Source:The Evergreen World of Eamon
| This page is a verbatim reproduction of original source material and should not be edited except for maintenance. | |
| Description |
"The Evergreen World of Eamon", an article written by Huw Williams and published in Juiced.GS. |
|---|---|
| Source |
Juiced.GS |
| Date |
March 2025 |
| Author |
Huw Williams |
| License |
Permission has kindly been granted by the copyright holder for this copyrighted item to appear in the not-for-profit Eamon Wiki website. |
The Evergreen World of Eamon
45 years later, the adventure continues
The story of Eamon begins, appropriately enough, with a valiant swordsman in shining armor.
The swordsman, known to his friends as Baron William Coeur du Boeuf but to most others as Bill Fesselmeyer, loved fantasy and medievalism, so much so that he and his wife Sherry helped found the Des Moines branch of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Bill also loved Dungeons & Dragons — the cool new "roleplaying game" that was sweeping the nation — and wondered if a computer-based version of it was possible. He shared the idea with his friend Donald Brown, then a student at Drake University and an aspiring programmer, and Brown ran with it, creating in late 1979 one of the earliest CRPG series written for the Apple II.
Brown named it Eamon.
Released as noncommercial freeware, the game spread rapidly through friends, user groups, public domain catalogs, and an active fan club. Eamon's easy extensibility was a big draw: anyone with an idea for a new adventure could build it and share it with a growing and enthusiastic community of players. Those who knew how to code could go even further, creating new kinds of puzzles and even entirely new variants of the game built on Brown's architecture.
The result was an explosion of creative content, with over 200 Eamon adventures released in the 1980s. That rate slowed considerably as Apple II usage waned, but Eamon's growth never stopped, and the corpus now encompasses 280 stories written by 135 authors, plus at least two dozen conversions and variants on numerous platforms. In the past decade alone, there have been so many notable additions to the Eamon universe that doing them all justice in a single magazine article would be quite a challenge... but as the Baron would surely agree, challenges must be met with boldness, so off we go!
Below I'll share updates on the many new projects and new adventures that have graced the world of Eamon in the last ten years, followed by a bit of prognostication about what the next decade may hold.
New projects
Don't want to boot up your Apple II? There are plenty of modern outlets to get your Eamon fix.
This elegant, web-based port of Brown's classic Eamon system was created by developer and retrogamer Keith Dechant and first went online in February 2017.
Dechant's system adapts Eamon's original BASIC logic into TypeScript and React, which allows the game to run entirely within the player's web browser. While playing classic Eamon adventures used to entail gathering DSKs and installing an Apple II emulator (or downloading and installing Eamon Deluxe), Remastered's modules have no such requirements; just point your browser to the site and choose your adventure.
The system offers 42 adventures ranging from early classics like Brown's Beginners Cave to more recent titles like Derek Jeter's massive Treachery of Zorag. It even includes a pair of excellent original adventures that Dechant wrote specifically for his system: Assault on the Clone Master and Malleus Maleficarum.
Michael Penner's credentials as an Eamon contributor date back to the late 1980s when he created his own variant of Michael Detlefsen's Atari ST Eamon port. After some years away from the game, Penner's interest was rekindled in 2014, and he resolved to rebuild the original BASIC game in a modern programming environment.
After starting with an experimental prototype in ANSI C, Penner settled in 2015 on C# and .NET Core as the foundations for his new port, which he titled Eamon CS. The first complete version was released in April 2017, and the latest runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
In Eamon CS, players launch the Main Hall or any of twenty complete adventures in a console window that faithfully recreates the features of the classic Eamon, in a form that's customizable, efficient, and consistent across platforms. (Like with Eamon Remastered, Eamon CS does not play games for the original Eamon, nor vice versa.)
CS also goes beyond just re-creation, providing users with a fully-featured toolkit for constructing new adventures using the system's logical, modular architecture. Several original adventures — including Kenneth Pedersen's Land of the Mountain King and Penner's own The Vile Grimoire of Jaldi'al and The Wayfarers Inn — are available only in CS.
Penner continues to expand and refine the system, with the newest version (3.0) released in October 2024.
https://github.com/TheRealEamonCS/Eamon-CS
Indie game developer Deepak Deo launched Eamon Returns in August 2023, marrying the fantasy setting and lore of Eamon with the storytelling tools of ChatGPT, the popular AI chatbot created by OpenAI.
The result is a unique and compelling manifestation of Eamon, though one that might feel a bit eerie to those accustomed to the strict prompts and limits inherent in traditional versions of the game. Deo's version, controlled through the familiar ChatGPT interface, starts you at the Main Hall of the Guild of Free Adventurers — but from there, it lets you go literally anywhere you like: chat with other adventurers, wander the town, or set out on a quest. Wherever you go, the AI will follow, immediately crafting vivid descriptions and realistic dialogue. Using DALL-E, it can even create images to illustrate what you encounter.
What makes Eamon Returns captivating is the near-absolute freedom it offers, letting you explore the world however you can imagine. It also learns from what you tell it, creating new twists and goals on the spot from prompts and suggestions you provide. You can unfortunately run up against ChatGPT's timed usage caps pretty quickly (depending on your subscriber status), and physical combat can also trigger occasional warnings about violations of content policy. However, as an experimental foray into the world of AI, Returns is well worth exploring.
https://chatgpt.com/g/g-9uH4VISel-eamon-returns
In the late 2000s, my interest in Eamon was rekindled when I edited the game's article at Wikipedia; I soon decided the game deserved a wiki of its own. The Eamon Wiki was born in 2013, and after some growing pains, moved to its current home in 2017.
The site's mission is "to classify and categorize every bit of Eamon-related information in the world into a free, public, collaboratively-built, community maintained encyclopedia." After more than 43,000 edits, that mission is now well underway, though still far from complete! The wiki currently encompasses around 1,500 articles and 2,400 files, including all available Eamon software, newsletters, and more. New maps of previously unmapped adventures are regularly featured.
Gathering and preserving the recollections of Eamon authors and others who have enjoyed the game over the years is one of the Wiki's most important and longest-running projects, and the one I've most enjoyed, so if you're a classic Eamonaut, please feel free to drop me a line — I'd love to reminisce!
Created around 2015 by developer Derek Jeter (author of Stronghold of Kahr-Dur and The Treachery of Zorag), the Eamon Adventure Browser is a free online database that makes the contents of the Eamon Deluxe adventures easily browsable and keyword-searchable. Covering about two-thirds of the Eamon library, the system is a handy reference for adventure authors. (It's also been an invaluable source of information for many articles at the Eamon Wiki.)
Launched by Matthew Clark in 2003, the Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online website has long been the backbone of the Eamon community, carrying on the mission of the earlier clubs to share and spread the game's many adventures, reviews, newsletters, and more. Clark also kept community members in the know through social media posts and an EAG blog. In 2011 Clark converted the website into an "Eamon Museum" and in 2020 passed most duties to others, but he remains a dedicated Eamonaut and in December he revisited the site to give it a thorough refresh! Lists have been updated, content reorganized, navigation streamlined, and a clean new look applied throughout. The site also sports a handy new feature called Eamon on Javascript (based on the "apple2e" emulator by developer John Clark) that allows for classic Eamon DSKs to be played right in your browser. Replaying the original adventures has never been easier, and the site remains an invaluable resource for fans of the series.
New adventures
In addition to the above new forms of Eamon, new adventures are still being developed for the original Apple II version.
(Adventure #275, released August 2017)
Seasoned Eamonauts may remember the 1980 story Assault on the Clone Master by Donald Brown, which sends the adventurer on a mission to infiltrate the lair of the nefarious Clone Master and destroy his Clonatorium. It was one of Keith Dechant's childhood favorites, and after releasing his Eamon Remastered system in early 2017, he took inspiration from Brown's adventure to create a new story of his own.
While the plot is broadly similar to Brown's (and the two share the same title), Dechant's adventure is entirely rewritten, with a new map, new enemies, and more detail and nuance than the original. Dechant also included multiple routes for the player to overcome every key obstacle — a thoughtful feature that makes for greater replayability.
(Adventure #276, released February 2020)
Kenneth Pedersen originally wrote Land of the Mountain King in ADRIFT, a Windows-based text adventure toolkit, and entered it into the annual Interactive Fiction Competition in 2017 before converting it into an Eamon CS adventure.
As Pedersen's story opens, a witch magically whisks the adventurer off to a distant land to fight and vanquish a tyrant known as the Mountain King. Deprived of all their belongings, the adventurer must explore the plain south of the king's castle for the weapons, armor, and supplies they'll need for the final battle. The map in its entirety has only 18 distinct locations, making this one of the smallest adventures in the Eamon canon, but Pedersen puts them to good use, and the play is enjoyable.
(Adventure #277, released April 2020)
Keith Dechant's second new adventure for Eamon Remastered is an entirely original story, named after a 15th century treatise on witchcraft. The adventure is tight and well-crafted, mixing investigation with combat in a variety of settings (from city to countryside) that allow for exploration and discovery.
The premise: you discover from your friend Maya, a new recruit to the Guild of Free Adventurers, that her home city of Virrat has been overrun by the Cobalt Front, a fanatical cabal bent on harassing and arresting practitioners of magic. She fears for the safety of her grandmother, a magical healer and resident of the city, so you set out to investigate the Front and free Virrat from its clutches.
(Adventure #263, re-released June 2020)
Michael Penner originally wrote this adventure in the late 1980s under the title The Crypt Crashers & the Tomb of Horrors (hence the earlier adventure number), but in 2020, he released a refreshed and expanded version of it through his Eamon CS system. As the story begins, you and your companions are winding your way through a dark and haunted graveyard in search of a lost tome, the eponymous grimoire of Jaldi'al — a powerful but careless sorcerer in life who is now rumored to be an even more dangerous undead lich.
The updated adventure is detailed and beautifully crafted, featuring a number of atmospheric and dynamic touches such as regular transitions from day to night, passing fog, and deadly denizens that randomly prowl among the tombstones.
(Adventure #278, released November 2021)
From comedic parodies to serious homages, Eamon authors throughout the years have repeatedly turned to popular series like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, or Hitchhiker's Guide for inspiration. Logan Blizzard keeps this tradition alive with his Escape from Mt. Moon, a brief foray set in the world of Pokémon.
Blizzard created Escape from Mt. Moon while he was laboratory manager for the Media Archaeology Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder as a means of better understanding the 'Eamon platform; he later wrote a doctoral dissertation about the non-commercial origins of computer gaming that included a chapter on 'Eamon. Researcher Thomas Ferguson discovered the adventure at MAL and was responsible for its addition to the 'Eamon corpus. It's available as a DSK from the Eamon Wiki and is playable in Eamon CS.
(Adventure #279, released July 2022)
In a newsletter article in early 2013, Eamon Deluxe creator Frank Black announced the opening of a brand new Eamon adventure design contest—with a unique twist. Instead of creating complete individual adventures, participants would each submit a minidungeon of around ten rooms, all of which would ultimately be knitted together like an "exquisite corpse" to form one big, eclectic, collaboratively-built story.
Though it was a fun and creative idea, the contest sadly garnered very little participation and it languished until Thomas Ferguson ultimately pulled together the elements that he, Black, and I had submitted, releasing the result in mid-2022. Though small, the adventure is complete and features a number of fun call-backs to classic stories, including the return of a classic villain.
The Tower of Eamon is available in Eamon CS or as a download from the Eamon Wiki.
(Adventure #280, released October 2023)
On your way back from a hunting trip in the deep northern forests, you and your friend learn about the mysterious disappearance of some local craftspeople who were repairing a dilapidated inn near the town of Geldhaven. Since the site has a dangerous reputation among the locals, the town leaders commission you to investigate and uncover the fate of the missing workers.
The troubled history of the inn is gradually revealed, with the plot coming into focus piece by piece throughout the game as the player uncovers various clues and mysterious phenomena around the derelict building. Penner's excellent story rewards careful and thoughtful exploration, and gives players the freedom to explore multiple pathways. (Like his earlier Grimoire, it was also a delight to map!)
The decade ahead
What's on the horizon for Eamon? Let's peek into the crystal ball...
Adventures new and old
Though none are ready to be officially announced, there are at least two brand-new Eamon adventures in the works at varying stages of development. Both sound creative and intriguing, and details will be posted to the wiki as soon as they're completed and released.
Lost adventures from years past also continue to be sought in the world's software archives, and with luck they can be acquired and added to the official canon. Among the rarities that I and other preservationists are hoping to get our hands on are the following:
- Temple of the Undead by Joel Cranston (1985), an Indiana Jones-inspired adventure believed to exist now only in the physical media archives of Washington Apple Pi.
- Harrogate Hotel, (1986), a lost adventure once available through the now-defunct Apple Users' Group of Sydney, Australia.
- Oasis in the Desert and The Proving Grounds (1989), a pair of adventures created by Michael Penner for the Atari ST, once available through GEnie but now lost.
If you know anything about these (or any other) lost adventures from the days of yore, please drop me a line, I'd love to hear from you!
Eamon was inspired by Dungeons & Dragons when it arose in the 1970s, so when D&D celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, it seemed like the right time to pull the two back together again, at least in a small way.
The Adventurer's Guide to Eamon is a free, online resource I'm slowly developing for use with D&D or other fantasy role-playing games, with detailed maps, histories, bestiaries, and adventure hooks suitable for game masters looking for a new setting to explore. Notably, it incorporates as much of the world-building done by Eamon's 135 authors as possible, weaving the many events, peoples, and settings they describe in their adventures into a more fully realized world.
Though still in its very early stages, I'm publishing incremental additions as they're completed rather than waiting until it's entirely finished (since it'll probably take much of the decade to complete). You're welcome to follow along as it grows!
Eamon's golden jubilee
The game's fiftieth anniversary is coming up in 2030. Like Bilbo Baggins's eleventy-first birthday in The Lord of the Rings, this milestone in CRPG history calls for "a party of special magnificence", so ideas of how best to mark the occasion are very welcome.
Thank you to all those who fondly remember the wonderful world of Eamon, and may it continue to live and grow for many happy years!
Huw Williams is a web designer, illustrator, writer, and longtime Eamonaut. He lives in rural West Lafayette, Indiana, with his wife Tricia and daughter Mia. Email him at huwmanbeing@gmail.com if you'd like to chat!
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