Fans of Myst Will Love This Raspberry Pi-Based Linking Book

Myst, developed by Cyan, Inc. and published for Macintosh by Broderbund in 1993, is one of the most beloved adventure puzzle video games of all time. It was wildly innovative, with 3D graphics that were groundbreaking at the time and genuinely difficult puzzles. The game’s story unfolds slowly as the player discovers clues throughout the island that serves as the primary setting. “Linking books” can be used to temporarily transport the player to other mini-worlds that provide additional story details. While Myst is nearly 30-years-old now, it still has a massive fan base. That certainly includes Redditor Rawkout1337, who used a Raspberry Pi to build a real-life linking book.

This linking book is, sadly, unable to actually transport you to other Ages. Instead, opening the book reveals a small screen that displays a flyover video of Myst’s iconic island before ending with a static shot of the player’s starting point in the game. The book used for the enclosure is a copy of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine from sometime around 1870. Rawkout1337 learned about this book from other people who have completed similar projects and was able to score a copy for $40. Personally, we hate to see an antique book like this getting torn apart and would have preferred that a new book be used, but at least this isn’t particularly noteworthy and doesn’t have much historical significance. This project required essentially the complete destruction of the book, so it is a good thing it wasn’t some valuable first edition.

Rawkout1337 started by using a laser-cut form and a hydraulic press to emboss “MYST” on the book’s cover. The cover was then painted to match the in-game linking book, complete with a distressed finish. The next step was to cut a cavity out of the pages, just like you would do if you were trying to hide valuables on a book shelf. Rawkout1337 placed a 3D-printed frame inside of that cavity to hold the electronic components. Those include a Raspberry Pi Zero W single-board computer, a small 3.5” TFT LCD touchscreen, a magnetic Reed switch, a headphone speaker driver, and a USB power bank. The Reed switch reacts to a magnet glued to the book’s cover so the video is triggered when the book is opened. The enclosure was then covered with a couple of pages that have a cutout for the screen to peek through. The result is a fantastic recreation of the linking books that all Myst fanatics know and love.