There is a real community theater, backyard cinema earnestness to Cyan’s Myst games, beginning from Myst, in which founding developer brothers Rand Miller and Robyn Miller played all characters themselves in full-motion video. Cyan is famed for its use of FMV in its games, but even after Myst and Riven became blockbusters, the closest the Myst franchise has ever gotten to having a famous actor has been Brad Dourif’s (The Lord of the Rings) turn as the villain in Myst 3: Exile — which he got not from a casting call but because he was a fan of the series.

But there is one big celebrity moment in the Myst franchise that is also the most staggering musical choice I’ve ever experienced in a video game: Myst 4: Revelation’s Unskippable Peter Gabriel Cutscene.

On paper, there’s nothing good about the Unskippable Peter Gabriel Cutscene. For example, it’s unskippable. Furthermore, it comes out of left field — Myst, the steampunky FMV puzzle adventure series, is emphatically not a “voiced, English-language pop song interlude” kind of franchise. The cutscene’s visuals, while clearly a work of bespoke animation, are full of so many shapes spiraling out from center screen that it’s unavoidably reminiscent of a Winamp visualization. And it all leads to maybe the worst puzzle ever put in a Myst game.

And yet... I unironically love the Unskippable Peter Gabriel Winamp Cutscene. Because of the joy of theater.

Peter Gabriel, in a truly obscure Myst game? you may be asking. Peter Gabriel, the prog rock frontman, world music advocate, crusading human rights activist — you know, “In Your Eyes”? That Peter Gabriel? How?!

Well, in the 1990s, Peter Gabriel got... really into CD-ROMs. He produced two interactive musical experiences/games, Xplora1: Peter Gabriel’s Secret World and Peter Gabriel: Eve. And if you were a person in the 1990s who was interested in the possibilities of CD-ROM technology, you were a person who played Myst and Riven.

Which is to say, just like Dourif, Gabriel was a fan.

“When Myst came out I thought it succeeded well in creating a feeling of other worlds in which mystery and imagination were the compelling elements........

© Polygon