Rochester, NY -- August 27, 1999 -- The stone floor is cold, and its chill on your cheek slowly wakes you from your sleep. Before you stand two men: an older, distinguished gentleman in robes, and a hunchback, clothed in jester's garb.
"Ah, good. You are about," says the older man, looking quite exhausted. "We were worried that you were harmed." He introduces himself as Alaric, the LandKing. His kingdom of Cythera is in grave danger, and Alaric himself is unable to maintain his magical bond with the land. Only a gifted outsider, summoned from Earth, can save the ancient island from certain doom.
Cythera casts you as the legendary saviour of a violently divided nation. Sensing the impending downfall of the King, the ruling houses of Cythera struggle for political power in the ancient land. Some will stop at nothing to seize control.
While the houses labor to increase their own power, the neutral mages struggle for a higher consciousness and the betterment of humanity. They envision a world free from treachery and deceit. These students of the magick arts anxiously await the return of Alaric's mystical powers, as well as the end of the land's deadly slide toward chaos. But even they are unaware of the underlying tragedy which prepares to strike the land.
Your arrival in Cythera begins an immersive adventure that is sure to cause incidents of philosophical self-questioning and adrenaline-pumping suspense. Intriguing puzzles offer clues about the island's mythical history, and ultimately the origins of the people of Cythera.
Glenn Andreas' imagination and love for classical mythology breathe life into the fictional world, and his work on the underlying Delver engine adds realism and ingenuity to what is surely the most advanced RPG in the Mac market. One strength of the engine involves interaction of inanimate objects in the game; as an example, water and flour yield dough, which, when baked, makes bread.
Cythera proudly features an advanced GUI that mirrors the much loved MacOS interface. Drag an item into your inventory window to take it. To perform an action, you can use contextual menus. Of course, optional keyboard shortcuts make the game move a little faster for those in a hurry to rescue the land. Multiple windows abound, and when a window becomes irrelevant, it closes automatically to prevent onscreen clutter.
Cythera requires any Macintosh computer with MacOS 7.6.1 or later, a 13" color monitor, and 12 MB of free RAM. A 68040 or PowerPC is recommended, as is a larger monitor. Certain features in the game require a one-time registration fee of $25.