Premise:  A strange-looking book titled Myst falls out of the sky, and without warning lands suddenly at your feet.  You open it, and find a picture of a fantastic-looking island out in the middle of an ocean on the first page.  Intrigued, you run your forefinger across its surface.  Suddenly, the world spins and blurs around you, and you feel as if you are going to throw up.  It is over as quickly as you started, but now you are standing the shore of the actual island, apparently deserted long ago.  There is no way back, for the picture in the book has turned black and will not work as before.  Your mission - to solve the mystery behind this spectacularly empty place.  Your goal - survival.

Comments:  For years, many professional game critics have been baffled as to the reasons for the immense popularity of Myst.  Some cite Myst to be an immersing experience that draws the player in and will not let go.  Others cite its clever puzzles to be its key to success.  Debates [as] to the merits of Myst are numerous and heated.  Needless to say, Myst has changed the way players view graphic adventure games and the way designers make graphic adventure titles.  Its lavish graphics set a new standard to which all graphic adventures titles are now compared.  [One] is hard-pressed not to hear the phrase "Myst-like" used to describe yet another Myst imitator. (Adventure Collective)

Rating:  N/A

Variants:  This would have been a port of the Macintosh original, which was itself ported to a variety of console platforms and computer systems.  Its sole appearance on a Sega platform wound up being the Saturn instead of Sega CD.

Sidebars:  The Sega CD conversion had reached the beta testing phase by the time the platform was in its death throes, so Sunsoft saw no need to release it.  Working developer's copies are known to exist in various forms and in various stages of completion, however, including playable preproduction beta.  My information comes direct from several programmers who worked on both the Sega CD and Mega LD versions of the game.