I have the same issue. I tried multiple compatibility combinations, but nothing worked. Hopefully more people see this in the next 5 years, and offer us some actual help.

Did you write to support? Few people here seem to try to use Myst on Windows 8.
But the gamepage states it is compatible with Windows 8, so support should be able to help you.

Having a brand new computer with the latest updates is usually the main killer for older games, as they never imagined how the new generation computers would work.

Plus, Win8 has proven so far to be a terrible OS, both due to instabillity, user friendliness and general microsoftness.
Also, lots of developers have stated that no games of theirs shall ever be able to play on Win8, and even though GoG have enabled most of their games to play properly on Win8, that is never a safe bet since the games are old and acting like cranky old grannys at times with new OS's.

I cannot help you to get it to work, but usually compatibillity options and fiddling with the config file tend to be the anwers.


Edit; If Win8 have a similar Virtual Machine-thing as Win7 has, you could create a VM that runs either win98 or winXP to have a computer that does run older games.

I am running Windows 8 on a Mac (using Parallels 8). And when I first ran Myst I got a black screen. After shutting it down I ran the "Compatibility Troubleshooter" and it selected Run as Windows XP (SP3) and the game started - albeit in a windowed mode. Have not tried changing the resolution yet - or if that is even possible - but it is possible to play. Though I don't see the improved graphics - everything looks like it is an older game.

I've gotten this game working pretty well on Windows 8, after a bit of wrestling with it. Here's what worked for me:

1) Uninstall everything and install an old version of Quicktime. I followed these instructions off of the Ubisoft forums:
-- a. Use Control Panel's Add or Remove Programs to uninstall MME.
----- 1. Click on Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs. Wait for the "Currently installed programs" list to populate, which might take a minute or so.
----- 2. Scroll down the "Currently installed programs" list to the Myst Masterpiece Edition entry, and click on the entry to highlight it.
----- 3. Click on Remove or Change/Remove, and follow the prompts to uninstall MME. If you have more than one instance of MME installed, repeat to uninstall all instances.
----- 4. Do not close Add or Remove Programs - continue to the next steps.

-- b. Uninstall QuickTime.
----- 1. Scroll down the "Currently installed programs" list to the QuickTime entry, and click on the entry to highlight it.
----- 2. Click on Remove or Change/Remove, and follow the prompts to uninstall QuickTime. If you have more than one instance of QuickTime installed, repeat to uninstall all instances.
----- 3. Close Add or Remove Programs and Control Panel back to the Desktop.
-- c. Use Windows (not Internet) Explorer to browse to C:\Program Files, and delete the C:\Program Files\QuickTime folder. Be careful to delete only the \QuickTime folder!
-- d. Reboot, log into Windows with full Administrator privileges, and close all open applications.

-- e. Go to OldVersion.com, and download the QuickTime 6.5.0 install file (quicktime650.exe) to a folder, not to the Desktop.
----- 1. Click on Start > Run, and browse to the folder where you saved quicktime650.exe.
----- 2. Double-click on the file to put it in the Open: box.
----- 3. Click on OK to install QuickTime. Accept the installation defaults, including a QuickTime start icon on the Desktop.
----- 4. When installation is complete, close back to the Desktop.

-- f. Click on the QuickTime start icon to start the program.
----- 1. On the top taskbar, click on Edit > Preferences > QuickTime Preferences.
----- 2. On the QuickTime Settings panel, select About QuickTime to verify that you have QuickTime 6.5.
----- 3. Select Browser Plug-in and click on the "Play movies automatically" box to put a check in it.
----- 4. Click on MIME Settings.... Click on the "+" by each of the following to expand the listing and:
-------- a. For Streaming - Streaming movies, click on both boxes to put checks in them.
-------- b. For Video - Video only and video with audio file formats, check all of the boxes EXCEPT for "SMIL 1.0 file".
-------- c. For Audio - Audio only file formats, check all of the boxes EXCEPT for "Sound Designer II file".
-------- d. For MPEG - MPEG system, video, and audio files, check ALL of the boxes.
-------- e. For MP3 - MPEG layer III movies and streams, uncheck ALL of the boxes.
-------- f. For Images - Still image files, check all of the boxes EXCEPT for "BMP image file".
-------- g. For Miscellaneous - Miscellaneous file formats, check all of the boxes EXCEPT for "Flash file".
-------- h. Click on Apply > OK.
----- 5. Select File Type Associations, and click on File Types.... Click on the "+" by each of the following to expand the listing and:
-------- a. For Streaming - Streaming movies, uncheck BOTH of the boxes.
-------- b. For Video - Video only and video with audio file formats, check ONLY the box for "QuickTime movie".
-------- c. For Audio - Audio only file formats, check all of the boxes EXCEPT for "WAVE audio file".
-------- d. For MPEG - MPEG system, video, and audio files, check all of the boxes EXCEPT for "MPEG media file" and "SD video file".
-------- e. For MP3 - MPEG layer III movies and streams, uncheck ALL of the boxes.
-------- f. For Images - Still image files, check ONLY the boxes for "MacPaint image file", "PICT image file", and "QuickTime Image file".
-------- g. For Miscellaneous - Miscellaneous file formats, uncheck the boxes for "GIF image file" and "JPEG image file" (check the other boxes).
-------- h. Click on Apply > OK.
----- 6. Select Instant-On and check the "Enable Instant-On" box.
----- 7. Select Music, and click on the "General MIDI" radio button to activate it.
----- 8. Select Sound Out, and:
-------- a. Under Choose a device for playback:, select "waveOut: Windows' preferred device".
-------- b. For Rate:, select "22.050 kHz".
-------- c. For Size:, select "8 bit".
-------- d. For Use:, select "Mono".
----- 9. Select Video Settings, and click on the "Safe Mode (GDI Only)" radio button to activate it.
-- g. Close the QuickTime Settings panel, and then close QuickTime back to the Desktop.

2) Run the GOG Myst installer. Don't let it install Quicktime 7.

3) Copy QuickTime.qts from c:\windows\SysWOW64\ to your Myst directory (C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG.com\Myst or wherever you installed it.)

4) Set Myst.exe to the Windows XP Service Pack 3 compatibility mode, and run it.

Quicktime movies work, the audio isn't choppy/stuttery, and the game doesn't crash on save or restore using this. I haven't played forward very far to see if it crashes at any specific point, but this seems okay.

Thanks, PolePosition. Works as advertised, thanks to your fixes.

Thank you poleposition. I've been trying to get this version of Myst to run properly on Windows 8 for weeks. I followed your instructions and the game is working perfectly! I know it must have taken a fair amount of time for you to write that post, and I for one, appreciate it. Well done!

Just curious, but has anyone tried using quicktime alternative? If this hadn't worked, then that would have been my next attempt to get it working.

poleposition ~ Sadly, I must retract much of my original statements of praise. Using that version of quicktime and those settings results in many of the animations not playing. For example, the entire game intro, Atrus' message to Catherine, the window in the submarine, the scrap of paper in the book in the library, and who knows what all else. Using these settings results in missing out on much of the important details in the game.

I'm trying to find a good solution. The problem is that using settings that allow the above examples to play also result in the program becoming much more prone to crashes and freezes. BTW, don't bother with quicktime alternative. It's no good for this application.

I have a fairly new computer, AMD FX8350, Asus Crosshair V Formula Z motherboard and an AMD HD7950 GPU, running the absolute latest version of Windows 8.1 and the absolute latest Catalyst graphics drivers and the absolute latest release of QuickTime available from Apple.

Bought Myst Masterpiece edition, installed and ran it straight and it works 100%.

No compatibility modes, no preferences fidgeting, no nothing. It just works.

So yeah, I can confirm that this game works on Windows 8.1 on the latest hardware.

Try to contact Cyan on their support site. I don't think anyone has let them know about these problems yet;
support.cyan.com/

Just out of curiosity, if the a game doesn't run, why would the first conclusion be "it doesn't run on Windows 8"?

Makes no sense.

Because many folks have consoles or use PCs where they never needed to pro-actively install software ( without prompting) themselves....

.... and if you're not used to that, then the game just looks like it doesn't work, guy did the right thing coming along and asking...

....it really is that simple...

... it really isn't what I wrote....

... I asked why people blamed Windows *8* ....

.... nothing else....

... not that it was a bad idea asking for help....

.... where did you get that idea?...

.... the thread title is "why won't this game run on Windows 8"....

... not just "why won't this game run?"...

... do you now wish you had actually read and comprehended my post before answering a question no one asked?