Source:Eamon Adventurer's Guild Newsletter, September 1998
| This page is a verbatim reproduction of original source material and should not be edited except for maintenance. | |
| Description |
The Eamon Adventurer's Guild Newsletter, September 1998 issue. |
|---|---|
| Source | |
| Date |
September 1998 |
| 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. |
| Previous item | |
| Next item | |
The Eamon Adventurer's Guild
September 1998
News and Opinion
Things continue to wind down in the Apple II world. Alas. Even though it is still the best source for Apple II files in the world, the non-Spectrum message traffic on GEnie is down to maybe 20 messages per week now, few of them Apple II related. Delphi continues to steam along at the rate of maybe 130 messages per week, but many of them will be Mac-related or about telnetting rather than true Apple II issues. Compuserve still chugs along at the same rate is has for several years now with about a dozen or so messages per week, and most of them generally relate to helping people figure out how to port their Apple II stuff to a Mac or PC.
Here is a recap of good Eamon sites:
http://www.ecnet.net/users/mumbv/pages/eamon/index.shtml (also emulators)
ftp://ftp.gmd/de/if-archive/games/appleII/eamon/guild/ (also emulators in ftp.gmd.de/emulators/)
ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/doc/mi sc/if-archive/games/appleII/eamon/guild/
http://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/eamon/ (new!)
ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/eamon/ (new!)
ftp://babylon.caltech.edu/Zocalo/pub/apple2/8bit/games/eamon/
http://www.lysator.liu.se/eamon/
If you are looking for Apple II emulators, you can find them on the two sites listed above.
The central touch point of Apple II Internet activity is http://www.syndicomm.com/a2web/ which has links to just about every Apple II site that there is.
Special insert included
Just for fun, I made up a Master Set of all of our EAG Eamon listings that you can use for a ready reference. I got tired of digging through old issues to look for this or that listing. I hope you find it useful.
Eamon Disk Offer
The EAG disk offer will be offered indefinitely. I got to wondering if it might be more than some people want. If anyone is interested in getting, say, just the ProDOS titles, or perhaps getting a set of Eamon DSK files for Apple II emulators (DOS, ProDOS, or both), let me know and we'll work something out.
Membership extension
That's right! We're doing another membership extension this issue! The EAG's costs of business are down to maybe $1.10 per member-issue now. I gave some serious thought to lowering the subscription price, but it is probably easiest for everyone if I just continue to use up the extra money with extensions.
Ground address change
The Internet address of the Ground site has been changed to ground.ecn.uiowa.edu.
Joe Kohn has some 700 Apple II software titles for sale. He doesn't have a paper catalog, but you can find a listing of a couple hundred titles on his web page: www.crl.com/~joko. The site is, of course, text-based and friendly to people browsing with their Apple II's via Lynx.
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.
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 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
1989,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97: Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec
1998: Mar, Jun
Price:
EAG members: $1.00 each
non-members: $2.00 each
Letters
Tom —
I saw your blurb on emulation in the latest newsletter and it reminded me to send in my thoughts on Catakig 1.10b. It's a newish Apple ][, ][+, and //e (you get to take your pick) emulator for the Mac. It gets high marks from me for simplicity, reliability, capability, and best of all, being freeware not shareware. It's at least as reliable and has as many features I care about as other emulators I've tried, but the simplicity of configuring it is unusually good. (I know this sounds like it can't be: but if there are any features I haven't noticed that are gone from catakig, I never used them.) Eamonauts who aren't running system 8 yet on their macs can probably do just as well with a previous version of catakig (like 1.03), since catakig 1.10b relies on appearance manager, a control panel which helps give system 8 its look. (I use system 7.5, and I easily downloaded appearance manager, but now it looks like half my computer's in system 8. Which makes me even more of a Luddite than if I never downloaded the appearance manager in the first place.) Anyone who's interested in Catakig can get more information, plus the program itself, at http://www.emulation.net.
In my life, I just finished the first year of medical school here at U AL — Birmingham (UAB) and I'm now working on the thesis for the master's degree I wanted to finish last year.
Whew! Looks from this issue's reviews like you are really getting to the bottom of the barrel! I see you took my advice and mixed in Encounter: The Bookworm to keep that section from being only an exercise in completeness. Being as my two adventures both got 5's, and neither one of them had any special programming or terribly difficult tricks (and hence were, in a larger sense, predictable to an experienced Eamonaut) I gotta wonder what these people were thinking when they wrote these adventures that get 2's.
Keep up the good work. These reviews, and particularly play-throughs, are a real resource. (Even if no one ever plays The Ruins of Belfast again, that would be a good thing, and hopefully your frank reviews can contribute to that. —Henry Haskell
Our mail-order Eamon vendor:
Eamons are available online at various sites. Some I can recommend are GEnie, ftp.gmd.de, ground.ecn.uiowa.edu, and http://www.ecnet.net/users/mumbv/pages/eamon/index.shtml
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 need 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 #120, Orb of My Life
This is one of the "Life Orb" Eamons from the contest that the NEUC ran way back when. Your mission is to recover Sagonne's life orb.
Like many of John's Eamons, this one is both very simple and very complex, and I don't really have any suggestions to offer, except one. If you are playing the DOS 3.3 version, you might want to go in before starting and make sure that line 29050 in the MAIN PGM has been deleted. With this line deleted, you can restart a saved game more than just once.
Oh, and be sure to bring an industrial-strength magic weapon along!
I should probably add that you will want to read the descriptions most carefully. This Eamon doesn't have a very involved plot, but it relies heavily on hidden and embedded artifacts, and there are clues about things like avoiding death traps and how to do away with powerful enemies.
Let's get started!
First thing, examine the bed. Sagonne lives pretty good, huh. Examine Sagonne himself. A letter! Read it. OK, we now know that two important spells exist.
Take a LOOK around. A secret passage! Go E. This is a library, so let's try EXAMINE BOOK. Found one! READ BOOK. Hmm. It looks like we'll need something that can "bend light and space" to fix the problem.
We're done here. Go W, then S. READ SIGN. That might well be a "sign" that the woods are a death trap. We'll keep that in mind.
Go D into the temple, then N. Fight the Priest (why are priests always bad guys in Eamons?) LOOK around, then GET the plate & cross.
Go W, then LOOK. A secret door! Go W, then GET the idol. Return E to the pulpit.
Go E, then E again. LOOK. Another book! GET it and READ it. Aw, it's just a treasure.
Go E three times. Kill the high priest. GET and READ the Holy Book of the Slo-Ven. Hmm, that might be useful information.
LOOK. A note! GET and READ the parchment. This word "ROVATHA" just might come in handy. Go back W, then N. Skip the door to the north that goes outside. At best it just wastes your time, and at worst you die (remember the sign?)
Go E. Kill the serpent and get the ruby, then go E into the fountain. That deep part looks promising; let's try going D.
Looks good. Go N twice. LOOK around. OPEN the box, then GET the orb.
Go E twice. Kill Broglia, then get the key and chest. LOOK around. A prisoner! Free the bound Centurian (sic). A "Guilded Might" warrior. He might be useful.
Go back W twice., then go U to the surface. EXAMINE the log and GET the Key of Isk.
Go W. Kill the pike, then go W twice more. Heed the description's advice and don't go under the bridge. Go N onto the beach.
Go W, then N, then W, then N. Free Harold. Go back S and E. Go E down the tunnel.
A gate of light! Open it. Ow! that didn't work. Try LOOK. Wait a minute-- the blind priest walked right through! Let's try something different. CLOSE your EYES and try going NE. No resistance... OPEN EYES. It worked!
Go S, then E. Kill the falconer. GET the PERCH. LOOK around. those shelves look interesting; EXAMINE SHELVES. A secret passage! GO S, then E. LOOK. EXAMINE the TABLE. GET the TARP. Sheesh, stuff everywhere you look! OPEN the CRATE. Whoa, a Cloak of Levitation! OPEN the GOLDEN BOX. GET the cloak, ring, and key. Go back W, N, W, N.
EXAMINE the BLUE PAINTINGS. Go NE , then EXAMINE the other BLUE PAINTINGS. They seem to suggest that a demon can be destroyed with the BLAST command; let's keep that in mind. Go NE, then W. Nothing here. Go back E, then go E twice more. Blinded! Try going E again. LOOK, and GET the staff. Go back W three times to the intersection.
Go S. You've found Sagonne's friend, Tolor! EXAMINE the CRYSTAL BALL. Hmm, a vortex of some kind is causing the trouble. EXAMINE the bear-skin rug. A note! READ the PAPER. It says VORAKA MEDE and ERADA VALA. Can these be the two magic spells we need? (NOTE: these magic words change with every game, but I'll list the words I saw for you to cross-reference with the words you see.)
EXAMINE the FIREPLACE, and go S. LOOK. GET the Jaded Talisman and the globe. WEAR the Jaded Talisman. EXAMINE that globe. Hmm, it seems to be saying that it won't support weight. Could your Cloak of Levitation be the 'Cloak of Tolor' the globe mentions?
We're not through here yet. Let's try reading the symbols on the walls. OK, this looks like some very important information! We've got the Staff of Light, we're wearing the Jaded Talisman, and we have a Guilded Might warrior along. And we know where to find a bright light!
Go back N, then go E into the magic study. LOOK. READ the BOOK OF TOLOR. You see the word ZABATA.
Let's go see if we can get something happening back at the bright room. Go W, N, E, E. CLOSE your eyes, and SAY ZABATA.
Well. THAT got results. (This might be a good place for a SAVE.) Now is the time to WEAR CLOAK OF LEVITATION (even if you did it earlier, do it again now.) Go N. Whew, this isn't much of a bridge, is it? Go N again.
The Demon depicted in the painting! You'll find that he is VERY tough to kill, but the paintings gave the clue-- BLAST DEMON. He crumbles to dust!
Go N, then W, then SW, then S, where you meet the Siren Witch. It looks like she may be some real help, so let's find her scream for her.
Go N, then W. Uh-oh, these giants will be more than you can handle. But as the description says, this is a dream land, and these are dream giants. OPEN EYES. They disappear! But CLOSE your eyes again real quick; this insanity business looks bad.
Continue W twice more. Kill the Prince of Darkness. Be about it smartly, because he will call up companions. GET the cloak. Hey, this cloak appears to affect dimensional boundaries. This could be the gizmo described in Sagonne's book!
Go back E, then go S three times. Go SW and meet Tobias, Lord of Poverty. That might be a clue; GIVE him 100 GP and see if you can buy him off.
Go W twice, and meet the elders. They don't seem to like you much. Take a LOOK around-- a wooden box!
Here you have two options. If you have the Emerald Key of Isk, you can trade for it. If Hero is with you, you can use the ROVATHA command and he will fetch the box for you.
Let's see what we've got here. OPEN WOODEN BOX. Yeek! CLOSE WOODEN BOX! Let's go find the hag! Go E, E, NE, NE, SE, N, E, E, S. GIVE the WOODEN BOX to the SIREN WITCH. She gave you something; do an INVENTORY to find out what it was. The Jewel of REOME! EXAMINE it. Our ticket home?
OK, let's see if we can end this. Go N, W, W, S, S, SW, W, W and return to the clearing.
Now it gets hairy. Ready your best magic weapon. WEAR the CLOAK OF DARKNESS. It makes you invisible, but at a price. You will gradually weaken. Watch for injury messages to yourself and HEAL at the first sign.
Go W. You encounter two very heavy bad guys, but your invisibility allows you to let your companions enjoy their attentions. Somewhere along the line they will summon an ally or two, so get to work and slay them!
Go N. The ORB!!! Darrk Ness thinks he's got you beaten by that force-field, but he doesn't realize that the Cloak of Darkness allows you to bend dimensional obstacles. GET the ORB!
That got his attention. You've got to kill him before you move on, as the programming tends to get squirrely if you don't do so. Once he's dead, SAY VORAKA MEDE (remember, your magic words may be different.)
Whoa. The vortex! DROP the Cloak of Darkness. SAY ERADA VALA. The dimensional hole is repaired!
But there are no exits from here. Well, the hag gave you the Jewel of Reome; let's try SAY REOME. It worked. Go any direction. You've won!
Eamon Reviews
#162 Eamon 7.0 Demo Adventure
by Tom Zuchowski
Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski
MAIN PGM Version: 7.0
Extra Commands: None
Deleted Commands: None
Special Features: None
Playing Time: 10-15 min.
Reviewer Rating: N/A
Description: "You have been sent by the Irishman to investigate a modern Eamon that he has heard about. You are told that there will be many subtle changes, and you promise to try many things, and to be on the watch for new stuff. Among other things, you suspect that the old spells may be completely new, that the battles surely have been extensively reworked, and that the 'LOOK' command no longer will find hidden doors. You can INVENTORY your friends now, and HEAL them too. You set out, eager to see what can be seen!
"This adventure is designed to show this version's features. There are 18 rooms, 141 artifacts, 2 effects, & 763 monsters. Most of the artifacts and monsters are 'dummies' that do not exist within the adventure, but were added in order to demonstrate the speed of the search routines. The vast majority of the monsters are in the form of 'group-monsters', including a 750-man army. Among the things that you will want to check out are examining, inventorying, and healing monsters. Your spell ability decreases with use, but will regenerate over time. A monster now knows which weapon is 'his' when he drops it. Some artifacts have new fields, and the monster fields have been redone. There is a new artifact type: 'wearable'. This includes clothing, shields, and armor. Note that the special fields for this type are in place for the sake of standardization, but are not presently implemented."
Comment: When I wrote my first Eamon, I had a simply awful time figuring out how stuff worked. The method I used to learn it all was to analyze John Nelson's "Temple of the Trolls" and thus learn from example. When I wrote the v7.0 MAIN PGM, I wanted to save people the trouble that I had, so I wrote this demo, which as far as I know demonstrates everything you can do with a standard v7.0 Eamon MAIN PGM and database. Most of the artifact and monster descriptions give programming and database info, for easy reference.
Note that this Demo uses the very earliest v7.0 MAIN PGM. You should not use this program with new data files, but should always use the latest MAIN PGM available on the v7.1 DDD.
#193 The Creature of Rhyl
by Robert Parker
Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski
MAIN PGM Version: 7.0
Extra Commands: PULL, REST, SUICIDE, STATUS, REFILL, THROW, SEE, PRAY, ASSEMBLE
Deleted Commands: None
Special Features: 10-directions, lo-res picture, HINTS program, 40/80 column display.
Playing Time: 2-3 hours
Reviewer Rating: 7.0
Description: "The country of Rhyl has been beset nearly every night for many years by a terrible creature that flies out from the mountains near the city of Asereht. The creature soars over farmland, picking up livestock or an occasional unfortunate farmer and carrying the victim back into the mountains.
"Nearly a year ago the creature broke through the wall of King Namreh's castle and carried off the king's son, Prince Laechim, along with a large amount of the Royal Treasure. Since that incident, which did not seem like the act of an unthinking creature interested only in food, King Namreh has suspected that the creature is somehow under the influence of the mad magician Astylis.
"Your mission is to go to Astylis' complex, rescue Prince Laechim plus the royal scepter and the golden crown that were also taken, and kill the fearsome creature that seems to be under the wizard's control."
Comment: This is a very good Eamon, in many ways the best one Rob ever did. It is a mapper's Eamon, with 133 rooms, lots of nifty stuff and several door puzzles to conquer. The combat is sparse and not terribly difficult.
The problem with it is that he didn't write it. It is a Dungeons and Dragons scenario. The D&D people had had a long history of suing first and asking questions later, so I never gave it the publicity it deserved, nor did it get a conversion to 80-col. ProDOS. I buried it through neglect and hoped that people would find it on their own.
Several of the door-puzzles are pretty tough, and there are all those rooms plus 100 artifacts to keep straight. This is no outing for the Young Eamonaut, or for those looking for a quickie foray. Difficulty will ring in between 4-8, depending on how much you use the HINTS program.
#196 The Cat House
by Anonymous
Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski
MAIN PGM Version: 5
Extra Commands: (unprintable)
Deleted Commands: None
Special Features: None
Playing Time: 10 min.
Reviewer Rating: 1.0
Description: Explore Madam Dolly's Cat House.
Comment: This is a very simple, quite pornographic adventure. All you do is visit each room of the house, kill the generic customer, then have your way with the girl in the room. While it's not as gross as "House of Ill Repute", it has even less content.
Difficulty of (1).
I have to add that it would get the overall (1) rating even if it wasn't pornographic, being an awful Eamon from every possible standpoint.
Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski
MAIN PGM Version: 6
Extra Commands: None
Deleted Commands: None
Special Features: 10-directions
Playing Time: 1-2 hours
Reviewer Rating: 5.0
Description: "The king's beautiful daughter, Heleena, was abducted by a vile, scummy thief type person by the name of Sampson Gremonis. Rumor has it that he is holding her for ransom in an abandoned fort located somewhere in the Cunnamulla Foothills. The fort (Vanavara Outpost) is unusual in that it is built into the side of a hill, and is, therefore, totally underground. One village Elder has told of an old secret hideout under the fort itself that the kidnappers may be staying in.
"Rumor also has it that Gremonis has a couple of friends with him: one a powerful warrior, the other a necromancer, an evil mage with the power to raise the dead and use them as his slaves. Your mission is to enter the fort, find the secret hideout, rescue the princess, apprehend Gremonis and bring him back dead or alive. You will get 2000 GP for the safe return of Heleena. For bringing back Gremonis, you will get 2000 GP if he is alive or 1000 GP for his dead body."
Comment: First off, let me tell you that as far as I could tell, there is no way to bring Gremonis back alive. This is a simple "kill’n’loot" foray with the Quest tacked on top. There are quite a number of locked things to open, but they all open with simple keys that are found with LOOK, usually in the same room.
This is a pretty well written Eamon, but it is a little low in content to achieve a high rating from me even though it has 87 rooms, good descriptions, and well-executed Effects. However, it should be a fun outing for Hack'n'Slash fans, as there is a fair amount of intense, difficult-to-survive combat. Using FRESH SAM, I had to cheat-resurrect myself at least a half-dozen times. There are at least two locations where FRESH SAM can be killed in just a couple of rounds of combat.
Difficulty is a little hard to gauge, since the mapping and locked-door puzzles are simple enough while the combat is quite tough. Perhaps a (7) is the closest balance.
#212 Haunted Keep
by Hoyle Purvis
Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski
MAIN PGM Version: 7
Extra Commands: None
Deleted Commands: None
Special Features: None
Playing Time: 1 hour
Reviewer Rating: 5.0
Description: "In years past, the Haunted Keep belonged to the Ratus family. It has been abandoned for many years. As the legend goes, the Ratus family mysteriously disappeared. The keep is now rumored to be haunted. Passing townspeople often hear sounds and see strange lights coming from the keep. Most of the keep is in ruins. Only two towers remain. They are connected by a falling gatehouse. The upper levels of even these towers is in decay.
"Recently a tribe of goblins, which live in the ruins of Haunted Keep, have been raiding the countryside. One of their last raids was on an Elfin village, and eight prisoners were taken. (Some were friends of yours,) your help is needed to help rescue them.
"Unwilling to let your friends down, you pick up your weapons and depart for the keep."
Comment: This is a well-written "Hack'n'Slash" foray. It does not get a higher rating from me because I am not a big fan of this type of Eamon, but I am sure that lovers of "Hack'n'Slash" will enjoy it a lot more than I did.
Not much more to say. Kill all the bad guys and rescue your eight friends. There's one key and a couple of hidden passages.
Two hints: search the Chapel, and remember that werecreatures are very hard to kill without the right weapon.
Difficulty of (4).
Eamon Adventure Listing
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||