The Parable of Myst II

They have more money than they ever thought possible, and yet they behave as if they're close to insolvency, struggling not to let the money seduce them. Rand Miller still lives with his wife, Debbie, and their children in a double-wide trailer home, with a cistern and water deliveries. He's so far in the woods he can't get back and forth in December without using his four-year-old Chevy S-10 pickup.

So many things are changing, they cling to whatever they can keep the same. They keep an eye on themselves, watching for false moves. They know everything they touch doesn't turn platinum: a novelization of the "Myst" story was a critical flop and didn't sell well enough to hit the best-seller list.

Everything except "Myst II" is a distraction, a temptation to get greedy and forget their calling: to be builders of convincing imaginary worlds. As Richard Vander Wende put it: "As long as you stay true to what you think is interesting -- that's your best hope."

Rand is engrossed in his computer screen. How is he going to get thousands of surrealistically detailed and megabyte-rich 32-bit images down to an 8-bit size that'll run at a reasonable speed in a CD-ROM drive? He has no idea, since his DeBabelizer Toolbox software isn't working. Without it, the game never gets to market - it's that crucial. At the moment, Miller feels like a total novice again. Everything could fall apart, right here. The whole game stuck in development, with nowhere to go.

So why is this man smiling?

Because he's having more fun than he's had in weeks.

To compensate for the jobs he has to do, Rand rewards himself with these kinds of software problems to solve.

Over the course of three days, as he works on this technological puzzle, Rand keeps smiling. He moves from one office to another, exploring possible alternatives to the software. Everything has become a moving target. The original software behaves in unexpected ways. When he wants to reach the company that makes it, and he goes to their Web page, he finds an announcement: Today we're moving our headquarters. Sorry, we can't be reached. When he tries to download the software, he keeps getting error messages.

He finally downloads it, only to discover that the registration number doesn't work. He spends an hour searching for the correct number. He finds a registration number that gets the software to work, but then has to tinker for hours with the settings, playing with it, sometimes coming up with terrible results, other times getting closer.

On the third day he discovers the proper settings and translates a set of images into the more abbreviated format - the results are indistinguishable from the complex originals: the most impressive, a scene showing sun-drenched sandstone in tropical waters, with an infinite ocean horizon under blue sky with brilliant white clouds.

"Where there's a will, there's a way," he says. "And quit calling me Will."

As people file into his office to look at the results, the reaction is unanimous: "Wow. Sheesh. It's phenomenal!"

Rand shows the results to Robyn and Richard.

"That's incredible," Richard says. "Zoom right in there."

"Look at the detail in the cloud."

"Cool."

Robyn is so enchanted with designing the new game, it's all he can do to go home at night. The most Generation X member of the crew, he comes to work carrying a little shoulder bag with an espresso thermos. Sitting in his office beside his Silicon Graphics terminal, he lights up with tense joy as he talks: "The playfulness of the job has changed but ... I'm really excited about coming into work. I'm much more invested in this game than in the first one. The first was more of an experiment. We goofed off a bit while making it. We didn't realize the potential of what was there. I'm having fun. I'm definitely having fun."

Chris Brandkamp is just as pleased with his emerging role. His office looks like a sound studio: mixing board, speakers, all the electronic equipment and computers. He's tall, with brown hair, a mustache, and a quiet, cutting sense of humor. At 38, Chris is one of the oldest members of the staff. For "Myst II" he's off-loaded his financial duties to a new accountant, so he can devote himself to creating sounds. After all these years, he has found his passion.

"I know just the sound I need for one stage of the game. I backpacked in the Sierras, and I heard it."

He has the gleeful look of a child on Christmas morning. He can't wait to start creating sound effects. It would seem he's got all the tools he needs, right in this office, to synthesize any possible noise, but he wants it to be authentic, exact.

"I need a workbench with a vise. That's the kind of sound equipment I really need. Some carpentry tools. A hammer and pliers and all the stuff needed to hold and whack things to see what noise they make."