Source:Ye Guyde to Adventure

This page is a verbatim reproduction of original source material and should not be edited except for maintenance.
Description	Ye Guyde to Adventure, a manual for Super Eamon written by Paul Van Bloem and published by Little Green Software.
Source	Photos supplied by Thomas Ferguson.
Date	1985
Author	Paul Van Bloem / Little Green Software
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.
Other versions	File:Ye Guyde to Adventure.pdf

Welcome to the Eamon Universe

This manual, Ye Guyde to Adventure, is supplied as part of Little Green Software's Super Eamon Starter Set. You don't have to read this manual before you start. If you prefer, just boot the Super Eamon disk, use common sense, and follow the screen instructions; if you get stuck, try reading through this manual, or the one supplied with Super Eamon.

This Guyde is published by Little Green Software, and is copyright © 1985. Little Green hereby grants permission for anyone to copy this manual, provided that credit is given as follows:

"from Ye Guyde to Adventure manual, produced by
Little Green Software as part of its Super Eamon Starter Set.
Copyright © 1985 by Little Green Software PO Box 1190 Columbia, MD 21044 Reproduced with permission."

This means its okay for you to make copies of this manual for your friends (and enemies) as long as the above notice is included. (You might point out to them that they can get a neatly-bound copy of their very own just by buying the Starter Set themselves.)

The Eamon Universe

Once upon a time, a guy named Donald Brown had an idea for a computer adventure system where you could create a character and take him on all sorts of neat adventures. He figured out how to do this on an Apple II, and told other people who were interested how it worked. Some of these other people liked this idea, and liked playing with Don's Eamon Adventure System, so they wrote some more adventures.

Today, there are over 100 adventures you can send your own character on. This manual is to help you get started.

There are two basic parts to the Eamon system:

The Main Hall (part of the Eamon Master or of Super Eamon)

The Adventure (any one of over a 100)

The Main Hall contains programs to help you create your characters, equip them with weapons and armor, and send them out on adventures. On The Adventure, your guy grabs gold, kills monsters, rescues important government officials, and (we hope) survives to return to the Main Hall.

You will create your characters using Super Eamon, which is included as part of this Starter Set. You can send your character out on any of the adventures included here (The Beginners Cave, The Quest for Trezore, The Haunted House, etc.), or on any other Eamon adventures.

The Public Domain

Now is a good time to explain certain nuances of the Eamon Universe. Most Eamon-related programs are Public Domain. "Public Domain" means it belongs to "the public", and you (as one of the public) can do anything you want to it: copy it, change it, give it to your friends, etc. For example, it is okay/legal/moral to give your friend a copy of The Beginners Cave disk, or to get a copy from your Aunt Sadie, or whatever. The people who wrote a Public Domain program don't expect you to pay them for this.

You can get Public Domain stuff from lots of places, including your friends, user groups, and mail order "public domain houses". These last will "sell" you what you want for a few dollars (which mostly pays for the disk, the copying, and shipping).

While most Eamon stuff is Public Domain, not all the parts of your Starter Set is. Super Eamon and The Haunted House are both copyrighted (which is the opposite of Public Domain); you should not give or get copies of these from your friends.

Almost all programs (word processors, games, spreadsheets, and so on) you see advertised are copyrighted. As you can see from Super Eamon and The Haunted House, a copyrighted program is usually of better quality than a Public Domain one. For example, Public Domain programs do not come with a printed manual, while Super Eamon and The Haunted House do. (Of course, you have to pay for these extras.)

In your Starter Set, we have tried to blend the advantages of copyrighted software with the price of Public Domain software.

To sum up, please do not copy Super Eamon or The Haunted House except for your own use. You are welcome to make and give away copies of the other adventure disks includes with your Starter Set.

The Starter Set

Your Super Eamon Starter Set contains everything you will need to become a full-fledged Eamonite. Remember that this is only a Starter Set, though. If you enjoy your adventures with Eamon, you can take your character(s) on many other difficult and dangerous adventures.

Super Eamon

The Super Eamon disk is the central part of your Starter Set. The Super Eamon disk will let you create and equip characters, and then send them off to adventure. When you have enough gold, you can take advantage of the more expensive shops in the Main Hall to improve your characters' abilities and equipment.

The Super Eamon Manual explains the Main Hall, and includes some tips on adventuring and finding new adventures.

Also, Super Eamon includes The Beginners Cave adventure, which is a good place to start your adventuring.

Starter Adventures

These Public Domain adventures will help you develop your character. These have been selected as good for beginning and intermediate adventurers, and because they are interesting for themselves. Most other Eamon adventures will be harder than these; many are (unfortunately) not as interesting.

The Haunted House: GREAMON™ #1

This copyrighted GRaphics EAMON adventure is Little Green Software's first adventure release. We like to think it is better than most Eamon adventures; it has a helpful manual, and (of course) uses graphics extensively (almost all Eamon adventures are text-only).

Let's Get Going!

Now that you have some background, let's create a character and send him on an adventure. (At last!)

Create a Character

Boot the Super Eamon disk

Put the green Super Eamon disk in your disk drive (drive #1 if you have more than one) and turn on your Apple II. (If your computer is already on, just type PR#6, or press [control][open-apple][reset] if you have a IIe or IIc.)

If you have a IIe or IIc, make sure the caps lock key is down.

Follow the screen instructions until you get to the Desk

When the Irishman behind the desk asks for your name, type in the name of your character. Let's say you want to name your adventurer Sir John. You should then type in SIR JOHN when the Irishman asks your name.

Because Sir John is a new character, the Irishman will not find you in his book. He will ask you if you gave your name correctly (in case you made a typo), and you should answer Y. He'll then ask if you are transferring from another Eamon branch (aka another Eamon Master or Super Eamon disk). You aren't, so say N.

Enter the sex of your character

After the Irishman brings in the Elfish man, you should enter your sex (M for male, F for female). Since Sir John is a rather masculine guy, you should press M.

Choose Your Attributes

Your Eamon character is built around three main characteristics. These "prime attributes" determine what kind of a person your adventurer will be. For example, will he be a strong but slow ox, or a friendly and quick weakling?

There is no "best" set of attributes; when you set your character's prime attributes, you are determining how he/she will fight, interact with others, and his style of adventuring.

Hardiness: This ability determines how strong you are. If you have a high Hardiness, you can take more blows in battle before dying, and you will be able to carry more treasure.

Agility: This deals with your ability to fight. A high Agility means you are more likely to hit the monster you are fighting; it can make up for fighting with an unfamiliar weapon, or in heavier armor.

Charisma: This attribute affects how other people will react to you. A high Charisma means that shopkeepers in the Main Hall will give you better prices (because they like you), and makes it more likely that monsters you meet on your adventures will fight for you (or at least ignore you) instead of eating you.

Of course, you would like to have all of these at 24 (the maximum), but that's not the way things work in real life. You may choose to set all attributes at about 17, and be competent in all areas. Or emphasize Agility at the expense of Charisma.

Choosing your prime attributes is a good example of the essence of Adventuring: making a choice that your character lives (or dies) with. (This is loads more fun than making decisions when you have to live with them!)

Read through the Instruction Manual, if you want. The online manual contains some material discussed above, and some other info that may come in handy. Once you give the manual back, you will enter The Main Hall.

In the Main Hall

Outfitting Your Character

In the Main Hall, press ESC to stop the action.
First, you will see a map of the Hall; you are at the upper right, the one with the green staff. Once you press ESC, the screen will show you your situation, and nothing will happen until you press ESC again.

Now, get out the Super Eamon Manual and read the sections from "The Map" through "Places to Visit". This will give you an idea of what to expect and where to go. Also, you'll now know how to move around the Main Hall (it's hard to buy anything if you can't move!).

Go to Marcos' Weapon Shop and get a weapon
A club is the weapon of choice for beginners. Leather armor and a shield is also highly recommended. If you have a lot of gold left, you might buy an extra weapon (they do break), or a spell (ask at the Information Counter).

Visit the Hall of Mirrors
Here you can get a complete rundown on your character.

• Gold: In Eamon, money is measured in Gold Pieces (aka GP). You owe the Bank 200 GP, and probably have some money left after visiting Marcos. Money in the bank will earn interest, while you're adventuring, but it won't help you bribe the monsters you meet. (Checks and credit cards are not used in the Eamon Universe.)
• Weapon Abilities: As you can see from the display, you are most proficient with a club. Combined with your Armor expertise, you can imagine that you won't strike dread in many monsters' hearts. But, your Club ability will improve while you fight the monsters with one. Check your ability when you return from an adventure, and you'll see some improvement. Eventually, you can practice with other, more difficult weapons, and become more proficient in them, too.
• Armor: Your Armor will ward off some of the blows of your enemies. Some hits will bounce off entirely, and others will be softened by your armor. Heavier armor will protect you more, but it will also hinder you until you get used to it; this leads us to
• Armor ability: As with Weapon Abilities, the more you practice, the better you will fight in heavy armor. When you purchase heavier armor, your ability with lighter armor will help get you started.
• Spells: When you can afford them, you can pay a magician to teach you any of four general purpose spells. You can use these spells in adventures to aid your quest. The four spells are:

  Blast: throw a lightning bolt at your enemy
  Heal: repair some damage to yourself (this can be a lifesaver!)
  Speed: speed up your reflexes for a short while, enabling you to hit the monster(s) more often. This is a very expensive spell.
  Power: call upon the gods to "do something"; it might even help you! This spell is pretty cheap.

  As with weapons, you'll have to practice casting spells before you can rely on them. The Hall of Mirrors won't tell you your spell abilities, though.

• Weapons: At the bottom of the screen, you will see a listing of all your weapons. Beside the weapon's name you will see:

  Quality (also called Complexity): involves how well a weapon works. When Marcos offers you a choice between a good and a poor club, the difference is in its Quality rating. A high Quality means you are more likely to hit a monster with that weapon that with another (of the same type). A good club might have a Quality of 10%, and a poor one -10%. So, you will hit a monster roughly 20% of the time more with a good than a poor one.

  Damage: this is how powerful the weapon is. The Damage a weapon does is expressed in number of dice, and dice sides. 1D6 means one die with six sides; 2D4 means two dice with four sides. Four-sided dice have the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 on them, so a 1D4 weapon will do 1, 2, 3, or 4 hits worth of Damage to a monster. A 2D4 weapon will do from 2 (1 & 1) to 8 (4 & 4) hits of Damage, while a 1D6 weapon will do from 1 to 6 hits of Damage.

  It should be clear that a more powerful weapon will have a higher quality and a higher damage than your Club does. Marcos sells only basic weapons. You can get more exotic ones from Sam Slicker in the Side Alley, and of course you will find some on your adventures.

Off to Adventure Land

Move out the "This Way to Adventure" tunnel
This tunnel is at the north end of the Main Hall. Once your character moves into it, the disk drive will whir a bit, and then you will be told to insert the disk with the adventure on it. We recommend that you send all new characters through The Beginners Cave first. The gold you earn in that adventure will help you repare for more strenuous ones.

Insert the adventure disk, and press G
Take the Super Eamon disk out of the drive, insert the adventure disk, close the drive door, and press G to go. You will be told the name of your adventure, and then given a few screenfuls of information about the adventure.

Read the introductory screens carefully
For some adventures, this information will only deal with how you came to be involved in the adventure. This provides a nice feel of realism, but is not crucial. Most adventures, though, will also give you such vital information as:

1. The goal of the adventure (rescue the princess, kill the dragon, find the magic wand)
2. Side goals. For example, your goal may be to get the magic wand from The Warlock, but you may learn that "Many travelers along this road have vanished on their journey. Some say The Warlock has them imprisoned in his foul goal." Now you know that there may be people to rescue; these same people might be able to help you get the wand.
3. Possible treasures. If your goal is to kill Dracula, and you learn that "Count Dracula is a noted art collector", you can keep an eye out for valuable paintings.
4. Possible enemies. "The magic wand is guarded by the Monks of Madagascar. Hokus tells you that these Monks can call up fierce demons if threatened." Be on the lookout for demons!

Adventuring

You are now in the adventure. Eamon adventures are similar to other adventure games in that nothing happens until you do something. When you see the blinking cursor, the game is waiting for you to enter a command.

Commands in an Adventure

Below is a list of the standard Eamon commands. Some adventures will have extra commands, such as Open or Read. The Haunted House adventure has a number of special commands; before you play that adventure, we recommend you read through its short manual.

Moving in an Adventure: N S E W U D
To move around in an adventure, you should enter the direction you want to go in: NORTH, for example. You can abbreviate this to the first letter of the direction: U for Up, E for East, etc. (You should press RETURN when you have entered a command.)

Directions you can go in: Look/Examine
The long description of a room will tell you which directions you can go in. You will see the long description when you enter a room for the first time, and whenever you enter LOOK or EXAMINE. An example of this: "You are in a large, dark cavern. Overhead you hear the faint squeaks of bats, and to the south you hear the dripping of water. A tunnel leads north-south, and a small tunnel is to the east." In this case, you can go N, S, or E.

The LOOK command is also useful for finding secret doors and tunnels.

Mapping: Examine Map
The adventures included with your Starter Set include a Map feature, which will keep track of where you have been. To see the map, just type EXAMINE MAP. (Incidentally, you can examine other objects, too.)

The Haunted House, and most Eamon adventures, do not have this feature. Since a map is important to adventuring (you have to find your way back, after all), you will need to practice mapping.

Adventure maps are pretty commonsensical. For example, if you are in Large Cavern, and can go in any direction (NSEW), draw a circle with four lines from it to represent the ways you can go. If you go South and get to Small Cubicle, draw a circle off the south line from Large Cavern, and label it Small Cubicle. See below for a sample map.

Getting Treasures: Get/Drop
When you see an object you want to get, enter GET LAMP, or whatever it is you want to get. Some objects are too heavy to carry (a dead dragon is a good example), and sometimes you may have to drop one item to carry another. Remember, your Hardiness determines how much stuff you can carry. Ninety pound weaklings might not be able to lift a chest of gold coins, while Olaf the Ox could carry two.

To stop carrying an item, just type DROP CHEST OF GOLD (or whatever). The object will then be in the room you dropped it in.

What am I carrying? Inventory
Entering INVENTORY (you can usually abbreviate this to just I) will give you a list of everything you're carrying. This can help you decide what to drop if you want to carry something else, or tell you what extra weapons you have with you. Your current weapon will be noted as "ready weapon" in the Inventory list.

Changing weapons: Ready
If you want to change weapons, you should enter READY SWORD (or whatever the new weapon is called). From then on, you will be fighting with Sword. You'll need to do this if your current weapon breaks, or if you want to practice with another weapon, or if you keep missing with your current weapon.

Fighting the Monsters: Attack
The Attack command is how you fight the monsters. To aim a blow at the Pirate, for example, say ATTACK PIRATE

Battles in Eamon adventures are done blow-by-blow, so after you Attack the Pirate (and either hit or miss), he will aim a blow at someone else, and so on for everyone in the room (unless they are weaponless, or can't decide who they like).

Don't hurt your friends! Wave/Smile
Not all monsters will attack you; some want to be your friend! This is especially true if you have high Charisma. You can tell your friends from your enemies by saving WAVE or SMILE. Usually, your friends will wave or smile back, and bad guys will growl at you.

Some monsters aren't sure what to do, and will ignore you. These are prime candidates for Bribery.

Make friends through Bribery: Give
Those monsters who can't make up their minds, and even some sworn enemies, will be glad to help you if you Give them some incentive. You might GIVE GUARD 10 GOLD, for example. Depending on your charisma, the amount of gold, and how unfriendly the monster is, he may change sides. If you run out of gold, you can sometimes give a monster a treasure to get him to switch sides.

Use common sense in determining who to bribe. If your goal is to destroy Dracula's castle, it is rather unlikely he will be friendly. You'll just waste your GP, and he'll get to attack you while you're digging in your pockets.

Run away to fight another day: Flee
When it looks like you won't win a battle with the monsters, you always have the option of saying FLEE. This might give you time to cast a Heal or Speed spell, or allow you to take on the monsters one at a time. If you die, you'll never rescue the princess, so don't stick it out too long.

Magic in an Eamon Adventure

You already know what there are four spells you can learn in the Main Hall which may help you on your adventures. To use one, either type the spell name (e.g., HEAL), or type SAY HEAL.

The first time you try to cast a spell in each adventure, the chances it will work depend on your ability for that spell. Each time after that you try to cast it on the same adventure, your chances are cut in half; this is due to the mental strain of casting any spell.

The more you try to cast spells, the better your ability will be. With enough practice, you will be able to cast a spell on demand (at least a couple of times each adventure).

When a spell doesn't work, or if you don't know that spell, you will just be told "Nothing happens". If it succeeds, you will be told the result. ("You feel much better", or "The blast hits Merlin!")

Each spell has some peculiarities, a listed below:

Power: to use, just type POWER, or SAY POWER. This spell can cause weird effects; if might heal you completely, or resurrect the monster you've killed, or cause the roof to cave in. Use it only in dire need.

Blast: enter BLAST DRACULA, or whatever you want to cast the spell against. If it works, the blast will do 1D6 damage to the monster. This spell is usually used only in battle.

Heal: enter HEAL or SAY HEAL. If you succeed in casting it, this spell will remove 1D10 hits damage from you. In some adventures you can Heal your friends, too. (You can sometimes find a healing potion, which will work much like the Heal spell when you drink it.)

Speed: enter SPEED or SAY SPEED. This spell, when it works, will double your agility for a little while. Because your agility affects your chances of hitting your opponent in battle, this spell will increase your battle effectiveness.

Fighting in an Eamon Adventure

When you run into one or more monsters, they will decide whether to fight you, help you, or ignore you. This decision is based on your Charisma and their friendliness. If you offer a bribe, they will reconsider, taking the bribe into consideration.

If any monsters don't like you, they will attack you or one of your friends, and your friends will automatically attack them. The battle is done on a blow-by-blow basis; you should enter your command (ATTACK GUARD, for example), and then each other monster in the room will aim one blow. (The only time a monster won't fight is when he has no weapon, or when he can't decide which side he is on.)

The battle continues until all the monsters on one side have either died or run away.

Each time you aim a blow at a monster, your chances of hitting depend on four things: your Agility, the Quality of your weapon, and your ability with that kind of weapon; your Armor will subtract from your chance to hit as determined by your Armor expertise. (Remember that a Speed spell will temporarily double your Agility and so increase your chance to hit.)

If you do hit your opponent, the damage done is based on the Damage rating of your weapon, minus the shielding of his armor. Your own armor will protect you as follows: Leather Armor, 2 hits; Chain, 4 hits; Plate, 6; Shield, 1 plus armor.

If your blow hits but does not penetrate your opponent's armor, you will be told "Blow bounces off armor!" Otherwise, you will be told what shape your enemy is in ("Agent X is in pain!").

Remember that, if you are badly damaged, you can always FLEE to fight another day.

Finishing an Adventure

Some adventures, like The Beginners Cave or The Haunted House, allow you to leave at any time. In many adventures, however, a locked door or other problem will prevent you from leaving until you have found the key, or an alternate escape route.

Once you have found a way home, and want to leave the adventure, you should follow the instructions on the screen. Usually you will be told to get rid of extra weapons (four is the maximum in the Main Hall), and then find out how many GP Sam Slicker will pay you for your loot. Of course, if you have died in the adventure, you won't get any gold.

Then you will be told to insert the Eamon Master disk. At this point, take the adventure disk out of the drive, and put your green Super Eamon disk in. Close the door, and press C (or whatever key the screen says).

You will then find yourself in the Side Alley, outside Sam Slicker's shop. You can spend some of your new wealth in getting new weapons, or spells, or improving your weapon ability... Be sure to check your improved weapon ability in the Hall of Mirrors.

When you want to stop playing, move your character to the Guild Hall, and go to the Irishman at the desk. He'll help you give your character a rest.

(If you died on the adventure, you should send another character to the Temple to resurrect your adventurer. This is expensive, so bring lots of gold [at least 500 GP].)

More Adventuring

Once you have solved all the adventures in your Starter Set, you are ready to take on the rest of the Eamon Universe. The Super Eamon manual has a section on Other Adventures, which may help you in finding other adventures for your fearless characters.

Also, you might consider designing your own adventure. There are several Dungeon Design Disks to help you build your own monsters, treasures, and ruins.

About Little Green Software

We sell and support copyrighted programs for the Eamon Universe. The Haunted House is the first in our GREAMON™ adventure series; we'll let you know as soon as others in this series become available.

We are always interested in your comments and suggestions. You can write to use at the address on the back cover.

Happy Hunting.

Glossary of Eamon Terms

Adventure

where adventurers go to have fun. A set of programs on a disk which allow a character from the Main Hall to move around, rescue monsters, grab princesses, and kill treasure... sort of.

D (as in 2D4 [pronounced to-dee-for])

short for Die, e.g., 2D6, which means the value of 2 dice with 6 sides. In effect, the computer will roll two 6-sided dice and use the result (a number from 2-12) to determine the outcome. 2D6 will average 7, while 2D4 averages 5.

Eamon

an Adventure Game System originally designed by Donald Brown

Eamon Master

the Public Domain disk which includes the Main Hall and other programs to create and outfit adventurers, and to send them out on adventures.

GP

Gold Pieces, the money unit in Eamon.

GREAMON™

short for GRaphics Eamon, the name for Little Green Software's series of copyrighted adventures for the Eamon Universe. GREAMON is a trademark of Little Green Software.

Guyde

short for this manual, Ye Guyde to Adventure.

Irishman

sits at the desk in the Guild Hall, where he demands your name when you enter the Main Hall, and later will help you leave.

Little Green Software

a neato-keen software company that publishes copyrighted software for the Eamon Universe and the Apple II. Our address is on the back cover.

Marcos

Marcos Cavielli runs the Weapons Shop in the Main Hall.

NEUC (prounounced "nuke")

short for the National Eamon User's Club. See the section "Other Adventures" in the Super Eamon manual.

Public Domain

see page 4.

Sam Slicker

runs a shop in the Main Hall where he buys large treasures and sells rare weapons.

Starter Set

short for Super Eamon Starter Set; this manual is part of the Starter Set, which also includes four Public Domain adventures.

Super Eamon

a copyrighted (non-Public Domain) replacement for the Eamon Master which makes extensive use of graphics. It is available either alone or as part of the Super Eamon Starter Set from Little Green Software.

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Ye Guyde to Adventure manual is part of the package Super Eamon Starter Set prepared by

Little Green Software
PO Bo 1190
Columbia, MD 21044

"Ye Guyde to Adventure" copyright © 1985 Little Green Software