alt Hacker NewsThe Riven Diffs – Seeing Riven (1997) Differently
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I still listen to the soundtracks of Myst and Riven by Robyn Miller as background music, it takes me back to the wonderful comfort zone of my 486 DX4 Compaq Presario.
Seeing those game boxes on the store shelves, picking them up and looking at the artwork…
The Cyan intro is pure nostalgia:
"It’s like THX’s estranged brother"
I have the remastered version as my alarm sound:
Riven is still breathtaking today. The studio where they made it is amazing https://www.agostudios.com/cyan-inc
This looks neat but I just got into the 2024 remake of Riven so I will read this another day to avoid spoilers. Cool premise though!
I love how the opening paragraph makes a good canonical explanation for what are otherwise continuity errors!
What a wonderful website/project. I love finding one of these obscure deep-dives on the internet.
Updated today, 2026–so the 1997 title is somewhat misleading.
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Loved Myst/Riven when I was a kid. Played most of it sitting on my grandpas lap.
I can’t explain why, maybe it’s my current lack of sleep, but I can’t imagine a life where someone has the time to dig so deep into something so recreational. I mean no spite and no insult! This is cool! Maybe I’m just jealous - I spent my day choring and looking after kids - and I will collapse in 2 hours when I’m done with my obligations.
If you find yourself with free time - use it! Create works like this article or like Riven itself. Life is SO short. Make something people want. Apparently I wanted to spend 10 minutes comparing renders from 30 years ago instead of picking up toys!