Last week I interviewed Rand Miller from Cyan Worlds. Ever since I’ve had a powerful lust for red salmon Riven. Sadly many of the games Cyan developed all those years ago don’t run on current Macs.
You see, the Mac is in a bit of a weird situation regarding older games. A combination of operating system and architectural changes mean that many are now incompatible with current versions of Mac OS X. Such is the cost of progress. (Now is the time for you OS9 users to pipe up and grin smugly; you can still run games from 12 years ago.)
There’s a load of games that have lost their home:
But some have found their way back; Sim City 4 Deluxe has a universal binary that works (slowly), and many LucasArts titles, like Full Throttle, are playable via the brilliant ScummVM.
But for each title that has been brought forth kicking and screaming into the future, there are those that lag behind. Namely Fallout and Deus Ex - two classics that are required gaming for every individual on Earth. If I had the skills, I’d make universal binaries for them. Sadly I’m still in the early stages of learning Java and whenever anyone mentions Cocoa, I still think of the drink. Me no qualified.
Thankfully Riven is in the process of being rescued from operating system limbo by Jean-François Roy. If you have the original disc(s), you can download a development version of Riven X and install:
Look at that! Are those images really 640×480?
And while Riven X isn’t perfect, it’s a work in progress. As it stands certain puzzles in Riven do not function, so the game can’t be completed, but Jean is working towards a final release this summer. In the meantime, any feedback regarding glitches or bugs in Riven X would be greatly appreciated.
It’ll be wonderful to see Riven back on the Mac after so many years. Last time I played I was 13 years old. Now, at 25, I finally feel that I’m be able to appreciate it. Riven is a magical title; it has mystery, atmosphere, suspense and real beauty that only comes from passionate design and detailed narrative.
While Riven X isn’t quite ready for mass consumption, it’s getting there. It’s being pulled slowly out of the quagmire of forgotten operating systems, for all you lovely Mac OS X users.
Raise your glass to Jean-François and Riven!
Hmm, is’n there Fallout 1 and 2 updated by Omni group??
You’re completely right.
I have Fallout 2 for Mac that works on OS X and also under Intel. I didn’t know about Fallout working though.
Hooray!
Good Lord! Has it really been twelve years since Riven came out? I remember when Myst came out (I was 23 I believe). Yes, do the math and figure out that I’m older than dirt.
Great I’ll probably try my old unfinished game in Riven… And fail miserably again.
Well that sounds great. I too would like to see riven once again played. Good luck!
Thanks for the info! Do you know if anyone is updating Timelapse to run on OS X?
Here’s a link to a description of the software.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timelapse_%28video_game%29
The links at the bottom of the article will give more detail.
Can’t say I’ve heard of that title.
It’d run on MacOS7 or something, right? Have a dig around for an emulator if you have a copy of the game:
http://sheepshaver.cebix.net/
I would love to download some version of Riven for Mac OS X. I don’t want the discs and I actually want to buy it online, then DL it. Any chance of directing me along the way. Been searching for days…
I don’t know of anywhere online where you can purchase Riven. I got my copy from eBay for a trivial sum.
I would like to see all 5 brought back, then I could stop buying old G4′s from PowerMax in order to go back and relive the adventure every once in a while. Maybe Riddle of the Sphinx after that????