Fiends of Eamon
| Fiends of Eamon | |
|---|---|
| ◄Eamon adventure #237► | |
 | |
| Author | Frank Black |
| Released |
1994 (ProDOS) March 1996 (EDX) |
| Revised | 31 October 1995 |
| EAG number | 237 |
| EDX number | 07-02 |
| EDX set | The Frank Black Adventures Deluxe |
| Native format | Apple ProDOS |
| File | Eamon 237 - Fiends of Eamon (ProDOS).dsk |
Fiends of Eamon is an Eamon adventure written by Frank Black.
Background
The notes in the introduction indicate that Fiends of Eamon was written over the course of one week with little special programming to test out the nascent Eamon 8.0 system—the author's notes in fact refer to the MAIN PGM as a "prototype"—being worked on by Frank Black (né Kunze). The adventure (as the title suggests) features return appearances from many of the antagonists of adventures from both the NEUC and EAG eras of Eamon.
Premise
While Fiends of Eamon is broken up into three distinct acts, as a whole the adventure serves as a sequel to Donald Brown's Assault on the Clone Master. The conceit of the adventure is that during the events of Assault, in which the player was transported to an alternate universe to defeat the Clone Master, the antagonist—knowing that his defeat was imminent at the hands of the player—cloned himself at the eleventh hour so that the clone could take the fall in his place. Hence, while the player believed that he or she had successfully vanquished the Clone Master, only the decoy was slain. Upon the adventurer's return to Eamon at the conclusion of Assault, the Clone Master followed through the portal to rebuild his Clonatorium and exact revenge on the player, aided by Doctor Benway from Black's Adventure in Interzone (as well as from William Burrough's Naked Lunch) and a host of classic Eamon villains.
| Full introduction |
|---|
|
The end of Eamon is near and it's all your fault! It seems that some years ago you found yourself hurled into a strange land. You were informed by the denizens of that land that you could be sent back if you did them a favor. The favor that they charged you with was the assassination of their enemy, the "Clone Master". You barged into his lab, slew his guards and destroyed his equipment, ending his reign. Or so you thought... It seems that when the Clone Master discovered his lab had been invaded he created a clone of himself and sent it out to meet you, while he went into hiding. When you were returned through a dimensional fault line he followed, seeking revenge. He quickly set up a new lab and began his experiments in our fair land! He has recently engaged the services of the infamous Doctor Benway of Interzone and has finally rebuilt his evil cloning machine: the Clonatorium! Soon his Clonatorium will be perfected and he will unleash his wrath upon us with an impossibly large army! The Guild has talked it over and decided that since you brought him here, you must be the one to kill him. This time for good. His lab is built within the caves of a lonely island. A constant storm surrounds this island making travel there very difficult. And now your quest begins... You sailed for several days before you reached the island and when at last you did, your ship crashed upon the shore. You now stand inside a small cave opening where the Clone Master's lab is said to be... --- The Main Pgm for this adventure is a modified version of the new 8.0 Eamon system I am currently developing. Eamon 8.0 is basically a souped up version of the current 7.1 Eamon design. There is nothing really worth noting, this is basically a "plain vanilla" Eamon adventure with only a handful of events. The whole program was written in about a week. During the course of the game it may seem as if you encounter several identical monsters who even have the same description. Actually it is the same monster with its "seen" flag reset and location moved. This was an economy measure. I would like to mention that I used the program "Double-Take" by Mark Simonsen for my Applesoft editing and the program "D-Code" by Alan Bird for the variable mapping used to speed up the program's execution speed. Both of these programs are currently in the public domain. About 10% of the monsters were stolen out of other Eamon adventures I had lying around at the time. The nebbish "Clone Master" was created by Donald Brown way back in adventure #9. The "Abductor" is another elderly villain, from #8 by Jim Jacobson. A couple of others were also shamelessly stolen from #158 by Nate Segerlind. The name "Wonko the Sane" was stolen from a novel by Douglas Adams, however my character has no real similarities to his. A bit of a word on the "ask" command: this command is only used in the first segment of the game (the Clone Master's lair). Once you finish that part just ignore it. For your amusement, ask the monsters in the Clone Master segment about the "Clonatorium" — you should find at least 4 different responses. |
Walkthrough
Reviews
Tom Zuchowski's review was positive—awarding it a rating of 8 of 10—noting that, despite the primary emphasis being on combat rather than puzzles, the execution and humor of the adventure made up for this.
Location
The three acts feature distinct maps, the adventurer being transported from one location to another by one of the Clone Master's devices after the conclusion of each segment. The first is set within the Clone Master's fortified laboratory, described as being on an island several days' travel from the Main Hall. The second act takes place in the castle of the Abductor of Jim Jacobson's The Abductor's Quarters. The lair of the Abductor was described as lying east of the Main Hall in Jacobson's adventure; these may be same location. The final act is set in a subterranean cavern system and no indication of its geographical location is given.
Other adventures
Besides acting as a sequel to Assault on the Clone Master, Fiends of Eamon features a number of appearances from other Eamon adventures:
- The Minotaur of The Lair of the Minotaur appears, though now elderly and not dangerous.
- The Abductor of The Abductor's Lair features heavily in the second act.
- Mr. Ed from Nathan Segerlind's The Lair of Mr. Ed makes an appearance in the second act.
- Doctor Benway from Frank Black's Adventure in Interzone assists the player during the first act.
- Pokas Tokas, the brother of Hokas Tokas introduced in The Wizard of the Spheres by Marc Elkin, has been captured by the Clone Master and can be rescued by the adventurer.
- Darth Vader is one of the eponymous "fiends," having appeared in The Death Star.
- A character called Vito the Thug is described as being the assistant to the Burly Irishman responsible for stabbing disobedient players in the Main Hall.
There are presumably many other, more subtle references to further Eamon adventures as well.
Trivia
- A "Kzin"—a member of the feline-like aliens found in science fiction author Larry Niven's novels—makes an appearance in Fiends of Eamon. This is not the first appearance of a Kzin in Eamon, however; the only deviation in Michael Detlefsen's Atari ST port of The Death Star from the original adventure was the addition of such a creature.
- The adventure features the return of the "Wandering Minstrel Eye" from The Lair of the Minotaur, in this case referred to as a "Singing Beholder."
External links
- Eamon Adventurer's Guild Library Master List
- The Interactive Fiction Database: Fiends of Eamon
- Interactive Fiction Reviews: Fiends of Eamon
| |||||||||||