A wonderful sounding project was announced to the C64 world when Legend Of Kyril was being planned for release by Crystal Software. A potentially stunning RPG game in the style of Johnny Reb and other RPG’s was on its way from the ambitious Crystal Software.
After months of progress and publicity, the game never got around to being finished and Crystal Software folded quickly on the C64.
A series of demo’s sneaked their way out, and show exactly what was to be of the game. Not greatly stunning as compared with other games, but impressive anyway.
Featuring some old style hi-res graphics, and some nice multi-colour in the main game, the actual’s game’s engine was apparently complete and the game was playable.
Battles could be fought and won, but this is something we may not see for a while yet, unless we find those behind the actual game to find out more.
Recently in 2010, ex-CEO Alex de Vries got in touch with GTW and had the following to say:
“I used to be the CEO of Crystal Software back when it was developing and publishing games for the C64 and Amiga platforms before making the transition to PC only. The Legend of Kyril was actually an Austrian project we signed up as a last effort to see if we could sell decent volume on the C64 if the quality was there for the title. Our involvement was purely in sales and marketing and we were never involved in the creative side of things. I wish I could remember the names of the developers but it’s just too long ago.
Code exists for some but I have moved halfway across the world since those days so I don’t know whether anything survived. I don’t have a copy anymore in any case.
We packed it in after 1996 and cancelled all projects for the C64 in Q1 1997. Titles we did (re-)publish were McRat, The Zinj Complex, Target, It’s Magic, Colorzone, Riddles and Stones and a few others. Not the greatest stuff but it was fun while it lasted.”
So it seems lack of support was the reason this one never quite made it. We then later found more details from various fanzine sources:
From Commodore Bi Monthly advert:
“A great strategy game with some fantasy RPG features. Many digitized sounds and hi-res graphics make this game the best of its kind ever! It will probably be ready by the end of the first quarter of 1997.
You can reserve your personal copy from our first production run of 100 copies at anyone of our subsidaries. No price has yet been set but you can cancel your reservation any time you like if it turns out to be too steep.”
From Zine 64 – Issue 9:
“This looks to be one of the best games to hit the C64 in a long time…. Supporting all types of CMD devices and REUS, this is the ultimate strategy in which you lead your troops into battle against enemy warlords…..
Find magical items, build strongholds, develop new weapons and troop types, the list goes on…. To be honest I can’t wait until ‘Zine 64 reviews this one”
And also this scan was recovered with more details about the game and is worth a read!
Recently in 2011, Helfried got in touch with GTW64 who had the following to say about the game:
“I might be able to shed some light into this case as I used to be in contact with the author of the game, Markus Pfingstner. In fact, the first game preview you are already offering for download lists the following game credits at the end:
The very same authors created the game ‘Kampf um Thurn’ which was published by a German disk magazine:
http://gb64.com/game.php?id=4035&d=18&h=0
Legend of Kyril was the successor of that game but supposed to be technically way more advanced comprising VIC magic such as AGSP and UFLI.
My role was to design an IRQ loading system for the game which was supposed to be compatible with various disk drives (1541, 1581, CMD FD, CMD HD). (Btw, the second preview in your download file already contains a very first version of my IRQ loader. An improved version was published later by 64’er magazine.)
I also started looking for a musician but no one was assigned to the task as game development slowed down after some time. If I remember correctly, Markus mentioned in one of our last phone calls that his new girl-friend and his studies of computer science were distracting him from finishing the game…”
Joerg Droege reveals that the game was 80% complete, with the final 20% not being done. Joerg has spent many years researching about the game, and at some point in the future – this entry will be updated to fill in the many missing details we are not yet covering. We hope to see some developments too on this one being recovered.
One still on the battle field…
Contributions: Helfried Peyrl, Joerg Droege
Supporting content
Available downloads
- Preview_Kyrill.zip (zip)
Gallery
Update history
- 28/02/17 – Brief info from Joerg Droege added at the end.
- 09/09/16 – Tidy up of page
We never cashed any cheques and did not receive cash or wire transfers at Crystal Software. We worked with 4 or 5 resellers in various countries I recall for whom I can’t guarantee this unfortunately.
I pre-ordered this, my Dad wrote the cheque out and I sent it off. I of course never received anything, but I don’t even know if the cheque was cashed or not as my dad was making a decent amount of money back then so probably didn’t notice. So I am one of the 100!
Thanks for sharing Tom, and sorry to hear you didn’t get your copy in the end. Those days were a frustrating time when ordering stuff. I remember making orders for games from the likes of EBES and others, and it would take months before I ever saw anything. Then of course, there were times when people disappeared and no game surfaced.
Hi! I would like to know what happened to all the people who pre-ordered the game before it was finished. Did they at least get their money back?