Source:Eamon Adventurer's Guild Newsletter, December 1989

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Description

The Eamon Adventurer's Guild Newsletter, December 1989 issue.

Source

Eamon Adventurer's Guild Newsletter Archive

Date

December 1989

Author

Eamon Adventurer's Guild; Tom Zuchowski (editor)

License

Permission has kindly been granted by the copyright holder for this copyrighted item to appear in the not-for-profit Eamon Wiki website. Permission granted by Matthew Clark in email with Huw Williams on 22 November 2012.

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The Eamon Adventurer's Guild
December 1989

News & Comment

by Tom Zuchowski

We are now online with GEnie; check Category 16 in the A2 Roundtable (page 645). There seems to be moderate interest in Eamon, although this is primarily a IIgs "power user" environment and there is some of the usual hostility to Dos 3.3. Still, our mission is to spread the word about Eamon near and far, and you never know where you will find the next John Nelson or Sam Ruby.

Contest Update

Important news: the closing date of the contest has been postponed. At least three of the promised entries did not make the deadline. One was from an entrant who has been plagued by an intermittent computer problem and his Apple has been in and out of the shop a lot recently; it didn't seem fair to shut him out.

Since the next newsletter comes out in March, there isn't really any point in extending the deadline by a couple of weeks or a month. The new deadline is January 31; this will give you the Christmas holidays to work on your Eamon. No further extensions on this deadline; you make it or you miss. So far the entries are Eamons #184, 185, & 187.

More important news: Even though The Boy & the Bard is eligible for the contest, Sam Ruby has graciously removed himself from consideration. ("I don't want to endanger my professional status by competing with amateurs," says Sam.) I want to add that Sam did this spontaneously without any request from the EAG, and we can only congratulate his good sportsmanship. Sam has agreed to be one of the contest judges, instead. Any of you out there who didn't see the point in competing against the likes of Sam can now get back to work and get your entry in!

Back Issues

Note: The Mar'84 issue is now available. Apple-based back issues of the formerly Apple-based NEUC's Adventurer's Log are available from us:
   Mar'84, May'84, Aug'84, Oct'84, Jan'85, Mar'85
   May'85, Aug'85, Oct'85, Jun'86, Jan'87, Oct'87

EAG back issues: Jun'88, Sep'88, Dec'88, Mar'89, Jun'89

All issues are $2.00 each.

Adventure Updates

You may obtain updated versions of your Eamon adventures from the EAG. Send in a copy of the adventure to be updated and $1.00 per copy to cover our cost, and an updated copy will be returned to you. You must include a copy of each adventure for which you wish an update.

We want to improve Eamon all we can; this includes getting authors to use the latest and best version. Therefore, the version 7.0 Dungeon Designer Diskette and the 7.0 Multi-Disk Supplement may be obtained from us for $1.00 each (US & Canada; foreign $2.00 each).

Eamon Adventurer's Guild

Thomas Zuchowski, Editor

Membership/subscription fee for 4 issues:
US-Canada: $7.00; foreign: $12.00; in U.S. funds

The Eamon Adventurer's Guild is published 4 times per year in Mar., Jun., Sep., and Dec.

We are always looking for new material! If you would like to publish your own letter or article in this newsletter, feel free to send one in. If you would like to add your own Eamon adventure to the list, send it on a disk to the above address. It will be assigned an adventure number, and tested for bugs and other problems before release. An informal critique and disk with bug corrections will be returned.

Expiration date: The usual reminder: be sure to check the expiration date next to your name on the address. If it is "DEC 89" and highlighted in yellow, this is your last issue.

New Adventures

184 Quest for Orion by Pat Gise
185 The Body Revisited by Robert Parker
186 Beginners Cave II by John Nelson
187 Batman!! by Andrew Geha

In Quest for Orion, you are sent into a strange land to recover the lost animals of Eamon. A fairly simple adventure, but the descriptions are well-written and entertaining. Pat shows a real talent for writing; let's hope that this is her first of many Eamons!

In The Body Revisited, you are shrunk to microscopic size and injected into a human body to search out a poison pellet. This is a huge, 190-room adventure that goes into intense detail in the descriptions of the body's pathways and organs.

Beginner's Cave II is a Beginners Cave that John wrote for the aborted Eamon II project. It is completely different from the other "beginner" Eamons. This adventure has been around for awhile and has just now been translated to Eamon 6.2.

You are Batman!! in this very simple adventure. Your quest: kill the Joker and find the portal back to Eamon.

Letters

Dear Tom,
It appears that some of the reviews in earlier issues of the NEUC Adventurer's Log have been left out of the "reviewed" list. The following adventures were reviewed in the May 1984 issue: E10-The Magic Kingdom; E13-Caves of Treasure Island; E15-Heroes Castle; E22-The Senator's Chambers; E42-Alternate Beginners Cave. E24-Black Mountain was reviewed in the August 1984 issue. I also noticed 3 adventures that have been reviewed twice: E45-SwordQuest and E47-FutureQuest were also reviewed in the NEUC August 1984 issue. E87-Caves of Hollow Mountain was also reviewed in the NEUC Jan. 1985 issue.
Steve Bernbaum

Steve: They were left off the list on purpose. Those in the May '84 issue were just 2-sentence descriptions. Of the duplicates, we chose to list the better review; those in the Aug. '84 issue were also very superficial. The "review" of E87 is just John, Bob, & Dan clowning around; fun to read, but not really a review. E24 was a good call-thanks!
— Tom

Terminological Inexactitudes

We have a new reviewer this time, "King Gordo". Gordon has been a regular correspondent for some time, and was finally persuaded to put his views into review format. It is not entirely clear why he wishes that his real name not be used; it may be that he is afraid that some Eamon author, bent on revenge, will hunt him down for his comments. Gordon says that he used to be just plain Gordo, but once when on an Eamon quest he won a kingdom and a princess. The kingship stuck, but the princess never showed up. Lost in the mail, no doubt.

Eamon Lore

Main Halls

by Tom Zuchowski

The Main Hall has been a fairly popular program to expand and modify. It is not clear why this is so, since a majority of Eamon adventurers only use it as a place to store their character between forays and as a means to launch each new adventure. In fact, there is a program on the EAG Utility Disk named FRESH SAM which allows you to launch and play an adventure without using the Master Disk at all, and judging by my mail this program is a fairly popular time saver. Perhaps the Main Hall is often modified because it is fun to play with it, and it is a much easier thing to do than to write an actual Eamon adventure. Even so, some of the modified Main Halls show a lot of work and effort.

The Main Halls can be divided into two groups: those which can currently be obtained through public-domain sellers, and those which cannot. First, let's discuss the ones which are available:

  1. EAG Main Hall & Beginners Cave by Don Brown. Widely available from public-domain sellers (just about everyone sells it or one like it), this is the original Main Hall with a simple armorer, magician, and banker.
  2. Graphics Main Hall by Rick Volberding. Also widely available, this Main Hall uses hi-res graphics in the "overhead" mode, similar to the old Epyx adventures such as Temple of Apshai, but of better quality. The Main Hall itself is much like the basic Main Hall above, but it ajoins a "village" where you can have weapons made to order, visit a witch who can enhance your attributes, gamble in a casino, a spellcaster who can enhance your spell abilities, or practice arenas where your weapon or armor expertise can be improved. There is something special in the center of each screen that can be done, too.
  3. Expanded Master (also known as Eamon Master 2) by John Heng & John Nelson. This is a menu-driven disk that includes limited character editing among its start-up options. The armorer handles custom weapons and you can special-order any weapon you want, if you have the money! It has a weapons-training center for boosting weapon expertise. (Aspen's EU8 disk)
  4. Arms School by Bruce Miller. Uses lower-case text. This is a program that is meant to be merged onto the Main Hall (it includes instructions for doing so). It has enhancement programs for Hardiness, Agility, Charisma, and weapon abilities. This program uses random numbers; you never know what enhancement you might get. You can fail the course or even get killed, depending on what the Random Number Generator hands you. Each course is extremely expensive. I found this to be a one-time wonder: interesting to do for 15 minutes just to see what comes up, but not worth going back to. (Aspen's EU6 disk)
  5. Guildhall modifications by Ron Maleika. This is 3A's adaptation of the regular Main Hall, except that the "new character" instructions have been added as a "Visit to the Library" option. The most noticeable modifications were several name changes. It includes a "Visit Annex" option (see 6 & 7 below).
  6. Annex 1 by Mike Greifenkamp. There is evidence that John Nelson developed the "Annex" as an option that enables anyone to expand the Main Hall any way they want. Mike wrote these particular additions. They include a Weapons Training School, an Attribute Shop where you can have your attributes boosted, and Free Information about the shops. The disk exits back to the Guildhall, and is far from being full.
  7. Annex 2 has a shop for unusual weapons that is the same as the "unusual weapons" option on the Expanded Main Hall. This disk is almost empty.

This concludes the various Main Halls that I am aware of that are currently available through public-domain sellers. Next, I will list some stuff that people have sent me to look at and discuss that have never been widely available. If you are interested in obtaining any of this, write and we'll work something out. Perhaps one of the public-domain sellers might be interested in carrying them.

  1. Ramdisk Eamon. Ted Swartz sent me this to look at. It runs an Eamon adventure from a Saturn-compatible ramcard. I found that it loaded at best 20% faster than a regular disk-based Eamon, because most of the time savings were eaten up by the time spent configuring the system and transferring the disk contents to the ramdisk. Once loaded, it wasn't noticeably faster than disk-based Eamon. Regular Eamon can read the disk and print it to the screen faster than you can read it, so any speed enhancement in this area goes unnoticed. The speed problems in Eamon have always been in the area of inefficient programming, which is not enhanced by the ramdisk.
  2. Expanded Master by Scott Everts. (This disk may be available from Shever Software – I'm not sure.) It is like the original Master, with these additions: Training Center for weapons; shops where you can raise your attributes or spell abilities for cash; a Casino where you can bet on roulette, blackjack, wrestling, or play the slots; and of course a Special Weapons Shop where you can buy & sell magic weapons.
  3. Monster Battle Disk. This disk used to be sold by the NEUC as the Utilities III disk, and may still be sold by them and others – I'm not sure. It consists of a single program that can load in any monster from any Eamon and then pit them against one another in an arena. I never saw any use for this program, since (on the average) the stronger monster will win more battles, but if you like to watch the antics of the insidious Random Number Generator, you might enjoy it.
  4. Eamon II by John Nelson, John Heng, & Bob Davis. This disk marks the beginnings of John's quest for a "super-Eamon" that culminated in his aborted Apple-based KnightQuest system. It shows many of the features and commands of the later-to-come version 6 Eamon, but lacks the commands PUT & FREE. It has 4 new spells: CHARM, FEAR, BLINK, & SLEEP. It accommodates 5 personal weapons instead of the usual 4 of the Main Hall. It has a total of 7 artifact types, including Shield, Healing, Light, & Shovel. There are several new monster fields: Low Room, High Room, #Attacks, Greed, Hate, and Wanderlust. It allows the adventurer to find "friends" and take them along on adventures. There are 4 professions: Thief, Fighter, Cleric, & Magician. Alignments run from Lawful Very Good to Chaotic Evil. It has an Intelligence attribute. It runs very slowly and is an incredible memory hog. This situation got worse as it grew into KnightQuest, and the next thing you know John got himself an IBM-PC with compiled Basic & 640K of memory.
  5. ProDOS Eamon Master by Dr. Wm. H. Trent. A plain-vanilla adaptation of the regular Master into ProDOS. I don't believe Dr. Trent ever settled on a protocol for launching adventures.
  6. ProDOS Eamon Master by Tom Phelps. Another plain adaptation of the Main Hall, but with some important enhancements to the adventures themselves. It used sequential files and incorporated text-compression for a dramatic decrease in disk file size. As far as I know, the project never got as far as converting and testing a significant number of existing Eamon adventures.
  7. Eamon Pro by Ryan Page. This is not ProDOS-based Eamon. It is basically a supercharged, multi-disk version of the Expanded Master that requires 80-columns and lower-case, and has a couple of nifty double-hi-res screens. It allows the player to keep as many as nine weapons and has a lot of other enhancements, such as a "frequent character" option that allows you to jump right to an adventure. It has a lot of other stuff, such as a general store, but there were compatibility problems with my Videx card and I got tired of modifying programs before I got through it all. This system is not compatible with regular Eamon, although it is capable of launching and returning from a regular Eamon adventure. The reverse is not true: a regular Main Hall cannot launch an Eamon Pro adventure. I dunno where Ryan is going with this; I recommended to him that he either require 128K or else do a lot of downward-compatibility modifications.

And that sums it up. I don't doubt that there are other Main Halls out there somewhere, and some of the above may be available though I am unaware of it (the public-domain sellers don't keep me especially up-to-date on what they're selling). I hope you enjoyed it. And if you are considering your own Main Hall enhancements, you need to ask yourself if there is a need that is not being met by the standard Master with its character editor, or by the Graphics Main Hall with its extra shops. I settled on these two disks to carry in the EAG library because one or the other will appeal to the two basic types of Eamonaut: the type that just wants to go on adventures, and the type that cares a great deal about building up his character.

Dungeon Designs

Basic Eamon Routines

(from the Eamonomicon by Hokas Tokas)
translation by Nathan Segerlind

New Eamon authors have been almost eternally plagued by problems: "How do I add a new command?" "How can I make the POWER spell do what I want?" "How do I..." and the list goes on.

In the recently rediscovered Eamonomicon, the answers to these and many more questions were found. If you're new to Eamon designing, read on...

Important points

First, it must be said that it is very important to obtain a printout of the MAIN PGM. Without this, it is difficult to decipher the inner workings of each routine. Use the full 80 columns of your printer or even a compressed 132-column mode if you have it, both to save paper and to minimize the paper shuffling while jumping back and forth from routine to routine. Don't fool yourself into the false economy of saving paper; the ease of working on paper, being able to spread it out before you and make notes on the printout will more than make up for 2 cents worth of paper and ribbon.

Commit the following variables to memory:

RO room player is in
M%(x,5) room monster is in
A%(x,4) room artifact is in
T(1) true if hostile monster is in room
M%(0,13) player's wounds (damage or "hit" points)
M%(0,2) player's agility

How to add a command

To add a command to the MAIN PGM, change these lines:

LINE 31910: the number stored in this data statement is the total number of commands. Add 1 to this number for each additional command

LINE 31930: put new commands in a list on this line in the same format as line 31920. All commands must be single words with no spaces in the middle; use a hyphen to join two words together if it is a two-word command.

LINE 290: add the line numbers where the start of each new command is located. These must be in the same sequential order as the commands at 31920-31930

Add special programming for each new command at the new line numbers specified in line 290

The best thing to do is to look and see how any normal command is handled by the lines listed above. Here are a few tips:

End each routine with a GOTO 98. This will print a blank line, update the line counter, and proceed to the code that checks to see if there is a fight in progress. Except in special cases, this should always be the exit point.

If the command requires an object, always GOSUB 4900 to check to see if an object was included in the command. If no object was specified, this routine will ask for one before returning.

Use the search routines. GOSUB 4700 for monsters and GOSUB 480x for artifacts. If either of these routines return with the variable F = 0, then instead of exiting to 98, exit to the appropriate error message at lines 91-96. Note that the routine at 4800 has different entry points for different circumstances; once again it is best to examine the code in the MAIN PGM to see how it is done. For example, if the artifact you are looking for must be carried by the player for the command to work, see lines 5010-5030 of the DROP command for the proper coding. If the artifact must be in the room, see lines 4010-4020 of the GET command. If the artifact can be carried by the player or be in the room, see lines 6010-6020 of the EXAMINE command. For artifacts that must be worn, see 27010 of the REMOVE command.

If the command only works with one particular artifact, do not do a string compare with the artifact's name; instead use this line: IF A < > (# of artifact) THEN 94

If the search routine at 4800 finds a match, it returns with the variable A set to the number of the artifact that it found a match to. By checking the artifact number instead of the string, you are letting the search routine worry about abbreviations so you don't have to, and you also get a very consistent response to different abbreviations.

How to use the Power spell

The POWER spell effects are in lines 13015-13080, though 13080 may be easily renumbered to anything as high as 13990 for more code space.

For random effects, such as a chance that a cow may fly past, check to see if the random number RL (generated in line 13010) is smaller than the chance (from 1-100) of it happening. If it involves an artifact or a monster entering the room, set the artifact/monster's location to that room. If it's a monster, be sure to then GOSUB 3600 to check its friendliness.

Be sure to put the checks of RL in sequential order. The smallest chances must be checked first, with greater chances following in order of probability. In the following example, the dragon is monster #1 and the box is artifact #1:

13015 IF RL < 35 AND M%(1,5) < > RO THEN PRINT: PRINT
      " A DRAGON MATERIALIZES!": M%(1,5) = RO: GOSUB
      3600: GOTO 98
13020 IF RL < 60 AND A%(1,4) = 0 THEN PRINT: PRINT
      " A BOX APPEARS!": A%(1,4) = RO: GOTO 98

Also, you can have room-specific effects. These are placed before the random ones and check the room number before being executed. In this example, room 13 has a brick wall, artifact #4, that hides a treasure, artifact #5:

13012 IF RO = 13 AND A%(4,4) = RO THEN PRINT: PRINT
      "THE WALL EXPLODES! SOMETHING WAS BEHIND IT!":
      A%(5,4) = RO: GOTO 98

How to use the "use" command

The USE command is exceptionally easy to use, as all you have to do is check for the artifact you wish to use and then furnish the effects. In the following example, the artifact must be in the player's inventory to be used:

28020 GOSUB 4900: GOSUB 4801: IF NOT F THEN 91

If it can also be in the room, change the above code to read like this:

28020 GOSUB 4900: GOSUB 4804: IF NOT F THEN 94

Here are some examples of code for the USE command (artifact #5 = drugs; #6 = computer; #7 = concrete; #8 = broken wall in room 27; #9 = new wall):

28030 IF A = 5 THEN PRINT: PRINT "WHAT ARE YOU, A 
      FOOL?": GOTO 98
28040 IF A = 6 THEN PRINT: PRINT "THE BLASTED THING 
      EMITS A CURL OF SMOKE, THEN EXPLODES!": 
      A%(6,4) = 0: GOTO 98
28050 IF A = 7 THEN IF RO = 27 THEN PRINT: PRINT 
      "YOU'VE FIXED THE WALL!": A%(7,4) =0: 
      A%(8,4) = 0: A%(9,4) = RO: GOTO 98

You may also have the USE command refer to other commands, if the artifact type is right. This is useful for weapons and healing potions. You must check the artifact type, A%(A,2), to see if its the right type. In this example, the command USE (weapon) will jump to the READY command (artifact type 2 = weapon):

28060 IF A%(A,2) = 2 then 17000

Happy Adventurer slaying!

Adventure Reviews

#67 Chaosium Caves

by Sam Bhayani

Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski

MAIN PGM version: 4
Extra Commands: READ, EAT
Deleted Commands: none, no SAVE
Special Features: none
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Reviewer Rating: 3

Description: "One day, you see Hokas Tokas, the wizard. He says to you, 'I have just heard word of a new tyrant. He has the ancient Medallion of the Mind. It was stolen from King Eamon's treasure room. It has the power of controlling other people's minds. I found the tyrant's hide-out. It is in the CHAOSIUM CAVES. You must venture into the caves and kill the tyrant. His name is Astrallion. To get out of the cave, get the Medallion.' He makes a gesture with his hand and you find yourself in the caves."

Comment: The above is the entire text of the introduction. Although you are given a quest, the background is rather bare. And so goes the adventure. There are no puzzles nor hidden stuff. The extra commands are nothing special. The descriptions are typically no more than a variation on the name (e.g.: YOU ARE IN A N/S HALL). Four-fifths of the monsters are bats and skeletons (BAT4, BAT7, SKELETON11, etc.). Punctuation is very erratic.

It has two things going for it: there is a quest, and the room exits are clearly stated in both the room descriptions and in the names. It is a very simple adventure, and may be well-suited for young Eamonauts. I give it a (2) for difficulty.

#98 Slave Pits of Kzorland

by R. Hersam

Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski

MAIN PGM version: 4
Extra Commands: none
Deleted Commands: none, no SAVE
Special Features: none
Playing Time: 30–45 minutes
Reviewer Rating: 3

Description: "Welcome to the Slave Pits of Kzorland! In this adventure you will enter the slave pits in the hope of getting to the treasury vault. To get there you have to pass many guards and other creatures, some stronger than you and some not. You would be well advised to flee from some of the monsters and if you are not very strong, you should not even attempt this adventure.

No one can carry out all of the treasure you will find so you will have to decide what is worth more.

Note: METAL CLAD FIGURE=GUARD
LARGE METAL CLAD FIGURE=KING'S GUARD
MONSTER W/CRAZED LOOK=ORC

You have to figure the rest out."

Comment: There isn't much else to figure out. the above is the entire introduction. The 3 types of monster named above very nearly describe the entire pantheon of bad guys here. More than 50% of the "rooms" are of the 2-exit YOU ARE IN A N/S HALLWAY variety. There are no puzzles. The adventure isn't as tough as it makes out, by today's standards; it is geared for a player with a Hardiness of 18. It gives the room exits in nearly all room descriptions & names, but misses a couple, which can really mess you up while mapping, especially since many of the room descriptions are of "room name" lengths.

This is straight "kill & loot" with an enormous reward for all the treasures. I give it a (3) for difficulty, because of the semi-tough monsters.

#184 Quest for Orion

by Pat Gise

Reviewed by "King Gordo"

MAIN PGM version: 7.0
Extra Commands: none
Deleted Commands: none
Playing Time: 60–90 minutes
Reviewer Rating: 5.0   Average Rating: 5.7/3

Description: All of the animals in the Kingdom of Eamon have disappeared. You, the most famous adventurer of all time, are enlisted to find the animals and return them to the kingdom. Any delay will be deadly to the pets and animals. Your quest begins at a cave of unknown dangers. You quake with fear but realize you cannot back out now.

Comment: The descriptions of the cave rooms are interesting and realistic with stalactites, stalagmites, drop-offs, and pot holes. You will find the usual cave creature inhabitants, such as bats, spiders, lizards, and crabs, with a few others not often found, as well. But what else would you expect to find in a cave, after all – hummingbirds?

This adventure is pretty much straightforward as to play: fight the bad guys and hunt the animals. There are no hidden traps that kill you without warning. The few hidden rooms are easy to find and lend credibility to the storyline. The story is unique, interesting, and well thought out as well as clearly presented. It is fun to play for a number of reasons: 1) there are few extraneous rooms tacked on to take up space; 2) the few puzzles are easily solved; 3) it has an easy and sensible map; 4) it is interesting to follow the plot development.

This is the author's first adventure and is a good example of good, clear, above average Eamon programming. It bodes well for additional adventures in the future and I look forward to playing them. The rating would have been higher if there had been more puzzles and rooms and a more complete storyline, but extra credit certainly should be given for the plot uniqueness and smoothness of play.

#185 The Body Revisited

by Robert Parker

Reviewed by "King Gordo"

MAIN PGM version: 7.0
Extra commands: none
Deleted commands: none
Special Features: emergency exit
Playing Time: 2–3 hours
Reviewer Rating: 4.0 – Average Rating:5.0/3

Description: Your doctor friend, S. Fraud, enlists your help. It seems that a VIP has been shot and has a slow acting poison pellet in his body. You are shrunk to microscopic size to run around in his body, banging through organs until you stumble on the pellet, which you are to put in a lead container, after which you will be retrieved and returned to normal size. You enter the body at the left elbow in the brachial artery. To the north is the radial artery and south the left forearm. Get the picture? You travel through 193 organs, veins and arteries, such as: Jugular Vein, Common Carotid Artery, Posterior Tibial Vein, and my favorite, the Inferior Vena Cava. If you get tired of looking for the pellet, just SAY CHICKEN and you are rescued, but be ready for insults. You can also exit through the Urethra.

Comment: My God, 193 rooms – much ado about nothing. I gave up trying to map it after reaching room #85. There are so many rooms that seem to have no point other than to round out a very complete internal map of the body. It is very difficult to map without getting mixed up because of the difficult anatomical names and because the body's organs aren't laid out in a very orderly fashion. One of the things I enjoy doing is making good, clean and understandable maps, but not this one.

The pellet is randomly placed and the quest consists of stumbling about until you come upon it. The ending is unsatisfactory because you are not recognized nor thanked for your enormous effort in killing cancer cells, tapeworms, and tumors and bringing out the pellet. The small reward gives little satisfaction. The monsters were very monotonous, being mainly an endless succession of cancer cells and white blood cells.

I reluctantly rate this a 4. I say reluctantly because I know the author must have spent a lot of time learning the proper names of the parts of the human body and getting them in the right places. He set out to write an educational Eamon adventure that teaches the body and probably deserves more credit for that alone, but I was turned off as I don't have that kind of interest. This is a perfect example of an adventure that has too many rooms that don't go anywhere.

Bugs 'n Fixes

Dungeon Designer Disk 7.0

Date Fixed: 11/20/89

Problem: "Slot, Drive" parameters can cause a crash on //GS which may not have drive in slot 6.

Program DUNGEON EDIT 7.0 Fix:
  delete Lines 35 & 38
  In Line 50, change EAMON.NAME,S"SL$;",D";DR$ to EAMON.NAME"

Program DUNGEON EDIT Fix:
  see DUNGEON EDIT 7.0 above.

Program MAIN PGM Fix:   In Lines 32540, 32550, & 32900: delete ,S6,D1


Program: MAIN PGM Date Fixed: 10/19/89

Problem: BAD SUBSCRIPT ERROR IN 7735
Fix: In Line 7735, change A%(DF+X) to A%(DF+X-1,4)

Dungeon Designer Disk 6.2

Date Fixed: 10/15/89

Problem: "Slot, Drive" parameters can cause a crash on //GS which may not have drive in slot 6.

Program DUNGEON EDIT Fix:
  delete Lines 35 & 38
  In Line 50, change EAMON.NAME,S"SL$;"D";DR$ to EAMON.NAME"

Program MAIN PGM Fix:
  In Lines 2540, 2550, & 2900: delete ,S6,D1

Dungeon Designer Disk 7.0 Program: DUNGEON LIST 7.0
Date Fixed: 10/12/89
Problem: Some printers overprint descriptions.
Fix:
  In Line 2100, 3520, 4520, & 5520, change PRINT A$ to GOSUB 8000
  In Line 8010, change 40 to 80 in both places.

Dungeon Designer Disk 7.0 Program: DUNGEON LIST
Date Fixed: 10/12/89
Problem: Some printers overprint descriptions.
Fix: see DUNGEON LIST 7.0 above.

#1 – Master Disk & Beginners Cave

Date Fixed: 10/19/89

Problem: "Slot, Drive" parameters can cause a crash on //GS which may not have drive in slot 6.
Fix: In Lines 30 & 6010, delete ,S6,D1

#32 – House of Ill Repute

Date Fixed: 9/13/89

Problem: Error: FILE NOT FOUND BREAK IN 215
Fix: In Line 215, change "PRINT DK$;"RUN BYE,D1" to 2000

#98 – Slave Pits of Kzorland

Date Fixed:10/1/89

Problem: MAIN PGM hangs.
Fix: delete Line 105

The speedup mods were also added.

#114 – Thror's Ring

Date Fixed: 9/13/89

Problem: RETURN WITHOUT GOSUB IN 21040
Fix: In Line 21040, change POP:GOTO to GOTO

Also, the boot pgm was shortened to 3 sectors to allow room for a LAST UPDATE line in the catalog.

#152 – The Computer Club of Fear

Date Fixed: 10/19/89

Problem: FLEE only finds 6 directions of 10-dir map.
Fix: In Line 8020 & 8510, change 6 to 10

Problem: Exits listed incorrectly in Room 2 desc.
Fix Correct exits from room 2 are N/S/SE/SW. Use DUNGEON EDIT to modify description.

#183 – The Boy and the Bard

Date Fixed:9/18/89

Problem: ILLEGAL QUANTITY IN 20005
Fix: Replace Line 20005 with these two lines:

20004  IF RO = 52 AND S$ = "" THEN S$ = "CHEST"
20005  IF RO = 52 AND S$ = LEFT$ ("CHEST", LEN (S$))
       THEN PRINT: PRINT "            YOU DON'T HAVE THE
       KEY!": GOTO 300

Note

As you have undoubtedly noted, the majority of fixes this time around concern the use of "S6,D1" in //GS's. This is just about a universal problem in every Eamon adventure. The following Eamon adventures have had "S6,D1" purged because I have had reason to be messing with them recently. This list will undoubtedly grow as I get to them, but I am not undertaking any organized effort to eliminate this from all Eamons.

Public-Domain sellers, take note: //GS customers should be advised of this situation.

#74 DharmaQuest (11/5/89)
      MAIN PGM Lines 2540, 2550, 2900
#108 The Mines of Moria (11/5/89)
      MAIN PGM Lines 2540, 2550, 2900
#114 Thror's Ring (11/5/89)
      POSTLUDE Lines 1050, 1080
#120 Orb of My Life (11/5/89)
      MAIN PGM Lines 2540, 2550, 2590, 2900
#121 Wrenhold's Secret Vigil (11/5/89)
      MAIN PGM Lines 2540, 2550, 2900
#162 Eamon 7.0 Demo Adventure (11/20/89)
      MAIN PGM Lines 32540, 32550, 32900

Eamon Adventure Listing

Ratings are given on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 highest. Format is R/N, where R = the adventure's overall rating; N = the number of people who have rated it.

Note key:

a: version 4 or older
b: version 5
c: version 6
d: version 7
e: (not used)
f: contains a quest
g: science-fiction

h: contemporary setting
i: 40/80 column capability
j: 80-column only
k: 40 & 80 col. versions
l: 2-disk adventure
m: 3-disk adventure
n: 4-disk adventure

1. Main Hall & Beginners Cave D. Brown 4.0/4 a
2. The Lair of the Minotaur D. Brown 4.7/3 a
3. The Cave of the Mind Jacobson/Varnum 2.2/3 a
4. The Zyphur Riverventure J. Jacobson 5.8/4 a,f
5. Castle of Doom D. Brown 4.5/4 a
6. The Death Star D. Brown 3.5/4 a,f,g
7. The Devil's Tomb J. Jacobson 4.8/4 a
8. The Abductor's Quarters J. Jacobson 6.0/1 a,f
9. Assault on the Clonemaster D. Brown 5.0/1 a,f
10. The Magic Kingdom D. Cook 3.0/1 a
11. The Tomb of Molinar D. Brown 3.0/2 a,f
12. The Quest for Trezore J. Jacobson 7.0/1 a,f
13. Caves of Treasure Island Genz & Braun 2.5/2 a,f
14. Furioso W. Davis 4.0/1 a
15. Heroes Castle J. Nelson 5.0/1 a
16. The Caves of Mondamen J. Nelson 8.0/2 a,f
17. Merlin's Castle R. Hersom 4.0/1 a
18. Hogarth Castle K. Nestle 4.0/1 a,f
19. Death Trap J. Nelson 7.5/2 b
20. The Black Death J. Nelson 7.0/1 a,f,h
21. The Quest for Marron J. Nelson 7.5/2 b,f
22. The Senator's Chambers J. Plamondon 5.3/2 b,f
23. The Temple of Ngurct J&R Plamondon 7.0/2 b,f
24. Black Mountain J. Nelson 7.5/2 b,f,h
25. Nuclear Nightmare J. Nelson 6.5/2 b,f,h
26. Assault on the Mole Man J. Nelson 6.5/2 b
27. Revenge of the Mole Man J. Nelson 7.0/2 b
28. The Tower of London F.& S. Smith 6.0/1 a,h
29. The Lost Island of Apple D. Brown 2.0/1 a
30. The Underground City S. Adelson 2.0/1 a,g,h
31. The Gauntlet J. Nelson 5.0/1 b
32. House of Ill Repute Anonymous 2.0/2 a,h
33. The Orb of Polaris J. Nelson 7.5/2 b,f
34. Death's Gateway R. Linden 6.5/2 a,h
35. The Lair of Mutants E. Hodson 6.5/2 a,f,g
36. The Citadel of Blood E. Hodson 6.0/2 a,h
37. Quest for the Holy Grail E. Hodson 7.0/2 a,f
38. City in the Clouds E. Hodson 7.0/1 a,f,g
39. Museum of Unnatural History R.Volberding 6.0/2 b,f
40. Daemon's Playground R.Volberding 4.5/2 b
41. Caverns of Lanst R.Volberding 6.0/1 b
42. Alternate Beginners Cave R.Volberding 5.0/2 b
43. Priests of Xim! M & E Bauman 5.0/2 b
44. Escape from the Orc Lair J. Hinkleman 3.8/4 b
45. SwordQuest R. Pender 7.5/2 b,f
46. Lifequest D. Crawford 2.0/1 b,f
47. FutureQuest R. Pender 7.3/3 b,f,g
48. Picnic in Paradise J. Nelson 7.0/1 c
49. The Castle Kophinos D. Doumakes 7.0/1 b,f
50. Behind the Sealed Door T. Berge 4.0/2 a
51. The Caves of Eamon Bluff T. Berge 7.0/1 b
52. The Devil's Dungeon J. Merrill 5.5/2 a,h
53. Feast of Carroll D&J Lilienkamp 5.0/2 a
54. Crystal Mountain K. Hoffman 5.0/1 b
55. The Master's Dungeon J. Allen 6.0/2 a
56. The Lost Adventure J. Allen 6.0/1 a,h
57. The Manxome Foe R. Olszewski 4.0/1 b
58. The Land of Death T. Berge 6.0/1 a
59. Jungles of Vietnam J. Allen 2.1/4 a,h
60. The Sewers of Chicago J. Allen 3.3/4 a,h
61. The Harpy Cloud A. Forter 4.0/2 b
62. The Caverns of Doom M. Mullin 3.0/1 b,h
63. Valkenburg Castle J. Weener 2.0/1 a,f
64. Modern Problems Anderson/Barban/Thompson 6.5/1 a,f,h
65. The School of Death K. Townsend 5.0/1 b,f,h
66. Dungeons of Xenon S. Bhayani 5.0/1 a,f
67. Chaosium Caves S. Bhayani –/– a,f
68. The Smith's Stronghold A. Porter 6.0/1 b,f
69. The Black Castle of NaGog D. Burrows 7.0/1 b,f
70. The Tomb of Y'Golonac R. Romanchuk 4.0/1 a,f
71. Operation Crab Key J. Vercellone 1.0/1 a,h
72. House on Eamon Ridge T. Berge 3.0/1 b
73. The Deep Canyon K. Blincoe 6.0/1 a
74. DharmaQuest R. Pender 9.0/1 b,f
75. Temple of the Guild D. Doumakes 7.0/1 b
76. The Search for Yourself D. Doumakes 8.0/1 b,f
77. Temple of the Trolls J. Nelson 8.0/1 c,f
78. The Prince's Tavern R. Davis 9.0/2 b,f
79. The Castle of Count Fuey D. Brown 5.5/2 a,f
80. The Search for the Key (80a) D. Brown 3.0/1 a,f
81. The Rescue Mission (80b) D. Brown 7.0/1 a
82. Escape from Mansi Island S. Starkey 5.0/1 b,f
83. The Twin Castles J. Tankard 5.5/2 c,f
84. Castle of Riveneta R. Karsten –/– b,h
85. The Time Portal E. Kuypers 5.0/1 a,g
86. Castle Mantru S. Constanzo 6.0/1 c,f
87. Caves of Hollow Mountain J. Nelson 6.0/1 c
88. The Shopping Mall A. Porter 1.0/3 b,h
89. Super Fortress of Lin Wang S. Bhayani 4.2/3 c,f
90. The Doomsday Clock J. Tankard 6.0/1 c,f,h
91. FutureQuest II R. Pender 8.0/4 b,f,g
92. The Fugitive D. Doumakes 7.0/1 c,f
93. Flying Circus R. Krebs 7.0/1 b
94. Blood Feud R. Krebs 5.0/1 b,f
95. The Maze of Quasequeton B. Kondalski 3.0/3 a,f
96. The Chamber of the Dragons B. Kondalski 2.0/2 a
97. The House of Secrets G. Gunn 6.0/1 a
98. Slave Pits of Kzorland R. Hersam –/– a
99. In the Clutches of Torrik J. Nelson 6.0/2 c,f
100. Sorceror's Spire J. Nelson 7.9/4 c
101. Ground Zero Sam 1.0/2 a,g
102. The Eamon Railroad Sam 2.0/3 a,h
103. Top Secret Sam 1.0/1 a
104. The Lost World Sam 1.0/1 a,g
105. The Strange Resort Sam 1.0/1 a,h
106. Camp Eamon R. Slemon 7.0/2 b,f,h
107. The Last Dragon R. Pender 7.5/2 c,f
108. The Mines of Moria S. Ruby 8.3/3 c,f
109. The Forest of Fear S. Ruby 6.5/2 c,f
110. Fire Island G. Gioia 5.0/1 c,f
111. A Vacation in Europe D. Smith 4.5/2 c,h
112. Hills of History D. Smith 6.0/2 c
113. The Life-Orb of Mevtrelek R. Volberding 7.0/1 c,f
114. Thror's Ring T. Zuchowski 9.0/4 c,f,i
115. The Ring of Doom S. Ruby 5.0/1 c,f
116. The Iron Prison S. Ruby 5.5/2 c,f
117. Dungeon of Doom D. Knezek 8.0/2 a,f,k
118. Pittfall S. Starkey 8.0/1 c,f
119. Grunewalde P. Hurst 6.5/2 b,f,l
120. Orb of My Life J. Nelson 9.0/1 c,f
121. Wrenhold's Secret Vigil R. Davis 8.3/2 c,f
122. The Valley of Death S. Ruby 4.0/1 c
123. Wizard of the Spheres M. Elkin 5.0/1 c,f
124. Assault on Dolni Keep T. Zuchowski 9.3/3 c,f,i
125. The Mattimoe Palace J. Actor 3.0/1 b,f,h
126. The Pyramid of Anharos P. Hurst 6.5/2 c,f
127. The Hunt for the Ring S. Ruby 7.0/1 c,f
128. Quest of Erebor S. Ruby 7.0/1 c,f
129. Return to Moria S. Ruby 8.5/3 c,f,l
130. Haradwaith S. Ruby 7.0/1 c,f
131. Nucleus of the Ruby K. Somers 6.0/1 c,f,j
132. Rhadshur Warrior R. Pender 8.3/2 c,f,h
133. The Final Frontier R. Slemon 5.0/1 c,f,g
134. Pyramid of the Ancients J.& R. Pirone 4.0/1 c
135. The Tomb of Evron M. Greifenkamp 2.0/1 b
136. The Mountain Fortress M. Greifenkamp 3.0/1 b,f
137. The Ruins of Ivory Castle M. Greifenkamp 6.0/1 b
138. Starfire E. Phillips 6.0/1 c,f
139. Peg's Place M&A Anderson 7.5/2 c,f,h
140. Beginner's Forest M. Anderson 5.0/1 b
141. The Infested Fortress M&P Hamaoka 3.0/2 c
142. The Beermeister's Brewery J. Actor 6.5/2 b,f,h
143. The Alternate Zone J. Actor 6.0/1 b,f
144. Gartin Manor G. Gioia 5.0/1 c,f,h
145. Buccaneer! P. Hurst 8.3/3 c,f,l
146. The House of Horrors D. Cross 6.0/1 c,f,h
147. The Dark Brotherhood P. Hurst 9.0/2 c,f,l
148. Journey to Jotunheim T. Zuchowski 8.3/3 c,f,i
149. Elemental Apocalypse S. Ruby 7.8/4 c,f,n
150. Walled City of Darkness T. Zuchowski 8.7/2 c,f,i
151. Eamon S.A.R.-1 (Deneb Raid) D. Crawford 3.5/2 c,f,g
152. The Computer Club of Fear N. Segerlind 5.5/2 c,f,h
153. Lost! N. Segerlind 5.0/1 c
154. A Trip to Fort Scott W. Trent 7.0/1 c
155. Tomb of the Vampire Trent/Grayson 6.0/1 c,f
156. The Lake N. Segerlind 4.0/1 c
157. Pathetic Hideout of Mr. R. N. Segerlind 5.0/1 c,f,h
158. The Lair of Mr. Ed N. Segerlind 7.0/1 c,f,h
159. The Bridge of Catzad-Dum N. Segerlind 6.5/2 c,f,h
160. Monty Python & Holy Grail N. Segerlind 7.0/1 c,f
161. Operation Endgame S. Ruby 9.0/3 c,f,h,m
162. Eamon 7.0 Demo Adventure T. Zuchowski (N/A) d,i
163. The Sands of Mars T. Swartz 5.7/3 a,f,g
164. A Real Cliffhanger T. Swartz 6.0/1 a,h
165. Animal Farm S. Ruby 5.0/1 c,f,h,l
166. Storm Breaker S. Ruby 8.5/2 c,f,m
167. Expedition to the Darkwoods G. Gioia 3.5/2 c,f
168. The High School of Horrors M.Haney/A.Hunt 4.5/2 a,h
169. The Black Phoenix R. Pender 7.8/3 c,f,g
170. Ragnarok Revisited N. Segerlind 7.8/3 c,f,i
171. The Pyramid of Cheops R. Parker 5.0/1 b
172. The Mountain of the Master M. Dalton 5.0/1 a,f
173. The House That Jack Built R. Parker 2.0/2 b,h
174. Escape from Granite Hall R. Parker 3.5/2 b
175. Anatomy of the Body R. Parker 3.0/1 b,g
176. Dirtie Trix's Mad Maze R. Parker 3.0/1 b,h
177. Shippe of Fooles R. Parker 3.0/1 b
178. The Alien Intruder R. Parker 4.0/1 b,g
179. The Wizard's Tower R. Parker 4.0/1 b
180. Gamma 1 R. Parker 3.0/1 b,g
181. The Eamon Sewer System R. Parker 1.0/1 b
182. Farmer Brown's Woods R. Parker 1.0/1 b,h
183. The Boy and the Bard S. Ruby 8.3/2 c,f
184. Quest for Orion P. Gise 5.7/3 d,f,i
185. The Body Revisited R. Parker 5.0/3 d,f,i
186. Beginner's Cave II J. Nelson –/– c
187. Batman!! A. Geha 2.0/1 b
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Eamon Utilities Diskette
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