Source:Worst of the Classic Adventures notes
| This page is a verbatim reproduction of original source material and should not be edited except for maintenance. | |
| Description |
The Eamon Deluxe notes and reviews for adventure set #19, Worst of the Classic Adventures. |
|---|---|
| Source |
Eamon Deluxe 5.0 files EDX\C\EAMONDX\E019\INTRO4.BAS |
| Date |
January 2012 |
| Author | |
| License |
The use of this item is permitted on the grounds that it's free or in the public domain. |
This is official Eamon Deluxe adventure #19.
Well, here we are. This is the last Eamon Deluxe Adventure that, rather than being a single adventure, contains a set of conversions of the Classic Eamon adventures from the golden Apple II era. At 20+ adventures in some of these collections, Eamon Deluxe has paid tribute to the system that inspired its creation and flexed its muscles at the limitations that were placed on the authors and players of the Classic Eamon era.
Presented to you now for your pleasure (and possible displeasure) is the lightheartedly named Worst of the Classic Adventures set. I have known some and suspect others who would question why I would spend so much time porting these adventures to Eamon Deluxe in the first place.
The answer is simple: I love Eamon and converting adventures is mostly a lot of fun. As a colleague of mine has put it, "I've found the beauty of Eamon has always been getting to spend a bit of time in a small world reflecting to some extent the mind of its author. Playing as if it's 'amateur psychoanalysis,' for me, makes even the 'lowest rated' Eamons exciting." And it's true.
Don't get me wrong, most of these adventures aren't too pleasurable to play even in their nice new Eamon Deluxe wrapper. But Eamon was, in my opinion, one of the best ideas anybody ever had. It was an easy way to let your creativity show and have fun. Even though most of the authors of this collection apparently couldn't spell, program, or tell a half-sensible story, they still had a chance to create their own little world on a computer. Anybody who ever wrote an Eamon will surely agree: It's fun to play Eamon, but the real pleasure comes from writing your own.
These adventures were deemed the "worst" 20 by the rating scale of the Eamon Adventurer's Guild, the official club of Eamon enthusiasts. Which reminds me that I should point out here that a portion of adventures which were rated just as low or lower than these aren't in this list because they were placed in another collection (some really bad ones can be found in The Robert Parker Adventures for example). Many of the adventures in this collection had some good ideas that weren't programmed very well or, in some cases, were very well written but completely pointless and boring. Sometimes they only were given one rating by someone who didn't like them when others may have. I have tried to fix all of the spelling errors I noticed and cleaned up the databases, programming errors, etc.. Considering that I edited the databases to Eamon Deluxe standards (no more wooden clubs that do 10D20 of damage and are worth 10,000 gold pieces) and re-written most of the special programming to the best of what I think the authors actually wanted it to do, I would guess that many of these would now be rated a lot higher than their classic counterparts.
I guess I'd have to estimate that I truly enjoyed converting about 70% of these adventures. The others? Well... I converted them as they were and tried not to add too many negative remarks to them along the way... With the exception of 10-odd stinkers, I have enjoyed every second of it. This is hereby dedicated to every Eamon author who ever took the time to write a database and make their own adventure, no matter how good or bad other people may have found it to be. Eamon, after all, was originally dedicated by its father, Donald Brown, to "Everybody who likes to play games on a computer."
Notes for snooping players
If you want my personal opinions: The five adventures by "Sam" and Valkenburg Castle should be erased from existence (you had to try to map and decipher the code on these to really understand). Operation Crab Key was well written and designed for the type of adventure it was meant to be (a "007 James Bond" tribute) which was rated 1.0 by one guy who didn't like the large map. The Ruins of Belfast had a lot of special code for a small adventure; if the specials had been done better it may have gained a higher rating. The Tomb of Evron and The Mountain Fortress really have nothing wrong with them. They are just very plain "hack'n'slash" type adventures which reminded me slightly of Donald Brown's work.
—Frank