Could anyone tell me what's new or different in this "Masterpiece Edition" than the regular game I bought 16 years ago? Higher resolution? Please write anything you know.

Wikipedia is your friend: "Myst: Masterpiece Edition was an updated version of the original Myst, released in May 2000. It featured several improvements over the original game, with the images re-rendered in 24-bit truecolor instead of the original Myst's 8-bit color. The score was re-mastered and sound effects were enhanced, and some cinematics were redone."

If I were you, and wanted to replay Myst, I'd go with "Real Myst". It's a full 3D environment, you can really move around the environments, not just on the original point-and-click paths, look at things from any angle, etc...
It's beautifully remastered, and the controls are very intuitive.
The puzzles are all still the same, but they did add a new "age" at the end of the game. It's not nearly as large or complex as the others, but it has some interesting things to see, and some interesting story components.

I had the masterpiece edition on disc and there is also a hint system in there as well in case you get stuck.

In my opinion, realMyst is no substitute for the original. I take it for what it was: a tech demo of the plasma engine. It was fun, but the ambiance and realism are gone. Again, all my opnion.

I agree. I thought RealMyst was amazing and would have been a lot more interested in Myst if the entire series had received the same treatment.

"In my opinion, realMyst is no substitute for the original. I take it for what it was: a tech demo of the plasma engine. It was fun, but the ambiance and realism are gone. Again, all my opnion"
I'd expect as much. If I remember correctly, around the time realMyst came out, lots of game developers and publishers have just started to suffer chronic 3d-itis where they've started to treat anything 2D as technologically limited products of a bygone era deserving to be buried deep and never to be looked back (not to mention that the ridiculous lengths they went to ensure that certainly works. Lots of people today do literally think of 2D games such as these as "inferior" just because it's 2D.). Which, as most will agree, help murdered the adventure genre. Likewise, I've always felt that realMyst was just a marketing ploy to cash in on the original game.
And they are still doing it. Anyone has seen the new "3Dified" Monkey Island games? They look horrible in my opinion, so devoid of the feelings and the magic of the original games, not to mention that the new Guybrush now looks like a pedophile. Badly done low poly models, stretched and blurred low resolution textures so it can work on every low end machine but then again, what's the point of remaking it in 3D if it won't even look as decent?
The only exception that I can think of of 2D going 3D and doing it right is the new Sam & Max episodes.

I just bought and installed the GoG version of MYST mere minutes ago, and it looks, feels, and sounds just like the original. I'm not sure if this is actually the masterpiece edition. I had and played the original version of the game ages ago, and this appears to be precisely that version.

I would love to play RealMyst but it just doesn't work in Vista. I've tried everything but so far I've only gotten to the point were I can load up the game and enter the first age, but then after a few seconds, no matter what I do whether it be standing still or walking around, the game crashes.Maybe you are just remembering the older game looking better than it actually did? It's happened to me more than once. Also, the masterpiece edition was released in 2000, so you could have played that one first without realizing it.

I agree with joelman, this looks just like the original Myst, I see no improvement.
Also, the audio during the movies is distorted. When walking around the audio seems fine, but again I can tell no improvement over the original audio o f Myst.
Strange to say, but wish I could slow the game down. Even with transitions turned on there is no transition from one picture to the next.

In the post
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/myst_series/save_game_problem
melgour brings up the idea of quicktime integration and that it may cause distortion in video and audio quality... perhaps this is why it looks more like the original Myst than Masterpiece. Which means if this method was used on original Myst, it would be nigh unplayable. Just an idea.
My whole thought is that at least I finally have a copy of Myst that works with my newer machines.... perhaps not as pretty, but playable..... though it does make me wonder how Riven will turn out if there is in fact some distortion caused by the process. I'll still buy it though.

I have the original Myst, the Masterpiece Edition (ME), and realMyst. The original Myst is 256 color, and the ME is 24-bit color. If you viewed them side-by-side, you would see a difference. realMyst IMHO was the worst in the series. Slow rendering, and just didn't contain the spirit of the original. It was a cash-in on the name as far as I'm concerned.

Yes, this is the Masterpiece Edition. It has the progressive hint system as well the island map. In fact, you can bring up the classic Windows "About" dialogue to see for yourself that it is the Masterpiece Edition.

anyone got myst or riven running under windows 7

I just did a side by side comparison of 10th anniversary myst masterpiece and gog myst masterpiece..... they are the same. Even the slightly fuzzy sounds were the same. We're getting the same product. Good job GOG!