Riveal 8.0

by Ron Hayter
mystriveal@mac.com

Introduction

Riveal is a free Java application that extracts sounds, movies, and pictures from the data files of most games in the Myst series:

• Myst [Original Mac version] (sounds, movies, and pictures),
• Myst [Original Windows version] (sounds, movies, and pictures),
• Myst Masterpiece Edition (sounds, movies, and pictures),
• realMYST, the real-time 3D remake of the original Myst (sounds, movies, and textures),
• Riven (sounds, movies, and pictures),
• Myst III: Exile (sounds, movies, and pictures),
• Myst V: End of Ages (sounds, movies, textures, and journals),
• Uru: Ages Beyond Myst and Uru: Complete Chronicles (sounds, movies, textures, journals, and KI images), and
• Myst Online: Uru Live (sounds, movies, textures, KI images, and avatar portraits).

(If you want the sounds, movies, and pictures from Myst IV: Revelation, try Revelator, my other free extractor.)

As a bonus, Riveal also extracts sounds, movies, and pictures from a few other games, including the Mac version of The Manhole CD-ROM Masterpiece Edition, an enhanced remake of one of Cyan's pre-Myst games, and some of the games in Presto's pre-Exile series, the Journeyman Project trilogy. Riveal supports the Mac version of The Journeyman Project Turbo!, an improved rerelease of the first game in the trilogy; the Mac version of The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time; and the Mac and Windows versions of The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time.

There are two versions of Riveal, one for Mac OS X and the other for Windows. Being a Java application, it requires version 1.4 or later of the Java Runtime Environment. Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther), 10.4 (Tiger), and 10.5 (Leopard) have the JRE built in. For Windows, you may need to download and install the JRE, which you can get from http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp. A Java 6 JRE is strongly recommended for Windows Vista.

Download Riveal for Mac OS X.

Download Riveal for Windows.

Running Riveal

Mac OS X version:

• Double-click Riveal.
• It will ask you to point to a game's data files. For most games, choose a folder (or a folder of folders) containing:
  • Manhole "MooV" and "Res" files,
  • Myst "MooV" and "Res" files,
  • Myst Masterpiece ".dat" or "pics" files,
  • realMYST ".dni" and ".avi" files,
  • Riven ".mhk" files, or
  • Myst III: Exile ".m3a", ".wav", and ".mp3" files.
  For Myst V: End of Ages or Myst Online: Uru Live, you can choose the application file.
  If you have copied all of the game files to your hard disk, the folder/file to choose might be:
  • "/Applications/The Manhole",
  • "/Applications/Myst",
  • "/Applications/Myst Masterpiece Edition",
  • "/Applications/realMYST",
  • "/Applications/Riven",
  • "/Applications/Myst III Exile",
  • "/Applications/Myst V End Of Ages.app", or
  • "/Applications/Myst Online.app".
  Otherwise, put a game CD or DVD in the drive and choose it.
• Then, it will ask you where to save the extracted files.
• Next, you can choose whether to extract sounds, movies, or pictures.
• Click the Extract Files button. After a lot of disk activity, you should have many ".wav", ".aif", ".mp2", ".mp3", ".ogg", ".mov", ".avi", ".bik", ".pict", ".bmp", ".png", ".jpeg", and/or ".tga" files.

Windows version:

• Install Java if you do not already have it.
• Make sure that "Riveal.jar" is downloaded intact and not split apart. WinRAR seems especially keen to expand ".jar" files.
• Check that Windows knows that ".jar" files should be opened with the Java Runtime Environment. The Windows Explorer should describe "Riveal.jar" as an Executable Jar File. If not, shift-right-click on "Riveal.jar" and choose the Open With... command. Pick "javaw" from the list of programs. (You may need to use the Other... button to find "javaw.exe". It will probably be in "c:\Program Files\Java\jdk 1.5.0\jre\bin\" or something close to that.) Be sure to check "Always use this program to open these files", then press OK.
• If all goes well, double-clicking "Riveal.jar" will start Riveal.
• It will ask you to point to a folder containing data files (or a folder of folders):
  • Myst ".dat" files,
  • Myst Masterpiece ".dat" or "pics" files,
  • realMYST ".dni" and ".avi" files,
  • Riven ".mhk" files,
  • Myst III: Exile ".m3a", ".wav", and ".mp3" files,
  • Myst V: End of Ages ".bik", ".ogg", ".prp", and ".dat" files,
  • Uru ".bik", ".ogg", and ".prp" files, or
  • Myst Online: Uru Live ".bik" and ".ogg" files.
  If you have copied all of the game files to your hard disk, the folder to choose might be:
  • "c:\Program Files\Myst",
  • "c:\Program Files\Ubi Soft\Myst Masterpiece Edition",
  • "c:\Program Files\realMYST",
  • "c:\Program Files\Riven",
  • "c:\Program Files\Ubi Soft\Myst III Exile",
  • "c:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Cyan Worlds\Myst V End Of Ages",
  • "c:\Program Files\Ubi Soft\Cyan Worlds\Uru - Ages Beyond Myst" or "c:\Program Files\Ubi Soft\Cyan Worlds\Myst Uru Complete Chronicles", or
  • "c:\Program Files\GameTap\games\140000150" (for Windows XP) or "c:\ProgramData\GameTap\games\140000150" (for Windows Vista).
  Otherwise, put a game CD or DVD in the drive and choose "d:\" or whatever letter corresponds to your drive.
• Then, it will ask you where to save the extracted files.
• Next, you can choose whether to extract sounds, movies, or pictures.
• Click the Extract Files button. After a lot of disk activity, you should have many ".wav", ".aif", ".mp2", ".mp3", ".ogg", ".mov", ".avi", ".bik", ".pict", ".bmp", ".png", ".jpeg", and/or ".tga" files.

Using the Extracted Files

To listen to, watch, and look at some of the sounds, movies, and pictures extracted by Riveal, you may need to install some additional software. There are many music players, movie players, and picture viewers available, so you may want to try a few until you find ones you like. Here are some that are known to work.

Any audio application should be able to play WAVE (".wav"), AIFF (".aif"), and MP3 files, including iTunes. iTunes can also play files in the MP2 format (i.e., layer 2 of MPEG-1 and -2), a precursor to MP3.

To hear Ogg Vorbis (".ogg") sounds, you will need to use a music player that understands that format. If you install the Xiph QuickTime Components, all applications that use QuickTime (iTunes, for instance) should be able to play these sounds.

If you want to listen to the music extracted by Riveal on an iPod, you will need to use iTunes to convert the MP2 and Ogg Vorbis files to AAC or MP3. You might want to also convert the WAVE and AIFF files to reduce their size.

You will need QuickTime Player to play the movies in MOV format. On Mac OS X, if you install Perian, QuickTime Player will be able to play many AVI movies. If you also install Flip4Mac WMV, QuickTime Player will also be able to play many WMV movies. On Windows, try Windows Media Player.

To play the Bink movies, you will need a special-purpose player. RAD Game Tools has players for Mac OS X and Windows at http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm.

All web browsers can display BMP, PNG, and JPEG pictures. QuickTime Player can also display these pictures and those in PICT and TGA formats, too.

The Manhole CD-ROM Masterpiece Edition [Mac version]

Riveal can extract sounds, movies, and pictures from the Mac version of The Manhole CD-ROM Masterpiece Edition. The extracted sounds are in WAVE format, the movies are QuickTime MOV files, and the pictures are in PICT format.

Be sure to listen to "MystPhone.wav". :)

Myst [Original Mac version]

Riveal can extract sounds, movies, and pictures from the original Mac version of Myst. The extracted sounds are in WAVE format, the movies are QuickTime MOV files, and the pictures are in PICT format.

The WAVE files that start with "MU" are music. There is a WAVE file for almost every song from the official Myst soundtrack CD. Some are a bit shorter and a few are actually longer. Altogether, there are 36 minutes of low fidelity music (8-bit 11 kHz mono) in the Mac version of Myst, so I strongly recommend buying the soundtrack CD.

These are the music files from the original Myst and their corresponding names from the soundtrack CD:

There are a few "bonus" tracks, too:

The Myst linking sound is "Transport.wav".

Myst [Original Windows version]

Riveal can extract sounds, movies, and pictures from the original Windows version of Myst. The extracted sounds are in WAVE format, the movies are in QuickTime MOV format, and the pictures are in BMP format.

The WAVE files that start with "MU" are music. There is a WAVE file for almost every song from the official Myst soundtrack CD, except they are lower sound quality and generally much shorter in length. Altogether, there are only 17 minutes of low fidelity music (8-bit 11 kHz mono) in the Windows version of Myst, so again, I strongly recommend buying the soundtrack CD.

These are the music files from the original Myst and their corresponding names from the soundtrack CD:

There are a few "bonus" tracks, too:

The Myst linking sound is "transprt1.wav".

Myst Masterpiece Edition

Riveal can extract sounds, movies, and pictures from the Myst Masterpiece Edition CD or DVD. Depending on which version of the Myst Masterpiece Edition you have (the Mac CD-ROM, the Windows CD-ROM, or the 10th Anniversary DVD Edition), the sounds are in AIFF format or in WAVE format or both. The movies are in QuickTime MOV format. The extracted pictures are mostly in JPEG format and a few are in PICT and BMP formats. QuickTime is needed to open the PICT files.

The AIFF and WAVE files that start with "MU" are music. There is a file for almost every song from the official Myst soundtrack CD, except they are lower sound quality and generally much shorter in length. Altogether, there are only 17 minutes of medium fidelity music (16-bit 22 kHz mono) in the Myst Masterpiece Edition, so again, I recommend buying the soundtrack CD.

These are the music files from the Myst Masterpiece Edition and their corresponding names from the soundtrack CD:

There are a few "bonus" tracks, too:

The Myst linking sound is "TRANSPRT.aif" or "transprt1.wav".

realMYST

Riveal can extract realMYST's sounds and movies from the data files on your hard disk or on CD. The sounds are all in WAVE format. The movies are mostly in QuickTime MOV format and some are in Bink (".bik") format. It can also extract the textures used to "paint" the surfaces of the objects in the game. The extracted textures are all PNG files. If you do not have a full installation of realMYST on your hard disk, you will want to extract files from your realMYST CD so that you get everything.

Riveal can also extract the images that are displayed on the Rime crystal viewer, which are encrypted in the "huevo.avi" and "vika.avi" movies. The decrypted pictures are BMP files in the "scn/maps/huevo" and "scn/maps/vika" subfolders.

The extracted sound files are placed in folders that correspond to the original realMYST ".dni" data files. Most of the music and the speeches are in the "mara" folder but a few are in the "pera" folder. Both folders also contain sound effects.

Here are most of the music files from the game and their corresponding names from the Myst soundtrack CD:

I recommend buying the Myst soundtrack CD.

Several new songs were added for the Rime Age which was not in the original version of Myst:

There are a few more "bonus" tracks, too, but some are low fidelity (8-bit 11 kHz mono):

Altogether, there are 50 minutes of high fidelity music (16-bit 22 kHz stereo) in realMYST.

The realMYST linking sound is "TRANSPRT.wav".

Be sure to listen to "Atrus EE Sound.wav". :)

Riven

Riveal can extract Riven's sounds, movies, and pictures from the data files on your hard disk, on CDs, or on DVD. Unless you have a full installation of Riven on your hard disk, you will want to extract files from your Riven CDs or DVD so that you get everything.

The extracted files are placed in folders that correspond to the original Riven ".mhk" data files. For instance, you should see folders with names like "g_Sounds" and "p_Data". The folders and the files are almost always prefixed by a letter that identifies where in the game they are used:

All extracted sounds from the CDs and most from the DVD are in WAVE format. Many of the extracted sounds from the DVD are in MP2 format, MP3's predecessor.

Here are most of the music files from the game and their corresponding names from the Riven soundtrack CD:

Some of the music is only found in the soundtracks of movies, mixed with dialogue and sound effects, not as separate sound files. A shortened version of Atrus' Theme, for instance, is used in "159_tintro.mov". I recommend buying the soundtrack CD.

There are a few "bonus" tracks, too -- music that did not appear on the soundtrack CD:

The Riven linking sound is "1_atransport_1.wav" or "1_atransport_1.mp2".

Several people have put together lists of the particularly interesting movies. One such list is in the Riven Hint Guide. Unfortunately, I have not found a list that is based on Cyan's names of the movie files. If someone puts together a list of movies by name rather than number, I hope they will share it with the world.

The extracted pictures are in PNG format. I have not found a good guide to the pictures anywhere on the net. The pictures in the "b2_data" folder appear to be photos of the people who created the game.

Myst III: Exile

Riveal can extract Exile's sounds, movies, and pictures from the data files on your hard disk or on a game CD or DVD. The music files are in MP3 format and so are some of the other sounds. All other sounds are in WAVE format. The movies are in Bink (".bik") format and the pictures are in JPEG format.

Only a few of the music files directly correspond to the songs on the Myst III soundtrack CD:

Some of the other soundtrack music can be found in the movies, usually mixed with dialogue and sound effects. Again, I recommend buying the soundtrack CD.

The Myst III linking sound is "COMM_Transport.wav".

The Exile Movie Reference is a very useful guide to the extracted movies.

Most of the extracted pictures (and movies, too) are tagged with a node number, one of the hundreds of locations in the game. Each node is a cube and your eyes are at the center. There is a JPEG picture for the inside surface of each of the six faces of the cube (front, back, left, right, top, and bottom). The Myst III engine warps the faces of the cube mathematically into the interior of a sphere so that you can look around freely.

Myst IV: Revelation

The sounds, movies, and pictures from Myst IV: Revelation can be extracted using a separate application, Revelator.

Myst V: End of Ages

Riveal can extract the sound and movie files from Myst V: End of Ages on your hard disk but not from the game CDs or DVD. The sounds are in Ogg Vorbis (".ogg") format and the movies are in Bink (".bik") format. It can also extract the textures used to "paint" the surfaces of the objects in the game. The extracted textures are mostly PNG files but some are JPEGs and TGAs.

Riveal can also extract your player journal -- with the photos you have taken in the game and with the notes you have written. The extracted journal is an HTML file plus a collection of JPEG pictures.

All of the music files have "Music" or "Mx" in their names. Here are those music files from the game that correspond to the soundtrack CD:

Thanks to Eric and Maratanos for helping to compile this information!

I recommend buying the soundtrack CD.

The remaining music files are generally short: a minute long or less. They add up to another 15 minutes of music. Here are some of the best songs (thanks, again, to Maratanos):

The Myst V linking sound is "xLink.ogg" or "xLink-Stereo.ogg".

Uru: Ages Beyond Myst and Uru: Complete Chronicles

Riveal can extract the sound and movie files from Uru: Ages Beyond Myst and its expansion packs or from Uru: Complete Chronicles on your hard disk but not from the game CDs. The sounds are in Ogg Vorbis (".ogg") format. The very few movies are in Bink (".bik") format. It can also extract the textures used to "paint" the surfaces of the objects in the game. The extracted textures are mostly PNG files but some are JPEGs.

Riveal can also extract your player journal (the notes you have written in the game) and your KI images (the photos you have taken). The extracted journal is an HTML file and the photos are JPEG pictures.

Only some of the music files directly correspond to the songs on the Uru soundtrack CD:

Thanks to Maratanos and Eric for helping to compile this information!

Again, I recommend buying the soundtrack CD.

Quite a bit of the Uru music is not on the soundtrack CD, particularly if you have the expansion packs or the Complete Chronicles. There is almost an extra hour of music to enjoy. Here are some of the best songs (thanks, again, to Maratanos):

The Uru linking sound is "xLink.ogg" or "xLink-Stereo.ogg".

Myst Online: Uru Live

Riveal can extract the sound and movie files from Myst Online: Uru Live. The sounds are in Ogg Vorbis (".ogg") format. The very few movies are in Bink (".bik") format. It can also extract the textures used to "paint" the surfaces of the objects in the game. The extracted textures are mostly PNG files but some are JPEGs.

Riveal can also extract your KI images -- the photos you have taken in the game -- and your avatar portraits -- the photos you have taken of yourself in your Relto wardrobe. The extracted images are JPEG pictures.

Only some of the music files directly correspond to the songs on the Uru soundtrack CD:

Thanks to Maratanos and Eric for helping to compile this information!

Again, I recommend buying the soundtrack CD.

Quite a bit of the Myst Online music is not on the Uru soundtrack CD. There is almost an extra hour of music to enjoy. Here are some of the best songs (thanks, again, to Maratanos):

The Myst Online linking sound is "xLink.ogg" or "xLink-Stereo.ogg".

Copyright (c) 2005-8 Ron Hayter. All rights reserved.