Source:An Introduction to the Eamon Starter Kit
| This page is a verbatim reproduction of original source material and should not be edited except for maintenance. | |
| Description |
An Introduction to the Eamon Starter Kit, a document included with the Eamon Starter Kit collection. |
|---|---|
| Source | |
| Date |
October 1991 |
| Author | |
| License |
It is believed that the use of this copyrighted item in Eamon Wiki qualifies as fair use under the copyright law of the United States. |
| Other versions | |
An Introduction to the Eamon Starter Kit
by Dean Esmay
The Eamon gaming system is a unique part of the Apple II story. A public domain system of role playing games started some ten years ago, Eamon has, over the years, been expanded and enhanced to a surprising degree of sophistication.
Some Apple II users may remember Eamon as a series of rather primitive (by today's standards) games, using 40 column, all upper-case text, and working under DOS 3.3. Some may even remember many Eamon games plagued with bugs, making the games at times frustrating to play. As a completely public domain system, the problem was that it was possible for poorly written adventures to be created — and many were.
But there is an organization out there dedicated to fixing these problems — the Eamon Adventurer's Guild. The EAG has spent years finding and debugging Eamon adventures, as well as enhancing them, rating them on quality, and providing a regular newsletter as a forum for Eamon gamers.
In 1990 GEnie formed a strategic alliance with the Eamon Adventurer's Guild, and since then many more improvements have been made to the system, including being support for the ProDOS operating system, lower case text, and 80 column displays.
In October of 1991 we asked Tom Zuchowski of the EAG to create this "Eamon Starter Kit" to help the modern Apple II world "rediscover" Eamon. You'll find these adventures to be of excellent quality, providing hours of enjoyable play. You'll also find that today's ProDOS based Eamons will automatically work on any ProDOS device and from any directory name, so you can copy these files to literally any ProDOS device (or directory) you want.
Included with this Starter Kit is a subdirectory called MORE.EAMON.INFO, which contains some text and Appleworks Data Base files from the EAG with information on the hundreds of Eamon adventures available. You'll want to check these files when you have the chance.
This disk, in the same tradition of Eamon itself, is completely public domain. Please feel free to give copies away to anyone who's interested. You'll find that this entire Starter Kit fits perfectly on a 3.5 disk, and that if you put a copy of PRODOS and BASIC.SYSTEM on that disk, it will automatically boot straight into Eamon. Just remember not to put anything else on the disk, as the Eamon games require space for saved games.
One final note of interest — While this Starter Kit does not include the Eamon game design kit, many veteran Eamon players find that the only thing that's more fun than playing Eamon games is designing your own... and you don't have to be a programmer to do it. If this sounds interesting to you, you may want to look into the Eamon Dungeon Design Kit.
For more information on where to get more Eamon adventures, or any of the other related Eamon programs available, please contact the Eamon Adventurer's Guild at the below address, or contact Tom Zuchowski in Category 16 of the GEnie Apple II RoundTable bulletin board.
With that, I'll let you get on to exploring the wonderful, modern world of Eamon. We sincerely hope you enjoy your sojourn and keep coming back for more!
Dean Esmay
GEnie Apple II File Librarian
October 2, 1991
The Eamon Adventurer's Guild can be reached at:
Eamon Adventurer's Guild
7625 Hawkhaven Dr.
Clemmons, NC 27012
Or, through Category 16 of the Apple II RoundTable Bulletin Board.
To sign on to GEnie, or to just do the following:
- With your computer and modem, dial 1-800-638-8369.
- When you connect, type
HHHand hit theRETURNkey. - The computer will type
U#=. You respond withXJM11706,GENIE. - Now answer the questions and you will be able to use GEnie the next working day. Be sure to have a credit card or checking account number handy when you sign up.