30 years later, Myst demake for Atari 2600 reminds us how far we’ve come

Enlarge / Blocks ahoy! (credit: Vince Weaver)

Nearly 30 years after its release on the Mac in 1993, Cyan’s Myst is still as unstoppable as ever. As one of the most successful (yet sometimes divisive) computer games of all time, it sold 6 million boxed copies in the 1990s and later ended up on over a dozen platforms, with remakes counting for even more appearances, including a VR version. Now, thanks to an unofficial hobby project by Vince Weaver, Myst can add one more platform to the list: Atari 2600.

Vince Weaver is an associate professor at the University of Maine in Computer Engineering. Since last year, he has been working on a partial “demake” of the famous point-and-click adventure game that runs on Atari’s 8-bit game system, and he just returned to the project to make updates last week.

For those not in the gaming community, the term “demake” might need some unpacking. A demake is essentially the opposite of a remake: instead of upgrading a game to fit modern standards, a demake takes a modern or classic game and adapts it for older, less powerful hardware.