How can I run Myst in a window?

I can't stand running games full-screen if they aren't the same resolution as my main monitor, because it screws up all the windows I have on the other monitors.

Myst is especially egregious because it looks like it's running in 640x480, which is significantly smaller than my monitor's native resolution.

Is there any way to play Myst in a window?

I'm running Windows 7, in case the operating system matters. I'd imagine it would be the same for any version of Windows if possible, however.

Solution 1:

I've done some looking around and it seems like the best way is to run it inside a virtual machine. Posts I've read are suggesting Virtual PC, but I suspect other ones (like VirtualBox) would work, too, so long as they support running QuickTime.

Your gaming experience might not be all that great on a virtual machine, but I don't see Myst being so demanding on resources that it'd degrade horribly.

If you're running Windows 7 Professional (and up, just not Starter, Home, or Home Premium), you can download XP Mode, which is essentially an XP VM that you can use free of charge. With other virtual machines, you will need to install a copy of Windows on them, which means you will need a valid license key (or beat the game in under 30 days if you're installing a version that requires activation).

Solution 2:

ScummVM is working on adding support for the Mohawk engine, which was used for at least some Myst releases (I don't know exactly which ones, but I do know it isn't used for realMyst).

It's not ready to be part of the release builds yet, and there is bound to still be some bugs, but the game should at least be completeable - so if you have a supported version, you can grab a daily build and see if it works well enough for you.

(Full disclosure: I am a member of the ScummVM team, but I don't work on that engine, or ScummVM itself for that matter.)