Huh? I get the same now, not sure what I messed up with that URL. Now trying again:

http://www.mystcommunity.com/board/index.php?/topic/33395-myst-games-in-vista-windows-7-incl-64-bit/

If that fails, try to search in google with these keywords: myst exile windows 7

At least for me that discussion is the first hit, in MYSTcommunity.

EDIT: No, it doesn't work this time either. Not sure why, when I copy-pasted that URL to the address, it finds it ok. For some reason GOG forum software seems to remove the last / from the end, maybe that is the reason? I now added the last / there manually...

EDIT 2 ok NOW the link finally seems to work, when I indeed added the last / there afterwards...

I ended up finding it indirectly on my own anyway, without realizing it was the same one you posted, I posted it in my previous comment as well hehe.

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/is_anyone_able_to_get_myst_3_exile_to_work_in_windows_7x64/post8

Apparently Trilogy appeared earlier, Mobygames recognizes both:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/myst-trilogy

http://www.mobygames.com/game/myst-10th-anniversary-dvd-edition

I need to check which one(s) I have. I have at least Ages of Myst (which only has the first two Myst games), now I am hoping I have also the 2006 collection with all the five games (at least the picture seems familiar):

http://www.mobygames.com/game/myst-the-collection_

By the way, did it offer to install some old version of Quicktime, and did you let it install it? It didn't come clear to me from those discussions whether one should do that.

That's the problem I have with those old Quicktime games, I am unsure if I should let it install some ancient version of QT, or try to install some new version of it (I presume it means installing iTunes nowadays?). I recall having to fiddle with this in e.g. Wheel of Time, where the cutscenes (intro and between levels) used Quicktime. In the end I didn't install the old Quicktime but a recent version of it (iTunes I think), but the cutscenes worked erratically, as slow slideshows (showing only every 10th frame or something, while audio played fine). But if I played the mov files (cutscenes) directly with the installed QT player, they displayed fine. Odd.

I began a scientific method approach to try and determine which setting I changed that got the game to work and at first it appeared to be "DisableCicero", however when trying to confirm the change I discovered that in fact - the problem still remains. :o(

So, it seems that the fact I got the game to work was a complete fluke rather than from my ACT changes, and that the problem that occurs may in fact not be 100% reproducible every single time. I might have gotten lucky on that one run and beat some kind of game or OS level race condition by fluke, which didn't occur on previous or subsequent invocations.

So it appears I'm kind of back to the drawing board. I may need to just start the game 50 times and hope it randomly starts up ok. Or I could keep trying settings in ACT etc.

The sad thing is that I looked up what Cicero is and it has to do with Microsoft accessibility features which are related to input, and since the problem I'm encountering is input related it seemed like a plausible connection. The setting in the end appears to have no effect and was just a fluke lucky start I had. Perhaps there is some issue with SMP that causes a race or some other machine-specific situation going on though. Still, it would be nice for the folks at Ubisoft to hand this to GOG to figure out. :)

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/myst_iii_exile
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/myst_iv_revelation

If it was solely up to Ubisoft, then I believe that Myst 3 and 4 would have already been available here and/or on Steam. Unfortunately, since Cyan owns the Myst franchise (but Ubisoft retains the rights to those two specific games), the usual licensing headaches pop up in the horizon. Cyan themselves have been commenting every once in a while for 5 years that they have been in talks with Ubisoft into rereleasing the games, but nothing has come from it so far.

Unfortunately, I know nothing about the Myst series and its compatibility problems, but I did pop my head in to see if anyone directed you to [url=http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Myst_III:_Exile]Myst 3 @ PCGamingWiki[/url] for a potential fix. Except the game page is suspiciously empty! If you manage to find out exactly what worked for you, please add it to the page, or PM me with the fix and I'll add it for you :D

Well, I meant s/Ubisoft/the rights owners of the game/ of course. :)

If one looks on the wishlist entries you'll see people complaining to GOG like it is GOG's fault the game isn't here and GOG isn't doing their job blah blah blah, but of course any rational person knows that GOG doesn't get to just randomly hand pick games they want to come here and they magically show up a week later because GOG has authoritarian control over all companyies and their games. It's always up to the rights holders whoever they are, and only in GOG's ballpark if a game is offered to them and they reject it for some reason.

So like any game, it's ultimately up to the various rights holders of the IP, whomever they happen to be, but Ubisoft is the publisher and Cyan is the developer on the boxed copy I have here at least. Some combination of them are likely why these games aren't here. :/

Yeah, I saw that page and did a double take at the claim "works well on modern systems" as you can find an endless streak of people trying to figure out how to get it to work on Vista, 7, 8.x, 10 and even many people on XP. So it seems that page is more of a placeholder than useful at the moment. :oP

Not sure if I'll have useful info to add there though unless I can figure out a fix that is reproducible which works, which is looking unlikely at the moment. :/

SOLVED! Win 7 64 bit Myst 3 Exile.

Skeltonbow and et al:

I was finally able to solve this win 7 64 bit Myst 3 business. I'm using the cd version that comes with 4 disks. I snooped around internet quite a bit and found that you have to have the nocd patch. I got mine from www.gamecopyworld.com/games/pc_myst_3.shtml. You extract it into the /bin file and replace the m3.exe file. Make sure you have the patch 1.2v downloaded first. However, for some reason it still asks for disk 1. I can't remember if I installed all 4 disks or not. I'm assuming it's the same problem for the DVD. I've read from others that it is the same problem. I was able to move around the island and view video and hear music just fine. I played for about 10 minutes (then got motion sick from all the moving around view) without crashes. It saved fine also.
I can't attach the .ace file as gog.com won't let me. Hope this helps.

Cheers to all Myst fans out there.


Update: you have to move the data folder under disk1 to c:. If you don't do this it will ask for disc 1 when starting or loading a saved game.

The problem you're encountering is probably because, for Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 8.1, a security update from Microsoft in 2015 de-activated a copyright protection method called SafeDisc, which Myst Exile needs to start. Since it was just de-activated, it is possible to re-activate it again for these versions. This might not work on Windows 10, however, where SafeDisc has apparently been completely removed?

If you're interested, there's the following great article on the site "How-To Geek" which gives more details:
howtogeek.com/230773/HOW-TO-PLAY-PC-GAMES-THAT-REQUIRE-SAFEDISC-OR-SECUROM-DRM-ON-WINDOWS-10-8.1-8-7-AND-VISTA /

Rather than using NoCD patches or ResidualVM or a utility called unSafeDIsc, any of which might contain viruses or other malware, How-to Geek gives a link to a Microsoft Support webpage which shows simple instructions to re-activate SafeDisc by yourself directly in the Command Prompt of Windows.

Here are the steps I followed to re-activate SafeDisc in Windows 7 (**NOTE: The How-to-Geek article is missing ESSENTIAL Steps 3 and 8 below**):

1) Open the Start menu, search for or type “Command", right-click the Command Prompt shortcut ("Invite de Commandes" in French) , and select Run as Administrator.

2) Make sure the Command Prompt shows C:\Windows\system32>. If not, repeat step 1 as Administrator.

3) Type: sc config secdrv start= demand

(don't forget the space after the "=" sign)

You should see a message that the ChangeServiceConfig was successful. For those who have never used a Command Prompt, remember to press Enter after each new command.

**NOTE: You will get an error message at the next step if you don't type this command first**

4) Type: sc start secdrv

You should see a ten line message in table format showing "STATE: 4 RUNNING" on the third line.

5) Close the command Prompt window.

Now try starting Myst Exile from the desktop or start menu shortcuts and it should start normally! I'm now able to play it in Windows 7 without even using Compatibility Mode.

When you're finished, you can do the following to deactivate SafeDisc:

6) Run Command Prompt as Administrator (same as step 1 above) if not already running.

7) Type: sc stop secdrv

You should see a seven line message in table format showing "STATE: 1 STOPPED" on the third line.

8) Type: sc config secdrv start= disabled

(don't forget the space after the "=" sign)

You should see a message that the ChangeServiceConfig was successful.

NOTE: Microsoft recommends that you deactivate SafeDisc when you no longer require it to be running. According to Microsoft: "This workaround may make a computer or a network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses." Nevertheless, I prefer this solution rather than running potentially dangerous patches or other programs with unknown content found on unsecure websites! At least this way, I know what instructions I'm giving my PC. And if it makes it possible to play this fantastic game again, I'm personally prepared to take this lesser risk!