Deconstruction: MYST - Part VI: Getting to the Mechanical Age

From this point, the Player has the option of visiting the four other ages in any order, so a linear discussion of what the average player experiences breaks down from here until all four ages are solved and the climax unfolds back on MYST island.

I used to watch this all day.  Weee!

Some players might rotate the tower to get a view of the most interesting object on the island (whatever it may be for them), others might save the most intriguing for last, or come up with some other line of reasoning to generate an order to their adventure.

For this, I'll be going simply by order of which object is locked onto first as the tower rotates, which is the gears.

So, supposing the player chooses the gears, then goes up the tower and gets a small view of the gears.  Heading to the other side, the player will notice a plaque with the vague clues:

Credit where credit is due, lparchive.org has a great little walkthru with many of these pics.

Here (or at the first puzzle to any of the ages, in fact), the player will learn that much of the island is interconnected.  The first number appears to be a time, and the only object on the island that allows the player to control the time is the clock tower.

Naturally, clock towers are full of gears.  Hopefully the player will catch the theme, and instead of heading for the gears, will instead head for the clock tower.

When the player changes the time to 2:40, gears from the ocean will emerge, allowing the player to cross (and while they're at it, flip the final marker switch for kicks).

The clock puzzle basically gives the player the answer in the rotating tower, but it is the understanding of where to use the code that is the true puzzle.

This kind of puzzle, where the answer cannot be guessed or figured out, but rather given, is often the building block to many terrible "Escape the Room" games, a subgenre of Adventure.  It is unfortunate that so many of these games don't provide the challenge of these puzzles, because instead of having to figure out where to input the code, even that is obvious.

Possibly the inspiration for "Saw".

In this particular puzzle, the answer is also fairly obvious considering the format (a time), but other tower clues (such as the one to reach the Selenitic Age) are not so intuitively understood.

Once the player enters the clock tower, s/he is met with the second puzzle, a puzzle of gears and levers, and it is here the player will probably understand that the three numbers in the tower clue are the solution to this puzzle, simply because the gears are demanding three numbers.

Trial and error teaches the player the controls, and eventually the player figures out how to get to the solution.  This puzzle is more of a traditional puzzle, in that it is self-contained and the player may feel as though they are "stuck" on one screen until it is solved.

Two puzzles in a row; of two completely different kinds, and they appear at the opposite end of the island than the player intended to go.

Yet, when the second puzzle is solved, a display gear in the clock tower mimics what the larger gear outside by the dock is actually doing.  The player may understand this, or may need to explore and find their way back to the gear to discover that the miniature is a copy of the actual.

Miniatures or facsimiles representing larger objects is a common theme in MYST, and after understanding one, the player will probably realize the theme and understand intuitively from then on.

Makes you wonder if earth is just a ship in the birdbath of space.

Once the player hightails back to the large gears, s/he will find the book to the Mechanical Age.  The player may come to understand Atrus' message now about how the books are hidden in "places of protection."  Certainly, solving two puzzles on the wrong side of the island, plus understanding the rotating tower is plenty of protection.

The player views a flyby of the Mechanical Age, similar to the one from opening the MYST book at the beginning of the game.  If the player has read the journals in the library, the fortress should look familiar, and the player may pause to revisit that journal and take notes.  Otherwise (or afterward), the player will plunge into it, and explore a new island.

The player may expect from the journal entries that these other ages will be populated, since Atrus discusses interactions with natives in his journals.

The player will be disappointed.  And later horrified.

Read Part VII: The Mechanical Age