MYST Uru Live Again!

The wait is finally over! For probably two years now I have been regularly checking back to the Cyan Worlds web-page in hopes that MYST URU Live would be re-released. You see, this game was the only massive multi-player online game I have ever considered paying for. It is just my taste: Typical MYST style puzzles, beautiful scenery, and the focus lies on relaxing - not battling.

But it seems I was nearly alone with my enthusiasm for this game, as soon after I had started playing it, the game went offline due to poor sales. What followed were months and months of attempts by the developers to get the game back up and running by other server providers that were willing to take the risk. In the end Cyan gave up, and declared the game dead. I was devastated, but soon news about releasing Uru's sources to the open gave a glimmer of hope. Years of waiting followed. Until today. Hit "Read More" to find out how you can start playing now!

First, you will need to create a new account at Uru's website. Then depending on your platform, you can grab a free copy of the game. For windows users it could not be more simple: Download the client from the Uru website, and get going! Mac users will need to do a bit more work, as the company that provided the Mac port did not go open source along with Cyan. You are left with two options: Play the game through WINE, or through Cider (built on WINE). Both of these are included as packages in the newest versions of MacPorts. I went with the Cider port, and it works beautifully. Install it by running:

sudo port install mystonline-cider

The application will be placed into Applications/MacPorts. Similarly, Linux users can use WINE along with the Windows original. I have not yet tried this though, so please leave your experiences in the comments. (You may also went to check the forums on the URU site).

After you have installed MYST, launch it and find something else to do: After your initial launch, approximately 3 GB of data will be downloaded which took around 2 hours on my machine. Keep in mind that everything is in the free world, so there are no guarantees in terms of server speed. After that is done, you're good to go!

Let me know if any of you are playing so we can meet up. Here I am in the desert having a good time: