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Myst V: End of Ages

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Myst V: End of Ages is, true to its name, ostensibly the final game in the Myst series. That said, the game is mostly composed of unused Uru concepts. Cyan had ended up in a bad place financially following the shutdown of Uru Live and disappointing sales of the single-player version, and so development of Myst V was rushed.

To do:

  • Revisional differences (v1.0 to v1.2, v1.2 to M25AU).
  • Unused code.
  • Proto page(s) for the game's two demos.
  • Pre-release page.

Unused Urwin#

Careful, you'll lose an eye.

This page or section needs more images.
There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.
Specifically: Animations; screenshots of it placed in-game.

At some point in development, an urwin (a creature later appearing in Uru Live) was going to be present in Direbo. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, it was never fully implemented before the game was released.

Amongst the textures for Direbo is the urwin texture used in Negilahn in Uru Live. The dat folder also contains an urwin model (Direbo_drboUrwinShape.prp) and associated idle and walking animations (Direbo_UrwinIdle.prp and Direbo_UrwinWalk.prp). There is also unfinished code for spawning the urwin (drboUrwin.py), haphazardly copied and pasted from the code for spawning Bahros.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Graphics#

Descent#

ahnybuttonglow2*0#0.hsm
MystV-ahnybuttonglow2.png
Present in the textures for Descent is this texture from Uru. It isn't used in this game.

manyassortedbooks*0#0.hsm
MystV-manyassortedbooks.png
Also in the Descent texture file is this texture, showing, as per its name, many assorted books. It too goes unused, though this texture does not appear to be from Uru.

Noloben#

The textures for the pelicans contain a fair amount of unseen content.

Laki'ahn#

lakiflagclue_outline*0#1.hsm (Unused)

lakiflagclue*0#1.hsm (Used)

A version of the flag on Fighter Beach with the symbol outlined. A certain pre-release screenshot in the game's Prima Official Game Guide shows this version being used instead of the basic version.

Multiple#

xpedestalcarvings*0#0.hsm
MystV-xpedestalcarvings.png
A prototype slate pedestal is present in the texture files of Direbo and Noloben.

MystV-041020.jpg
A pre-release screenshot exists showing the prototype pedestal being used in Todelmer.

xcheckers*0#0.hsm
MystV-xcheckers.png
This texture is present in the texture files of Noloben, Laki'ahn, and Myst Island.

GUI#

xeditablejournalcover*1#0.hsm
MystV-xeditablejournalcover.jpeg
The texture used for the editable journal in Uru. The player journal in Myst V uses a different texture (which also later appeared in Uru Live in its originally intended context).

xbookcoverdefault*0#0.hsm
MystV-xbookcoverdefault.png
When viewing a book, this texture would be used as the default cover if no other texture was specified. This can't occur in the game.

xplayerguicomponents*40#0.hsm (partially unused)
MystV-xplayerguicomponents.png
The ">chat" icon is left over from Uru Live, and is unsurprisingly not used in Myst V.

xavatarcustomguielements_eng*860#0.hsm
MystV-xavatarcustomguielements_eng.png
Parts of the avatar customisation GUI from Uru still remain in this game, despite the fact that this game does not have avatar customisation. Additionally, an early logo for the game can be seen, from when the project's working name was Sasquatch.

xoptionsguicomponents*40#0.hsm
MystV-xoptionsguicomponents.png
The textures used for Uru‍ '​s in-game menu are still present in this game, though unused.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Dialogue#

Watch on YouTube

glblEsher-AfterSlate_eng

A Slate has been placed, and because of that a link is created. Use it!

An unused Esher line. The 'glbl' indicates that there are multiple Ages that the sound could have played in. There is a corresponding video (right) for Esher's face while saying the line, though there is no associated animation data for Esher's model. There are also no corresponding subtitles for this line, in any language. Trivia: Cyan quoted this line on their website.

There are also corresponding French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish translations of the line (though no Italian or Polish):

glblEsher-AfterSlate_fre

Une Ardoise a été mise en place, par conséquent une liaison a été établie. Utilise laǃ

glblEsher-AfterSlate_ger

Eine Steinplatte wurde platziert und dadurch ist eine Verbindung entstanden. Benutze sieǃ

glblEsher-AfterSlate_jpn

スレートが収まった、その結果接続が確立した。使うがいい。

glblEsher-AfterSlate_rus

Плита возложена на пьедестал, и теперь портал открыт. Воспользуйся им.

glblEsher-AfterSlate_spa

Se ha colocado una pizarra, y debido a ello se ha creado la conexión. ¡Utilizala!

Development Text#

There is a single unused journal in GlobalEnglish.loc (and the corresponding translation files), named TestBook. The journal specifies the texture 'xUruX2CreditsJournalCover*1#0.hsm' as its cover – this texture can't be found in Myst V‍ '​s files, but is instead the cover of the credits journal from Uru: The Path of the Shell.

GlobalEnglish.loc

<cover src="xUruX2CreditsJournalCover*1#0.hsm"><font face=Arial size=26 color=000000><margin right=32 left=32 top=22 bottom=23><p align=center>Test Journal Book
<p align=center>Even More text!
<font size=24><p align=left>Left Item<p align=right>Right Item

The French and Italian translators blanked the XML tag containing the journal in their translations, and the Japanese translator left it in English. On the other hand, the German, Spanish, Polish, and Russian translators decided to translate it fully or partially, with the German translator also using it to test non-English characters.

GlobalGerman.loc

<cover src="xUruX2CreditsJournalCover*1#0.hsm"><font face=Arial size=26 color=000000><margin right=32 left=32 top=22 bottom=23><p align=center>Test-Journal
<p align=center>Mehr Text: öäüÖÄÜß!
<font size=24><p align=left>Left Item<p align=right>Right Item

GlobalPolish.loc

<cover src="xUruX2CreditsJournalCover*1#0.hsm"><font face=Arial size=26 color=000000><margin right=32 left=32 top=22 bottom=23><p align=center>Test Journal Book
<p align=center>Jeszcze więcej tekstu!
<font size=24><p align=left>Element lewy<p align=right>Element prawy

GlobalRussian.loc

<cover src="xUruX2CreditsJournalCover*1#0.hsm"><font face=Arial size=26 color=000000><margin right=32 left=32 top=22 bottom=23><p align=center>Тест!
<p align=center>Еще текст!
<font size=24><p align=left>Лево<p align=right>Право

GlobalSpanish.loc

<cover src="xUruX2CreditsJournalCover*1#0.hsm"><font face=Arial size=26 color=000000><margin right=32 left=32 top=22 bottom=23><p align=center>Diario de Pruebas 
<p align=center>¡Más texto incluso!
<font size=24><p align=left>Objeto izquierdo<p align=right>Objeto derecho

A mockup of the journal's text in-game (by replacing the text of one of Yeesha's journals)The texture from Uru: The Path of the Shell which is specified as the cover. The texture would be stretched in-game to fit.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused 25th Anniversary Icon#

MystV-EndOfAges.ico.png

As with the other games that received updates for Myst‍ '​s 25th anniversary (with the exception of realMyst: Masterpiece Edition), the game's Myst 25th Anniversary Update added an unused ".ico" file in the main directory, named EndOfAges.ico. Like the unused icons in the other games, this icon file is actually just a renamed PNG file, not an ICO file. Additionally, like the Uru: Complete Chronicles icon, this image is 255x256.

(Source: Original TCRF research)