An Easter Egg is a hidden feature or novelty that the programmers have put into their software. It can be an image, sound or movie sequence and are hidden to some degree. Some Easter Eggs can be seen during the course of a game but some are deeply imbedded and may require very specific steps to find them.
If you play the file '\QTW\Channel\holoamth.mov' on the game CD you will see a clip of Achenar muttering gibberish in Channelwood. If the movie is played backwards, Achenar actually says something like, "Rush Limbaugh understands."
This Easter Egg can only be seen in the Jaguar (Atari) version of Myst. To get access to it you have to enter May 22, 1970 6:30AM in the planetarium. The immediate front of the (still functioning) library will now be the Atari building. Click up to see the Atari team that ported Myst to Jaguar.
On January 26, 2001, the hunt for realMyst easter eggs officially began. Spyder, a shadowy figure connected with Cyan, posted the first of many cryptic messages through Cyan Chat. Spyder's statements were episodic and brief, bracketed by a comment on the night's CC attendance and a swift farewell. Among the things that were revealed were some employee photos and their family on the imager in Rime as well as very early concept images from Uru.
In the Myst Island fly-by, the large gears accross from the dock are open. When you link through to the Island however, the gears are closed.
In the center of the floor in the D'ni Age there is a mosaic with a face in it. Many players supposed this was a picture of Atrus, but in fact it shows an old D'ni writers guild master, named Ri'Neref (D'ni was not designed by Atrus, but where his ancestry came from). The face in the mosaic is actually Chuck Carter, who worked on Myst and made the model of D'ni.
In his speech to Catherine, Atrus says that she should erase the message after hearing it. You are not required to erase it. To erase the message enter the number of marker swiches on the panel downstairs. Push the red button and wait untill the beeping tones go higher. Quickly, press the red button again, and you will hear a chiming sound. Now you can go to the pool and try to view the message. It is gone! You can do this with the other "messages" too.
This image can be seen in Mechanical Age. If you turn the house 180 degrees from the starting position and then use Sirrus' telescope, you can see this skeleton hanging from the top of a boat's mast. Interestingly the direction the telescope is pointing when you see the hanged man is 135 degrees (southeast), the same direction as you see the lighthouse in Stoneship Age. Richard A. Watson at Cyan has told us that the skeleton (nicknamed "Bob") was a member of the crew of the Black Ships. The exact reason for his being tied to the raft and left to wander the seas has long been forgotten.
This is a view that many players don't notice. In Selenitic Age, look over the fence by the crack symbol. Here you can see why this symbol is formed as it is.
These are two of the look up shots that most players don't notice. The first can be seen from the gears on Myst Island. To see it, go to the Marker Switch at the big gears, turn left and look upwards. The second shot is from the Lighthouse in Stoneship Age. All you have to do is stand before the lighthouse and look up.
A thing many players don't notice is the fact that you can walk around the mazerunner vessel on Selenitic Age and look at it from different directions.
This Medallion seems to appear very often in Myst. You can find it on the planetarium door, on the ship, on the door handle to the room on the ship where the book to Stoneship can be found, on the chair where the book to Stoneship lies, on the furniture of Sirrus' room in Stoneship, and probably also on the coins in Mechanical Age. A theory is that this is the medallion a D'ni gets after his completion of his first Age. This ceremony is both described in The Book of Ti'Ana and The Book of Atrus.
If you go to Stoneship Age and look in one of Sirrus' dresser drawers that is filled with rolled up fabrics, you will see a scarf or bandana that is black with a white crest on it. If you have read the story about the "Black Ships" in the Mechanical Age journal, you will see that the insignia on the the Black Ships flags match the symbol on sirrus' handkerchief.
Richard A. Watson wrote: "From our best interpretations of the D'ni historical accounts, it appears that Achenar was about two years older than Sirrus."
Myst-Riven-D'ni fan Peter Hargreaves solved this mystery:
The man's portrait found on the wall behind the throne in Sirrus' chamber on Mechanical Age is really the portrait of Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne, painted in 1806 by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. In the Myst version, the King's face is that of Sirrus.
The woman's portrait found in Sirrus' chamber on Mechanical Age in Myst is of Madame Inès Moitessier assise, painted in 1856 by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.
Edited from original source: D'ni Desk Reference
Related: Cyan Frequent Questions, via Internet Archive
