Source:GEnie Apple II RoundTable Bulletin Board, Eamon topic 4

This page is a verbatim reproduction of original source material and should not be edited except for maintenance.
Description	An archive of the 17 messages posted to the GEnie Apple II RoundTable Bulletin Board, category #16 ("Eamon"), topic #4 ("Eamon Players — Questions and Answers").
Source	Content was retrieved from the text file eamon.01.txt made available by GEnie.
Date	October 1989–October 1993
Author	Allen (A.BEERS1), Bruce Baker (B.BAKER22), Chet Day (A2.CHET), Ken Gagne (KEN.GAGNE), David Grenda (D.GRENDA), Necromancer (V.LIN1), and Tom Zuchowski (T.ZUCHOWSKI)
License	It is believed that the use of this copyrighted item in Eamon Wiki qualifies as fair use under the copyright law of the United States.
Previous item	Topic 3: Eamon Authors — Questions and Answers
Next item	Topic 5: Eamon Bugs and Fixes

Topic 4: Eamon Players — Questions and Answers

Message 1
A2.CHET [Head sysop] — Thu Oct 12, 1989 at 18:25 EDT

This is the topic to come to when you need assistance while playing Eamon adventures.

Message 2
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TOMZ] — Sat Oct 28, 1989 at 09:25 EDT

If you are new to Eamon, you may well be dying a lot. Eamon has no progression of difficulty in its numbering system. With the exception of the 'beginners' adventures, the difficulty can be anything from boringly simple to seemingly impossible. Most good Eamons require a fairly strong character. This is because they were written by experienced Eamonauts who wrote adventures for their personal characters.

This means that, if you are new to Eamon, you need to generate yourself an 'experienced' character. To do this, start up the Master disk and have the Irishman generate a character for you, then exit the Main Hall without playing. Next, run the program CHARACTER FILE MAINT. to edit your character. Give him attributes in this range:

Hardiness=22; charisma=22; agility=22 Armor expertise=25 Weapon expertise=50% in all weapon categories Spell ability=100% for all spells Armor of chain mail & shield or better one weapon with complexity=10, dice=3, and sides=6

Of course, you don't have to do this; you can build your character the hard way, but it can be more trouble than it's worth.

Don't exceed these recommended levels by too much or you will find that Eamon is too easy as your super-character steamrollers everything in his path! And too easy translates to boring.

If you are killed while adventuring, there is a program on the master that can resurrect your character for you. No need to build a new one.

TomZ

Message 3
V.LIN1 [Necromancer] — Sat Feb 02, 1991 at 19:42 CST

HELP!!!!!!! I am a fairly new Eamon player and I am having trouble on Eamon 47. How do you activate the transporter in the 4th dimension. I keep getting a "Unable to acti ate" message. And what to tdoes the 3D0G access code activate? I've tried it on everything I've found that needs an access ciode I haven't found yet but it dosen't activate any of them. Well...it actually. The only thing I can't activate that needs a code is the long range transporter, so far.

Thanks in advance.
-Necromancer

Message 4
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Sun Feb 03, 1991 at 10:49 EST

Necromancer, check your mailbox. *8-)

TomZ

Message 5
V.LIN1 [Necromancer] — Sun Feb 03, 1991 at 21:49 CST

Thanks alot. Now I seem to have another problem. I used the program Char.file.maint to set some of the characters to the recommended settings This morning, I adjusted some files again. Later when I decided that I should condense the files to a few favorites, the program locked up at around line 340. Any suggestions?

Thanks again. I've only been playing Eamon games a few days. Even so, they have become one of my favorite ssreries of adventure games.

-Necromancer

Message 6
V.LIN1 [Necromancer] — Sun Feb 03, 1991 at 21:58 CST

Oh yeah. After I finished Eamon 47, I got a bunch of money which I gambled. I amassed quite an amount of money and squandered it in the training areas, at the bar, and at the fountain. I now have some ridiculously high traits and a rather powerful weapon. I also got absurdly high weapons and armor skills. Do you think I overdid it? I'd rather not find out by bulldozing my way through what would normally be an excellent adventure.

For the third time thanks.

-Nec

Message 7
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Mon Feb 04, 1991 at 18:45 EST

>Necromancer

Check your mailbox for some info about recovering the CHARACTERS file.

Yes, you stand the chance of missing a lot of stuff in an adventure if your character is so strong that he simply flattens everything he encounters. You will steamroller right past obstacles and puzzles that would stop a lesser character. And once doing so, you may find that the adventure is unsolvable because you messed up a puzzle by doing "impossible" things. Eamons will also often crash if a character is too strong and his stats are too big for the design of the programs.

I recommend stats of about 22, weapon abilities of 50-70, armor expertise of 25, and a variety of weapon strengths so that you can match your weapon to the level of the opponents you are encountering. Weapons of around 4D8, 3D8, 2D8, and 1D8 make a well-rounded array. I don't see naything wrong with really big spell abilities, but don't run them much over 1000 or you may find trouble.

TomZ

Message 8
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Tue Jul 30, 1991 at 15:36 EDT

This topic has been archived and all messages before Jan 1 have been deleted. The archive may be found in Library 36, file 16213.

TomZ

Message 9
A.BEERS1 [allen] — Fri Oct 18, 1991 at 20:12 EDT

Y*h ] hy tom. Is there a key for the chest in Thor's ring.

Message 10
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Sat Oct 19, 1991 at 11:25 EDT

>Allen Beers

Take a closer look at the body in the twice-hidden armory, Allen.

TomZ

Message 11
A.BEERS1 [allen] — Sun Oct 20, 1991 at 08:03 EDT

thanks tom

Message 12
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Tue May 18, 1993 at 09:06 EDT

I'm considering some upgrades for Eamon. I'm wondering if anyone has any good suggestions that they'd like to pass along. Are there flaws that you are aware of that have been overlooked? Would you like to see something different or added to the Main Hall? Does the Dungeon Designer work like you think it should? Do you see any glaring problems with the present command set?

Note that I am not contemplating an upgrade to a GS/OS Eamon system. It will still be ProDOS. Lemme know what you think.

TomZ, Eamon guy

Message 13
B.BAKER22 [Bruce R. B.] — Wed May 26, 1993 at 00:22 EDT

I'm considering some upgrades for Eamon. I'm wondering if anyone has any good suggestions that they'd like to pass along. Are there flaws that you are aware of that have been overlooked? Would you like to see something different or added to the Main Hall? Does the Dungeon Designer work like you think it should? Do you see any glaring problems with the present command set?

My son does like the Graphical Main hall. It is pretty but I had an older 3.3 main hall with a training segment (#7). For some money you could do weapon training. There is a randomness about the cost of the training, figuring in a factor for charisma. Also the amount of skill you increase after the training was random. This program would let your skill go over 100%, this seems a mistake. I only mention this because most of the prodos main halls I have seen do not have the training.

Bruce B
Apple //e

Message 14
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Sat May 29, 1993 at 14:57 EDT

Bruce, I've seen that Main Hall that you referred to (with the weapon training) but it seemingly never really caught on. You have apparently seen quite a few ProDOS Main Halls, while I have only seen two (the one that was here on GEnie before I arrived and the one that I converted from DOS 3.3). Did you find this weapons training to be something really worthwhile?

This brings up something else. It seems like everyone's favorite hobby is doing mods to the Main Hall; I have about a dozen of them that people have sent to me. None of them is as good as the Graphics Main Hall, which is why I never did anything further with them.

Is anybody interested in collecting Main Hall variations? I formed the opinion from my mail that most people blow off the Main Hall and use FRESH.SAM, and that those who do use the Main Hall prefer the Graphics one.

I am =really= interested in getting some feedback on this, if anybody has any opinions on it. If my impressions are wrong, I'd like to correct them.

TomZ

Message 15
D.GRENDA — Mon May 31, 1993 at 23:49 EDT

Hi!

I just wanted to say that I use the Graphics Main Hall when I play Eamon, although I don't play it near enough. I woulddn't really be interested in collecting other Main Halls - although I would be interested in getting a new Graphic Main Hall with more stuff in it. But to be honest, I don't know what should be added. I hope this one vote helps in gathering feedback.

Keep up the SUPER work Tom!!!

Dave Grenda

Message 16
KEN.GAGNE — Tue Oct 19, 1993 at 20:20 EDT

A friend of mine is looking for the seven Eamon translations of the old "Swordthrust" game. Swordthrust was composed of seven adventures, titled King's Testing Ground, The Vampyre Caves, Kidnapper's Cove, Case of the Sultan's Pearl, The Green Plague, The Eternal Curse, and Hall of Alchemie.

Message 17
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Tue Oct 19, 1993 at 22:47 EDT

Ken, there are no Eamon translations for the SwordThrust games that I have ever heard of. Actually, SwordThrust was nothing more than a spiffed-up Eamon system that Donald Brown worked up in order to make money off his Eamon invention. I have even been told that Brown tried to kill Eamon off to eliminate the competition.

I managed to track Brown down and asked him to release the SwordThrusts into the public domain. He said that they weren't his to release, and couldn't tell me who to contact for permission.

Though I've never played SwordThrust, John Nelson tells me that it's nothing more than ordinary Eamon with a couple of extra features and screen formatting. He was there when SwordThrust was developed, so I guess he should know.

If you should discover any "public domain" versions of SwordThrust, proceed with care; they are copyrighted commercial software. There are pirated SwordThrusts floating around.

TomZ