Myst IV: Revelation - Telescope

I have read more than one walkthrough regarding the telescope and cannot figure out how to do what they tell me. When you sit in the chair and push the red button, you do rise up to where the telescope is. However, when it says to zoom in on the telescope and then move it around so you can see the moon and turn on the antenna, all you see is a blurred view of the telescope. I see the button that has what appears to be a lighthouse on it, but you aren't able to click on it. I don't care where you point the hour glass, it will only bring up the blurred view of the telescope. You zoom back out and still can't click anywhere else.

What am I missing?

I assume you've turned on the power, since the chair wouldn't take you up if you hadn't. But have you also pulled the lever that opens the roof? The telescope won't work if the roof is not open.

There is a known glitch in some people's game, which causes the view through the telescope to turn orange instead of blue and silver. There is a patch that corrects this, if it happens to you...

I believe I did because I remember a door opening up in the roof and seeing what I remember to be something like the moon or something.

If you have the power turned on and think the roof is open, go to the crystal viewer and start trying to place the crystals according to Atrus's diary. It should work if both of those things are done...

Kszanz,

I ran into this a long time ago with someone who had the same syndrome. I don't know if she ever resolved it.

I had offered to take her save file and give it a look to see if I could figure out what she might have missed, but I can't remember if she took me up on it.

I'll make the same offer to you. If you'd like me to take a peek at your save game, send it to me and I'll return it with my comments.

Regards,

Dadguy

The problem that most people have is not getting the close-up view with the magnifying glass. You can't push the button unless you do.

When you sit in the chair and push the red button, it takes you up to the telescope. When you try to click anything, the magnifier will only zoom you in closer to the telescope. You can't see anything but a blurry view through the telescope. There are no buttons or anything else. You zoom back out and try to click on anything else, and you're right back to the same blurry view through the telescope.

Regarding the crystals, all of the walkthroughs indicate you do those after you do what you're supposed to do with the telescope.

Since my new game keeps locking up my computer, I'm going to take it back to the store and exchange it for another one. I have Windows XP and was told I needed to download new drivers. I removed my current ones and took about 1.5 hrs downloading the new drivers, hoping that would fix the problem. Nope. Therefore, I'll see if another copy will fix the problem. I played Myst URU right afterwards, which has the exact same intro. It played fine, which leads me to believe it's the DVD. Hopefully I'm right because I really think Myst IV: Revelation sounds fabulous.

I'll let you know once I get back up and try again if I'm still not able to get this function to work.

Thanks so much for your help.

Kszanz, if the new copy does the same thing, you can send me a save right at this part and I'll see if I can figure out what's going on.

Revelation is one of the most beautiful games I've seen, but there's no denying it does have some difficult moments...

Hmmm. In close up view, I was able to move the wheels on either side and press the upper right power button. If they are not in the frame, changing your screen resolution might help.

Kszanz,

It's not the DVD or your computer. If the DVD was corrupted the game wouldn't run at all. The problem as you say seems to be the drivers - Revelation really needs the correct video drivers. But since URU works then it could well be the game installation.

Try uninstalling the game, doing a disk clean up and reinstalling the game. Then reduce the screen resolution and turn of all the effects. This should help.

If it doen't then as many have suggested, sent one of us your saved game.

I can reinstall the game, but I'm not sure what you mean by disk cleanup. Do a uninstall and then reinstall? I just recently had my computer totally restored, so there isn't a whole lot on it. I have a new hard drive and battery as well, so my computer is almost new again. When you talk about reducing the screen resolution, what should it be? I currently have it just one step above the smallest setting. I do want to be able to see it.

When I start this particular game, the intro starts up and sounds like it's in slow motion. Then it locks up and will not let anything else work. I end up having to push in my start button and hold it until it shuts off. That is not good. I got the game to actually work once and got to the place that prompted this chain of emails. I got so frustrated that I shut down the game and started up my other game. I later tried to play the game again and had it lock up twice more. Forget that!

Thanks for your help. I really, really do appreciate it. I'm just a little frustrated and not being a computer genius like you guys doesn't help. Therefore, any help you can provide is wonderful!!!

Hi kszanz. Fisicx is telling you to completely uninstall the game and then do a disk clean, error checking and defragmenting of your computer.
After you have completed that, then reinstall your game.

Sue

Kszanz, just as a wild suggestion, have you checked the requirements on the box against what your computer has? This game's requirements are pretty high, and maybe you don't have enough of something to make it run...

I have Windows XP Home Edition. I downloaded the drivers per the instructions after removing the current ones. If I remember correctly, I selected the Unisoft link from the five or six offered. It tooked about 1.5 hrs to download since I go through a phone line.

I'll look to see how fragmented my computer looks since it hasn't been long since I had the hard drive replaced. I'll try all of these things.

What resolution should I use, and what do you mean when you say "turn off all of the effects"?

Thanks so much.

Under "options" (I think that's where it is), you have things like "anti-aliasing" and some other stuff--make sure those things aren't checked, that's what is meant by turning things off.

IMPORTANT: also be sure that screen savers, firewalls and your anti-virus programs are turned off--sometimes they interfer with games. Just be sure to remember to turn the anti-virus back on before you go back onto the internet!

As for resolution, either the 800x600 or 1024x768 should work--try them both...

Hi Kszanz,

More specifically, what is your video display adapter that you upgraded the drivers for? You can find this by RIGHT clicking on the PC desktop background and selecting PROPERTIES, then clicking the SETTINGS tab. You should see the display in the center saying something like "Plug and Play monitor on NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700LE".

The suggestions about reducing the resolution may help also. But the description that you gave about the view of the telescope opening I have run into before and I think they were display adapter related. I did a search but couldn't find the topic on this site. If we can identify the display adapter we may be able to focus the problem better.

We're here to help!

Dadguy

I ran into the same problem with the telescope running windows ME. Updating video drivers, turning off screen saver and antivirus did the trick for me.

kszanz if your system still locks up after doing all that was suggested then you may have another program that is using the same memory address(s) used my M4. You will have to shut off everything that isn't needed to run the system.

I did everything recommended and then reinstalled the game. I then got the message about the drivers again. This time, I noticed Ubisoft wasn't there. Then it dawned on me that perhaps I was to download different drivers from most if not all of the locations listed. I then proceeded to do that. I don't have Intel, so I skipped that one. As far as I know, I got everything I needed because the game has been working. I got to the part where I got stuck before, and it worked fine that time.

The game did just shut down on me further on, but I went back in and have gone a long ways after that without any problems. The only thing that I've noticed when playing this game is a lot of static and popping noises. What could cause that? It doesn't seem to do it except when playing this game. It's rather irritating. Any suggestions?

Other than all of this, I absolutely love the game. I love all of the Myst games and want whoever created them to know they're fabulous!

Kszanz, I'm no expert on computer matters, but I would guess that these problems are directly connected to your video card. I remember when Uru came out that there were some video cards that it didn't like at all, and that may be why you're getting all the popping and static.

Is there any possibility that you could install Myst IV on another computer, just to see if things go more smoothly...

When we went back another day, the noise didn't seem so bad. I think we may be okay for now.

Thanks so much for your suggests. I really appreciate them.