Trendsetters: The 10 Most Significant Games

8/26/2008 6:16 PM | 9 Comments | Page 5 of 10

Myst
(Broderbund, Macintosh and later PC -- the other versions do not matter from this perspective, 1993)

In 1993, the term "multimedia" was almost synonymous with CD-ROM. Computers had been coming out with floppy disks for a decade, but the multimedia revolution was about to begin. The only problem was, there was nothing to lead the charge.

Computerized encyclopedias were nice. They added video clips to the pictures and text, but they did not excite people to go out and buy new PCs with CD-ROM drives. Neither did CD-ROM versions of floppy disk games with added voice files.

Then came two games -- Myst on Mac and The 7th Guest on PC. For a full year, these products remained platform loyal and then they switched. The 7th Guest came out on Mac and basically vanished. Myst came out on PC and became the first major best-seller on CD-ROM, selling millions of copies.

"I thought Myst was a little bit of a step back," says Arnie Katz when asked about playing Myst. "It was significant, though. It was the first puzzle-type game that really cracked through to the mass market. As a CD-ROM product, it definitely was groundbreaking."

But it was more than that, it was the first big reason to buy a multimedia computer. If Myst had not come out, people would have eventually switched to CD-ROM, but the success of Myst touched off new products.

And Myst has lasting significance: When asked about the game, Kushner added, "It's funny, I had an occasion to talk with the guys who do the "Lost" TV show, and they cited Myst as being a big influence." That may not be as important as helping launch the multimedia revolution, but fans of Hugo and Locke will never be the same.