Huevo.avi and Vika.avi

Two files have piqued the interest of realMyst fans from the very beginning:  huevo.avi and vika.avi.  Each of these files is a series of images that, if extracted and viewed in a paint/picture/photo program, look like this:

The individual frames, however, can be combined through image "arithmetic" to produce something more like this:

It appears that the images were encrypted, perhaps using what is called an XOR command.  A good explanation for this type of encryption can be found here.  Unfortunately, without the key (usually a number, say, between 1 and 1,000,000), there doesn't appear to be anyway to decrypt them perfectly.  

Nevertheless, frob developed a truly magical way of combining the frames, and the results are shown here.  I have also used a different method, which has been floating around since realMyst came out (and one that I did not originate), to produce some images here.

Some of these images have definitely been linked to Mudpie pictures, as I note here and here.  And it is believed that an ultimate easter egg will enable us to view the images in the Rime viewer.  This belief stems from the fact that the Riven image triggered by the combination of crystals and colors in Catherine's note is a decrypted frame from the huevo.avi file; also, the savegame files (as I note here) contain a series of references to huevo, numbered huevo01 to huevo21.

The vika.avi file was at first believed to be something not Mudpie-related, but recent revelations at D'ni Guild have changed that thinking.  This picture from D'ni Guild is clearly from the "Vika Age," and the presence of an avatar is strong evidence that it is a Mudpie Age.