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Photosensitivity Warning. Watch the alternative encode below and adjust to a slower speed if need be:
Riven: The Sequel to Myst also known as Riven (1997) these days is an expansion of the first title.
A title so big it came in multiple CDs 'til its DVD release.
Impossible Ending is achieved where you don't have Catherine's journal and yet you were somehow able to open the hatch on the telescope.
The game provides an ending for those who cheat, load a saved game with the combo, or just guess the telescope combo.
Atrus doesn't come and you just fall into the fissure.

The stuff

  • ScummVM - v2.8.0 (jammy)
    • Honestly, I should've made this on 23.10 just so I can go (mystic)
  • libTAS v1.4.5
  • Riven: The Sequel to MYST
    • All languages will sync (Validated; English, Japanese & Italian).
    • The RedOrb release should also sync as a note, but I have not validated that.
  • The same apology note to the Judge and the Publisher/Encoder.

Dumping Instructions

To get the important part out of the way, how do we go about dumping this?
Dumping from frame 0 will result in an audio only encode.
Dumping with a custom configuration will result in a garbled video feed.
Dumping, after starting the movie (so from frame 1) will dump the TAS correctly.
As a note, due to the special way ScummVM has to be encoded with Myst & Riven the first frame is missing.
Add a blank frame in post if you want it to be accurate.
video.trim(0,36) + \
video.trim(37,150).AssumeFPS(10, true).ResampleAudio(44100).ChangeFPS(60) + \
video.trim(151,13880+300).fadeout(60)
Oh yeah, the ending song goes for longer, no idea how long so uh... 👍

Setting up ScummVM

Everything is left on default settings, except for one bit. Keymap.
Two extra inputs have been bounded, this is to copy the digital release where diagonal clicks are set to Numpad 7 & 9.
For the sake of those that have a 10keyless I set it to standard 7 & 9.

ScummVM version choice

Accuracy go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Code Sequences

For the "Telescope Code" there's no speed here, you click and hit escape to skip repeatable.
Since some idiot managed to have the input sequence I just ripped it right out and plastered it into this newer one.

Special Thanks

  • Gelly - Without their assistance in dealing with the RNG the fastest codes wouldn't have been found which weren't used, but I still needed a code.
  • Jaffra - For their World Record run which helped with any confusion I had.
  • Exo - For pointing out the true explanation of what "impossible ending" actually is.
  • Spikestuff - Their input was easy to be stolen and actually is the reason why the rerecord count is like that.
  • The Myst Community for answering any of my dumb questions that I had during the making of this TAS.

feos: Claiming for judging.


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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Hm, I don't see why this couldn't be published, since the "normal" ending run is published? I'd like someone else to please double-check (it's been a long time since I played), but I believe that the trigger for this "placeholder" ending is not based on having collected Catherine's journal, but actually if you do not have the prison book currently in your inventory. There are two situations where this occurs: 1) You never visit Tay to pick it up (along with Catherine's journal) in the first place. What is done in this video. 2) You pickup the prison book from Tay, but leave it in Gehn's hands (by refusing to use it when offered by Gehn; he holds onto it afterwards), then open the fissure afterwards. In theory, the normal bad ending video would be appropriate to play in this case, with one major issue: Atrus takes the prison book and looks at it before being distracted (and shot) by Gehn. Obviously they would need to have an altered version of this ending setup (Atrus making a comment like "Where is the prison book...?" before Gehn and the guard show up). Or alternatively, just don't have Atrus grab or mention the prison book before his dad interrupts, so it would work for all situations. My assumption is that the developers realised they would need to account for not having the prison book in your inventory too late in development to act out an additional ending, and so hastily edited the normal bad ending video to just completely remove Atrus or Gehn showing up at all. The cut is a bit sloppy; you can just briefly hear the sound of Atrus warping in right before it swaps to the player falling in the star fissure.
Spikestuff
They/Them
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Floogal wrote:
Hm, I don't see why this couldn't be published, since the "normal" ending run is published?
It'll end up in Playground similar to the Myst "bad ending" runs that exists.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.
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Imagine how much faster it would be without the animation!
Enter the Matrix is a piece of garbage but I'm gonna finish it if it kills me.
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I tried everything and I can't sync this. Gameplay is never entered, even with the same game files as the author, and various scummvm versions.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.