Source:GEnie Apple II RoundTable Bulletin Board, Eamon topic 6

This page is a verbatim reproduction of original source material and should not be edited except for maintenance.
Description	An archive of the 67 messages posted to the GEnie Apple II RoundTable Bulletin Board, category #16 ("Eamon"), topic #6 ("Eamon Descriptions").
Source	Content was retrieved from the text file eamon.02.txt made available by GEnie.
Date	November 1989–August 1995
Author	AllmanBro! (HANGTIME), Tim Buchheim (T.BUCHHEIM), Craig Buback (C.BUBACK), Dean Esmay (A2.DEAN), Chris (K.FLYNN), Ken Gagne (KEN.GAGNE), Tom Gederberg (T.GEDERBERG), Goose (W.GOOSEY), Grinner (GCOURTER), Phil Schulz (P.SCHULZ4), Sheppy (POWERPC.PRO), CHunk Stites (C.STITES), John Yandrasitz (J.YANDRASITZ), and Tom Zuchowski (T.ZUCHOWSKI/A2.TOMZ)
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 5: Eamon Bugs and Fixes
Next item	Topic 7: Known Eamon Library Bugs and Fixes

Topic 6: Eamon Descriptions

Message 1
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TOMZ] — Sat Nov 04, 1989 at 09:22 EST

8496 EAMON.DEMO;BXY: a 'stand-alone' version of Eamon.124, 'Assault on Dolni Keep', by Tom Zuchowski. This disk does not require the master disk but runs without it.

The High-elf Fromir has been kidnaped by orcs and is being held in torment in Dolni Keep, an old Dwarven stronghold that is now held by orcs. Fromir must be rescued, but a frontal assault on the keep would undoubtedly hasten his death. The only hope is stealth; perhaps a small band of worthies could slip into the keep and effect the rescue without raising the alarm. You have been selected to join Gorim the Dwarf and Galehir the Wood-elf in the attempt.

This adventure has a 9.3 rating in the EAG poll.

Message 2
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TOMZ] — Sat Nov 04, 1989 at 09:27 EST

8572 EAMON.114.BXY 'Thror's Ring' by Tom Zuchowski. The War of the Ring is nigh. All of the Rings of Power have been accounted for except the one held by Thror, a Dwarf Lord. Thror was lost in the mines of Moria many years ago. It is your quest to journey into the mines with two sturdy companions,to recover this ring of power.

This adventure has a 9.0 rating in the EAG poll.

Message 3
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TOMZ] — Sat Nov 04, 1989 at 09:37 EST

8640 EAMON.120.BXY 'Orb of My Life' by John Nelson. All of nature has run amok. The royal wizard Sargonne is unable to fight this supernatual assault on the kingdom, for his life-orb has been stolen. Sargonne, near death with his life-orb gone, has commissioned you to find and recover the orb.

This adventure has a 9.0 rating in the EAG poll. It is thick with puzzles and is widely considered to be John's best Eamon.

Message 4
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TOMZ] — Sat Nov 04, 1989 at 09:41 EST

8667 EAMONDESIGN.BXY V6.2: the version 6.2 Dungeon Designer Disk. Contains all the tools required to write, edit, and list Eamon adventures versions 4- 6.2 (versions 1-3 are obsolete and were updated to version 4). Nearly all Eamons written to date are version 4-6.2. Includes a manual that can be dumped to printer.

Message 5
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TOMZ] — Sat Nov 04, 1989 at 09:48 EST

8670 EAMON.074.BXY 'DharmaQuest' by Roger Pender. While overindulging in mead you insult a wizard. He manages to contain his anger, and rather than strike you dead on the spot, he sends you on a quest that, should you survive it, will elevate your brutish warrior mentality to a higher plane. Perhaps you will learn to help others and can conquer 'the warrior within'.

This adventure has a 9.0 rating in the EAG poll, and several levels of questing and thought.

Message 6
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TOMZ] — Sat Nov 04, 1989 at 09:53 EST

8672 EAMONDESIGN.BXY V7.0: the latest version of the Eamon system. Contains the tools required to write version 7 adventures, and to edit and list version 4-7 Eamon adventures. Includes and extensive manual that can be dumped to printer. Version 7 is a major leap forward for Eamon, b; it is MUCH faster, has more options, uses disk space more efficiently, accommodates larger Eamons, and s has many other new features and enhancements. To date there are few version 7 Eamons, but many are presently in the works.

Message 7
A2.DEAN [Library Guy] — Mon Nov 13, 1989 at 15:50 EST

>>> T.ZUCHOWSKI [TOMZ]

One of the things I like about the Graphics-based main hall is that those extra shops allow you to spend the gold your character accumulates on neat things - customized weapons, adding to your skills, your weapon and armor proficiencies, etc. Sure, you could just use a character editor to do this, but it seems more "fun" to "earn" those things with gold and stuff.

Dean Esmay

Message 8
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TOMZ] — Sat Nov 25, 1989 at 15:23 EST

8952 EAMON.162.BXY 'Eamon v7.0 Demo' by Tom Zuchowski. This is not exactly a true Eamon adventure, but is a demonstration adventure that shows many of the new features of the 7.0 MAIN PGM. It is intended to be used by Eamon authors as a working example of proper 7.0 methods and protocols (a picture is worth a thousandwords!). It has approximately 18 rooms, 150 artifacts, and 800 monsters. The only quest is to discover the way out and return to the Main Hall. But in doing so, you will have experienced many of the new 7.0 features, including new commands, machine-language array searches, synonym checking, standardized abbreviation handling, accurate line counting, multiple-monsters (including a 750-man army), a much-improved hidden-door system, and much, much more!

It is also hoped that experiencing the smoothness of play brought about by the improvements in speed and player interface will motivate prospective authors to choose version 7 over older versions. To date there have been only 2 7.0 Eamons released. It is a little more difficult to learn the 7.0 system because of its more-complex protocols, but at the same time it is more difficult to write a bad adventure because the 7.0 system requires more organization in the database. One of the just-released 7.0 adventures is from a first-time Eamon author, and yet it is receiving wide praise for its seamless structure and smoothness of play.

Message 9
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Message 10
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TOMZ] — Thu Dec 28, 1989 at 21:24 EST

9370 EAMON.078.BXY 'The Prince's Tavern' by Bob Davis. The King asks you to go to his son the Prince's tavern to find and bring back a 600-year-old bottle of Scotch. Since you have no choice, you agree. In asking directions, you learn that the tavern has more than its share of strange beings and strange happenings.

This adventure is a true medieval-type quest that also contains a lot of silliness and general fun. It has a 9.0 rating in the EAG poll. Playing time will be 2-3 hours.

Message 11
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TOMZ] — Sat Jan 13, 1990 at 22:57 EST

9611 EAMON.129.BXY 'Return to Moria' by Sam Ruby Come enter the Mines of Moria yet again in this sequel to #108. This adventure is a solid offering that provides both hack-and-slash and problem solving. The monsters are tough, the fighting tense and deadly. There are three quests here, all of crucial importance if the stronghold of Gondor is not to fall to the Dark Lord. The situation is very dark, and none but the highest of heroism may save the day!

This adventure is rich in the lore of LOTR, with extensive background in the introduction and more in separate programs that describe Middle-Earth. This is the Eamon that put Sam Ruby 'on the map' as one of the great authors of Eamon. Playing time will run from 6 hours up; Moria is no playground for sissies and you may meet death many times, and the puzzles are many and detailed. It includes a lower-case option for the very long and detailed introduction. This adventure has an 8 rating in the EAG poll.

Message 12
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TOMZ] — Wed Jan 17, 1990 at 23:15 EST

1. 9646 EAMON.P.148.BXY 'Journey to Jotunheim' by Tom Zuchowski. The TIME of Ragnarok of nigh, and things are going badly. Among other difficulties, Thor's Hammer has been stolen, and none but he may stand against his appointed enemies on the Last Day. Join the gods in a journey of desperation as they travel to the abode of the giants in a bid to find and recover the lost hammer Mjollnir.

This adventure has been extensively modified from the Dos 3.3 version to take advantage of ProDOS. This adventure has a special extended noun parser that will recognize and give information about virutally everything that is mentioned in the descriptions, as well as the usual artifacts and monsters. It offers the option of using either 40 or 80 columns. Playing time will be approximately 1 hour. This adventure has an 8.3 rating in the EAG poll.

Message 13
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Fri Jan 26, 1990 at 20:43 EST

1. 9809 'FutureQuest II' by Roger Pender. It is the 35th century and the fighting is bitter and the advances slow in the war to free Earth's colonies, and now a Krell scientist, Mordir Kang, has developed a doomsday device: the Zontar ray machine. Your mission is to locate Kang's secret base, kill him, steal the plans to the ray machine and destroy the device itself. This has many puzzles and tough fighting, and has lots of nifty extras. Pay attention to everything you read and remember that the SAY command is used to activate everything. It has an 8.0 rating in the EAG poll, with a playing time of 4-5 hours.

Use of the SAY command is somewhat of a Pender trademark; apparently he had done several major Eamons before he figured out how to add new commands to an adventure. :-) This is generally agreed to be the best sci-fi Eamon ever done.

Message 14
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Fri Jan 26, 1990 at 20:46 EST

(9811) EAMON.160.BXY 'Monty Python & the Holy Grail' by Nathan Segerlind. This Eamon adventure will be enjoyed by any Monty Python fan. It follows the movie of the same name for the most part, with some deviations that are in line with the Python spirit. This adventure is similar to the earlier 'Holy Grail' Eamon, but this one uses the version 6.0 MAIN.PGM and thus is a bit more user-friendly. It has a 7.0 rating in the EAG poll.

Message 15
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Fri Mar 30, 1990 at 19:54 EST

Eamon.016 'The Caves of Mondamen' by John Nelson. An evil king in another kingdom is plotting to conquer the world. To ensure his success, he has kidnapped the daughter of a neighboring king, and commissioned an evil wizard to conjure forth Vaprak, a very powerful demon whose powers would make the conquests certain. Your mission: rescue the princess and stop the wizard from summoning Vaprak. Thee's a good chance that you will not be in time to prevent Vaprak's appearance; in that case you must find a way to banish the demon as well. Vaprak is a supernatural foe who cannot be defeated by ordinary means; be ready when you encounter him!

This is an astonishingly good play, when you consider that it was one of the first Eamons. For years John Nelson was the acknowledged Master of Eamon, and this was the adventure that 'put him on the map'. It has an 8.0 rating in the EAG poll.

Message 16
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Fri Apr 06, 1990 at 20:21 EDT

ProDOS Eamon Graphics Main Hall by Rick Volberding. This version of the Main Hall is done in Hi-Res graphics in an 'overhead' mode similar to the old Epyx adventures, but of higher quality. Besides the shops of the regular Main Hall, there is an adjacent village with a half-dozen more shops where you can commission special weapons, hire teachers to improve your skills, gamble, and more! This is a very popular program and is generally preferred over the original.

There is no 'Beginners Cave' on this disk; Eamon #191 is recommended. There will be room on a 5.25 disk for ProDOS and BASIC.SYSTEM so you can make it a bootable Master; a STARTUP program is on the disk and is the proper way to start this program. To transfer your regular character to this hall, use option 4 of the regular master or else copy the CHARACTERS file from your old Master to this one.

This program uses both hi-res screens and the top 8K of memory for machine- code extensions and shape tables and requires the maximum free memory available under ProDOS8 (HIMEM must equal $9600 (38400)). Memory-resident extensions (like DOGPAW) are not permitted. If you don't know what I am talking about, don't worry about it; you probably aren't using any extensions. In any event the Graphics Main Hall does its own memory checks and won't run unless the memory is available, so you can't hurt anything.

There are about a dozen small programs that CHAIN one another, and disk delays can become rather noticeable if you are using a 5.25 drive if you spend a lot of time perusing the shops. I recommend that you load it into a /RAM drive if you plan to spend a lot of time in the Main Hall. However, if you are merely using it to launch an adventure, don't bother; disk access will be minimal if you stay out of the shops.

Here's a hint for cash-strapped adventurers: try betting a negative amount at the Casino! (Remember, the limit is 200, and -10,000 is less than 200!) *8-)

Message 17
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Sat May 12, 1990 at 11:35 EDT

Recent Eamon uploads:

Eamon.074 'DHarmaQuest' (wasalready available in DOS 3.3 library) A quest with many levels of thought and a good play.

Eamon.100 'Sorceror's Spire by John Nelson-best magic in Eamon! Lots of very subtle puzzles; not for the 'hack'n'slash' crowd.

Eamon.124 'Assault on Dolni Keep' by me-was already available as EAMON.DEMO in DOS 3.3 library) Unique in Eamon for having companions that indulge in independent thought and action; the player is a member of a TEAM and not absolute dictator to his companions.

TomZ

Message 18
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Tue May 29, 1990 at 17:40 EDT

The long-awaited Eamon Dungeon Designer Disk is now available in ProDOS. This is a conversion of the version 7.0 DDD and contains all the tools needed to initialize, edit, and list Eamon adventures. The programs here are optimized for actually writing and maintaining Eamon adventure databases. It includes a 16-page author's manual that describes the data types and program routines in detail.

At present I have no plans to convert the version 6.2 Eamon DDD to ProDOS. All the needed tools to edit 6.2 and earlier Eamons exist on the 7.0 DDD. If someone wants to write a 6.2 Eamon rather than a 7.0, all you need do is generate the EAMON.NAME file, which I would be happy to describe to anyone who wants to know. It's easy.

However, version 7.0 has a lot more 'horsepower', as #162 demonstrates. Version 7.0 Eamons generally get good reviews because they are a lot friendlier to the player than earlier versions.

PLEASE let me know any problems that you find in the ProDOS DDD so that we can get them fixed ASAP.

TomZ, Eamon guy

Message 19
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Tue Jul 03, 1990 at 16:38 EDT

Eamon.161 'Operation Endgame' by Sam Ruby.

The war against the Breakers is going badly. To make matters worse, word has come that the Breakers have managed to assemble a nuclear missile and plan to use it to win the war. You are the leader of the crack Special Forces team that gets the job: take out that missile. If it flies, millions will die.

This is a very large adventure: 182 rooms and at least that many special effects. It is _very_ realistic and becomes more so when you realize that Sam has mapped out the entire enemy fortification, and you will only see perhaps half of those rooms in the course of a successful mission. Every detail is carefully thought out and artfully presented.

This realism means that it is also very unforgiving. This is a covert mission within an enemy fortress and death awaits every false move. You can expect to die at least a couple of times and you will die a LOT if you proceed carelessly. To offset this, this ProDOS version offers 2 simultaneous game saves that can be restarted at will. But it _is_ fair. Every death trap can be avoided if you read carefully and think before you act.

This may well be my favorite Eamon and it is nearly the only one that I often replay for fun. Every time I play it I enjoy it a little more, like a complex movie that requires more than one screening to catch all the nuances. Sam's inspiration for this Eamon was the movie 'Predator'--not for the plot (no monsters here) but for the larger-than-life heroes on your team. A successful mission is very satisfying. Great fun!

Message 20
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Sun Jul 08, 1990 at 19:11 EDT

Eamon.069 'The Black Castle of NaGog' by Doug Burrows.

You have been sent into the abandoned Castle NaGog to recover a golden statue of the demon Demogorgon. This statue is needed to exorcise Demogorgon from a great warrior who has become possesed by him.

This dungeon has a lot of good puzzles and fighting and stuff. It is well done; too bad Doug only did this one Eamon. It has one feature that is not well explained, however: the SEARCH command. This command is used to find secret doors and artifacts that are embedded in the room descriptions. For example, a room might mention something unsusual about one wall. The command LOOK won't find a thing, but SEARCH WALL might find a secret passage. In like manner, artifacts mentioned in the room description _may_ be 'real', but LOOK or EXAMINE (ARTIFACT) won't find it. Instead you must SEARCH (ARTIFACT).

If you don't understand how SEARCH works, this adventure is very frustrating and in fact impossible, but if you can effectively use SEARCH, it is fun to play.

TomZ, Eamon guy

Message 21
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Mon Jul 16, 1990 at 18:25 EDT

Eamon.047 'FutureQuest', by Roger Pender.

The year is 4099, and the Earth is ground under the heel of the K'lor Zanth Empire. A secret resistance movement, headed by Eldrith Trai, the Time Master, has probed back in time to find great warriors to aid in the fight. The time for rebellion is ripe; you have been awarded the task of assassinating the Emperor. If you succeed, the Empire will be thrown into chaos and the Earth can break free!

Your crude armor has been replaced with the latest, light-weight ceram-plast body armor. Your helmet contains IR and UV sensors, scanners, ID beacon, radio, computer, and radar. All the systems are activated by you using mind- link through the helmet computer, an Apple CLVII-R with a 650002P chip. It will interface you to all the devices you may encounter.

You are presently in orbit around the planet Xylanth in the Rigel system. As the emperor is on the planet Klytron in the Betelgeuse system, you must first find a way to steal a ship or teleport there.

This is a really well-done SF Eamon. No one has a better mastery of the genre than Roger, and this adventure is loaded with nifty SF stuff. You have access to all the hardware named above and must use it efficiently to complete your mission. Lots of neat new commands and responses to reflect the setting.

Message 22
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Wed Jul 25, 1990 at 07:40 EDT

The Graphics Main Hall has been re-uploaded with a bug fix (See Top7) and some player interface improvements.

The startup screen can now be gotten past with any key. There were some changes to the 'modification notes' as well. The menu of available directories that is displayed when launching an adventure has been modified to use the arrow keys instead of the spacebar, so that you can now forward and reverse-scroll the menu bar.

TomZ

Message 23
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Wed Oct 10, 1990 at 21:37 EDT

ALL Eamons on Genie are available in ProDOS. In fact, there is almost nothing Eamon in the DOS 3.3 library at all.

All GEnie ProDOS Eamons say "ProDOS" in both the short and long descriptions. All the GEnie DOS 3.3 Eamon stuff says "DOS 3.3" in both short and long descriptions too. Also, all ProDOS Eamons use the format EAMON.P.###,BXY, where the DOS 3.3 stuff says EAMON.###.BXY.

TomZ

Message 24
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Thu Nov 15, 1990 at 10:52 EST

Note that #13826 and #13827, Eamons #80 and #81, are meant to be played together. These adventures actually comprise a single adventure that was too big to fit on a single 5.25 disk. This adventure is really old and is the first multi-disk Eamon, and it received two numbers because it didn't occur to anyone at the time that both disks could be listed under a single number. Well, what's done is done, and it's too late to change it now. These two _can_ be played separately, but you won't enjoy them as much.

BTW, Eamons 79-81 don't represent recent Don Brown Eamons, but are revisions of some "Tournament" Eamons that Don wrote a _long_ time ago. They used to be listed separately, but when they were changed into regular Eamons they finally got regular numbers.

TomZ

Message 25
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Sun Nov 18, 1990 at 08:02 EST

Eamon.117, 'Dungeon of Doom', by Dan Knezek, has been uploaded in two separate versions. The better version is #13973, which requires 80-column, lower-case display. The entire adventure uses this format and it is very well executed with an excellent player interface. This version has been converted to ProDOS and is in library 33 (ProDOS games).

For those who don't have 80-columns and/or lower-case capability, file 13974 uses 40-col., upper-case only in the same manner that most Eamons use. Still, it has a lot of nice features, and other than the display is exactly the same game as the 80-col. version. This version is still in DOS 3.3 (anyone who can't use the 80-col. version is gonna hate ProDOS anyway). It is available in library 42 (DOS 3.3 games). Note that this version _requires_ that DOS 3.3 be present on the disk; if you don't have DOS 3.3 you can get it from library 1 here on GEnie.

'Dungeon of Doom' is rated 8.0 in the EAG poll, and is a good play. You are tasked to find and recover the fabled BLACK SWORD, and must win your way past a number of obstacles to do so.

One hint: TIME is important to you early in the game.

TomZ

Message 26
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Mon Jan 07, 1991 at 20:46 EST

Eamon.149 'Elemental Apocalypse', by Sam Ruby, has just been uploaded. This is the largest Eamon that has ever been done, with nearly 400 rooms and an incredible array of puzzles and mini-quests set in several different lands. Rated 7.8 in the EAG poll, it begins at a very easy level and progresses to the point where simple survival requires careful planning and some luck.

To put the story simply, the evil Element Lords have escaped from their dimensional prison and are running amuck in the land. You, as usual, have been tasked to find them and to destroy them. See the file descriptions for a few more details.

It is a 4-part adventure. Each part is an Eamon adventure in its own right, but the parts link to one another rather than to the Main Hall. For example, once you enter Part II, the only place you can go from there is on to Part III. However, once your data has been transferred to the next part, there is can easily restart the current part that you are playing.

Also, each part has its own Save function. This is another bonus; if you should decide that you missed something in an earlier part, you can restart the earlier one and resume the last Saved Game that you left there.

There is LOTS more to be said about this adventure. Every section has its own SOLUTIONS file that offers a progression of hints and outright answers if you get stuck. There are lots of very special magic weapons and armors that you will find very useful in certain situations. It does something really unique with your character: to ensure that everyone starts off even, it doesn't use your character, but allows you to select from a 'Rogues Gallery' of special characters (your own character is returned unharmed to the Main Hall).

This Eamon is uploaded in 4 separate files: 14342 thru 14345. You need all 4 parts to play it. Each part requires its own 5.25 disk or its own folder if on a bigger disk. It has been archived in folders to simplify unpacking on big disks.

I really enjoyed this one; I hope that you do too!

Message 27
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Tue Jul 30, 1991 at 16:25 EDT

EAMON.001.BXY: ProDOS Eamon Master, aka Main Hall. This contains the Main Hall, where your Eamon character "stays" between adventures. Eamon adventures must be launched from the Master. In order to begin, run the program named EAMON.MASTER. The Master also includes an extensive player's manual, character editor, and several utility programs. Also includes the "Beginners Cave", which offers a VERY simple introduction to Eamon adventuring.

The Master was upgraded in late May, and now uses lower-case text (if it detects a II+, the player is given the option of using upper-case text). It also has much-improved menus in the adventure launcher, menuing available drives and offering more options; it is no longer to type any part of the pathname, although that is still available as an option.

Message 28
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Tue Jul 30, 1991 at 16:34 EDT

EAMON.GMH.BXY: ProDOS Eamon Graphics Main Hall, by Rick Volberding. This is an alternate ProDOS Master disk that may be used in place of EAMON.001. It includes the "Beginners Cave" adventure, but does not have the character editor nor player manual. This Main Hall uses a hi-res display to depict an expanded Main Hall and a village that has many more shops. The display uses an "overhead view" similar to the old Epyx adventures, but it is somewhat more detailed. This Master is very popular, offering many ways for you to legitimately spend your hard-earned loot on character improvements and better weapons instead of "cheating" by using the character editor. Try this Master from a RAMdisk!

This Master was upgraded in late May with the same improved adventure launcher now offered on the regular Master. It menus available drives and offers better menu options, so that it is not now necessary to type any part of the adventure pathname.

Message 29
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Wed Oct 02, 1991 at 22:28 EDT

Eamon has evolved a LOT in the past few years. Lots of people looked at it long ago, or looked at a primitive version that dates from the early days. We thought that it was about time that we put together a couple of collections to demonstrate where Eamon is at these days.

For our October promotion, I put together two collections. These are all 80- column mixed-case ProDOS adventures. Note that these collections are quite large and you will need a 3.5 disk even to download them:

Message 30
HANGTIME [AllmanBro!] — Thu Oct 03, 1991 at 01:26 EDT

Wow! I haven't played an Eamon for about 6 years! Guess who's going to check out your Best Of files <grin>. Thanks for putting together some of the best stuph the EAG has to offer, it'll be neat to try out some Eamons in ProDOS and not have to start up my 5.25 just to play a game. HangTime [Script-Central] B-)>

Message 31
J.YANDRASITZ — Tue Oct 08, 1991 at 02:48 EDT

Tom Z.,

A couple of messages back you mentioned the collections and 80 column. Are these 80 column _required_ or 80 column optional. This is of interest, since most of the Eamon playing here is by my son using the IIe connected to a television.

- John Y.

Message 32
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Tue Oct 08, 1991 at 09:40 EDT

>>>John Y.

Yes John, the Eamon collections that we are pushing right now REQUIRE 80- columns. There are both 40 and 80-col. adventures in the Eamon library, however. Easiest thing for you to do is go to library 36, do a search on the keyword EAMON, and capture the resulting list. This list will be organized numerically and the 80-col. Eamons will be listed ahead of the 40-col. ones. Then you can use the Eamon list (file 14580) to decide which to download. Note that we are using this naming convention: 40-col Eamons are named EAMON.P.000.BXY and 80-col versions are named EAMON.000.BXY.

Both of the Eamon Master/Main Halls available here are in 40-col.

Currently there are 16 80-col. Eamons and about 80 40-col. Eamons in the library, so you've got a lot of choices. If you require or want to get 40- col. Eamons that are only available in 80-col., or if you want DOS 3.3 versions (over 200 Eamons are available in DOS 3.3), you can get them from all of the outfits that advertise in Incider such as Christella, CBS, Continental, Caloke, etc.

We made a conscious decision to delete the 40-col. versions as 80-col. versions are uploaded, to minimize confusion. If enough people want the 40- col. versions too, let me know and we'll see what Dean says about it.

TomZ

Message 33
J.YANDRASITZ — Tue Oct 15, 1991 at 02:29 EDT

TomZ,

My vote is to keep the 40 column versions around if we can. Actually, my wish would be if they could all be 40 / 80 column versions with the choice up to the player, but I guess that's a lot of work. I've seen at least one like that though ... was it ' Dolni Keep?

- John Y.

Message 34
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Fri Oct 18, 1991 at 10:28 EDT

Eamon.107 'The Last Dragon' by Roger Pender. Dark times have come upon the Free Adventurers of the world: all the dragons have been slain! Nevermore will an Adventurer win fortune or a damsel by battling a Great Dragon. But what's this? You hear of a Brotherhood that is pledged to bring back the dragon for the good of Adventuring. You join that brotherhood and journey to meet the Last Dragon in the world. Or is it? It's up to you to make the right moves, or this dragon will be the last!

This adventure has just been re-uploaded in 80-col. format. Several bugs were fixed and some more speed-up mods were added as well. This is one of Roger's best Eamons, with an excellent balance of combat and puzzling with lots of special stuff thrown in. Roger has a gift for conveying the grimness or exhilaration of a situation that greatly adds to the play. Don't miss this one!

Message 35
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Fri Oct 18, 1991 at 10:29 EDT

The EAG Eamon Utilities have just been re-uploaded with a new program: UNIV.CHECK.FILE. This program is capable of verifying the data files of all EAG ProDOS Eamon adventures (except for #204 which is wildly non-standard). It replaces the old CHECK.FILES program, which performed the same task but only worked with version 4-6 Eamons that had standard file formats. The new program checks for the non-standard ones and modifies itself accordingly.

This program verifies EAMON.NAME, EAMON.ROOMS, EAMON.ROOM.NAME, EAMON.DESC, and (optionally) EAMON.ARTIFACTS and EAMON.MONSTERS. It does not check any additional data files that might exist in customized Eamons. NOTE: all of the text files must be in the same folder or the program will give a verify error! Remember this when checking multi-5.25 disk adventures.

There are a couple dozen other programs in this file which can do many different tasks for you, from changing file formatting to repairing bad records. Most of them will only be of interest to Eamon authors, but there's good stuff there for everyone.

TomZ

Message 36
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Tue Nov 19, 1991 at 08:21 EST

EAMON.147.BXY 'The Dark Brotherhood', by Pat Hurst, has been re-uploaded in 80-column, mixed-case format. Here's an excerpt from the introduction:

"Mighty Phrax, god of the Underworld, Shepherd of the flocks of the Dead, is angered. Some Evil of this plane seeks to usurp his power. This Evil must be sought out and destoryed before the wrath of Phrax engulfs us all. He has loosed the Dead Legions to kill indiscriminately until he has regained what is his-the reservoir of his power and the bulwark of his strength-the legendary Shroud of Phrax!

"This adventure is quite dangerous as the Adventurer will be dealing with the Undead (hard to kill and in some cases drain life energy), Spellcasters (easier to kill but have offensive spells that penetrate armor), and gods (impossible to kill and awesome in attack). Any life energy that is drained away is lost forever."

This is a very superior adventure. It operates at several subtle levels, judging your performance and varying the final confrontation to fit your actions. Pat Hurst, long-time D&D gamer and college professor, has written one of my personal favorite Eamons. This high opinion is shared by many Eamon players, as this adventure is the 9th highest-rated Eamon of all time. Playing time of 23 hours.

Message 37
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Tue Nov 19, 1991 at 08:22 EST

EAMON.206.BXY 'Curse of the Hellsblade', by John Nelson and Tom Zuchowski, has been converted to 80-column, mixed-case format. This adventure was originally written by John for a different gaming system, and has been rewritten by me into a standard Eamon adventure.

In this adventure, you happily discover a magical sword that is a wonderful weapon in battle. But wait-you can't control it! It kills anyone who comes near, and it won't let go of your hand! So you set out on a quest to discover a way, not only to rid yourself of the sword, but to find a place where it won't be a danger to the local populace. You hear word of the cave where the sword originally came from....

This adventure has a lot of the flavor of a Nelson adventure, since he wrote 80% of the map and various denizens. I supplied much of the plot and reworked it into the very-friendly version 7.0 format. I think that you'll enjoy this one! Playing time of 2 hours.

Message 38
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Tue Nov 19, 1991 at 08:23 EST

EAMON.169.BXY 'The Black Phoenix', by Roger Pender, has been re-uploaded in 80-column, mixed-text format. Here's a condensation of the introduction:

"After a struggle of nearly 300 years, Sol system has been devastated, but the fight goes on. It is now 5688, and the Star League and Procyon Confederation are locked in mortal combat on the planet Apollonia in the Epsilon Indi star system. You are a member of the Special Forces team of the 101st, nicknamed the "Black Phoenix". You find yourself orbiting Apollonia in the troop carrier Sulu Sea, receiving final instructions before you frop to the surface. As you step into the drop capsule, the technician gives you a thumbs-up sign. You are on your way to hell with the Black Phoenix."

There's lots more in a great story history that manages to mention just about every star that has ever been used in a science fiction story <grin>. This adventure has all of the usual trademarks of a Pender SF adventure: personal computer, menu-driven options, etc. There are 6 "missions" that you and your team of on-the-bounce fighters must complete; they begin with a simple reconnoiter and progress up to a very rough "hold until relieved" firefight. It has lots of neat special effects such as air strikes and artillery. Each mission has a small puzzle or two to solve, but the main point here is Space Opera, and nobody does it better than Roger. This adventure has a 7.8 rating (with 10 highest) in the EAG poll. Playing time is 2 hours or so.

Message 39
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Sun Jan 26, 1992 at 08:58 EST

Eamon.150 'Walled City of Darkness' by Tom Zuchowski The patron god of the city has been cast down by his ancient enemy, a god of evil whose name is not spoken for fear of invoking him. The darkness that seals the city is the evil one's work, and soon all will be pulled down to doom. The city's only hope is that a champion will appear who has the wit and worth to win the trappings of a god, and banish the Nameless to the pit whence he came. Needless to say, you are nominated. <grin>

I think that this Eamon is my personal favorite among my own adventures. It's a puzzler's delight, with many pieces to put together before you finally attain the godhood required to defeat the bad guy. Even if you know all the steps, it takes a couple of hours to play; if you must work it out as you go, it'll take much longer! There are many strong clues to help give you direction and an astrologer who you can consult for game hints.

I would very much like to hear from anyone who completes this adventure. Heck, I'm even good for a hint or two if you get stuck.

TomZ

Message 40
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Fri Mar 13, 1992 at 09:02 EST

The latest 80-col. conversion is file 17992 EAMON.204.BXY, 'Sanctuary', by Sam Ruby. In my opinion this is the best Eamon ever written. Sam has done things with artifact handling and combat that you won't see in any other Eamon adventure. For example, one of its many new features is 'ranged combat' in which you may find yourself pinned down by enemy bowmen who are too far away to hit with your sword. In this case, you put your sword in its scabbard, ready your bow, and pull one of several types of magic arrows from your quiver.

The puzzles are quite complex and up to Sam's incredibly high standards. But if you aren't a puzzler or if you can't solve them, Sam includes a very complete SOLUTIONS program that offers a succession of hints and recommendations that progress up to outright solutions of each puzzle. The SAVE command is exceptionally friendly and lets you save two games at once.

The story in a nutshell is this: many years ago your people were driven from their homeland by an evil race. Time has passed and it is now time to fight to recover your home. But before this may be done, the magical Staff of Retribution must be recovered from the ruins of Sanctuary, the old temple. But Sanctuary is in enemy hands and the Staff is well hidden. Can you find it and save your people?

This is a GREAT Eamon! It doesn't get any better than this!

TomZ

Message 41
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Fri Oct 09, 1992 at 21:21 EDT

After much labor, virtually all Eamons rated 6.0 and higher are now converted to ProDOS and uploaded here to GEnie. This amounts to some 110 Eamon adventures, almost exactly half the full list of 220 Eamons. Of this group, to date 27 of the best ones have been fully converted to 80-col., lower-case-with-capitalization text.

Now I have resumed converting the best Eamons to 80-col. lower-case text. I intend to continue grinding out one every week or so, converting all Eamons that rate 7.0 or better. This rate will vary somewhat, as some Eamons are considerably more difficult to convert to clean 80-col. text than others are. I've been putting off "Storm Breaker" and "Buccaneer!", both of which are near the Top Ten in the ratings, because they will both be major undertakings.

The first 80-col. Eamon in this new group is Eamon #132 "Rhadshur Warrior", by Roger Pender. This adventure is set in a future world of Eamon in which technology and magic have melded into a single discipline called "Rhadshur". You are a member of the elite Rhadshur Warrior class, a master of combat, science, and high mental disciplines.

An experiment has gone awry, and a hole has opened up between Eamon and an evil universe. The Mystics of this evil world are holding the hole open and doing much damage to Eamon and its denizens. The only one with the power to close the hole is Threndor Tokas, direct descendant of the legendary Hokas Tokas. But the Mystics have stolen Tokas' Life Orb, and he lies near death.

Three Rhadshur Warriors have been sent into the evil realm-- none have returned. You are now selected to follow them through the hole, to work with your Seeker robot to track down and recover the Life Orb. But once you cross the threshold, you soon find that the situation has deteriorated....

Roger Pender writes Really Good Stuff. Like many of his Eamons, this one includes a special "interface" with the Seeker through which you can do many things. The puzzles are interesting, and there are several plot developments as you progress. Though it rates 7.9 overall, it's a personal favorite of mine and I give it a rating of 9.0.

TomZ

Message 42
W.GOOSEY [Goose] — Sat Oct 10, 1992 at 11:13 EDT

Tom,

Sounds to me like you don't get anywhere near the 'thanks' you deserve for all the work in preserving and improving the Eamon adventures. I can't sit still for more than five minutes so I never get very far in ANY adventure game, but I've been collecting EAMONS for a while now from various sources, hoping that I'll eventually slow down to the point where I can enjoy them. I'm sure I'll _really_ appreciate your efforts when that time comes.

What are the TOP TEN eamons? I guess I'd better make sure I have the best ones around. How long would you think that the novice should take to finish one? I know this varies, but is it comparable to the marathons needed for some commercial adventures or can they be accomplished in just a few sittings?

Goose - Prime Librarian

Message 43
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Tue Nov 03, 1992 at 14:05 EST

A very remarkable Eamon has just been converted to 80-col. format for ProDOS: file 19648 EAMON.145.BXY, 'Buccaneer!', by Pat Hurst.

In this adventure, you happen to be in the waterfront district of the port city of Evenhold on the day that the dread pirate Henre Le Marque is scheduled to be hanged. You attend the hanging; Le Marque is quite unrepentant, taunting the crowd with hints of the whereabouts of his fabled treasure. You are intrigued, and resolve to obtain a ship and crew and voyage on the high seas in search of the booty.

The adventure is in two parts. In Part One, the events described in the above paragraph take place. In Part Two, you actually put to sea to explore the many islands of the Malphigian Sea. Part Two is a lot of fun. You will encounter sea monsters, pirates, and storms, and each island is a unique society to discover and trade with. The sea battles are well done and unlike anything else in Eamon.

Pat Hurst is a master of description and detail. The waterfront is very realistic and believeable, as are the islands. The puzzles are very well done, with nested clues and numerous sources of hints.

This is a rather large Eamon. It has been uploaded in a single large archive for 3.5 drives and larger, but it has been designed to be split into the two parts for play on systems that only have one or two 5.25 drives.

If you only have one or two 5.25 drives on your system, there is a short program included in the archive that describes how to split the Eamon into Part One and Part Two on two 5.25 diskettes. The program is named TWODISK.XFER. Unpack this one program and run it before unpacking the rest of the archive.

It uses 80-col. lower-case-with-capitalization text, and an 80-col. card is REQUIRED. (The Videx standard is supported for II+ users.) It requires the ProDOS Eamon Master to play.

TomZ Eamon guy

Message 44
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Wed Nov 11, 1992 at 17:21 EST

EAMON.121.BXY 'Wrenhold's Secret Vigil', by Bob Davis, has been re- uploaded in 80-col. lower-case format.

The land is troubled, crops razed, people hurt and killed by the most timid of creatures. No one knows what is wrong, or why. Master Wrenhold, the court wizard, was working on the problem when he lost his life-orb. Your mission is to find Wrenhold's life-orb, or better yet, eliminate the travesty that plagues the kingdom. You will be well-paid if you succeed.

This adventure has a 8.3 rating in the EAG poll (on a scale of 1-10 with 10 highest). It has been described as a 'novel in adventure form'. It has the wickedest maze that I have ever seen. It is quite notable for its seamless and subtle structure, which you may not even notice but which definitely enhances player enjoyment.

TomZ, Eamon guy

Message 45
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Sun Jan 17, 1993 at 11:28 EST

Eamon.166 'Storm Breaker' by Sam Ruby has just been re-uploaded in full mixed-case-text Videx-compatible 80-column format: Just as you make port, a terrible storm arises that sinks your ship, and you find yourself trapped, penniless and weaponless, in a city that is in Big Trouble. In your wanderings within the city, you discover that the Storm Bringer, one of the old gods, has awakened from a 1000-year sleep within a tower in the city. The Storm Bringer has the usual ego problems of the typical minor god and has brought the city to its knees in the first step in gaining domination over the land. As usual, it is up to you to do something about it!

In my opinion this is one of the best Eamons ever done; certainly it may be the most complex, with 195 rooms, 125 special effects, and loads of intricate puzzles. The plot is very rich and 100% original; as you solve each puzzle, you learn about the Storm Bringer and slowly learn what is needed to destroy him. Besides minor god and citizens, there are giants, dwarves, undead, evil cultists, dangerous animals, even a dragon; incredibly, they all fit the story! The playing time is 5-10 hours, depending on how often you use the included SOLUTIONS program for hints when you get stuck. It has an 8.5 rating in the EAG poll.

It has been uploaded in a single large folder. If you are unpacking to 5.25 disks, you will have to split the files onto two 5.25 diskettes; first unpack the file UNPACKING.INFO (included with the upload) for directions on how to do this.

TomZ, Eamon guy

Message 46
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Thu Apr 01, 1993 at 11:08 EST

EAMON.019.BXY 'Death Trap' by John Nelson, has been re-uploaded in 80-col. mixed-case format. In this Eamon adventure, you bet a rival 20,000 gold pieces that you can explore a very deadly cave and survive to tell about it. This cave will require all the wit and cunning that you have, and will definitely test your skills as a warrior. Bring your tactical nukes along; some of the Bad Guys are really tough dudes. This 10-direction adventure has a high difficulty rating because whipping the tough guys can be a job. There's tons of special stuff and several extra commands. Though the combat is grueling, several tough foes are pushovers if you are smart enough to figure out their weaknesses! Rated 7.5 in the EAG poll (on a scale of 1-10 with 10 highest). Like all of our 80-col. ProDOS adventures, an 80-col. card is REQUIRED. Videx is supported. As always, it requires the ProDOS Eamon Master to play.

TomZ, Eamon guy

Message 47
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Thu Apr 01, 1993 at 11:09 EST

EAMON.160.BXY 'Monty Python & the Holy Grail', by Nathan Segerlind, has been re-uploaded in 80-col. mixed-case format. This Eamon adventure will be enjoyed by any Monty Python fan. It follows the movie of the same name for the most part, with some deviations that are in line with the Python spirit. Yes, you too can be insulted by foul-mouthed Frenchmen, peruse the Book of Armaments, visit Castle Arrrrrrrgh, and match wits with "Tim". This adventure is similar to Eamon #037, an earlier 'Holy Grail' Eamon, but this one uses the version 6.0 MAIN.PGM and thus is a bit more user-friendly. It has a 7.0 rating in the EAG poll (on a scale of 1-10 with 10 highest).

TomZ, Eamon guy

Message 48
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Tue Apr 20, 1993 at 07:51 EDT

EAMON.183 'The Boy and the Bard' by Sam Ruby, has been re-uploaded in 80- col. ProDOS format.

You were orphaned at an early age, and were taken under the wing of the village Bard, a powerful musical magician. The Bard gave you magical musical instruments and taught you how to play some simple spells on them. One day, the Bard was killed by an evil bandit named Kroger. Enraged, you set out to avenge his death, though you were but a small boy. Kroger's men captured you, took your instruments, and laughed as they sent you away.

Six years have passed. One day, you chance to overhear where your instruments were cached. Older now but still desiring revenge, you resolve to recover your instruments and kill Kroger.

Sam Ruby is arguably the best Eamon author of all time; his plot and play is fine-tuned to a nicety, his stories steeped in rich detail and genuine storylines. This Eamon is one of Sam's better ones, with a good story and many excellent puzzles. It utilizes Sam's special artifact handling features, adding a wealth of realism to the play. If the puzzles are more difficult than you desire to solve, Sam has included a SOLUTIONS program that provides hints that progress to outright solutions of each puzzle. It has an 7.8 rating in the EAG poll.

Message 49
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Sat Jul 10, 1993 at 14:43 EDT

Eamon.021 'The Quest for Marron' by John Nelson has now been uploaded in 80- col. lower-case-text format. The only person who can cure your friend's madness is Marron, a wise old man who lives somewhere in the mountains. You bind her in chains and a canvas bag, and set out in search of Marron. The madness is contagious, and you will not return if you do not succeed!

Actually, it's not all that hard to cure your friend with no danger to yourself if you find and correctly interpret the clues. However, this is a very old adventure and the clue triggers sometimes require full commands even though shortened commands appear to work. In other words, while the command EXA ALT may appear to work OK, the command EXAMINE ALTAR may reveal a hidden clue.

Playing hints: always type full commands; EXAMINE may give you different results than LOOK; remember USE, watch for hidden doors.

Rated 7.0 in the EAG poll (on a scale of 1-10 with 10 highest). Uses 80-col. LC text; an 80-col. card is REQUIRED. Videx is supported. Requires the ProDOS Eamon Master to play.

TomZ

Message 50
C.BUBACK [Craig] — Wed Nov 17, 1993 at 19:50 EST

>>Bev, Steve, Will, Randy

Combination of your answers solved my problems. Thanks. I knew I could get the macro to call a macro in a TASK file, but I wanted it call a macro that I added to the SEG.AX file and to save the SEG.AX file as a binary file on disk (just like the original SEG.AX file was). The macro I wanted to add there was the one in /EXTRAS/MACROS which adds a file from anywhere.

I didn't have enough room to add it to my default set. One problem was not labelling my default set as .seg.um. The other problem was not realizing that I had to set F=1. I didn't pick up on the fact that it was the "called" macro that had to do that.

Two questions about SEG.UM, though. Randy, why is there concern about modifying SEG.UM. It gets modified everytime I save my macro set as the default set, doesn't it?

Wil - why would there be two sets of SEG.UM in cache? Wouldn't one version overwrite the other?

C.BUBACK

                                       \-\________ o\__
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                                          '          O

Message 51
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Thu Dec 02, 1993 at 08:56 EST

Eamon.139 'Peg's Place' merits a special mention here. It's a very well-done Eamon, but it is definitely not for everyone! It takes place in a school and has a rather silly plot line. It is 100% non-violent. There are no dark elements or evil beings. If you can get into the swing of the school setting and plot premise, you will do OK, but if not, you will think it is stupid.

You can be sure that you will either love it or hate it.

TomZ

Message 52
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Sun Jun 05, 1994 at 09:18 EDT

Eamon.092 'The Fugitive' by Don Doumakes (80-col. ProDOS version)

You awaken in a hotel room next to a dead body, and find to your horror that your own sword was the instrument of death. You have been framed for a murder that you didn't commit! If the Guard finds you, you will hang! Your only hope is to find evidence that will condemn the real criminal and clear your name.

This Eamon is unique with its 'roving Guard', which is really cool. There are two patrols searching the village for you. These patrols don't 'pop' in and out of rooms unexpectedly, but move about the map just like you do. You can see them in the distance and tell which way they are moving. Even so, you have to stay on your toes to not get caught by one of them. Get caught, and you die.

Rated 7.0 in the EAG poll (on a scale of 1-10 with 10 highest). The present upload =requires= 80-col. display capability and has full lower-case text and 80-col. formatting. Videx is supported for the II+. Contact me if you have need of a 40-col. all-caps version.

TomZ

Message 53
KEN.GAGNE — Mon Jun 06, 1994 at 19:43 EDT

It seems a lot of Eamon adventures receive 7's. Have any gotten 9's or 10's?

-Ken Gagne

                                                __
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Message 54
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Tue Jun 07, 1994 at 08:10 EDT

>>>KEN.GAGNE

It seems a lot of Eamon adventures receive 7's. Have any gotten 9's or 10's?

Ken, everything that I've uploaded for some time now has been 7-rated because I already did the better ones and am working down the list. Here is a list of the Top Twenty (the first number is the rating and the second is the number of people who have rated it):

SD#137  Redemption                 9.5/1
124. Assault on Dolni Keep         9.2/6
114. Thror's Ring                  9.0/6
 78. The Prince's Tavern           9.0/3
194. Attack of the Kretons         9.0/2
120. Orb of My Life                9.0/1
204. Sanctuary                     9.0/1
161. Operation Endgame             8.9/5
150. Walled City of Darkness       8.8/2
147. The Dark Brotherhood          8.7/3
129. Return to Moria               8.6/4
166. Storm Breaker                 8.5/2
145. Buccaneer!                    8.3/3
108. The Mines of Moria            8.2/4
148. Journey to Jotunheim          8.2/4
121. Wrenhold's Secret Vigil       8.2/2
169. The Black Phoenix             8.1/5
 91. FutureQuest II                8.0/5
117. Dungeon of Doom               8.0/3

All of these adventures (except "Redemption") are in the A2 library in 80- col. versions.

A (7) rating seems to have become the standard rating for "above average", but it doesn't really show up all that much more often than other ratings. There are 35 Eamons rated between 7.0 and 7.9, making up just 15.6% of the total Eamon listing.

TomZ

Message 55
GCOURTER [Grinner] — Sat Jun 11, 1994 at 10:38 EDT

Tom,

Looking at your list, perhaps you need to come up with a better way of getting feedback. A rating based on so few responses doesn't mean too much. Just a thought.

:)er

Message 56
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Mon Jun 13, 1994 at 08:29 EDT

>>> GCOURTER [Grinner]

Looking at your list, perhaps you need to come up with a better way of getting feedback. A rating based on so few responses doesn't mean too much. Just a thought.

Tell me about it. Eamon users are every bit as apathetic as other Americans. I have offered all kinds of inducements and bribes to get people to rate the Eamons they play, but few ever do it. I've found that the primary reason for this is that many people (especially non-authors) feel underqualified to judge other people's work.

I have just one hard rule about Eamon rating: the author of the Eamon can not rate his own work. Also, if I get a rating that is seriously off-base from the ratings average, I may ask the rater for the reasons behind the rating.

Still, if I may be so bold, a rating by just one person is a whole lot better than no rating at all. It serves a lot of good to know if an Eamon has a rating in the 7-10 range or in the 1-3 range. *8-)

Also, in the vast majority of cases, I am the person who did the solitary rating. I am pretty consistent in my ratings (that is, when I replay something that I rated years ago, I almost always agree with my original rating). A lot of people have learned how my rating compares with their own tastes in Eamon.

Lastly, my Next Project will hopefully be uploads of all the past Eamon reviews that appeared in past EAG newsletters. This information will enable you to see the reasoning behind the rating in a lot of cases.

TomZ

Message 57
POWERPC.PRO [Sheppy] — Mon Jun 13, 1994 at 13:44 EDT

as apathetic as other Americans.

Hey! I am NOT apathetic! I just don't care! :)

Message 58
K.FLYNN [Chris] — Wed Jun 15, 1994 at 00:03 EDT

Can anyone tell me what the file number of the base Eamon is? You know, the file I need to run any other Eamon in the library.

...Chris

Message 59
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Wed Jun 15, 1994 at 08:45 EDT

>>>K.FLYNN [Chris]

Can anyone tell me what the file number of the base Eamon is?

Chris, either of these will work:

16219 EAMON.001.BXY            X T.ZUCHOWSKI  910729   72320    233  36
      Desc: ProDOS Eamon Master/Main Hall
15702 EAMON.GMH.BXY            X T.ZUCHOWSKI  910523   51328    104  36
      Desc: ProDOS 'Graphics Main Hall'

If you're new to Eamon, file 16219 is preferable because it includes a player's manual. File 15702 uses hi-res graphics, and some people really like it a lot. (Personally, I use 16219. It takes all kinds. *8-)

TomZ

Message 60
T.BUCHHEIM [] Tim 'pi' [] — Wed Jun 15, 1994 at 23:38 EDT

I, too, prefer the text version, but I have both. The Graphics version has some cool features, but it's faster to use the text version. (don't have to use the joystick, a few keypresses and you're in an adventure. :)

Message 61
T.GEDERBERG [ Tom ] — Tue Jun 21, 1994 at 21:58 EDT

Pardon a dumb question and please stop laughing before you answer... What exactly is Eamon?

Thanks, Tom

Message 62
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Wed Jun 22, 1994 at 08:07 EDT

>>>T.GEDERBERG [ Tom ]

Pardon a dumb question: What exactly is Eamon?

Tom, Eamon is a text-based "adventure" system, similar in nature to the old Infocom games like Zork and others. Eamon is public domain, however, and all code and data is available for people to mess with in any way they wish. Eamon has been around for about 12 years and has its place in the history of the Apple II computer.

There are 225 Eamon adventures in the public domain. Of this number, the 100 or so best ones can be found in A2 library 36. To play them, you will need one of these two "Main Hall" disks to store your player-character and to launch the adventures from:

16219 EAMON.001.BXY            X T.ZUCHOWSKI  910729   72320    237  36
     Desc: ProDOS Eamon Master/Main Hall
15702 EAMON.GMH.BXY            X T.ZUCHOWSKI  910523   51328    107  36
     Desc: ProDOS 'Graphics Main Hall'

I recommend 16219 for beginners, as it includes a player manual.

A great thing about Eamon is that the tools are readily available for you to write your own Eamon adventures. Most people who have tried it agree that writing adventures is a real blast and much more interesting than merely playing them. The Designer toolset is in the A2 library also.

There is also a national club and newsletter that I run for a hobby.

TomZ

Message 63
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Tue Jul 05, 1994 at 08:18 EDT

Having trouble deciding which Eamon adventures to download? Help has recently been uploaded to the A2 Library! Files 23000-23002 contain 65 different Eamon reviews that were printed in the EAG newsletter from 1988- 1993.

These reviews list the version of the MAIN.PGM, extra and deleted commands, special stuff, a description of the adventure, and a reviewer's commentary about the quality of the dungeon and the play.

TomZ

Message 64
T.ZUCHOWSKI [TomZ] — Wed Sep 21, 1994 at 09:32 EDT

Eamon.222 'The Halls of the Adept' by Tim Berge and J.T. Cottingham (80-Col. ProDOS version)

The king's daughter has been kidnapped by an evil magician who is laying waste to the kingdom. Can you save both of them from destruction?

Tim Berge has always had a talent for writing interesting Eamons. In this one, the main strengths are "magic and monsters". There are about a dozen new spells for you to decipher and use; some of them are pretty mundane, but some trigger sequences of really cool special effects. Some of the monsters seem to know one another, and sometimes interact in unexpected ways. At least one friendly monster is one heck of a magic user, casting spells in combat that are so powerful that they even singe bystanders!

This Eamon is based on an early version of the old version 5 MAIN PGM; it accepts truncated command verbs but requires full object names. This is a bit clunky compared to the modern command parser, but well worth dealing with in order to see the neat stuff that Tim presents here.

TomZ

Message 65
P.SCHULZ4 [Phil S] — Fri Nov 04, 1994 at 18:46 EST

A quick note here about older Eamon versions-, If you are like me, once you get used to the version 7, which accepts abbreviations like no other version does, you will probably dislike olver versions more when you realize you have to type in the entire command in those older versions. I know I have been somewhat "spoiled" by version 7- it is easier to use and runs much better than older versions. not to say that there aren't a lot of good Eamons based on the older versions- don't get me wrong, some of these are as good as the newer ones, just you don't have the better player interface.

Message 66
A2.TOMZ — Wed Aug 23, 1995 at 07:30 EDT

The following was posted in the Upload Log:

         *** The following is a ProDOS EAMON ***
 You will need the ProDOS Eamon Master disk to launch it.
        NOTE: It is not an "official" EAG Eamon.
               It is in Library 36

File: 25491  Name: EAMON.233.BXY
Address: T.ZUCHOWSKI
Approximate # of bytes: 44160
Eamon.233 "The Domain of Zenoqq" (80-Col. ProDOS version)
By Robert Claney.
You are tasked to rescue a good wizard from the clutches of an evil one.
Rated 4.0 in the EAG poll (on a scale of 1-10 with 10 highest).
Uses 80-col. LC text; an 80-col. card is REQUIRED. Videx is supported.

Chunk made a small boo-boo here. This upload =IS= an official EAG Eamon. It works great and has been fully tested.

TomZ

Message 67
C.STITES [CHunk] — Wed Aug 23, 1995 at 20:32 EDT

>>> A2.TOMZ

Chunk made a small boo-boo here. This upload =IS= an official EAG Eamon.

ACK! Who me? Mistake? I thought IWTF.  :)

CHunk -- Two Apples on my Desk ... a Song in my Heart -- :)