Source:Eamon Adventurer's Guild Newsletter, September 1999
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The Eamon Adventurer's Guild Newsletter, September 1999 issue. |
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September 1999 |
| Author |
Eamon Adventurer's Guild; Tom Zuchowski (editor) |
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The Eamon Adventurer's Guild
September 1999
News and Opinion
At the time of the publishing of the last EAG newsletter, GEnie's A2 forum had been unavailable for a while. Well, I finally got tired of waiting on it to reappear while the GEnie people calmly billed me every month for something they weren't delivering, and I cancelled my GEnie membership. It was a hard thing to do, after having been with them for 11 years. It was especially hard to see the library go away, as it represented eight years of my long labor as a GEnie library assistant sysop. We built and rebuilt that library into the finest Apple II library in history. I had literally thousands of (unpaid!) hours invested in GEnie. The average user never knew how much sweat and thought we put into making GEnie what it was.
Now we have Delphi for community and the FTP libraries for files. But the vast majority of ISP's have discontinued their Lynx shells, which means that these days you almost have to have a PC or Mac to access those Apple II files.
With one exception. I haven't personally seen it run, but I hear that, with the help of the excellent programs Marinetti, Spectrum and SIS, a muscular GS can access the WWW in the same way as more modern computers, through a TCP/IP connection. It sounds like a neat trick!
The EAG newsletter has reached another landmark. With the June issue, I have re-reviewed all of the Eamons that I felt deserved it. I did not redo #37, Quest for the Holy Grail, but there's not much to say there. It's not bad, and if you love Monty Python you will enjoy it.
Some outside content I was planning to run has not materialized as promised. Therefore, starting with this issue, I will publish a walk-through plus whatever else looks interesting, and may print two or three walk-throughs if I don't have much content otherwise. I've gotten a lot of positive response about the walk-throughs, so I hope that this course will not displease you.
I intend to publish more Eamon memorabilia such as the Sanctuary map printed in the last issue. I have several of Sam's maps, plus I have items from other authors that I will be reviewing as well, but Sam's maps are generally rather wonderful and may well get precedence. I have enough of this kind of stuff to last a couple of years, at least. I will endeavor to bring to you the more interesting items. I must add that I discovered that I had done the resizing incorrectly with the "Sanctuary" map and caused it to be of noticeably lower quality than was possible. Sorry. I'll see if I can't do something especially interesting to make up for it this issue.
If there is anything that you would like to see in this newsletter, please let me know!
Letters
I am going to make a suggestion or two for you as food for thought. Perhaps it is of no value to you now at this point but I am only trying to keep Eamon alive. I am retired now but I have many irons in the fire. Radio controlled model airplane builder and flyer, treasure hunter (coins) using a metal detector, write some basic computer programs, and wood working in my wood shop to name just a few of the things that take up a lot of my time. But I also find it difficult and very disgusting to decide that today I am going to get out my Eamon adventure game disks and go on an adventure only to get lost along the way every time and then get killed all the time. I don't know if all players have this trouble but I'll bet a few do and when that happens the interest goes down. Would you consider having in the next newsletter the details of just how one goes about making himself stronger so you do not get killed all of the time. What weapons to carry with you and what spells to get before going on an adventure. Just how do you go about beefing yourself up before you go on the adventure. Now don't just say give yourself x strength x something else x something else. Just how do you do that. Where do you get it? Let's pretend that I have never played before. I stick in the disk and enter my name and that's all I know to do. Now I'll get killed right off the bat because I am weak for most all of the games. How do I get more strength, a spell or two, better armour and weapon before I ever start? I for one would really like to know how or what file you go to and how do you go to that file to do this? How do you map a game when you go on the adventure? How do you know how many rooms there are to find? My opinion is that the novice needs help with all of this.
In one of your newsletters a member suggested to you that you print a mailing list of all of the members and you said in that newsletter that you would do that in an upcoming newsletter. I also think that would be great so if any of us wanted to correspond with others we could. They would not have to answer if they did not want to correspond. Some of us do not have email, fax, etc., and depend of mail only. I am one that likes to hear from others and share ideas and help others in any way I can.
If there is anything I can do to help keep Eamon alive, please let me hear from you. Thanks for your help. —Clyde Easterday
It is very easy to beef up your character. There is a program on the DOS 3.3 Eamon Master Disk named EAMON CHARACTER FILE MAINT. The Eamon ProDOS Master has the same program but is named CHAR.FILE.MAINT.
This program enables you to examine and modify the various characters stored on the Master Disk. Just run the program, then choose SELECT A RECORD, then NAME, then type in the name of your existing character. From there you can modify any and all of the character data in any way you wish.
I recommend that you set Hardiness, Agility, and Charm to about 22, spell abilities to about 200, weapon abilities to about 75, and armor expertise to about 50. You can also add new weapons of any strength you choose. I recommend an assortment of weapons that vary in strength from 1D8 to 4D8. Set the complexity to 10% for all but the 4D8 one, which should be 25%. Keep the weapon names short, no more than 10 letters in length.
These changes will give you a pretty strong character who has not reached the "cheater superman" level. The range of weapons enables you to match the weapon you used to the difficulty of the combat you experience, which makes combat more interesting. Of course, you could pump up the numbers far beyond what I recommended. But if you do, you may become bored by the lack of challenge, and you may "break" some Eamons by winning combats that are not meant to be won, or by breaking doors that are meant to be unbreakable.
I also have another suggestion. There is a program on the Utilities Disk named FRESH SAM. This program bypasses the Main Hall altogether and launches the Eamon adventure with a "standard" character named Sam. Sam has statistics very similar to what I recommended above, except that he is primarily a sword user who has less expertise with other weapons. Sam is in fact my own character that I use when playing Eamon. I got tired of all the wasted time spent running the Main Hall and made up FRESH SAM to get things going faster. Note that if you use FRESH SAM, you do not return to the Main Hall at the end, because Sam did not come from there! When the Eamon says to insert the Master disk, just hit the reset button to halt the program instead.
Look elsewhere in this newsletter for other items.
I have discussed printing the entire EAG members list in the newsletter. Nobody came forward to say it was a great idea (except you just now) but nobody said not to do it, either. I have thought about it, and I am not comfortable posting people's names and addresses to the entire world without their specific permission. Meanwhile, the list I run in the newsletter includes everyone who says they are looking for correspondents. I don't know why more don't request a listing and I don't know why most of them only want their email addresses listed.
I appreciate your offer to do anything you can to keep Eamon alive. I don't really know what can be done at this point. We will have fewer than 30 EAG members by the end of 1999. What I see online is that most of the remaining Apple II hobbyists are primarily interested in doing Neat Stuff with GS/OS, which doesn't intersect with Eamon in any way.
Several EAG members, possibly even a majority, don't even use an Apple II any more, but are using an emulator on their Mac or PC. There are a few whose Apple II died on them, and they plan to do something about it if they ever find a replacement at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, Apple II's are where you find them, and the used-equipment outfits want absurd prices for them. —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, Jun
Price:
EAG members: $1.00 each
non-members: $2.00 each
Our mail-order Eamon vendor:
Eamons are available online at various sites. Two that I can recommend are 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.
Purchasers of the set will automatically get free updates at irregular intervals.
Tips & Techniques
As I promised Clyde, here are some of my favorite tricks for staying alive in an Eamon.
Please remember that some Eamons are extensively modified, and these tricks may not work for them. But if you list parts of the program, you can usually find what you need to know to modify the trick to work.
Taking too much damage
If I am being hammered in combat, I halt the program by typing control-C at the YOUR COMMAND? prompt. Then I type this:
LIST 150
I examine the listed program line to see how the monster arrays are named. Typically the monster data will be in an array named MD%(x,x), but sometimes they are named M%(x,x) instead. (Let's say for this example that it is named MD%(x,x).)
Then I type:
POKE51,0:MD%(0,13)=0:S2%(2)=2000 :GOTO100
The above line removes all of my hit damage, jumps my Heal spell up so it will work reliably for a while without NOTHING HAPPENS, and resumes play.
Finding out the number of rooms
It is easy to find out how many data files there are in an Eamon. First, begin play normally, then halt the program by typing control-C at the YOUR COMMAND? prompt. Then type:
PRINT NR, NA, NE, NM
You will see four numbers printed to the screen. NR is Number of Rooms, NA is Number of Artifacts (including your personal weapons), NE is Number of special Effects, and NM is Number of Monsters. It is useful to find out what NR is when you are trying to completely map an Eamon. Sometimes there are "dead" files in the database that are not used, in which case the true number will be slightly smaller than what you see above.
Self-resurrection during combat
More often than not, it is easy to recover from being killed. When you see the YOU HAVE DIED! message, type a control-C at HIT ANY KEY TO CONTINUE (if you type anything else, you're toast!) Then type this:
POKE51,0:DI=0:MD%(0,13)=0:S2%(2) =2000:GOTO100
This will "resurrect" you back into the combat you just left. It's not perfect, because you will find that you dropped everything you were carrying, just like any other dead monster. So grab your sword and finish the combat first!
If you get killed by a death trap, this sometimes gets you back:
POKE51,0:DI=0:R2=R3:GOTO3500
If the program is extensively modified, it may blow up in your face. But hey, you're dead already, what have you got to lose?
ASK ME!
These are just a few of the many tricks I use.
If there is something else you would like to learn how to do, ask me!
Mapping Eamon
As you all know, Eamons are seldom laid out in a way that you can easily draw a simple map for. Here is a method of mapping that can accommodate any set of room connections.
My method is to draw a series of unconnected boxes, one for each room. I number each box, and I print the room name inside the box. Around the periphery of the box, I print the numbers of the rooms that connect to that room in that direction. These room numbers are not necessarily the real room numbers, but are purely arbitrary and merely serve as a way to link the boxes. Here is the basic format:
Up
North
Room Number
West Room Name East
(Notes)
South
Down
Here is an example from "Idol of the Incas":
[...]
In the above example, Room 2 (Before Temple) connects to Room 1 to the South, Room 3 to the West, and Room 14 to the East, and all other directions have No room connection.
Eamon Walk-Through
| 19 | Death Trap | Mar98 |
| 62 | The Caverns of Doom | Mar97 |
| 77 | Temple of the Trolls | Mar99 |
| 114 | Thror's Ring | Dec96 |
| 120 | Orb of My Life | Sep98 |
| 126 | Pyramid of Anharos | Jun98 |
| 127 | The Hunt for the Ring | Dec98 |
| 129 | Return to Moria | Jun99 |
| 132 | Rhadshur Warrior | Jun96 |
| 145 | Buccaneer! | Dec97 |
| 147 | The Dark Brotherhood | Sep96 |
| 150 | Walled City of Darkness | Mar96 |
| 161 | Operation Endgame | Jun97 |
I want to make a note about Sam Ruby's best Eamons. You are not seeing Walk-Throughs in this section for Sam's best works, because these Eamons typically include very complete hints and solutions programs on the disk. For example, "Storm Breaker" has a SOLUTIONS program, and "Animal Farm" has BASIC TRAINING. Both of these programs offer fairly complete walk-throughs of their own.
Always check Sam Ruby's Eamons for bonus programs on the disk! Several of the better authors have been known to do this on occasion.
A Walk-through of Eamon #239, Idol of the Incas
We are on a Quest to seek out the fabulous legendary Idol of the Incas. Our adventure begins as we approach an Incan temple.
For those who wish to solve it on their own, I only have one good hint: this adventure makes very heavy use of multiply-embedded artifacts. By that term I mean items that are not listed in the room description but only in other artifact descriptions. For example, the room description mentions a table, and the table description mentions a plate, and the plate description mentions a knife, and the knife is a real artifact. Thus we have table, plate, and knife artifacts in the room, but only the table is revealed by the room description. Furthermore, the knife description might mention an inscription that can be examined and read.
Note: this map contains several passages that have parallel destinations. We will ignore unnecessary side trips down redundant and dead-end passages, although these passages do serve well to flesh out the temple and the dangerous Demons of Darkness.
Also, many of the commands will be based on what we learned from the previous move. Be sure to read the game text as we progress, so you will understand where each move came from.
Our first move is to go N to reach the temple. Then go E twice, then N, and discover an entrance to the west. Go W twice, then U. Oops. It looks like there might be something to that legend, after all, and we will need light to progress through the temple.
Go D until you stumble back into a dimly lit passageway. Then go E to exit back onto the outdoor path. Continue N twice, then W to reach the entrance.
What are those tablets to the north? Go N and see. EXAMINE TABLETS. EXAMINE SLATE TABLET. READ GLYPHS. A "Path of Adventure?" This looks promising! GET SLATE TABLET.
Return S, then go Up the steps and meet Penaca. Try to go W or E, and we find that only one exit is illuminated by a "suntunnel." Hmm.
This art gallery may hold clues. EXAMINE FRESCOES. Aha. The suntunnel is different! EXAMINE PAINTING. READ GLYPHS and learn that the tablet is the key. This is surely our solution, so let's see what we can do here.
EXAMINE the SLOT in the floor. The painting showed something here--PUT SLATE TABLET IN SLOT like the painting showed. Suntunnels open to east and west!
Go W twice, then S twice into the scribe's room. GET MEDALLION. And there are more tablets strewn about here. EXAMINE TABLETS. EXAMINE BROKEN TABLET. It's inscribed with an Incan "P". EXAMINE SCRATCHED TABLET. It's marked with a "T".
GET BROKEN TABLET. GET SCRATCHED TABLET. Hmm, all we can manage is just one tablet. That will do for now. Bring the broken tablet along. Go E three times to the library, and kill Teowamba.
A library could be useful — EXAMINE BOOK. EXAMINE PAGES. EXAMINE MAP. A map! GET ALL.
READ BOOK. Something about a "P" "A" "T" "H". Hey, we've got tablets inscribed with a "P" and a "T".
READ PAGES. They are pretty badly defaced, but we can make out "TABLETS" (reversed) and "PATH OF ADVENTURE." This P-A-T-H thing is looking stronger.
READ MAP. Yes! A map of the temple! And the junctions are marked with P-A-T-H. But it crumbles to dust as we finish reading it! Well, at least we got some good information from it.
This library looked like it might be the "P" room on the map. Let's refresh our impression and do a LOOK. The floor is inscribed with symbols. EXAMINE FLOOR. A missing tile! Let's get creative and PUT the BROKEN TABLET (the one which is inscribed with a "P") in the FLOOR. The suntunnels extend further!
Go S twice into the basket room. EXAMINE PEDESTAL. Something belongs here — an "A" tablet? EXAMINE BASKET. Hey, it looks like it is designed to carry the tablets! GET BASKET.
Let's return to the scribe's room and gather up that tablet. Return N twice, then W three times. PUT SCRATCHED TABLET IN BASKET. Then return E three times to the library.
Continue on E twice more to the mason's room. More tablets! EXAMINE TABLETS. EXAMINE A TABLET. EXAMINE H TABLET. GET A TABLET. PUT H TABLET IN BASKET.
Return to the basket room by going W twice, then S twice. PUT A TABLET ON PEDESTAL. The suntunnel extends, revealing a passage south!
Go S, then D into the armoury. EXAMINE CORNER. EXAMINE BLOW PIPE. EXAMINE DARTS. EXAMINE NET. EXAMINE SPEARS. EXAMINE GLYPHS. READ GLYPHS. EXAMINE STAFF OF LIFE. GET ALL. (Whew!)
EXAMINE CORNICE. OPEN BASKET. Hey, there were jewels in here! A nice bonus. PUT SCRATCHED TABLET ON CORNICE. The suntunnel extends again! GET ALL.
Go W twice to the tannery. EXAMINE POUCHES. EXAMINE BACKPACK. OPEN BACKPACK. OPEN POUCHES. Hey, what are these glowing rock chips? Is a light source involved here? GET ALL.
Return E twice to the armoury, then continue E twice more to the potter's room. EXAMINE POT. OPEN POT. A key! GET GOLD KEY. Return W twice to the armoury.
Go S twice to the stone cutter's room, then go W twice to the smelter. EXAMINE AMULET. GET AMULET. Note the death grip that Hiram Bingham has on those little boxes. There's something unnatural about that. Return E twice to the stone cutter's room.
Continue E twice more to the Lord of Cepons' tomb. Nothing here-- go S twice. A room full of statues, and they are all holding those little boxes--
EXAMINE BOXES. OPEN DIAMOND BOX. OPEN RUBY BOX. OPEN EMERALD BOX. OPEN RUDIEM BOX. GET ALL. What's this strange cold feeling? DROP BOXES. That's better! We don't want to wind up like these others. Return N twice, then W twice to the armory.
This must be our next tablet room, and the key must be that illuminated spot on the south wall. EXAMINE WALL. EXAMINE NICHE. OPEN BASKET. PUT H TABLET IN NICHE. More suntunnels!
There's more to be found-- let's do a LOOK and refresh our viewpoint. What are those glowing rocks and stones? EXAMINE ROCKS. EXAMINE STONES. GET ROCKS. we can't do it! But they sparked like those rock chips-- PUT ROCKS IN POUCHES. PUT STONES IN POUCHES.
Head S. EXAMINE ARCH. A secret passage down! We'll be back for this soon.
Continue S. EXAMINE SCEPTER. READ GLYPHS. The scepter is a key? GET SCEPTER. It's not there!?! Look around a little. EXAMINE CONE. EXAMINE WEST WALL. EXAMINE EAST WALL. Aha! It's an illusion! GET SCEPTER. Return N.
Go D twice into a snake pit. Kill the serpent. THROW NET to neutralize the cobras. Don't worry about the snakes, they're not a problem.
Go S-- hey, we need more light here. OPEN POUCHES to light the room, and discover a door south. PUT STONES IN POUCHES.
EXAMINE DOOR and find a bronze lock that might match that bronze key we found. OPEN DOOR and go S. OPEN POUCHES to light the room. Continue S, then go Up the steps. We must be getting close now. OPEN CHESTS. Wow! The jackpot! GET ALL.
EXAMINE ALTAR. READ GLYPHS. This crevasse business looks plenty dangerous, but we laugh at danger! EXAMINE WOOD STATUE. EXAMINE HOLE. PUT SCEPTER IN HOLE. OPEN WOOD STATUE. The Idol!!!
Penaca is no doubt right about the great peril here, but this is what we came for! GET IDOL. Uh, oh, earthquake! The place is falling down around us!
Go E through the broken wall, and cross the rope bridge. Continue E four times until we reach the mine entrance. Oh no, we lost all our loot! But we still have the idol. Keep moving!
We need to leave here NOW. (But before we do, this is a real good place to do a SAVE, and there is an option to resume play.) The cart is chocked by that stick. GET STICK. It's rolling! JUMP IN CART.
This ends the text adventure and takes you to the cart ride, an arcade-like experience. You must ride the cart as it careens faster and faster, choosing the safe passages as you go.
The ten-second count is to calibrate the game's speed to your computer. It would be quite impossible on accelerated machines without this feature.
You get three chances to make it. (If you die, you can restart that saved game by simply typing RUN.) Get past 25 junctions, and you win the game, no richer than you started, but no poorer, either. If only that old bridge hadn't collapsed!
Eamon Adventure Listing
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