Softdisk

Coordinates: 32°30′50″N 93°45′03″W / 32.5138°N 93.7509°W / 32.5138; -93.7509

Softdisk was an Apple II computer magazine published from 1981 to 1995 by Softdisk Publishing of Shreveport, Louisiana.

Relationship with Eamon

Eamon works

One of the special features of Softdisk was its distribution of games to its subscribers via diskette. Over the years, four Eamon adventures were featured on Softdisk:

Redemption by Sam Ruby, published on Softdisk Issue 137, side B.
Banana Republic by Sam Ruby, published on Softdisk Issue 152, side C.
The Curse of Talon by Sam Ruby, published on Softdisk Issue 156, sides A and B.
Edgar's Adventures by Frank Black, published on Softdisk Issue 159, side B.

In the review for Robert Parker's The Forbidden City, Tom Zuchowski indicates that The Forbidden City was also written for Softdisk. Zuchowski relates that Softdisk had directly solicited the stable of Eamon Adventurer's Guild authors for commercial adventures; it was only after learning that Sam Ruby had sent Redemption to Softdisk that Parker released The Forbidden City as a standard Eamon.

The four published adventures are peculiar in that they are not in the public domain. The rights to these Eamons are presently held or licensed by Syndicomm, from whom individual Softdisk issues may be purchased. During the compilation of Zuchowski's Eamon CD, Zuchowski was granted the right to distribute these adventures only on the CD. The Eamon Adventurer's Guild, while legally prevented from distributing these adventures individually, keeps a disk image of Zuchowski's CD available for download. A further idiosyncratic feature of these adventures (though found often in other adventures written by Ruby or Black) is that the adventures can be run independently of the Main Hall.

Related works

Softdisk Issue 150 features The Temple of Dread, a standalone text adventure authored by Eamon Deluxe creator Frank Black. Though not part of the Eamon series, Black describes it as having an "Eamon-style interface".