The City in the Clouds

The City in the Clouds
◄Eamon adventure #38►
Author	Evan Hodson
Released	March 1984
Revised	24 October 1990 (DOS) 20 June 1993 (ProDOS)
EAG number	38
EDX number	12-03
EDX set	Best of the Classic Adventures
Native format	Apple DOS 3.3
Files	Eamon 38 - The City in the Clouds.dsk Eamon 38 - The City in the Clouds (ProDOS).dsk

The City in the Clouds is an Eamon adventure written by Evan Hodson and heavily based on Donald Brown's adventure The Death Star.

Background

The City in the Clouds is a Star Wars-themed adventure, reenacting the heroes' visit to Cloud City during The Empire Strikes Back. The adventure was written as a sequel to The Death Star and uses many of the same concepts, including combat sound effects, hordes of generic "soldiers", and anti-gravity "bounce tubes" that allow the player to move from one level to another.

The quest includes several goals:

• Find the thermocoupler which allows the Millennium Falcon to engage its hyperdrive
• Deactivate the tractor beam holding the Millennium Falcon on the launch pad
• Rescue Princess Leia and Han Solo
• Fight Darth Vader, if you dare...

There are a number of special Force-based attacks that both the player and Darth Vader can use, including force-choking, telekinesis, and stopping blaster shots with a bare hand. These use one of the new commands, INVOKE.

The standard spells do not work in this adventure. Healing is possible using the new MEDICATE command, which requires that the player have a medikit, which can be found somewhere in Cloud City.

Premise

From the introduction:

It is a dark time for the rebellion. Although encouraged by their victory in the destruction of the Death Star, the rebels who remained have been hounded by Darth Vader across the galaxy...

Even now, the intrepid Han Solo and a group of key rebel personnel have come to the city in the clouds seeking refuge and repairs for the Millennium Falcon. It has turned out that the Empire had been awaiting them and that they have walked into a deadly trap...

But help is arriving in the person of [Name] who, while embarking upon a quest from the Main Hall on Eamon was caught in an inversion of reality and who even now is pondering the meaning of it all...

By searching your new "memories", you know that you were being tutored in the ways of the Force by Master Yoda on the planet Dagobah when you sensed that your friends were in peril and you then flew to the City in the Clouds to save them.

But Master Yoda warned you as you left, "You are not fully a Jedi Knight yet! Oh you may be able to invoke the Force, but Darth Vader can invoke the Force and use a weapon at the same time — you cannot!"

You asked Yoda, "How can I return to my own world?" He replied, "You must find the answer to that yourself. I know so little about many things... I don't even know why I sound like Grover on Sesame Street, for Pete's sake!"

You note that your weapons are gone but that you now have a light sabre. You are unable to use your spells, but you are able to invoke the Force... and it is a powerful ally in battle.

As you flew here, you had a vision of sorts. You saw Imperial Stormtroopers remove the thermocoupler from the Millennium Falcon. Without it, no jump to hyperspace is possible, and the Imperial patrols would surely destroy the ship... and naturally the tractor beam holding the ship would need to be disabled prior to any escape...

You also saw Princess Leia in the vision and she was trying to tell you something but you could not make out her words... Yet there was a look in her eyes that moved you very deeply... and you know that unless she is rescued, the Rebel Alliance will probably collapse into dissension and disunity...

By the way, you have been pondering your feelings for the princess for quite a long time and who knows... perhaps her heart will be touched by a daring rescue by a dashing adventurer?

So you have come to meet your destiny in the City in the Clouds. All you know is that somewhere in it is your way back...

Good luck (and may the Force be with you)!

Walkthrough

Adventure map by Huw Williams

⚠️ A walkthrough is needed for this adventure.

Trivia

• The "bounce tubes" used to travel vertically between levels are taken from Brown's earlier Death Star adventure.
• The names of the rebel characters Drakir Grebb and Odene Hobar are lifted from Freedom in the Galaxy, a 1979 board game inspired by Star Wars. Grebb is a toad-like Calmas from the planet Suti, while Hobar is a Leonid from the planet Heliax — though Hodson changes Hobar's race to Kzin, likely because one features in Brown's Death Star.

External links

• Eamon Adventurer's Guild Library Master List
• The Interactive Fiction Database: The City in the Clouds
• Interactive Fiction Reviews: The City in the Clouds