Friday, November 15, 2013

The Surrealistic Adventure

About twelve years ago I was in an office supply store when I saw a computer game on the shelf that caught my eye. The name of the game was Myst. It had a picture of an island on the box, and said, “The Surrealistic Adventure That Will Become Your World”. I smiled and said, “Yeah, right”. I left the store without it. About a week later I was back at the store and saw it again. After about five or six times of seeing this game and always having the same reaction to it, I saw it one day and decided that I wanted to check it out and see what it was like. I took it home and began the surrealistic adventure.

It turned out to be a story about a man who had written lots of books about very unique lands that he created in his mind. This man had learned a special way of writing the stories which caused them to actually come into existence. He was able to travel through the books and visit the lands he had created. These lands had their own population of people with their own culture and way of life. However, someone had destroyed many of his lands and he needed my help to find out who it was and stop them.

Suddenly I found myself on his team and I really needed to help him rescue his beloved lands. I had to search the entire island and find clues. There were switches to turn on, levers to pull and elevators to ride in. It was very intriguing and challenging to try to figure out all of the clues. It took a lot of time to solve all of the mysteries and figure out who the culprit was, but it was worth every minute.

After I finished it I discovered that the story continued in a second game called Riven. I didn’t even hesitate to buy the second game. It turned out to be even more involved and harder to solve. The graphics were incredibly beautiful and life like. While playing these games you really do find that you get to really know your way around the lands and feel like you are part of the story. It was very sad when the game was done. But, guess what, there was a third chapter to the story. The third one was called Exile.

When I got part way through Exile, my mother became ill and needed help so I moved in with her. After that I didn’t have time to play the game anymore. A couple of years later my mother passed away. Then I met and started dating my husband. We got married so I had another distraction. I was working about ten hours a day and then coming home and spending the evening with him.

In January of this year I retired. Now I have more time and I am really getting in the mood to start playing the game again. I am even thinking about reloading the first game and starting the whole adventure all over again. That way I can share it with my husband.

Oh, and guess what. After I finish with Exile, I can continue on with Uru, and End of Ages. Yes, they have come out with two more games in the series.

These games are unlike any others I have ever seen. Figuring out the clues and solving the mysteries is very challenging. I highly recommend the whole Myst series if you enjoy that sort of thing. They can be found online, on Amazon and on Ebay. There are also books to help you if you get stuck. Be prepared to write down the clues you find and where you found them. It will really help you. Also, remember to turn around and look behind you as you go down the paths, and so on. Sometimes you will see things looking backwards that you don’t see looking forward.

If you do take the challenge, you will never look at your computer the same way again.

Have fun.

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