The Conclusion of the Dr. Evil Laboratories Saga

Readers will recall a pair of posts concerning one of Eamon's cousins, the Commodore 64 text adventure system Imagery!. For those not recalling them, part one and part two will direct you to the blog of our comrades at Doctor Evil Laboratories, featuring a wonderfully written retrospective of the rise and fall of the company.

 

Well, I sadly missed it this last month, but the concluding chapter of our friend Kent Sullivan's history of Dr. Evil Labs went up in September. You needn't be familiar with C64 jargon to enjoy the blog posts; Kent's writing really outlines a coming of age story that only incidentally contains C64 jargon.

 

There isn't a concise web address for the Dr. Evil Labs blog, but you can get to the blog by clicking here and you can read the last installment here.

 

Eamon and the Xbox Crowd

One individual's discovery of the Beginners Cave recently led to quite a bit of amusement on Reddit a couple of days ago, making its way to the front of r/gaming and grabbing nearly a thousand comments. 

 

While there's a bit of salty language, it's interesting to see the Xbox generation try to get their collective head around the notion of a text adventure. I certainly enjoyed reading the comments.

IF Comp 2013

Eamon lovers might be interested in the Interactive Fiction Competition, running until November 15th, 2013. Should be worth your time...

http://ifcomp.org/comp13/index.php

Another Curiosity, the "Creative Adventure Disk"

This is just a short post to throw something out in hopes that some reader or other will have information.

 

I stumbled upon some unusual Eamoniana (I'm coining a term here) today while going through WorldCat: the "Creative Adventure Disk," Apple II software published in 1986 by an Australian company called Select Software. It is described as:

Create your own dungeons and dragons adventure game. Compatible with Eamon series. Suitable as an educational aid.

Select Software, it appears, distributed Eamon proper before releasing this, so this is presumably not Eamon. Moreover, the system spans four disks, so it's clearly robust.

 

The reference can be found at WorldCat with OCLC number 225973575. No libraries seem to have a copy. If you've encountered this software, I'd love to learn more about it.

"Lair of the Minotaur" for Jon Walker's Eamon

A further Eamon for Jon Walker's PC Eamon has been found lurking in the internets. While PC-SIG supported Walker's ports of The Beginner's Cave, The Ice Cave, Assault on the Clone Master, and Quest for Trezore---and released Cronum's Castle and Lord of the Underland independently---it never released his port of Lair of the Minotaur. Walker's port of Lair was distributed by his "Wisconsin Software Systems"; why it wasn't picked up by PC-SIG is unknown.

 

David Kinder at www.ifarchive.org was generous enough to fix the compressed files---updating them for modern systems---and to host this port of Lair of the Minotaur on the site as well here. He has posted Cronum and Underland to the archive as well. Hence, the Walker PC Eamon library stands at:

 

1. The Main Hall/ Beginner's Cave by Donald Brown (ported by Jon Walker)
2. The Ice Cave by Jon Walker
3. Assault on the Clone Master  by Donald Brown (ported by Jon Walker)
4. Quest for Trezore by Jim Jacobson (ported by Jon Walker)
5. Cronum's Castle by Matt Ashcraft and Richard Tonsing
6. Lord of the Underland by Justin Langseth
7. Lair of the Minotaur by Donald Brown (ported by Jon Walker)
8. Dungeon Designer

All of these files can be conveniently found at at the PC Eamon page. Many thanks to David Kinder for his help.

 

There will soon be some announcements concerning the Micro-Adventure Contest. If you haven't submitted something yet, we still welcome contributions, though the competition itself has closed.

Eamon Revolutions, Database Editor for Windows, and Contest Reminder

So Huw Williams isn't the only one making sweeping contributions to the Wonderful World of Eamon. Derek Jeter, author of the exceedingly well-crafted Stronghold of Kahr-Dur, has recently released (in alpha in one case) some great Eamon-related software.

First off is the very promising Eamon Revolutions, a web-based update of Eamon. A number of enhancements have been made by Jeter, details of which can be found at the Wonderful Wiki of Eamon entry. It is presently in alpha and The Beginner's Cave is the only adventure thus far ported but it looks to be a lot of fun, as well as a good way to introduce folks to the joy of Eamon from any web browser.

But there's more... Jeter has also put together a Windows-based GUI dedicated to editing Eamon Deluxe databases, the EDX Adventure Database Editor. For aspiring Eamon authors with a Windows machine, this software appears to make the editing of an Eamon Deluxe adventure a smoother process.

With that being said, I'll remind readers of the blog that the deadline for the Eamon Micro-Adventure Contest is fast approaching. With the EDX Adventurer Editor, there's really no excuse not to secure for yourself the eternal glory and esteem that comes with writing an Eamon adventure. So put together a few rooms and send them to us by June 1st at tfeamon[at]gmail.com or eamondeluxe[at]gmail.com.

Announcing the Wonderful Wiki of Eamon

Over the past year, the intrepid Huw Williams has worked tirelessly--though quietly--to lay the foundations for an extraordinarily comprehensive, online Eamon encyclopedia. Recently, this work has become open to the public.

The Wonderful Wiki of Eamon, which can be found at www.eamononline.com, is a wiki edited and curated by members of the extended Eamon community. Anyone can log in and begin lending a hand, whether it's by creating a page for an missing topic or by adding material on an existing one. Every area of the Eamon universe is touched on and what Huw has put together is nothing short of phenomenal.

As a great example of the potential of Huw's project, check out the page for The Lair of the Minotaur. Included are summaries of the plot, reviews, and a section detailing how its characters and geography relate to the larger Eamon universe. Even the original MAINPGM in BASIC has been included. While not all Eamon adventures have received this exhaustive a treatment, you're invited to pick your favorite Eamon adventure and assist in giving it the same treatment.

So head over to the Wonderful Wiki of Eamon, whether it's to check out the content or to contribute to the project.