''2088: The Cryllan Mission'' is a 1989

role-playing video game Role-playing video games, also known as CRPG (computer/console role-playing games), comprise a broad video game genre generally defined by a detailed story and character advancement (often through increasing characters' levels or other skills) ...

developed and published by Victory Software for the

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

Gameplay

''2088: The Cryllan Mission'' is a game in which a new spacecraft crew must find out what happened to the U.S.S. Houston on the planet Crylla.

Development and release

''2088: The Cryllan Mission'' was developed by Victory Software, which was composed of brothers Vinay, Vivek, and Vijay Pai. The family moved from India to Houston in 1978 and purchased an Apple Inc., Apple computer in 1981 with a young Vinay quickly learning to code on the machine. The brothers began submitting programs to the

-centric magazine ''Nibble (magazine), Nibble'' in 1982. Vinay graduated from Rice University in 1988 with a degree in computer science, first working for IBM before forming Victory with Vivek and Vijay that same year. Their company’s name was taken from the ubiquitous brand in the

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

novel ''

Nineteen Eighty-Four ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also published as ''1984'') is a dystopian novel and cautionary tale by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final completed book. Thematically ...

''. Vinay led the team on the three titles they produced, writing one third of the

code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communicati ...

using an

, giving game demo, demos, and doing the company's cold calling. He also penned the manual for ''2088'' and said that they commissioned the cover artwork for $250. The team relied on Apple for marketing, believing the II to show immense promise for the future. Vinay later proclaimed that they were committed to the II in what he posited was a time when many companies were abandoning the platform. "Victory Software, however, has written a true II application and, in the process, created a role-playing game with some unconventional features, such as our conversation", he stated. The game’s design was influenced by the developers' Indian heritage and their interests in

popular culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of cultural practice, practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art

f. pop art F is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet. F may also refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * F or f, the number 15 (number), 15 in hexadecimal and higher positional systems * ''p'F'q'', the hypergeometric function * F-distributi ...

or mass art, sometimes contraste ...

including ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'', ''

Apocalypse Now ''Apocalypse Now'' is a 1979 American psychological epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius, and Michael Herr, is loosely inspired by the 1899 novella '' Heart of Darkn ...

'', '' The Killing Fields'', and the '' Ultima'' series. The repetitive and verbose speech of its NPCs was intended to pad the game’s length and challenge the player to decipher clues to advance. ''2088'' was released in 1989. The trio spent tens of thousands of dollars on manufacturing about 5,000 full-color game boxes. They sold the game online, through magazines, and at Babbage’s in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. Most of the revenue from its very steep asking price of $69.95 went back into manufacturing and advertising. When it was commercially unsuccessful, Victory changed some of the graphics and dialogue and re-released it with the subtitle ''The Second Scenario'' in 1990, packaged in original ''2088'' boxes with a gold sticker simply slapped on to liquidate unsold stock. Victory folded shortly thereafter, having been in operation for just two years. Vinay said in 2016 that he considered the experience "a good failure" in which he learned a lot.

Reception

Dennis Owens reviewed the game for ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...

'', and stated that "Overall, ''2088: The Cryllan Mission'' marks a promising entrance into the still underdeveloped market of II-specific software by a new company."

Reviews

*''The Apple IIGS Buyers Guide Winter 1990'' *'' inCider'' *''Nibble''

References

{{Videogame-stub 1989 video games Apple IIGS games Apple IIGS-only games Fiction set in 2088 North America-exclusive video games Science fiction role-playing video games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United States Video games set on fictional planets Video games set in the 2080s