Source:Eamon Adventurer's Guild Newsletter, June 1999
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The Eamon Adventurer's Guild Newsletter, June 1999 issue. |
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June 1999 |
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Eamon Adventurer's Guild; Tom Zuchowski (editor) |
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The Eamon Adventurer's Guild
June 1999
News and Opinion
Well it finally happened: CompuServe has closed its APPUSER Apple II forum. But in all truth, it's no loss, as most of the remaining regular participants were Mac people. For maybe the past year, most of APPUSER's conversation has been Mac related and had nothing to do with the Apple II. APPUSER still survives as a Forum topic in the MACUSER Forum.
If that wasn’t bad enough, GEnie's A2 RoundTable has been offline for several weeks now, and no one seems to know why. The Insider Opinion is that GEnie has all but died of neglect, and A2 is unlikely to resurface. Alas! RIP.
ProSel Now Public Domain!
(Here is a very important announcement from Chuck Newby, the publisher and vendor of Glen Bredon's ProSel disk utility: This was excerpted and condensed from an online conversation in the A2 Forum on Delphi.)
Official Announcement March 6, 1999
September will end 10 years that Charlie's AppleSeeds has published and sold ProSel and ProSel-16 for Glen Bredon. Demand for things Apple II is almost nonexistent and for that reason, I asked for and was granted, by E-mail, permission to announce that ProSel and ProSel-16 will be moved to the Public Domain. (See Glen Bredon's message below)
Upgrades by disk and new copies by disk will be $10, regardless whether it is ProSel 8 or ProSel-16. This will cover my costs for materials, time and effort and postage.
A copy of the manual will be $14. Book and ProSel-16 disk, $24. Postage is included in all prices. I will split whatever net I get from this, with Glen, as usual.
Charlie's AppleSeeds will not upload these programs to any online service. ANY uploads of ProSel or ProSel-16, to be properly uploaded as Public domain, should be the latest versions of the programs. This announcement does not include earlier versions as part of the Public Domain. To do otherwise would be a disservice not only to any new user, but to the programmer, Professor Glen E. Bredon.
The official versions that are recognized as Public Domain are:
ProSel-16, v 8.84
ProSel 8, v 4.0
Any upload of these programs must include this text file, unchanged in any way, in its entirety.
Chuck
Charlie's AppleSeeds
9081 Hadley Place
San Diego CA 92126-1523
619-566-0387
Contents Copyright (c) Charlie's AppleSeeds & Glen E. Bredon, 1999.
(In case you don't know, ProSel is the best disk utility suite ever done for the Apple II. Nothing else compares! It has powerful disk and file maintenance utilities, and has excellent disaster-recovery capabilities. ProSel 8 is for Apple II's running ProDOS, while ProSel 16 is for GS/OS. This program has saved my bacon more than once. Highly recommended. Now that it's in the public domain, you really should have your very own copy. —Tom)
Eamon Adventurer's Guild
Thomas Zuchowski, Editor
Membership/subscription fee for 4 issues:
US-Canada: $7.00; foreign: $12.00; in U.S. funds
This newsletter is published 4 times per year, in March, June, September, and December.
This newsletter was composed in its entirety using Appleworks 4.3 on an Apple IIgs computer. It was then transferred to a PC for printing on a Hewlett-Packard 722c inkjet printer.
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 EAG list, send it on a disk to the above address. It will be assigned an Adventure number, and tested for bugs and other problems. An informal critique and disk with bug corrections will be returned for your final comment, action and approval before release.
Back issues
NEUC Adventurer's Log:
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:
1988: Jun, Sep, Dec
1989, '90, '91, '92, '93: Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec
1994, '95, '96, '97, '98: Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec
1999: Mar
Price:
EAG members: $1.00 each
non-members: $2.00 each
Our mail-order Eamon vendor:
Eamons are available online at various sites. Some I can recommend are GEnie, ftp.gmd.de and ground.ecn.uiowa.edu.
EAG Eamon Disk Offer
EAG members can obtain the complete Eamon set from the EAG. This contains both the DOS 3.3 and 80-col. ProDOS Eamon collections archived to 3.5 disks. These are ShrinkIt archives. To access the ProDOS titles, you must at least one 3.5 drive. The DOS 3.3 titles require both 3.5 and 5.25 drives.
The EAG members' price for the entire set is $25.00. To take advantage of this offer:
- This offer requires that you supply the disks. You must include 19 DD 3.5 floppies with your payment. NOTE that these MUST be DD disks. My drives cannot read nor write to HD disks!
- You must use a shipping container that I can re-use to return the filled disks to you.
- The $25.00 price includes formatting the floppies with ProDOS If you format the disks for me, the price is $20.00. This reflects the time savings I get from not having to do the formatting. It doesn't matter what ProDOS volume name you use since they will be rewritten.
- If any of the above requirements are not met, the disks will be returned unfilled, and the shipping cost will be deducted from your refund.
- Both versions of 8-bit ShrinkIt and basic instructions are included with the set.
Purchase of the set puts you on a mailing list that automatically gets free updates about twice per year.
Eamon Walk-Through
A Walk-Through of Eamon #129, Return to Moria
This is a very tough Eamon on two levels. The first is the puzzling, which is complex and often deadly if you don't correctly figure it out. The other is the combat, which is rich, varied, and at times very difficult to survive. This Eamon dates from a time when Sam believed that a proper Eamon required many plays to survive; thus there are many avoidable foes and death traps that can only be found the hard way.
I know of no way to avoid nor to survive the encounter at Balin's Tomb. As near as I can tell, it is a slow death trap by combat unless you are using a superman character carrying tactical nukes, and even then your companions will not survive. And yet, there is no way around it that I can discover. I do not know what Sam's intentions are here. Perhaps it is a puzzle that eludes me.
Here is a way to cheat past that encounter: when you go west from Balin's Tomb and are jumped by all those bad guys, hit control-C at the YOUR COMMAND? prompt to halt play. Then type in this command (you can type it in without any spaces, but I include the spaces here for clarity):
FOR I = 1 TO NM: MD%(I,5) = MD%(I,5) * (MD%(I,5) = RO AND MD%(I,14) = 3 OR MD%(I,5) <> RO): NEXT: NB = 0: POKE 51,0: GOTO 100
Poof, they disappear!
I have little in the way of hints for this. Read carefully. Save often. Try examining the stuff you see in the descriptions. Examine all artifacts that you find in rooms. Read carefully. Save often.
As Sam recommends in his Author's Notes, you will want at least one magic weapon capable of at least 20 hit points. This is not an adventure for lightweights!
Sam's obscure hint about "ATTEMPTING" something refers to the fact that you can heal your companions (eg: HEAL GIMLI). It isn't too hard to keep everyone alive if you temporarily stop the game with a Control-C and boost your heal ability enormously by typing
S2%(2)=20000:POKE51,0:GOTO100.
You may wind up needing to do this more than once if you start getting a lot of NOTHING HAPPENS messages.
You will encounter several groups of multiple foes. One way to divide their numbers is to FLEE. Usually, only a few of the foes will follow you. Then you can kill them and return to the room of the original encounter to finish the rest.
The descriptions are rich and full, and well worth careful reading even without the vital clues supplied.
The command parser supports "A" as shorthand for "ATTACK". At the same time, it often requires that you type in the full object name. Be sure to type the full name when doing EXAMINEs!
One startup note for the ProDOS version: if you answer "N" to the 5.25 disk question, it assumes that all of the files are in the same folder.
All right! Let's get started!
This Walk-through will assume that you are reading carefully and thus will understand the reasoning behind the moves outlined below. Also, it ignores passages that contribute nothing except unnecessary combat to the Quest. Feel free to explore the unlisted passages if you wish, but only if you are spoiling for a fight!
OK, our Quest as outlined in the detailed intro is two-fold: bring back mithril for the repair of the gate, and revive Durin the Deathless.
The adventure opens in a dark room. Light your Lantern. Go South three times, then West into the Reception Room. Kill the bat.
Examine the chandelier. Aha, our new light source. Get it and light it.
Continue West twice more. Ignore the web. Go further West into the circular tunnel. Turn North, then West. Kill the spiders.
Continue West, then turn South twice. Kill those spiders, and get the greasy slime. Light the web.
Continue South, and find yourself out of the spider tunnels and into Dwarven works. Go West twice. Take the stair Up twice, and kill the Wargs. Go East and find the Mirrormere.
Examine the Mirrormere. Examine the stars and find a magical Crown of Stars. You know this crown; it was Durin's! Get the crown.
Return West and Down twice, and then continue Down again. Go West three times, then enter the room to the North. Kill the Uruks.
LOOK around. Get the iron key. Go South to exit the room.
Go West, and kill the Gate Keeper. Open the gate. Continue West, then turn South twice, then West twice. Kill the Orcs.
Continue West, and kill more Orcs. Examine the beer. It is a one-time healing potion; get or drink it as you choose.
Continue West twice more and enter the kitchen. Open the cupboard, and get the Orc Brew. This is another healing potion that works three times.
Return East, then turn North twice, then East twice more and enter the Armoury. Examine the molds. They might be useful, so get them.
Return West. Examine the dead operator, and get the small key that you find.
Go North into the storage area, then turn West. LOOK around. Put the small key in the keyhole. Examine the box, then open it. Pull the lever. (Going down!)
Go West three times and enter the Chamber of Mazarbul. Examine the stone block, then examine the runes engraved on it. It's Balin's Tomb! Examine the chests, and the book. Read the book. Note the magic word "CARASH".
Save the game!
Go West. As you try to pass the door, you are jumped by overwhelming odds! I know of no way to survive this combat. Use the cheat outlined at the beginning of this walk-through.
You're still in the Chamber of Mazarbul. Go West twice, then North. Examine the rope and the winch. Go West, and examine the rope and the pulley. Put the rope on the crate.
Return East, and pull the winch. Go South, then East, then North into the booth. LOOK around. Put the greasy slime on the lever. Pull the greased lever.
Go Down, then West, then North. Open the crate. Mithril ore! Get the large rocks.
Go South. Open the stone door. That didn't work. LOOK. The door has no keyhole; is it magical? Say CARASH. It opens!
Go South. Examine the pool. (It doesn't say so, but it's full of acid, and you will die if you enter it.) Examine the plug. Pull the wire.
Continue South twice more, and encounter the most complex puzzle in the dungeon, with four death traps to avoid!
Examine the blanket. A spike trap! Get the blanket. Examine the mithril armour. Another trap! Get the mithril armour, and wear it.
Return North, then go East. Examine the red spot. Looks innocent, doesn't it? It's not. LOOK. Put the blanket on the hooks. Get the gold vase and let the blanket save your life.
Go West twice. Examine the pillar. The last trap! Put the gold vase on the pillar, then get the diamond vase. Open the diamond vase. Get the steel key and the serum. (The serum significantly enhances several character attributes; use it if you wish, but also be aware that it is the most valuable loot that you will find and is worth some serious gold.)
Return East, then North twice, then go West twice. Open the steel door. Continue West, then turn North into the stone workroom.
LOOK around. Get the explosives and the black liquid. Examine the smelting pit. Obviously, this is where we refine the mithril, but we need heat, and it won't accept our large rocks.
Return South, and go West. Examine the mallet. This looks like the way to make small rocks out of big ones! Get the mallet, and ready it. Drop the large rocks, then attack them.
Get the mithril ore and the mining tools. You're done with the mallet, so drop it and ready your combat weapon!
Continue West, then North. Get the mining cart. Continue North. Ants! They will be a serious problem if you don't solve this puzzle. Put the black liquid in the ant hole.
Continue North, then West. Dig. Get the coal. Return to the smelting pit. (E,S,S,S,E,E,N). Put the mithril ore and the coal in the smelting pit. Put the molten mithril in the molds, then get the three mithril bars you created.
Head South, then West twice, then North, then West twice. Dig, and go South. Dig and go South again, and find yourself at the lip of a tremendous chasm. Head Down.
When you reach the bottom, go East three times. Kill the lizard-thing. Then go North twice to a dead end. LOOK around and find a secret passage East!
Go East and kill the worm-thing. Continue East, then South to another dead end. LOOK and find a stone wall. Light the explosive (it won't harm you; you don't even have to drop it.) Go East through the hole you blasted.
Examine the Dwarf statue. Note the missing axe part. Put one of the mithril bars in its place. (There is a spelling problem here that is easy to overlook; note the misspelled DISSEMBLED AXE.) Examine the curtain, and open it. Another lever! Pull the lever. The statue moves!
Go East and find a Dwarf lying in state. Put the crown on him. Durin awakes!
Now we head for the exits. Go Up five times and encounter a Balrog. Kill the Balrog, and get the key. Return Down once and open the gate. Go West through the gate.
You've fulfilled both of your Quests!
Eamon Reviews
#7 The Devil's Tomb
by Jim Jacobson
Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski
MAIN PGM Version: 4
Extra Commands: BET, OPEN, READ
Deleted Commands: None
Special Features: Casino
Playing Time: 30 min.
Reviewer Rating: 4.0 Average Rating: 4.9/8
Description: "As you started your next adventure, you accidentally stumbled upon an old book that described a very perplexing and challenging dungeon — in Hades!!!
"As you read the book, you suddenly hear a booming voice from nowhere say, 'So, you think you are a noble adventurer? If you want a challenge, try my dungeon!'
"As the voice chuckles fiendishly, you realize that you are falling down a dark, narrow shaft. After you hit bottom, you see that you are in a dungeon cell."
Comment: This Eamon combines a small and simple map, lightweight combat, several "gotcha!" death traps, and some pretty tough puzzles. The puzzles are obscure enough that the existing difficulty rating of (9) is not unreasonable.
The only truly unique feature here is the casino, where you can bet a portion of your Hardiness, Agility, or Charisma on the spin of the wheel. If you want to build a cheater super-character "fairly," then here is a place to do it.
This early Eamon has no advanced features, and requires you to type in full commands and object names. However, the solving of the door puzzles requires that you use the object name "DOOR" rather than the door's full name. Another aspect which considerably ups the difficulty.
It wouldn't be like me to let the tough puzzles go by without a couple of clues. Both puzzles apply to closed doors, and you must remember to use DOOR as the object name when working with them. The hints: First, one of the standard commands (not POWER) can get you past that first cell door. Next, that bolted door in the room with the demons requires ALL of your strength, even that being used to carry your stuff (all of the open exits from that room are death traps.)
Finally, I found the TREZORE spells to be interesting, but harmful more often than not. Play with them at your own risk.
#14 Furioso
by William (Davy) Davis
Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski
MAIN PGM Version: 4
Extra Commands: OPEN, READ
Deleted Commands: None
Special Features: Rising water
Playing Time: 30-90 min.
Reviewer Rating: 5.0 Average Rating: 5.2/4
Description: While drinking in a tavern, you are drugged and shanghaied. You awaken in a dark room awash in ankle-deep water.
Comment: This is a competently done Eamon. I did not feel like it was hopelessly out of date by modern Eamon standards. It does some original things with light and with a running timed death-trap involving rising water. It turns out that you awaken on a ship that has foundered on a rocky shore and is sinking!
I am downgrading the difficulty from the original (9) rating to a (7). However, be warned that you may have to play it several times before you win through to the end. This is partly because of the relentless rising water in the early going, and also because there are several death traps without obvious clues. But the going is not onerous and there are no stoppers along the way.
This may be a frustrating play for those who like to explore methodically, because there are a couple of one-way passages which force you onto the next segment of the map whether you are ready to move on or not. But if you like your Eamons to play a little differently every time, then you may get several good plays from this one before it starts to get old for you.
One hint: remember your spells.
#19 Death Trap
by John Nelson
Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski
MAIN PGM Version: 4
Extra Commands: THROW, READ, OPEN, DIG, (WEAR), (REMOVE)
Deleted Commands: None
Special Features: 10-direction map
Playing Time: 1-3 hours
Reviewer Rating: 7.0 Average Rating: 7.5/4
Description: "You have chosen to take up a bet proposed by one of your enemies. He bet you 20,000 gold pieces that you would not be able to survive a cave known to the mountain people as 'Death Trap'.
"Your bravery exceeds your wisdom. Death Trap is the deadliest cave ever found. There are dragons, giants, wizards and demons in the cave. You have no chance of beating them by brute force. You must use your wits if you are to survive. Of course, you must also be a supreme warrior."
Comment: This is one of the hardest Eamons in the list. It is also very well done. There are quite a few items that you must master that are not at all well documented in the play. Not least among these is a couple of commands not listed in the "Huh?" command list. There are bad guys that can only be killed by specific weapons. I never did figure out a way to defeat Baalzebul, the worst foe of the lot, but had to resort to fleeing from him repeatedly until I got past him.
This is a straight "Kill&Loot" scenario, and the only Quest is to escape alive from the sealed cave. The difficulty is a well-deserved (9). There are three different ways to escape that vary from quite easy (say POWER) to quite difficult (find the right spot and DIG your way out.)
This is definitely a superior Eamon and well worth a play. But unless you enjoy cracking the really hard ones on your own, I recommend that you tackle this one while using the Walk-Through printed in the March '98 EAG.
#29 The Lost Island of Apple
by Donald Brown
Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski
MAIN PGM Version: 4
Extra Commands: OPEN, SWALLOW
Deleted Commands: None
Special Features: Hi-Res navigation, food
Playing Time: 30 min.
Reviewer Rating: 4.0 Average Rating: 3.0/2
Description: "You are trapped on an island. There is a wizard here who can teleport you home, but your gold and weapons cannot go with you. There is a castle to the north that supposedly has a passage home, but there are obstacles.
"As you explore the island, notice the large harbor to the east, and the mountains to the north-west. Beware of monsters and evil men, but know that there are also men good and true.
"A final word of warning — be sure that you are kept well supplied with food. Every day, you and your friends must eat three meals or they will slowly starve."
Comment: This Adventure is totally unique in the world of Eamon. It combines a high-res "overhead view" interface with four small standard Eamon-type dungeons. The hi-res interface was fairly common in the early days of the Apple II; one commercial game that used something very similar was the commercial game Odyssey.
Make no mistake; this is not a great Eamon, and Bob Davis had good reason to give it a (2) rating when it was originally reviewed. But I like unusual Eamons and Eamons that push the envelope, and this is definitely one such. Thus I gave it a higher rating than it would otherwise deserve, because it truly is a unique Eamon gaming experience.
There are two major flaws. One is content so low that it is rather tedious to play, and becomes quite boring after a while. The other is that there is no way to exit with your weapons and gold except through use of the POWER spell, and that method will result in your death by drowning in 9 out of 10 tries. I am guessing that Don was working on this Eamon when he decided to go commercial, and that it was never fully completed as a result. Another indicator that it is unfinished is a cryptic hint from a wandering hermit that makes no sense to me and that I never found a use for, even after perusing the programs.
Here are the usual hints: you and each of your companions consume one unit of food for each turn taken in the hi-res mode. There are four entrances to be found on the hi-res map: the temple, the castle, and two unmarked ones. The only way to find the two unmarked entrances is by walking across every single point on the map until you stumble into them. This consumes a LOT of food, and thus I suggest that you start out with 3000 units of food. It really doesn't matter if you spend all of your money, because you don't want to return to the Main Hall from this game, unless you are happy to lose your weapons and gold!
Difficulty is hard to define. There is only a 1-in-10 shot at getting back to the Main Hall with your weapons and gold, so it earns and retains its (9) rating, even though actual play is simple and rates no more than a (3).
Eamon Adventure Listing
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