wall to open the door. Proceed straight ahead until you enter
a chamber – you should see a Myst linking book straight ahead. Click
on it, and it takes you back to Myst.

Back in the library, go over to the red book, and add the red page
by clicking on the book. Now open the book, and listen to Sirrus again
– he’s happy to see you were successful, but he wants more pages so
that he can get out of his book prison. But do we trust him? We’d
better hedge our bets, and go back to the Selenitic Age for Agenar’s
blue page.

Proceed back to the Spaceship,
and repeat all of your actions to bring the blue page back to Myst
Island (remember, the blue page is by the dripping water basin). Don’t
worry – the underground train car will have magically returned to
its starting point for another trip through the maze. Once you are
back in the library, add the blue page to the blue book, and listen
to Agenar rave on about imprisonment, his untrustworthy brother, and
the blue pages.

Stoneship
Age

Getting a Date

The Stoneship Age is accessed
via the dock area. On the island map in the library, revolve the Tower
(by clicking and holding the tower symbol) so that the rotation line
lies above the location of the dock – the line should turn red when
it is in the right position.

Open the Tower passageway
by clicking on the picture of the staircase. Proceed down the passageway
to the elevator, and go up to the tower level. Go up the ladder immediately
ahead of you for a view of the sunken ship by the dock. Go back down,
around the tower, and up the opposite ladder. You will see a plaque
on the wall that reads: OCTOBER 11, 1984 10:04 AM – JANUARY 17,
1207 5:46 AM – NOVEMBER 23, 9791 6:57 PM. Go back down the ladder,
into the elevator, press the button to go back down to the Library
level, and back out the passageway to the library room. Click on the
doorway picture to open up the outside door, and go outside.

This Isn’t "Laser
Floyd"

Proceed into the round
building containing the dentist’s chair. Once inside, turn around
to face the door, and hit the button to the right of the doorway to
turn off the lights. Hey, look at the stars on the ceiling – It’s
a planetarium! Turn around, and click on the close-up of the chair
to sit down. Click anywhere on the black panel suspended above your
head to bring it into your main view.

Use the up-down arrow buttons
to input each of the dates into the display and hit the centrally
located flashing button after each one. A constellation map will appear
on the left side of the panel – be sure that you carefully copy down
the locations of the stars for each of the three dates. Once finished,
lift the panel by clicking beside it, and go back to the library.
Go to the bookcase – you may remember that the Stoneship Age journal
(vertical grey spine near the right side of the top shelf) has a series
of symbols and constellation maps in the back. Look through the 8
pages of symbols and match up the three constellations with the ones
you copied down from the planetarium – the three matching symbols
should be the Beetle, the Snake and the Leaf.

Salvage Operation

Now, where were those symbols?
Of course, on the raised boxes that surround the central basin. If
you are standing outside the library looking at the basin, the Leaf
symbol is located on the third box to the left, and the Snake and
Beetle symbols are on the second and third boxes on the right (respectively).
Approach each of the three boxes and click on the symbol – each one
should turn green. Once all three are activated, you should hear the
roar of gushing water. Have a look at the basin – the model ship has
now been raised out of the water. Go down to the dock to see that
the submerged ship off the dock has been raised as well.

Go ahead and climb aboard
the now-floating vessel – not much to see, but an interesting looking
door leads to…another linking book! Click on the book twice,
watch the Stoneship Age flyover, and click to enter the age.

The Boat that Wouldn’t
Float

You arrive in the Stoneship
Age on the aft of Atrus’ ill-fated ship. From the aft you can access
a semi-submerged lighthouse (note the locked attic inside, and the
immovable key on the ground here) via a set of planks, a umbrella
covered contraption via another set of planks, and the fore section
of the ship, which is reached by a set of stone steps. A doorway leading
directly into the rock appears to be filled with water, as is the
access into the ship’s interior. From the fore section, another submerged
doorway into the rock is present, as well as a staircase up to the
top of the island (complete with telescope at the very top).

Go to the contraption,
and note the three knobs. Press the left knob, and listen as some
sort of pump begins to work. What has happened? Go back to the aft
of the ship – you can now access the interior of the ship down a stairway
(opposite the doorway into the rock). Take a peek inside – everything
is dark; we’ll have to turn on the lights somehow. Back at the contraption,
hit the second knob, and go back to the ship. The water is back in
the ship access stairway, but the two doorways into the rock are now
dry – we’ll need to get the lights on in here as well before proceeding.
Now try the last knob, and go to the lighthouse.

We can now access a staircase
within the interior of the lighthouse. Go down the stairs and note
the locked trunk. In order to float the trunk up to where that key
is, click on the drain valve on the trunk’s left side to empty the
water; be sure to close the valve once the trunk has drained to trap
the air inside. Now go turn the pump off (hit the right knob on the
contraption so the light goes out) and come back to the lighthouse.
The trunk should be waiting for you. Click on the key to unlock the
trunk, pick up another key you find inside, and take it up the ladder
to unlock the attic door.

Inside the attic you will
find a hand crank generator and a battery – the light supply for the
interior of the rock. Click and hold the mouse on the hand crank for
a while until the red light on the battery strength gauge turns green
(about 6 complete turns should do it). Go back to the contraption
once more, press the middle knob (to drain the island), go back to
the doorway into the rock (the one off the aft of the ship).

O’ Brother, Where Art
Thou?

Go down the staircase until
you reach a door, and click to enter. This is Sirrus’ bedroom – pretty
nice digs! Have a look at the two orbs on either side of his bed –
they light up when the cursor touches the glass. Have a look at his
desk to the right – click on the small silver ball on a pedestal on
the desk surface, and watch it dance. Open up his desk drawer – drugs,
pills, a syringe, and a knife – maybe Sirrus isn’t as well adjusted
as we thought. Cross the room, and look in each of his dresser drawers
– coins, jewels, dishes, some cloth, and a red page in the
bottom drawer. Pick it up, and go back to the surface. It might be
prudent to go and crank up the battery again before heading down the
other staircase into the rock (the one off of the fore section of
the ship).

Go down to the bottom of
the second staircase, and proceed into Achenar’s bachelor pad. He
has quite the skeleton light fixture here. Note that a blue page
is present on his bed to the left – we’ll come back for this later.
Walk across the room, and look at his decorative masks (nice), and
the imager on the top of his map case (hit the button to see a rose,
but slide the bottom lever to the right to see the creepy skull).
Open each of the map drawers – the second from the bottom contains
a note that you will want to copy down – looks like we’ve got half
of a message that will probably be important. Go back up the staircase
and onto the ship.

Light of My Life

Now, how do we turn on
the light for the interior of the ship? Go down the stairs towards
Sirrus’ room. Do you see the three black archways you pass through
as you go down the stairs? Stop just before going through the third
one, and click near the base of the black wall within the archway
on the left side (this may take some time to find the right spot).
A small doorway will open up. Follow the crawlspace to a large painted
compass located here. There are 32 buttons spaced out along the 360-degree
circle. You must figure out which of the buttons will power the light
for the interior of the ship. Hit the wrong button, and the lights
inside the crawlspace and staircases go out; if this happens, you’ll
have to make your way back up to the surface in the dark and re-power
the battery.

To find the proper button,
go up to the top of the island and peer into the telescope. Using
a dragging action with the mouse, turn the view-screen until you see
something that could provide light. At 135 degrees, you should see
the top of the light source sketched in Atrus’ journal back on Myst
Island. But which button does 135 degrees correspond to on the compass?
Well, 32 buttons spaced out over 360 degrees means that each button
represents (360 degrees / 32 buttons) = 11.25 degrees per button.
So, in order to get to 135 degrees, we have to move
(135 degrees / 11.25 degrees per button) = 12 buttons. Go back to
the compass, and starting from the top button (marked by the little
arrow at the top of the compass, count off 12 buttons as you turn
clockwise and hit the twelfth one. A light ahead of you should come
on. Go back up to the surface, back to the contraption once more to
hit the left knob, and go down the ship staircase to enter the hold.
Go to the bottom of the stairs, and click on the table in the centre
of the room – a linking book will rise out of the surface. Two clicks
and you are back to Myst Island.

Back in the library, go
over to the red book, and add the red page by clicking on the book.
Now open the book, and listen to Sirrus again – his message is becoming
much clearer now. Proceed back to the ship at the dock, and link back
to the Stoneship Age for the blue page. Once you’ve got the blue page,
you will have to find the secret crawlspace to the compass again (the
game closed up that trap door when you left the first time), and turn
on the lights before linking back to Myst Island. Once you are back
in the library, add the blue page to the blue book, and listen to
Agenar’s ravings.

Mechanical
Age

Screw’s Clues

The Mechanical Age is accessed
via the lookout. On the island map in the library, revolve the Tower
so that the rotation line lies above the location of the lookout –
the line should turn red when it is in the right position.

Open the Tower passageway
by clicking on the picture of the wood staircase. Proceed down the
passageway to the elevator, and go up to the tower level. Proceed
up the ladder immediately ahead of you for a view of the lookout.
Go back down, around the tower, and up the opposite ladder. You will
see a plaque on the wall that reads: 2:40 2,2,1. Go back down
the ladder, take the elevator back down to the Library level, and
go out the passageway to the library room. Click on the doorway picture
to open up the outside door again, and go back outside.

Telling Time

The time, you say? Let’s
have a look at that waterlogged clock. Go down past the basin to the
wheel valves that are by the water’s edge in front of the clock. The
big wheel valve on the left controls the minute’s hand – one click
moves it ahead 5 minutes. The other, smaller wheel valve to the right
controls the hour’s hand – one click moves the clock ahead one hour.
If you’ve left the clock alone up to now, it should still read 12
o’clock, in which case 8 clicks on the big wheel and 2 clicks on the
small wheel will get the clock to 2:40. If you’ve played with it,
and it doesn’t read 12 o’clock, I’m going to assume you’ll be able
to get it to 2:40. Once at 2:40, hit the red button, and watch the
stepping stone gears come out of the water to provide a route to the
clock.

Playing the Slots

Once you’re there, don’t
forget to turn on that last signal marker. Click on the door and go
in. Remember that three number code from the tower (2,2,1)? In order
to proceed you want to have the three numbers displayed on the wall
(that are now reading 3,3,3) to show 2,2,1 from top to bottom. There
are 2 pull down levers on either side of the mechanism. The left lever,
when pulled (this is done by clicking on the lever and pulling it
down with the mouse), spins the bottom two numbers one turn ahead
– unless you keep holding the lever down, in which case the middle
number keeps spinning. The right lever, when pulled, spins the top
two numbers ahead one number, and like the other lever, if you keep
holding it down, the middle number keeps spinning. You also have a
limited number of pulls before the metal weight (located to the far
left of the mechanism) lands on the ground and you run out of leverage.
A pull of the lever to the far right of the mechanism brings the weight
back to the ceiling, and returns the numbers to 3,3,3.

The quickest way to solve
the puzzle is to pull the left lever first, only holding it down so
that the middle and bottom numbers only advance one number (the sequence
should show 3,1,1 at this point). Then, do the same with the right
lever, only advancing the top and middle numbers by one (the sequence
should now read 1,2,1). Finally, pull the right lever again, and this
time let the middle number spin around again so it read 2. The sequence
should now read 2,2,1, and a grinding noise indicates something is
happening somewhere else on the island. Don’t worry if you mess this
puzzle up – keep trying and resetting the mechanism until you get
it right.

Go to the lookout – the
big gear has spun open to reveal a linking book to the Mechanical
Age. Click on the book twice, watch the Mechanical Age flyover, and
enter.

Fortress of Solitude

You’ve arrived on Atrus’
mechanical fortress. Note the control panel immediately to your right,
which is unlocked by inputting a series of symbols – better save it
for later. Go across the walkway, and enter the front door of the
fortress. Go down the left hallway, and turn the corner to go into
Sirrus’ fun room. There’s lots to look at in here: his blurry telescope,
clock, models of the Spaceship and the sailing ship, a few paintings,
a mechanical bird that chirps when you wind him up, a chess board,
and Sirrus’ throne (you can even sit down and survey your kingdom).
Try clicking on the wall immediately to the right of the throne (near
the floor, just left of the bottom corner of the wall hanging). A
secret door will open. Go in and check out his hoard of treasure.
A letter from his brother can be found in the wine rack on the right
(it’s the rolled up parchment) – they don’t appear to have been very
civil to each other. Click on the treasure chest in the back corner
– you’ll find a red page. Grab it and go back out.

Continue along the hallway
– you will pass a red button on the wall, and a short passage that
ends at a large glass cylinder. Ignore this for a moment and keep
going along the hallway until you reach Agenar’s playroom. He’s got
a lot of weapons in here, his own throne, and a nasty surprise in
the wind up box – try it and see. Click on the imaging equipment located
to the left of the throne, and a schematic of the island comes up.
Note how the controls work here. The left knob when pushed up unlocks
the controls to spin the fortress, while the right knob controls how
far the fortress spins. Get a feel for how long it takes for the fortress
to turn one quarter of the way around.

Click on the metal door
with the horizontal line on it that is located between the imager
and the throne, and go inside to see what Agenar likes to do with
his spare time. Looks like he may fancy himself an amateur surgeon.
Check out his skull in a box, the chopping block, his poisons, and
his holding cell complete with shocker. Don’t miss the blue page
sitting below his potions – you’ll come back for it later.

Spinning Your Wheels

Back in the hallway connecting
the brothers’ rooms, click on the red button to activate a staircase
downstairs. Go down and approach the small set of controls here. With
the mouse, push the lever on the right upward, and watch the small
circle, located inside a larger circle, rotate around. Stop the rotation
when the two circles are aligned with the open ends both pointing
downward (the circles will also turn red when this happens. Go back
up the stairs, and hit the button. The staircase will disappear, allowing
you to access an elevator straight ahead.

Inside the elevator, click
on the centre button and see what happens – the elevator stops between
floors, halfway up the shaft. Now, hit the up button to go to the
top level. Once the door to the elevator opens, hit the centre button
again, and immediately leave the elevator. The elevator will close,
and lower to reveal the controls to rotate the fortress. Remember
the image – first push the left knob up to unlock the mechanism, and
then push the right knob up to rotate the fortress. Holding the right
knob up for a good two seconds should rotate the fortress a quarter-turn.
Once completed, hit the small button below the knobs – this will call
the elevator back up, and go back downstairs. Go out the front door,
and across the walkway to a small island where two of the four symbols
are located on a pedestal (copy these down).

Go back inside, and rotate
the fortress another quarter turn to access another small island the
same way, and the remaining two symbols. Make sure to peer into the
telescope in Sirrus’ room while the fortress has rotated half-a-turn
from its starting point – you will see more evidence of what the lads
were up to in this age. Once you’ve collected all of the symbols,
rotate the fortress back to its original position, and proceed across
the walkway to the symbol control panel. The symbols to be inputted
in order are a horseshoe, two thin triangles surrounding a thin rectangle,
two triangles below a small circle, and a half-circle. Do so, and
press the red button – a staircase will appear to the right. Go down
the stairs to the Myst linking book waiting below, and go home.

Back in the library, give
Sirrus the red page, and listen to him again – does he sound trustworthy
to you? After, go back up to the lookout, link back to the Mechanical
Age, collect the blue page from Achenar’s evil lab, and go beck to
Myst to give him the page. Both of these guys appear to be equally
untrustworthy.

Channelwood
Age

Clue Combination

The Channelwood Age is
accessed via the big Tree behind the wooden building. Revolve the
Tower so that the rotation line lies above the location of the Tree
on the island Map (the Tree symbol is a 6-sided shape in the bottom
left corner of the map – the line should turn red when it is in the
right position).

Open the Tower passageway
by clicking on the picture of the wood staircase. Proceed down the
passageway to the elevator, and go up to the tower level. Proceed
up the ladder immediately ahead of you for a view of the tall tree.
Go back down, around the tower, and up the opposite ladder. You will
see a plaque on the wall that reads: 7,2,4. Go back down the
ladder, back into the elevator, press the button to go back down to
the Library level, and back out the passageway to the library room.
Click on the doorway picture to open up the outside door again, and
go back outside.

Feed the Flame

From the library building,
go ahead seven steps directly towards the central fountain, turn to
your left, and move to the wooden building. Click on the doorway to
open it, and go inside. You will see a boiler in front of you, a red-coloured
wheel to its right, and a window showing the big tree to the left.
Turn around to face the door again, and notice the safe immediately
to its right. Click on the safe to get a closer view of the three-numbered
locking mechanism. Can you guess what the combination is? Yes, 724!
Hit the three buttons until 724 appears, and then click on and drag
downward the safe door handle. The safe should open to reveal a box
of matches (what a treasure!). Click on the box to open it, click
again to get a match, and wave the match over the starter strip (no
clicks necessary) on the matchbox to light the match.

Take the match over to
the boiler, and click on the small square box near the bottom left
corner of the equipment. A red dot should appear in the box. Now,
move to the red wheel valve, and press and hold the left mouse button
down when you find the clockwise cursor symbol on the right-hand side
of the valve – the wheel will turn, and a fire will be lit at the
base of the boiler. Keep the wheel turning clockwise until the pressure
in the boiler begins to build up (the needle gauge starts to move
to the right), and a nasty banging sound starts up. Let it bang about
a dozen times before going further.

Going Down?

The banging is the sound
of an elevator that is built into the giant tree. Building the pressure
up has caused the elevator car to raise up high above the ground.
Now turn the pressure off so that the elevator car will begin travelling
downward. Click and hold over the left part of the valve (the counter-clockwise
symbol will be present) until you notice the pressure dropping on
the boiler (the needle gauge starts to move to the left). At this
point, move back outside, turn to your left, and click to the right
of the wooden building to go to the big tree. You may notice the elevator
car dropping quickly – if you miss the opportunity to get in, just
repeat the steps with the red valve back inside the wooden building.

Go up right to the tree
and wait for the descending car – once it’s at ground level, hop in,
and enjoy the ride down underground. If you somehow end up in the
elevator going up into the treetops, use the button immediately to
the left of the doorway to quickly lower the car back to ground level
(just click on the button several times quickly).

The elevator takes you
down into a secret underground room that contains a book straight
ahead – your entrance to the Channelwood Age. Click on the book twice,
watch the Channelwood flyover, and click the picture to enter. However,
if you for whatever reason want to wait to travel to this Age, use
the red wheel valve to the left of the elevator car to send it back
upward (rotate the wheel clockwise, and then hop in – but remember
to jump out back at ground level!).

The Power of Fluid

You arrive in the Channelwood
Age standing on one of a number of wooden walkways spread out over
the water beneath the trees. Take a few moments to acquaint yourself
with the surroundings – some walkways are dead ends, others lead to
non-functioning pumps and elevators. Notice that there are pipes running
along the walkways, with valves located where the walkways fork. Make
your way towards the windmill located at the beginning of the walkways,
and climb the rocky hill towards the door. Once inside, you will see
that the wind power is being used to pump water from below up into
a large tank. At the base of the tank, you will see a small metal
valve – click on this vale to get the water running down into the
pipes.

Now we’ll use water power
to get some of this machinery working. Go back down the hill onto
the walkways to the first fork, and click on the valve to get a close-up.
We want the water flowing to the left here, so push the red handle
over to the right. Take the left walkway to the second fork – we want
the water flowing right here, so the red handle should be over to
the left. Take the right walkway to the third fork, and send the water
again to the right. Go right once more to the fourth fork, and again
send the water to the right. Proceed right again, and go to the elevator
straight ahead – you should hear the pump working if you have correctly
routed the water here. Click on the elevator to go in, click on the
door to shut it, and pull the red lever to the right of the door to
start your trip.

Lost in the Branches

Open the door onto the
"second floor" of the Channelwood Age. This is where the
monkey people must have lived, although the decay and destruction
here indicates that they’ve been gone for a while. Warning: its quite
easy to get lost on this level since most of the buildings look exactly
alike. If you really get stuck, go back to the Channelwood Age journal,
and copy down the map of this portion of the Age.

Go straight to the first
circular platform and go to the right as you pass through it. Go ahead
into a rectangular building (monkey house?), and turn to your right.
Go straight into the next building in front of you, and again turn
to your right. Go towards another circular platform straight ahead,
pass through it to the left, and go into the next one, which happens
to be a dead end. However, you should see a red handle mounted on
a post within this structure. Pull the handle, and watch a gate on
the far side of the paths open up.

Turn around and go back
to the previous circular platform, go right, and then back into the
building straight ahead. Turn to your right, and go towards the next
circular platform. Pass through to the right and go straight into
the next building. Keep going straight, and go directly into the next
building. Turn to your right, and approach the gate that has just
been opened for you (note that there is another elevator here to take
you up higher). Go through the open gate, down the circular stairway,
and click on the door to open it. You are back on "ground"
level.

To get that upper elevator
working, go back to the first walkway fork, and redirect the water
flow over towards the gate you just emerged from (flow to the right).
When you return to the stairs, you should hear the pump working now.
Go back up the stairs, and turn to your left to face the elevator;
open the door, go inside, close the door, and pull the handle to go
up.

In the Treetops

Step out onto the top level,
and go straight forward, then off to the right until you come to a
wood building. Click on the door to the left, and enter the room for
a surprise message from Achenar. Go over and check out his "table"
– try clicking on it – ouch, got your bum! Go out the door behind
the table, down the hall, and back out onto the wood path. Straight
ahead you will find Achenar’s room, which is quite stark in terms
of furnishings. Grab the blue page, and take a look at his
image recorder, being sure to press each of the buttons. Was he trying
to boss around the monkey people? Be sure to press the far right button,
and listen to Sirrus as he mocks his brother. His last statement about
the pages seems to suggest they may have been working together!

Backtrack along the path
past the first building, and go to the right when you get to the elevator
– you’ll soon come to Sirrus’ room – a big improvement as usual. Seems
like he’s been into the booze a bit though. The red page can
be found in a table drawer under the window that has a view of the
windmill. Be sure to check the two drawers along the base of the bed
– one contains a knife, while the other contains the other half of
the note that we found in the Stoneship Age. Be sure to copy
it down, and compare it with the other fragment to learn about the
Myst signal marker vault. Once you’ve looked around, go back to the
elevator, go down one level, the down the staircase to ground level.

Now its time to harness
the water power again. At the first walkway fork, send the water flowing
to the left. Go left to the next fork, and send the water to the left
again. Again go left to the next fork. Send the water to the right,
and go to the right. Keep going straight ahead until you get to a
pump sitting alone at the end of a walkway (the pump should be running,
confirming you’ve routed the water the right way). Pull the red handle
on the pump, and a set of steps will rise out of the water connecting
you to another section of the walkway.

Go straight until you approach
another elevator, but go right when you see a path branching off.
Go straight until you reach a dead end. Here the water pipe is not
connected over the gap. Click the gear handle located here, and the
pipe will telescope across the gap connecting the two pieces. Now
go back to re-route the water to this new elevator. From the first
fork way back near the windmill, set the water to go left. At the
second branch, send the water right. At the third branch, set the
water right again, and at the fourth branch send the water left. Proceed
back around to the new elevator (once more, the pump by the new elevator
will be working if you’ve routed the water correctly), go in, close
the door, and pull the handle to go up. Once the door opens again,
a Myst linking book is in plain view straight ahead.

Link back to Myst, and
add the blue page to the book. Listen as Achenar accuses his brother
of greed and murder. Apparently Sirrus murdered Atrus, who as he died,
imprisoned both his sons in the books. Achenar tells us to copy down
Pattern 158 from the codebook (far right book on the middle shelf
of the bookcase), and input it into a panel within the fireplace to
get the last blue page. He tells us not to touch the red page also
located there, or the green book that will trap us for all eternity.

Now go back to the Channelwood
Age to pick up Sirrus’ red page. Remember to raise and lower the tree
elevator on Myst by turning the red handle in the wooden building.
Once you’ve got the red page, link back to Myst again, and give Sirrus
his red page. We get a detailed description of how Achenar went mad,
and burned all of Atrus’ books. He implores us to give him the final
red page by inputting Pattern 158 from the codebook into the fireplace.

Red, Blue, or Neither?

First, let’s check out
the marker switch vault mentioned in the secret note. Since all of
the switches are on, go down to the dock, and switch off the marker
switch here. The front of the marker switch opens, revealing a piece
of paper. Grab it – since we cannot look at the page, it must belong
in another linking book – interesting! Go back to the library, pull
out the codebook, and copy down Pattern 158. Once completed, close
the book, and go inside the fireplace. Press the button to the left
of the opening, and a grey screen will appear. Reproduce Pattern 158
on the screen and press the button again – the entire fireplace rotates
around, and the screen lifts to uncover the green book and the final
red and blue pages.

Now, what to do? We’ve
seen enough evidence on our travels to indicate Sirrus’ greed and
ego, and Achenar’s madness. Since we’ve got a linking page in our
hands, why not try the green book? Open it up, and listen to Atrus,
who is trapped in another age (he calls it D’ni), tell the tail of
his sons’ greed and betrayal. He needs a single page to be able to
return to Myst. Since we’ve got the page, go ahead and link to the
D’ni Age.

Give Atrus the page when
he asks for it, and watch him link back to Myst. Wait a few moments
for him to return and thank you. He gives you the run of Myst and
the 4 ages, and tells you he may need your help in the future (can
you say sequel?). He’s too busy to talk much though.

That’s it – a pretty anti-climactic
ending.

Alternate Endings

Since there isn’t really
any way to die in Myst, there are only three alternative endings to
the story (besides getting completely stuck!): giving Sirrus the last
red page, giving Achenar the last blue page, or linking to D’ni without
the missing page for Atrus’ book. Use a previously saved game to go
back and try any or all of these endings. As you may have guessed,
adding the last red or blue page to the books sends you into that
book – the monologues that Sirrus and Achenar deliver as they rip
out the pages to trap you forever are quite amusing. Almost equally
funny was to hear Atrus dressing you down for showing up in D’ni without
the last linking book page.