Even though I played through over half the game, I never completed Alida (2004) though I always intended to. I was a big fan of the Myst games and always thought that Alida was one of the most Myst-like games ever made. As I’m sure some of you know, it was the creation of one person & took him several years to complete. Surprising, it is not available at GOG or Steam (it is truly abandonware at this point) and those who had thought about checking Alida out again may have assumed it isn’t available anywhere and/or it won’t run under Windows 10 or 11. That would be too bad because they don’t make games quite like this anymore.

The interesting thing about Alida is/was that it was literally independent of Windows at the time or even presently and is one of the least demanding when it came to any Windows version. Which is to say that even though it originally came on 5 CDs and appeared to install on your computer the usual way, the fact is/was that it was totally self-contained and did not have any registry entry at all. All it required was an installation of QuickTime v6.5 which was included. That meant that, as long as you had QT installed you could copy all the folders from the 5 CDs to a single folder on your computer and it would work just fine without the need for any CD in the drive (including the original installation CD which was, for some reason, CD #2). In fact you could copy the entire Alida folder, saves and all, on your computer to a flash drive and play it on any other computer running QT 6.5, no re-installation required.

Anyway, I decided it was time to see if I could return to Alida on my new mini 10 inch screen laptop running Win11 Home version. I just assumed that my original 2004 version was unlikely to run so I didn’t even check that out first. Instead, there was a version available at The Collection Chamber site that had apparently been upgraded to work under Win10 as of 2 years ago. It included a Lite version of QuickTime which avoided trying to download QT elsewhere (there are warnings to avoid that because of malware.). I installed it, but couldn’t get it to work, whereupon I simply copied my old version (from CDs) from a flash/jump drive to a folder on the laptop, installed QT 6.5 and low and behold it ran just fine. The only thing otherwise necessary was to right click on the Alida.exe and in Properties check the 640x480 box to have it run almost full-screen.

If you’re interested in running Alida, you can run your original game as I did above.

Thanks for all that info, SirDave! I finally played the game in 2019 but had to use a walkthrough for most of it. I have it installed on my XP computer which I think is still working though I haven't plugged it in for awhile. I do think the optical drive went out on me but since Alida doesn't need the disc to play, I can probably replay it if I choose to. There are other games on that computer I would probably replay first though, if they (and it) works. I agree that Alida was Myst-like, unlike a lot of other games that call themselves that.

Why does this old brain of mine tell me that there was some discussion not too long ago about an Alida 2? Am I ready for the Home???

Yes, I announced it here. Since then, no news and they deactivated the facebook page, so I wouldn't count on it sadly.

Thank you Sheriff...so this means that I am not ready for the Home yet....please tell them to hold on to the nets and straight jackets....at least for the time being

Pulled back from the brink again, GreyFuss! I wonder about myself daily!

I think Alida 2 was supposed to be called The Abduction or just Abduction. If memory serves, at the date it was first mentioned, it was in the middle of the pandemic. Maybe he thought he would have a lot of time, but then the pandemic ended and maybe he got a job. I’ve never understood why he didn’t look into getting Alida on GOG and/or Steam. Maybe he didn’t own the rights to it anymore which would be a shame.

SirDave, the game was to be called Absolution. The link to the website is here.