A couple of years ago, I got lost in the Ages of Myst.
I wasn`t alone. More than 2 million people visited the weird island to learn the secrets of Atrus and his dysfunctional family.
When Cyan`s Myst appeared in 1993, the CD-ROM game was revolutionary. Visitors to Myst wander a fantastic, abandoned world, leisurely exploring and deciphering strange gadgets. The pace was slow, the story thin. But Myst had atmosphere.
Walk along the shore of the island and hear waves and birds, or explore a building accompanied by haunting music. Stroll the paths of the islands (there is lots of water in Myst) and see photo-realistic renderings of each scene.
Best of all, no one got hurt. There are no moments in the game when you must shoot from the hip, dodge a knife, fight an alien, kill or be killed.
Eagerly awaited sequel
Quite a few people were hooked; the sequel to Myst is probably the most eagerly awaited CD-ROM game ever. (It`s called Riven and will be released next summer. For a preview, visit http://www.cyan.com).
Many CD-ROM games have unsuccessfully tried to equal Myst. Some have cool pictures and sounds, but then some weird creature appears looking for a fight. Others use video in place of finely crafted graphics. I`ve never seen a game that gave me that Myst feeling - until recently.
Timelapse from GTE Entertainment ($55 retail) is strikingly similar to Myst, from it`s gorgeous 3D environments and haunting sound effects to it`s baffling puzzles. You even start the game on a mysterious island - Easter Island - reading a cryptic journal.
The story is more complex. A professor friend has summoned you to Easter Island to help him escape from an alien machine that serves as a door between four ancient lost civilizations: Mayan, Egyptian, Anasazi and Atlantian.
You must visit the first three of these worlds and solve puzzles to collect a ``gene pod,`` then take the pods to Atlantis. In Atlantis, you discover a space ship, a confused robot and the reason you`ve spent every evening for months wandering the deserted tombs, pyramids and cliff dwellings looking for those pods.
The game has 51 puzzles, some simple (such as lighting a gas lantern), some very complex. In Myst, the puzzles were primarily tests of engineering ability; in Timelapse, the puzzles reflect the culture of each lost world.
Where Timelapse could improve is movement through the various environments. You can only move in 90-degree increments and only in the indicated directions. Critical elements are noticed only if you stand in a certain spot and turn a certain direction.
Some of the puzzles are baffling. For help, try Timelapse: The Official Strategy Guide (Prima; $19.95), or visit GTE`s Web site (http://www.im.gte.com), which offers demos, an expanded story explanation and a hints forum.
Another winner
Another excellent CD-ROM game from GTE is Titanic: Adventure Out of Time ($50 retail), an action-adventure set aboard an incredible virtual recreation of the White Star Line ship. You are a British secret agent who must find a manuscript before the ship sinks. The game has two parts, a leisurely preamble to the mishap with the iceberg, then a real-time race to finish the game before you get dumped in icy water.
Titanic is similar to GTE`s Dust: A Tale of the Wired West ($30 retail) in that you must interview characters onboard to solve the mystery and complete the game.
While the graphics in the older Dust are a little dated, any of the CD-ROMS I`ve mentioned here would make excellent holiday gifts for adventure-game fans. And all are available for both PCs and Macs with multimedia capability (sound card and 256-color graphics) and a minimum of 8 MB of RAM.
E-mail Charles Brewer with questions, comments and suggestions at cbrewer@enquirer.com The column is archived at enquirer.com/columns/brewer/index.html