Riven: The Sequel to Myst (Windows, Mac OS Classic)

Riven'' is a puzzle adventure game in which you're given the task to depose a false god and rescue the spiritual misfit wife of a true god. It's alsoThe Sequel to Myst''.

To do: Document the differences between the 5-CD version, the DVD version, and the GOG/Steam versions. Document the differences in the Myst 25th Anniversary Update. Document the Spyder eggs. The nominally-unused ending (opening the Fissure before visiting Tay).

Unused Cards#

Removed Book Press#

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this. Specifically: The animations of the book press. A video would also suffice.

Prior to the game's release, a book press was located near the boiler on Book Assembly Island. It was removed due to most of the game's testers incorrectly thinking that it was part of a puzzle. The card from which the book press could be interacted with is still in the game (including the animations for the press closing and opening, though without any sounds), although the card cannot be accessed from any other card. If the player is placed there by modifying a save file or by using console commands, the book press can be interacted with normally, although once the player moves to another card, they won't be able to return.

The book press was not removed from all of the images it was in, however, and is still visible in the background of a few of the ones used in-game:

Alternate Path to Dome on Temple Island#

Unused	Used

Unused	Used

Unused	Used

Unused cards are present showing that originally in the place of the elevator used to access the dome on Temple Island was a short ladder and a door. These can also be accessed via save file editing or console commands, although only part of the original path can be accessed, as the rest is missing and attempting to access it will cause the game to hang.

Unused Lagoon Cards#

There are a few cards near the Wahrk rocks in the lagoon on Jungle Island which cannot be accessed in-game, except through save file editing or console commands.

Unused Render#

This render is assigned to an accessible card, but the render isn't accessible in-game

Butterfly Drawer#

This drawer of butterflies in Gehn's lab can't be opened in-game, although a frame showing it open exists in the game's resources (without any associated opening/closing animations). The drawer above this one (the only one which can be opened) is a Spyder hotspot location.

Console#

Please elaborate. Having more detail is always a good thing. Specifically: The functions of most of these commands need elaboration.

To do: Using the 'hs' command, a load of unused (and broken) zip mode hotspots become visible (throughout the entire game). Either document them all or just mention it somewhere in the article. On a related note, the deactivated zip mode hotspot in the second screenshot here is one of the aforementioned broken hotspots; find a better place to take a demonstrative screenshot and replace the current one.

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While in-game, typing "b3hn", pressing Enter (this may or may not be required, depending on the version of the game being used), and then pressing Ctrl + Tab will allow a player to access the game's debug console. Accepted commands include:

• g – go to a specific card using a CardID.
• gc – go to a specific card using a CyanCardID.
• gs [] – go to a specific stack; CardID optional.
• get – gets the value of a variable.
• set – sets the value of a variable.
• undo – undoes actions on the current card; autosave must be enabled.
• enable – enables a hotspot.
• disable – disables a hotspot.
• p – purges all purgeable blocks.
• c – compacts entire heap.
• pc – purges all purgeable blocks, then compacts entire heap.
• mem – returns total free memory (physical + virtual).
• free – returns physical free memory.
• debug – toggles on-screen debug info (disabled by default).
• hs – toggles showing hotspots (disabled by default).
• autosave – toggles autosaving at every card (disabled by default).
• dump – copies the current screen to a BMP file.
• ipmm – toggles "impatient PM mode" (disabled by default).
• zip – dumps zip list to zip.txt.
• unvisit – some cutscenes only play when viewing a card for the first time; this command will erase the game's memory of which cards have been visited.
• slideshow – if disc 1 is inserted (or B2_DATA.MHK is otherwise present), activates the developer slideshow (see below). Also see the 40 individual image set commands in the table below.
  • riven1 and riven2 – neither of these do anything when entered (and they don't return "Unknown command", unlike other non-commands), but within Riven.exe they are located within the individual commands for the slideshow images, which may imply that these would have been the individual commands for 50040.png and 50041.png, if they had been present.
• pleh – displays the following help text, line by line (this text indicates that the command to view the help text is help, but entering 'help' will just give the response "Unknown command"):

g <id>              * goto
gc <id>             * gotocyan
gs <stack> [<id>]   * goes to the specified stack, card id optional
get <state>         * gets the value of a variable
set <state> <value> * sets the value of a variable
undo                * undoes actions on cur card (autosave must be enabled)
enable <hotspotID>  * enables a hotspot
disable <hotspotID> * disables a hotspot
p                   * purges all purgeable blocks
c                   * compacts entire heap
pc                  * purges, then compacts
mem                 * returns total free memory (physical + virtual)
free                * returns physial free memory (excludes virtual)
debug               * toggles on-screen debug info
hs                  * toggles showing hotspots
autosave            * toggles autosave-every-card feature
dump                * copies the current screen to a bitmap file
ipmm                * toggles impatient PM mode
help                * how you got here
That's all, folks!

Note: The console is hard-coded into the engine, and as a result was not reimplemented in the ScummVM version of the game (which is currently the only version available for sale), due to the effort required to recreate it. This has been raised as a bug with the ScummVM developers, though was politely dismissed as an issue. See tickets #10082 and #10380 for more information.

Developer Slideshow#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: The image of Matt Christmann (#27) doesn't appear correctly for me in-game; can anyone else corroborate?

The developer slideshow (featuring the team at Brøderbund that worked on the game, and occasionally their families) consists of 45 images, stored in B2_DATA.MHK, which are displayed for five seconds each, along with a short caption, when the 'slideshow' command is used. The filenames of these images range from '50000.png' to '50046.png', skipping '50040.png' and '50041.png'; there are no images present with those two filenames, nor are there captions in the game's data corresponding to them (though there are two unused commands which may be related to them – see the command list above).

There are also 40 other related commands which will only display individual 'sets' of images (usually individual images). A different set of captions is used when viewing the images via the individual commands, though there are only minor differences in the captions for images 14 ("Glenn Axworthy (Hey, what else do you want? It works in Living Books!)" rather than "Glenn Axworthy. Hey, what else do you want? It works in Living Books!!") and 27 (Matt Christmann rather than "Matt Christmann"), the rest being identical.

#	Image	Filename	'slideshow' caption	Individual command	Subject(s)
1		50000.png	"La Gouyn! (aka Allan Young)"	allan	Allan Young (Lead Programmer)
2		50035.png	"Laura"
3		50036.png	"Kari and Allan"		Allan Young (Lead Programmer) et al.
4		50001.png	"Andrew Kay"	andrew	Andrew Kay (Production Tools Programmer)
5		50002.png	"Ben Ceschi"	ben	Ben Ceschi (Lead Programmer)
6		50003.png	"Bob Gulian"	bob	Bob Gulian (Systems Programmer)
7		50004.png	"Brian Walker"	brian	Brian Walker (Assistant Sound Designer)
8		50005.png	"Carey Clutts"	carey	Carey Clutts (Systems Programmer)
9		50006.png	"Frankie Ford, John Michael (w/Jazzy) and Cheri (w/Billy)."	frankie	Frankie Ford (Application Programmer, right) et al.
10		50007.png	"Dennis Leahy (PB) and the Leahy Support System"	dennis	Dennis Leahy (Senior Production Manager) et al.
11		50008.png	"Ed Rose (Check out the gamma in these images!)"	ed	Ed Rose (Application Programmer) et al.
12		50009.png	"Esteban Ahn"	esteban	Esteban Ahn (Production Tools Programmer)
13		50010.png	"Fred Campbell"	fred	Fred Campbell (Installer Programmer)
14		50011.png	"Glenn Axworthy. Hey, what else do you want? It works in Living Books!!"	glenn	Glenn Axworthy (Systems Programmer)
15		50012.png	"Greg Rahn"	greg	Greg Rahn ('Brøderbund Thanks')
16		50013.png	"Inga Pedersen"	inga	Inga Pedersen (QA Core Team)
17		50014.png	"Jeff Blain"	jeffb	Jeffrey Blain (not directly credited) et al.
18		50015.png	"Jeff Charvat, with Diane and Jeffrey"	jeffc	Jeffrey Charvat (Programming Director) et al.
19		50016.png	"Jeff Zemrak"	jeffz	Jeffrey Zemrak (QA Team Leader)
20		50017.png	"Jennifer Winter"	jennifer	Jennifer Winter (QA Core Team)
21		50018.png	"Julie Thiel"	julie	Julie Thiel (QA Core Team)
22		50019.png	"Kent's girl Cordelia Daniels (Hey, I'm a Dad!)"	kent	Cordelia Daniels, child of Kent Daniels (Installer Programmer)
23		50020.png	"Laurie Strand"	laurie	Laurie Strand (Executive Publisher)
24		50021.png	"Liz Young"	liz	Elizabeth Young (not directly credited) et al.
25		50022.png	"Mac QA Team! Kirk, Jon, J.P., Juilie, and Jon."	macqa	Kirk Roulston (QA Management) Jon [???] (not directly credited) J.P. [???] (not directly credited) Julie Thiel (QA Core Team) Jon [???] (not directly credited)
26		50023.png	"Mario Magliocco"	mario	Mario Magliocco (not directly credited, but held the job title of "CD Mastering & Data Archivist")6
27		50044.png	"Matt Christmann"	mattc	Matt Christmann ('Brøderbund Thanks')
28		50024.png	"Matt and Sue O'Hara"	matt	Matt O'Hara (Production Manager) et al.
29		50025.png	"Mickey Mantle"	mickey	Mickey W. Mantle ('Brøderbund Thanks')
30		50026.png	"Mike Foulger and Family. (Are you out of your mind? You can't do that!)"	mike	Mike Foulger (QuickTime Programmer) et al.
31		50027.png	"PC QA Team! Gary, Nate, Tim, Tarn, Arizsun, James I., Jason J, Alex, Sean, Elizabeth, and Jon."	pcqa	Gary [???] (not directly credited) Nate [???] (not directly credited) Tim [???] (not directly credited) Tarn [???] (not directly credited) Arizsun [???] (not directly credited) James I. (not directly credited) Jason J. (not directly credited) Alex [???] (not directly credited) Sean Hamilton Alexander (QA Core Team) Elizabeth Young (not directly credited) Jon [???] (not directly credited)
32		50028.png	"Ralph Marsh - Riven Warrior!"	ralph	Ralph Marsh (Riven Warrior; Assistant Production Manager)
33		50029.png	"Scott Aronian"	scotta	Scott Aronian (Video Processing)
34		50030.png	"Scott Henderson"	scotth	Scott Henderson (Systems Programmer)
35		50031.png	"Sean Hamilton Alexander"	sean	Sean Hamilton Alexander (QA Core Team)
36		50032.png	"Steve Rossi"	steve	Steve Rossi (not directly credited)
37		50033.png	"Tim Larkin. (Hey, honey I shrunk the sound designer!)"	tim	Tim Larkin (Lead Sound Designer)
38		50034.png	"Warren Yamashita"	warren	Warren Yamashita (QA Team Leader)
39		50043.png	Doug, Robin, Dennis and Richard ( Doug - So, where do I put the red marble?)	golf	Robyn Miller (Designer/Director) Doug Carlston (CEO of Broderbund) Dennis Leahy (Senior Production Manager) Richard Vander Wende (Designer/Director)
40		50042.png	AEIOU -- El burro sabe mas que tu.	burro	One (1) donkey
41		50045.png	Riven Team .... Working For You!!!!	riventeam	[???] (unknown) Allan Young (Lead Programmer) Frankie Ford (Application Programmer) [???] (unknown) Ben Ceschi (Lead Programmer)
42		50046.png	How we really feel ... Riven is tearing us apart!
43		50039.png	La Gouyn, Inventor of GeekBall, returns an insanely un-returnable serve!	geekball	Allan Young (Inventor of GeekBall; Lead Programmer)
44		50037.png	Ralphie: mid-air, horizontal, a living outrage...		Ralph [???] (not directly credited)
45		50038.png	Ralphonzo is DOWN! Ralphonzo is DOWN!! Oh, the humanity!!!

Unused 25th Anniversary Icon#

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 Riven.ico. Like the unused icons in the other games, this icon file is actually just a renamed PNG file, not an ICO file.

References#