I played Myst, Buried in Time, Bad Mojo, and Timelapse many years ago, then my hard drive sent south--Finally we have a new computer (XP). So I'm starting to play games again, I feel very behind the curve. Tell me a little bit about handling patches. When you get one do you just leave it on your desk top where it down loaded? When your done with a game, do you save them in a patches folder?? Should you just get them on principle when you start a new game or should you wait for a problem to show up?? Can they be cause problems if you don't need them?? Thanks very much.
I bought the MYST 10th anniversery set and tried to start Riven--it would not play for me, then I read about setting the Win98 compatibility which I did and it ran, but the first movie of the guy sitting at the desk seems really muddy and blocky and after I got out of the jail cell the scenery doesn't seem crisp. Riven I thought had great graphics so I think something is still not right. Any ideas--I know I should say stuff about my computer but this e-mail is too long anyway. I'll go look stuff up and e-mail again if someone answers.
Here are a few facts about my computer
XP
Intel Pentium 4 Processor at 3.2GHz
256MB DDR ATI Radeon 9800XT Grapics card
1024MB DDR SDRAM at 400MHz
250BB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)

Is some of this useless info for gamers??---Is there something else I should look up and add???
Is that a decent graphics card?

Riven uses 640x480 only.
If you're using a TFT flat panel monitor, it may not look as crisp as on a CRT. TFT's look best at their native resolution and can be fuzzy on others.

The games on the Myst 10th Anniversary version should all be pre-patched - so no need to go looking for a patch.

The best place to run a patch will depend on the game. Some need to be copied to the game folder and some don't. Some have to be unzipped and then run. With some all you do is unzip them to the game folder. Look for instructions with the patch.

When I get a patch, and there aren't any instructions for using it on the website where I got it, usually the first thing I do is unzip it to a folder I've created for it and see what it does. Sometimes it will produce a readme that will tell me what to do with it. If all it does is produce files, I unzip it to the game folder. If it produces an .exe file which does not have the same name as the one that starts the game, I run that.

Patches that are exe files may be either self-extracting zip files or they may be the patch exe itself. You can tell which they are by making a folder for them, moving them to the folder, and running them from there. If they create files, they are a self-extracting zip. If they give an error about can't-find-something-or-other, they're the patch exe and have to be copied to and run from the game folder. If they prompt you for the location of the game, you can direct them to where the game is installed and run them.

Of course you don't have to patch the Myst 10th Anniversary version games anyway.

Thanks Jenny
Lots of good patch info, just the sort of thing I was interested in.
I'll take a look at the resolution of my monitor--it is a CRT.
I'm thinking from the different things I saw when I googled RIVEN XP DVD that it could maybe be a Quicktime problem and I got some ideas of things to try.
Wish me luck---I've been waiting to play Riven for years--Fun to have a computer at home now. Have a great one at work but can't play games there!

Thanks Jenny. If I forget where this thread is (which I probably will) and don't remember what to do with the patch, (which is likely) I'll contact YOU.

Melia -- you can save this page to your hard drive, or e-mail it to yourself (top, left link).

Nipomo -- I notice that you have an Intel Pentium 4 processor. Do you know if you also have Hyperthreading? This causes problems with some games, though I don't know if Riven is one of them.

Ahhh Katsmom!
My little cheat sheet on what my computer has says Intel Pentium 4 Processor at 3.2GHz with HT Technology and I bet thats the Hyperthreading you are talking about. I love learning about my computer even though I am at the sandbox level. So can I turn that off or find a list of games its a problem for (I consult Inferno's XP list all the time when buying older games)? Is it the sort of thing I should look for a game patch to fix. And is it something I should shy away from in the future (we are buying a laptop soon and of course I'm voteing for one that can handle games)
I haven't seen a mention of Hyperthreading problems and Riven in my poking around but glad to glean this info for the future.
Thanks very much
I figure anyone who likes Adventure game puzzles should at least enjoy fussing with real life computer problem puzzles though truth be told I'd rather just be able to play the game and get to Rivens puzzles

Evening Nipomo,
Is not the tenth anniversary set all DVD?
I just picked up Riven DVD, myself. I thought it would be great to play this time without the disk swapping. I will attempt install tonight.