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[IMG News]

GameTap today announced the release of Myst Online: Uru Live for Intel Macs. Using TransGaming’s Cider portability engine, which enables PC games to run on the Intel Mac OS, Mac gamers can now take part in the same massively multiplayer Myst Online: Uru Live experience as their PC counterparts.

Here's a clip from the press release:

“Myst Online: Uru Live has been the number one game on GameTap since its launch in February,” said Ricardo Sanchez, GameTap’s vice president of content. “So we are thrilled this new audience can experience GameTap's original content.”

Mac users can experience the adventure and puzzle-solving elements and visually-stunning worlds of “Myst Online: Uru Live” via TransGaming’s Cider portability engine which enables PC games to run on the Intel Mac OS. Additionally, new content and upgrades to “Myst Online: Uru Live” will be simultaneous and transparent to users on both Mac and PC platforms – an essential element in ensuring a fluid and harmonious experience between all players.

“Traditionally, Mac users have been very strong supporters of the legendary Myst franchise,” said Vikas Gupta, CEO and President of TransGaming. “We are very excited to be working with GameTap to bring this title back to that group of core fans.”

Recently fans were able to explore a new Age as part of GameTap’s commitment to providing players with a constant stream of never-before-seen content. In this latest Age, explorers visited one of the pods that the D'ni once used. The pod, set in a stunning jungle environment, appears to have primarily been used to safely observe the exotic wildlife in its natural habitat - a sort of "reverse zoo." However, it contains some features that aren't entirely understood yet, so it’s up to the players to unravel this latest mystery.

“We’re excited that as the Myst universe continues to expand online, so does the accessibility to our unique world,” said Rand Miller, CEO of Cyan Worlds and creator of Myst Online. “Many of the original Myst fans were Mac users, so for GameTap to reopen the door to this audience really means a lot to Cyan on a personal level.”

PC and Mac players alike can explore yet another dynamic new area that launched last week, as the Myst Online universe and story continues to expand and evolve. Dereno is a beautiful, arctic environment that features another mysterious pod for players to explore.

Myst Online is available as part of a monthly GameTap membership that costs $6.95 per month.

System requirements are Mac OS X v10.4.8 or later, 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor or faster, 512MB RAM, ATI or Nvidia graphics, 3GB hard disk space, broadband Internet connection. Myst Online is not supported on Macs that use the GMA 950 graphics processor found in the Intel-based Mac mini and MacBooks.

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[UmarOMC1]

...and the mome raths outgrabe.

[paulc]

Interesting, negate what, 70% of the Macs out there by going Intel only? Good business move!

[Eric5h5]

Well, that argument has been done to death elsewhere (even if I agree), but they're also negating a fairly large percentage even of Intel Macs by not supporting the GMA 950.  It's largely Apple's fault for using such lousy graphics hardware in the first place, but at least the Intel-only Heroes V and Empire at War make some effort to support it even if the Windows versions don't.

--Eric

[hambone]

im totally clueless about Myst Online and too lazy to research it -- has anyone played? is it akin to an MMORPG? bottomline it for me.

[Eric5h5]

It's Myst, but--get this--online!  I don't think the line gets any more bottom than that....

--Eric

[Tesseract]

Aaaaaargh… it's Myst… but it has a monthly fee… but it'll take several months for the fees to add up to the cost of most games… to play, or not to play?

Edit: It turns out that there is a free trial available where you can only explore a very small portion of the game, AND they are offering the first month for $0.99. But it tells me that it will be $12.95 per month afterwards, not $6.95.

[Huntn]

I'm disappointed I'm not going to see it on my PPC macs... I wonder how the cross engine software will run?

This page says play for free. I wonder how long the trial is?

[Tesseract]

My understanding is that "play it now for free" refers to the limited trial version, which you can play for as long as you want.

[Rev-O]

I found the avatar building kind of cool. Graphics were nice enough. The 3D controls were somewhat clunky. It was okay. As much as I like Myst and as much promise as it showed I doubt I'll pay to play it. I would get to play it a handful of hours a month and I don't see it being cost effective at that point.

[Riko]

C'me on, there's *got* to be a Myst fan here on the forum.
It started on the Mac and has now made full circle getting back to the Mac.
Intel Mac. That is.

[Mister Mumbles]

I don't think there's enough appeal for a multiplayer Myst. At least for me there isn't.

[Cougar]

It's 9.95 a month, 6.95 is the annual fee.

I am not much interested in exploring Myst worlds with friends either. But Cyan will be releasing roughly a new age every month, and it's possible to do most of the puzzles by yourself (but they may be harder.) At the moment, there isn't a whole lot of new content (4 pretty small ages) but for Mac players who have never played Uru before, there is quite a lot to explore. Eventually, Cyan will be adding the expansion Path of the Shell as well.

IMHO, the most interesting thing about this as a MMO is how the story is told. All the characters are played by real Cyan employees which you can interact with, and how players will choose to interact with them will change the story.

But alas, I have an intel mac...it's a shame Cyan doesn't have the resources to do a real port, espcecially since they don't support integrated cards. I imagine the game will run decently, however, since the engine is a few years old.

[the Battle Cat]

Cougar, on March 21st 2007, 09:34 AM, said:

IMHO, the most interesting thing about this as a MMO is how the story is told. All the characters are played by real Cyan employees which you can interact with, and how players will choose to interact with them will change the story.

I haven't been following this game, but THAT sounds intriguing!

[Tesseract]

the Battle Cat, on March 22nd 2007, 06:36 AM, said:

I haven't been following this game, but THAT sounds intriguing!

It's one of the main reasons I'm interested in Uru when all other MMORPGs hold very little appeal for me. That, and the absence of grinding.

Cougar, on March 22nd 2007, 03:34 AM, said:

It's 9.95 a month, 6.95 is the annual fee.

Do you mean it's $6.95 per month if you buy a whole year at once? I couldn't find any such pricing info on their site. So why did it present me with the $12.95 per month Sucker's Deal?

[Tesseract]

Uru has an in-character forum on which both players and NPCs post. I thought that was pretty neat.

It turns out that they are indeed charging international players a 30% premium. That seems incredibly backwards given that in America you get the whole GameTap catalogue for your subscription (on Windows -- but see my next paragraph!), while elsewhere you get just Uru.

There are, however, interesting developments afoot involving GameTap and the Mac. According to this forum post, which includes a chat transcript with a GameTap employee, GameTap may be coming to the Mac as early as May, courtesy of Cider.

[Cougar]

Tesseract, on April 1st 2007, 12:06 PM, said:

There are, however, interesting developments afoot involving GameTap and the Mac. According to this forum post, which includes a chat transcript with a GameTap employee, GameTap may be coming to the Mac as early as May, courtesy of Cider.

Would this mean that somehow all of GameTap's games would be magically Ciderized? Because that would be sick...say hello to Homeworld (the original), Prince of Persia, Far Cry, Deus Ex 1 (for OS X) and 2....curse my powerbook.

It's unfortunate that it's $9.99 + VAT for international players, but according to this article, they plan to move into "three or four English-speaking markets" in the first quarter of this year, with non-English markets to follow.

[Mister Mumbles]

Well, I've noticed a while back that they mentioned on their website that they were working on a Mac solution for Gametap. That maybe just it.

[Tesseract]

Cougar, on April 2nd 2007, 03:56 AM, said:

Would this mean that somehow all of GameTap's games would be magically Ciderized?

Not magically; the Windows games would no doubt still need individual effort. But they also have console, arcade and DOS games, and AIUI those all run in emulators embedded in the GameTap client program.

Quote

It's unfortunate that it's $9.99 + VAT for international players, but according to this article, they plan to move into "three or four English-speaking markets" in the first quarter of this year, with non-English markets to follow.

Hmm... can anyone think of more than four other major countries where English is the language that most people would want to play games in? I guess that could technically include Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Dominica, The Gambia, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Liberia, or The Bahamas though.

Seriously though, a localised version will be welcome, especially if there is pricing parity. I simply don't get where the 30% VAT figure comes from. Nothing else I've bought from overseas has had such a mark-up applied. It's the buyer's responsibility to pay any applicable import duty. (And not that it has any relevance, but the Aussie version of VAT is the GST which is only 10%...)

[Janichsan]

I'm wondering: has anyone come around to play this game? It would be interesting to know if it has similar issues like HoMM V, concerning the performance and especially the stability. That could be a hint to some still existing fundamental   problems with Cider.