Long time no post...

Well, there hasn't been much going on in the Eamon world. I guess that's not really new. I did do something worthwhile however. I uploaded Eamons 243-249 to the interactive fiction archive at www.ifarchive.org. If you're interested in interactive fiction in any way, I highly encourage you to check it out.

Until next time...
Matthew

Eamon and Interactive Fiction

I wrote a brief article on Eamon and its relationship to interactive fiction
at http://www.eamonag.org/pages/eamon_IF.htm. I'm curious to see what people
think? Do you agree/disagree? Did I miss something?

Apple vs. Microsoft - Could Apple have won?

Check out this article: The Art of the Parlay, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Platform Licensing and Market Share

New Eamon Adventure list

I recently switched from Microsoft Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox. I noticed that the old list for the Eamon page, a 21k listing, wasn't working properly. I checked it on several web browsers and found that it only worked on Internet Explorer and Opera browsers. As such, I reprogramed the list so it uses tables now. It's a larger page, at 149k, but the tables make sure that everything in the list stays where it should.

You can see the new list at Eamon Adventure List.

More fun with letters...

Ok, in response to the letter I posted last time, I had the following comments in the guestbook:

Date: Sunday June 20, 2004 - 03:01PM
Name: Phil
Location: South Carolina
Comments: Hmm, if fans of the singer Eamon keep mailing you... write back with something to the effect of "Throw away my CD and forget about me. I don't want an illiterate [insert your favorite curse word here] as a fan anyway!"

I'd do it. But then again, I'm evil.

Well, I thought about doing something like that, but I decided to not be mean. I thought, hey, maybe I can turn this guy's life around. Here was my response to him.

From: Eamon [mailto:eamon-guild@earthlink.net]
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 5:01 PM
To: 'fubupimp04@hotmail.com'
Subject: RE: Eamon

Hi,
I'm glad you enjoy the music. However, your email was quite difficult to read. You really should learn how to write coherently and spell correctly. You'll find it much more useful in your life then listening to a song over and over...
Peace,
Eamon

I thought that was the end of it. I mean, the guy is clueless enough that he can't figure out the difference between Eamon the game and Eamon his beloved singer. Well, he responded today...

From: William Martynewicz [mailto:fubupimp04@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 3:57 AM
To: eamon-guild@earthlink.net
Subject: RE: Eamon

hi, Its William Martynewicz i gave you a email that you said you found it difficult to read iam sorry if you dident understan it. just wonna know whats up. i dident think you would write back to me. so i really wonna thank u for reading your fans emails and shit. Must people wouldent give a shit.
Peace

His stupidity is beyond belief... I'm waiting for him to pass on the email address to all his buddies...

Humorous email

Ok, I get a lot of junk email at the eamon-guild@earthlink.net email address. It's usually not a problem as the address uses a challenge system to get in contact with me. That is, the sever will automatically send an email back to a sender if the sender isn't in my address book. That person can then send me an email letting me know who they are. Once I add them to the address book, it's not a problem anymore. I know this is somewhat annoying for people trying to contact me, but it really only needs to be done once and it really cuts down on the amount of junk I get.

Anyway, there are other Eamons out there. Eamon De Valera was the president of Ireland for awhile. No problems there. However, there is a singer named Eamon out there, with the song "F**k It [I Don't Want You Back]". Apparently, singer Eamon's fans are somewhat illiterate. I've cleared out several guestbook entrees where the writer was obviously not a fan of the Eamon computer game. Today, I received the following email, with the warning that it uses some obscenity...

From: will [mailto:Fubupimp04@hotmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2004 12:48 AM
To: eamon-guild@earthlink.net
Subject: Eamon Web Page comment/suggestion/question

Hey bro wots up. Diz is Will Martynewicz from Perth, Australia. Iam 17 in july. Iam a really big fan of yours. Man i love your music. I brout ur Cd I dont wont you back. Man i most of lessinon 2 those song about 1000 times each since i brout it. My best song is I Love Thoses Hoes. Your songs have really help me. About 1 mounth ago i broke up wid my girl. she cheated on me with some fogget. I ended up wid a broken hart. she keep asking 4 me back. And your song Fuck it(I Dont Wont u Back) Really came into play. those love songs on there really toch me couse i felt da some way about her. My dream is 2 be a R&B singer like you or a hip hop raper. Man i wish i could be singing beside u. You really got some grat music man and i really have a lot of respect 4 u. It fells like i have know u 4 ages by lessioning 2 ya music its really good man. and i hope u keep bring shit like dat out. man i hope 2 met u one day. 2 sing like u or be wid u singing would mean da world 2 me. i realy hpe u write back 2 one of your biggest fan bro. just dat would mean da world 2 me. Well ive got 2 go my X girl keeps ringing me she just dosent get da point of its over. man i hope u write back. you take care bro and keep sing da good shit.. my best wishes are dat u stay up at da top were u belong. Peace

Does anybody have any witty suggestions for a response?

What Players Really Want

Gamegrene.com / Game Material / What Players Really Want

Gamegrene is a website that's mainly focused on person-to-person non-computer role-playing games. However, I've found that several of their articles, including this one, can be easily adapted to the computer world in general, and Eamon in particular. If you're designing an adventure and get some free time, I'd encourage you to take a look around their website.

New Eamon idea at alt.games.eamon

John MacArthur has an interesting idea for a new Eamon game. He posted the following message to alt.games.eamon:

I am about to try to write a new adventure. The "plot" goes somewhat
like this:

Planet EAMON is in the midst of a World War II/Cold War era. The Mal
Rojo Empire is starting to take over innocent countries. One of them
is the Eamon Republic, home of the EAMON Adventurer's Guild. When
General Zuchowksi of the EAG heard about this, they decided to see if
there was any truth to the legend of the Islas del Sorpresa.

Legend says that these islands, which lie in the Muerte Sea, have
never been reached before. The Muerte Sea has also never been
successfully crossed. Rumors say that this is because of dragon and
sea monster attacks. Nobody dares go across the sea. However, the
islands, according to the legend, contain three objects (just what is
not known), that if correctly used, can be used to control any human.
The EAG wants the adventurer to go out and see whether the enemy has
found them and is using them, or to take the objects themselves.

About three hundred years ago, a famous warlock of the EAG had gone on
a similar mission. However, he has never been seen or heard from
since. Most people had considered him to have godlike powers and to
be the toughest EAG member to ever exist. Therefore, the mission may
be tougher than anybody could handle!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some questions:

How tough is too tough? How many and how tough monsters should be
assigned as enemies, and how tough should friendly monsters be?

If there are deathtraps, how can they be subtly warned about (I'm
looking for example adventures here, there's got to be something I'm
looking for in 250 adventures)?

Would anybody be offended by content relating to the Cold War?

Would it make sense to FREE a dead body to resurrect it, or should I
make it a POWER effect? Or should I do something completely
different?

Have there been any GOOD attempts at wandering monsters and is there
an easy-to-understand algorithm for this? What I want is a friendly
wandering monster that just happens to be in the right room when you
need him/her/it.

Have any other adventures been invented with similar themes that I can
look at (that means tear apart and steal ideas from)?

Finally, anything about the plot that should be changed to fit the
EAMON "standard"?

I responded with:

Sounds like an interesting background... I only have one question you might
want to address. If my country is being faced with invasion from a foreign
country, I don't think my first thoughts would be launching an expedition
across the sea, especially if its after a "legend"... You might want to have
some sort of special circumstance that makes the good General think that the
three objects have something to do with it and/or the three objects are the
solution to the problem. Maybe I'm being nitpicky, but I think it'd make for
a better story.

> Some questions:
> How tough is too tough? How many and how tough monsters should be
assigned as enemies, and how tough should friendly monsters be?
The old DDD manual stated "A good rule of thumb is that an adventurer can
lick about five times his own hardiness in opponents, with allies
subtracting their hardiness from the opposition." The newer one states "an
adventurer can generally lick about three times his own hardiness in
opponents, with allies subtracting their Hardiness from the opposition".
I'd try to aim somewhere in between there if it was really a concern.

I'd say it definately shouldn't be as tough as the Iron Prison. The January
1987 issue of the NEUC actually printed a bug fix because it was considered
so tough...
"Problem: Impossible Adventure!! Only managed to get 7 friends with a total
hardiness of 192 up against 80 enemies with a total hardiness of 3,655!!
This does not include the army that you meet with a hardiness of 10,000!!!
Fix: Don't play it and send the author a rasberries type letter. Then go in
and edit the monsters to make them more reasonable." I wonder if Sam ever
got any letters from that...

> If there are deathtraps, how can they be subtly warned about (I'm looking
for example adventures here, there's got to be something I'm looking for in
250 adventures)?
Deathtraps can have several subtle warnings. Even though you asked for
sample adventures, I think Tom gave death traps a pretty good write up in
the June 1989 Dungeon Designs Column (available at
http://www.eamonag.org/columns/DD-columns.htm#6/89)

> Would anybody be offended by content relating to the Cold War?
Not at all... I think it would make for a refreshing change in comparison to
the Eamons that are out there.

> Would it make sense to FREE a dead body to resurrect it, or should I make
it a POWER effect? Or should I do something completely different?

Hmmm... I'm assuming that there might be a dead body which is bound in
chains against the wall? I think a more amusing effect might be to program
for both. If a player FREEs the body and then casts POWER, the body comes to
life. If the player casts POWER first, the result is a living person coming
back to life in chains (screaming bloody murder). The player could then FREE
the prisoner. That's the way I would handle it, although there may be some
other ideas out there...

> Have there been any GOOD attempts at wandering monsters and is there an
easy-to-understand algorithm for this? What I want is a friendly wandering
monster that just happens to be in the right room when you need him/her/it.

I think the classic attempt at wondering monsters was the "Assault on the
Clonemaster". The monsters in that one actually move from room to room
instead of just random monster insertions here and there. It's definitely
worth a look. Another good one to look at is 92 "The Fugative". There, you
have roving soldiers who are looking for you, moving from room to room. You
are able to see the soldiers in time to get out of the way. This is also
done well.
Maybe a good way to implement your idea is to have your random monsters
wondering about. Then, just force the one monster to enter the room where
you need him/her/it later. It might be easier then programming a target room
for the monster to work its way towards...

> Have any other adventures been invented with similar themes that I can
look at (that means tear apart and steal ideas from)?
Operation Endgame has a special operations unit trying to infiltrate an
enemy base... Good stuff here... I'm sure there are some other ones out
there, but they just aren't coming to mind...

> Finally, anything about the plot that should be changed to fit the EAMON
"standard"?
I'm not really sure if there is an Eamon standard. It's pretty open and
flexible. Each author has their own style and adopts the Eamon world to that
style. I'd say that you'd be safe writting almost anything, as long as it
was enjoyable to play and wasn't illegal! ;-)

If anybody has other ideas, please share them on alt.games.eamon or leave a comment here!

Tour of the Main PGM v 7.1

A detailed tour of the Main PGM v7.1 that was written by Tom Zuchowski for the EAG newsletter is now even easier to use. Just check out http://www.eamonag.org/columns/mainpgmtour.htm.

The tour has been set up side-by-side with the relevant sections of the MAIN PGM. Now, you can see exactly what the program is doing during any given line.

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog of the Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online.

This blog is designed to use an RSS-enabled newsreader in order for you to be able to keep up with any changes to the Eamon website. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is an XML-based format for content distribution. For more details on RSS, start with the RSS 2.0 specification.

I personally use NewsGator as my newsreader as it is integrated into Outlook. You may also be interested in Amphetadesk or Newzcrawler.