Four New (or Newly Available) Eamon Adventures!

Between Keith Dechant's last blog post and its subsequent comments, there was a suggestion of an incoming tidal wave of good news for Eamon in 2020. Well, that wave has made landfall, leading to the announcement of four new (or heretofore unannounced) Eamon adventures across three platforms.

All of the adventures represent the best of what Eamon can be: Each includes fantastic writing and storytelling; several are wide in scope and leverage lots of special modifications to the basic Eamon routine.


Malleus Maleficarum: The first original adventure written for the Eamon Remastered system, Keith Dechant's Malleus Maleficarum sees the adventurer's friend Maya draw the player to the far-away land of Virrat. From Dechant's description, the adventurer travels

to a nearby land that has outlawed magic and is conducting a witch hunt against all magic users. Your quest is to rescue a friend's grandmother and investigate a militant anti-magic organization called the Cobalt Front... The Cobalt Front is a very lawful organization, at least when it comes to magic and magic weapons, and you can easily find yourself getting into trouble with the law if you're not careful.

There are other things happening in the land of Virrat, too, and you'll find yourself battling some bizarre creatures as you learn what's really going on.

Malleus Maleficarum relies heavily on interaction with non-player characters, as well, which helps develops the storyline. For playing the adventure and getting more information about it, the reader can consult the following links:

• Malleus Maleficarum can be played at Eamon Remastered.
• The Malleus Maleficarum page at the Eamon Wiki will undoubtedly be updated with further information on the adventure.

Land of the Mountain King: Several years ago, Kenneth Pedersen released Land of the Mountain King as an ADRIFT adventure and has now ported it to Michael Penner's Eamon CS system.

While the adventure's scope is more constrained than the others described in this post, its writing and story are solid. From its introduction:

You are walking in the woods looking for prey when you are suddenly shrouded in a cloud of white smoke. The smoke is too dense to see through, but eventually, the smoke clears and you find yourself on a barren plain.

As you turn around, you see an old witch stand before you. "Listen carefully!" the witch whispers with a hoarse voice.

"I have summoned you here to help me clear this land from the evil mountain king, who lives in his castle up north. The mountain king terrorizes this land and must die so that peace can be restored around here. If you succeed you will be significantly rewarded.

Land of the Mountain King is the first original adventure for Penner's Eamon CS, and the reader can use the following links for more information:

• Land of the Mountain King can be downloaded and played by installing Eamon CS.
• The Land of the Mountain King page at the Eamon Wiki includes discussion, a detailed walkthrough, and maps for the adventure.

The Treachery of Zorag: Derek Jeter's follow-up to the excellent Stronghold of Kahr-Dur for Eamon Deluxe, The Treachery of Zorag was nearing completion just as Frank Black was shelving development of the platform. Consequently, Zorag failed to receive a formal release or widespread acknowledgement (I hadn't even realized that it had been completed until last month). Undaunted, Jeter has made some modifications to the adventure and is hosting an online, playable Zorag.

Like Malleus Maleficarum, interaction with non-player characters plays an equal role to combat, making for an engrossing adventure. From the introduction:

A knight from the nearby city of Behlos arrives at the Main Hall to announce that the king is assembling a party of the land's greatest heroes to investigate the possible return of Zorag, an evil wizard imprisoned for many years and now feared to be free. The knight asks for the Guild's greatest warrior to join the party, and when your comrades all point to you, you accept the errand. The knight orders you to appear at the King's Hall in Behlos at sunrise on the second day to begin the mission.

Long ago, I was blown away by an incomplete version of Zorag and it's fantastic that the full adventure can finally reach a broader audience. More can be found at the following links:

• Derek Jeter's playable online version of The Treachery of Zorag is at http://www.dcsoftsys.com/eamon/toz/.
• The Treachery of Zorag page at the Eamon Wiki includes background, walkthroughs, and a map for the adventure.

Assault on the Clone Master Remake: Forty years after its release, Donald Brown's Assault on the Clone Master has been reborn with a superbly-written, steampunk-infused remake courtesy of Keith Dechant. While nominally a remake, the adventure has been so deeply reworked as to warrant its being described as an all-new adventure.

By way of illustration, check out the introductory text of the original Clone Master, and compare with the introduction of the remake:

You were traveling in the far-away land of Knieriem, a land with technology far beyond your own. You marveled at the towering cities and majestic arches and goggled at the wondrous metal vehicles and flying machines powered by the most exquisite clockwork.

But, all was not well in Knieriem. A day before you were to leave for home on a massive, steam-powered ship, word came that the harbor was being blockaded by the dreaded fire fleets of the infamous Clone Master!

The Clone Master was known all over Knieriem and the surrounding kingdoms, feared for his vast armies made up of human clones!

Dechant's Assault on the Clone Master is worth checking out; more information can be found at the following links: 

• Dechant's remake of Assault on the Clone Master can be played at Eamon Remastered.
• The remake's page at the Eamon Wiki includes background information and a detailed walkthrough.

Eamon Deluxe 5.0 Public Beta is Ready

The public beta of Eamon Deluxe 5.0 is now available for download and ready to serve all of your dragon-slaying, dungeon-exploring, spell-casting, and Shopping-Mall-shopping needs. Eamonauts can download all flavors of Eamon Deluxe 5.0 here.

In addition, this will be the first time that Derek C. Jeter's "Stronghold of Kahr-Dur" is available. As mentioned in an earlier post, the adventure is superbly written and ought to please both salty Eamon veterans and newcomers alike.

So mix yourself a Double Dragon Blomb and fire up the computer (or your Nintendo Wii). There's adventuring to do!

Note: VI Mode currently only works with computers using a 32 bit Windows operating system. Alternately, Windows 7 64 bit users can install Virtual PC for free from Microsoft's website; Win 7 Pro users can the run Eamon Deluxe in "XP Mode", however Win 7 Home users have to build a virtual machine using a real XP disc or ISO. VI Mode will not work on OSX but may work in Linux via the "DOS Emu" emulator, though this feature has not yet been tested.

Eamon Deluxe 5.0 for Nintendo Wii

I now have Eamon Deluxe running on the Nintendo Wii. It is a fully functional copy which contains all of the options and features of every other version available. The only requirements are a writable SD card, the DOSBox app and a USB keyboard. Go count rats in the Beginner's Cave or get lost wandering about The Shopping Mall... all from the comfort of your living room.

I do apologize for the poor picture quality, I took them using my phone and a stone age TV, plus I didn't have time to edit them as I had not planned to have something this cool working tonight. It was kind of a spur of the moment idea and the actual screen display is much clearer than these pictures would indicate. Even if they were a bit fuzzy, though, who would complain? It's Eamon on the Wii. How fun is that? It has been a good year for the Guild indeed.

This version will be available for download within the next few days, along with packages for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. And, as a holiday gift to the Eamon Community, I'm adding the option to launch other DOS programs instead of Eamon Deluxe at start up, including an interactive menu that lets you navigate folders and select programs manually saved in the Eamon Deluxe home folder on the SD card and attempt to launch it. Want to play oh... say, "Wasteland" or "King's Quest" on your Wii? Simply copy them onto your SD card, pop it in the Wii and let Eamon Deluxe do all the mounting, configuring and other such work for you.

And, yes, I know that there is a big question which will be first on everyone's mind, so I will save us all time and answer it right now: Yes, Eamon Deluxe on the Wii really does have 100% of the features and functionality as the other versions, so no worries, I assure everyone that they can still play the beloved Beagle Bros game, Hang Person!

Eamon Deluxe was made cross-platform compatible by the work of the DOSBox Team. Stop by their homepage and give them a hug (or a small donation) sometime. Happy holidays and best wishes to everyone in the Eamon community.

         -Frank

Reviews for newest Eamon adventure, "Stronghold of Kahr-Dur".

In this previous post, I mentioned a new Eamon Deluxe adventure and promised to release a stand alone copy along with a review. Shortly after that, I (optimistically?) thought that Eamon Deluxe was going to be ready for public release and, since it would be included, delayed putting together the stand alone copy. Obviously there was much more work to be done on Eamon Deluxe than I predicted and somehow I managed to completely forget about posting anything more about the adventure on the blog.

Although I did email the author copies of the reviews I received, I do feel a bit bad for not giving his very well written adventure the attention it deserved. Eamon Deluxe actually is about to be released this time, so it will be made available with the full system rather than as a stand alone, but here are the two reviews which were written for that newest entry into the Eamon adventure library, "Stronghold of Kahr-Dur" by Derek C. Jeter. (Screen shots were posted with the previous blog.)

Derek has also announced that he is working on a second adventure! He recently posted a screen shot on the Eamon Guild's facebook page.


Eamon Deluxe adventure #24
The Stronghold of Khar-Dur
by Derek C. Jeter
Description: You are milling about the hall of free adventurers when the burly Irishman approaches. "A raven just arrived carrying a message for you," he says grimly. You take the piece of parchment from him and read the hastily scribbled letter. It is from your brother, Jollifrud, who lives in the wealthy city of Fharnor.

He states that a terrible menace has haunted a long-abandoned mountain fortress, known as Kahr-Dur, that overlooks the town. This unnamed menace has been quietly kidnapping the city's denizens during the night which has led to a general state of fear and anxiety. Even worse, Jollifrud's daughter Lady Mirabelle is among those who have been seized. He begs you to journey to Fahrnor and help him rid the city of this great evil once and for all...


Reviewed By: Thomas Ferguson
Special Features: Difficulty scales to character's level, Atmospheric effects
Playing Time: 1-2 hours
Reviewer Rating: 9                  Average Rating: 8.5 (from 2 reviews)
Difficulty Rating: 7                   Average Rating: 7
 
Comment: "Stronghold of Kahr-Dur" was initially described to me as having a "classic Eamon" flavor and I think this is an apt assessment. The plot is a straightforward "damsel in distress" scenario, paying homage to the classic dungeon crawls of yesteryear, with a heroic companion by the player's side and nasty enemies to defeat. "Stronghold," however, is by no means a derivative work.

Where this adventure shines, I think, is in its execution. The descriptions of rooms and artifacts are detailed and moody while avoiding being verbose. The design is likewise excellent; the different areas of the map are very distinct from one another and are naturally laid out. While the puzzles tend to involve a fair amount of backtracking to complete, the layout of the map prevents this from making such forays overly tedious.

There is a very effective blend of fighting the bad guys and solving puzzles. On the former point, the author has added a nice feature that assigns the attributes of the enemies based on the values of the adventurer's strongest weapon; this ensures that the difficulty scales to meet the experience of the character. Though going through "Stronghold" with a brand-new character saw him swiftly trounced, playing with my old standby adventurer, wielding a souped-up canister of Smylex (retrieved from "Batman!!" in the Worst of the Classic Adventures collection), still proved a challenge. The puzzles can be intuitively solved without resorting to using the HINTS command though still demand some reasoning on the part of the player. In short, little in "Stronghold" is outright given to the player; success must be earned.

"Stronghold" also takes pains to incorporate a number of effects and special features and they are employed successfully due to their subtlety. Often, special effects in Eamon, when present, tend to come off as gimmickry; in the case of "Stronghold," effects are employed seamlessly to add to the atmosphere of the map. I was surprised after looking "under the hood" at the number of effects programmed into the adventure; I'd been enjoying the adventure too much during the playthroughs to notice that they were being employed. And this is precisely how it ought to be.

A further, satisfying feature of the adventure is the clearly outlined quest and the explicit indication in the endgame of having "won" or "lost." I'd have preferred to have read a bit more storyline detailing what happens after the player leaves the fortress- Eamon in general tends to be unbalanced in its proportion of prologue to epilogue- but the mere acknowledgement that the player has been successful is enough to make "Stronghold" stand in distinction to most of the [Eamon] canon.

The writing and programming of "Stronghold of Kahr-Dur" are top notch. While itsauthor doesn't try and reinvent the wheel, the adventure succeeds in refining many of the traditional tropes of Eamon to produce one of the best "dungeon crawls" Eamon has seen.


Reviewed By: Luke Hewitt
Reviewer Rating: 8                    Average Rating: 8.5 (from 2 reviews)
Difficulty Rating: 7                     Average Rating: 7
Comment: The best summation of stronghold is that it is what many of the more childish, combat-heavy classic adventures hoped to be when they grew up. The plot is absolutely typical of the genre: An evil necromancer is causing havoc in a far off town, kidnapping an important lovely damsel along the way (these evil sorcerers really should learn to only kidnap ugly, unimportant people). However, what really stands out in this game is the staggeringly good atmosphere that Derek has managed to create. Though there are many, many empty rooms in the large map, I never felt bored or uninterested since even the majority of empty rooms still have detailed descriptions which are not limited to visible objects and features, but distinct smells and sounds as well. A nice touch of special programming also comes into play as it randomly flags up extra atmospheric effects such as gusts of wind, distant howling, feelings of fear and other contributions to the already stunning environment.

I was extremely pleased to find that the dusty, abandoned castle where you first start out is not the only environment you visit in this map either, as I later progressed to a dark and rugged series of caves, a gloomy forest, and other unique settings. As I mentioned already, the overall map is quite large and this is definitely an Eamon for explorers since several later portions of the game can become rather maze-like; though I encountered no "trick" exits or random room connections: and it's possible to navigate without getting lost as long as you keep track of where you have been and where you haven't explored yet.

One thing I did find a little jarring in this adventure is the total absence of embedded artifacts. I was occasionally quite sorry to have a fascinating object such as a statue of a warrior or a wizard's tome mentioned in a description, but not be able to examine it. Though, once I stopped trying to EXAMINE things, I came to appreciate how the artifacts that did exist were used in clever and interesting ways to create puzzles without the use of embedded objects. I can clearly understand the logic and reasoning behind the author's choice of artifact usage, even though it's not a choice I would have made myself.

One minor disappointment was that, despite the extremely well crafted atmosphere and clear quest, the plot still felt a bit unfinished and anti-climatic in some respects. For example, though the intro story mentioned that many local citizens had been disappearing, but I only actually found the "brother" I started the game with and the aforementioned damsel in distress for companionship. Also it was never made explicitly clear who exactly the evil necromancer was or what his nefarious motivations were. Even when within his lair, I found no altars to mysteriously nasty gods nor preparations for unpleasant enchantments, plans for domination, etc.-- just the captive damsel who was quite two dimensional and really seemed to be there just for decoration (after all, the lair of any good necromancer has to have an attractive, chained up maiden as part of the decor).

As I mentioned, your only companion is your loyal "brother"-- whether that is a friendly title to describe a comrade-in-arms or a literal relation was never explained, but I personally chose to interpret it as the first option, since I prefer to imagine my characters' background and family tree myself. Unfortunately, this "brother" is almost as two dimensional as the damsel in distress; this is an area that could have greatly benefited from some special programming, perhaps allowing him to speak to you or comment on what was happening throughout the adventure, it felt particularly flat when I rescued what may or may not have been his daughter (and therefore my character's niece).

The puzzles aren't overly challenging provided you take care to pay attention to the descriptions. The map layout can get rather complex especially towards the end, which certainly added to the challenge. One tip: though not exactly a puzzle, the author probably should have mentioned somewhere in the game that a "knock spell" is a magical enchantment used to open stubborn doors and/or other barriers. I learned this myself from playing other RPG games, but "Stronghold" could have been a bit unfair, had I not already known this.

I give this one a 7 (out of 10) for its difficulty rating. The high rating, however, is not merely based upon the moderately challenging puzzles or the large, twisty map alone, but rather comes mostly from the combat. I give extra credit to Derek here as well because, instead of loading the place with hoards of weaker enemies, he intersperses the largely empty map with interesting monsters and very tough battles, which which adds far more significance to the standard Eamon hack'n'slash approach. My medium strength character (with a 2D6 weapon) was often down to the wire, and it took the proper use of spells and artifacts to win several fights, despite having the included "brother" (who is a very hardy companion) from the start.

The big boss fight itself also deserves special mention as it is one of the better examples of special programming being used in combat that I've ever encountered, and very much stays consistent to the theme of facing off against a powerful, evil sorcerer who is capable of using dreadful magic against you. I'd definitely advise people pump up before trying this one, especially on their magic spells.

There are several tough fights, which are actually completely avoidable through clever navigation and which really could have used some sort of small reward or mention to generate a deserved sense of accomplishment (indeed given that one of them was against a group of animated skeletons).

All in all though, Stronghold of Kahr-Dur is an extremely well written Eamon Deluxe adventure, both in a literary sense as well as the inclusion of special programming. It has a classic "dungeon crawl" flavored plot, a clear quest, multiple combat fests against interesting opponents, challenging exploration and a fantastic atmosphere which is continuous from start to finish. Despite the few shortcomings I mentioned, it's still an outstanding game overall and I highly recommend it. With the dramatic combat, strong atmosphere, puzzle solving, or just the challenge of exploration and mapping, there is something for everyone. I give it an 8 out of 10 for the overall enjoyment rating.

A Strange, Commercial Eamon for the Apple II

A little more Eamon archaeology. Back in 1985, a company named "Load'N'Go," a subsidiary of "Green River Publishing," itself a subsidiary of "ShareData," released to great fanfare (or not) The Adventurer Series, a series of games for the Apple II essentially repackaging Eamon. At this time, Eamon was primarily distributed commercially through public domain houses like 3A, and this seems totally legitimate to me. What is borderline insidious about The Adventurer Series is its methodical excision of every trace of its creators.

This is the story about how Eamon literally made its way onto store shelves without Donald Brown (or any other Eamon author) making a cent.

The "authors" of The Adventurer Series didn't merely remove Brown's name and call it a day. In order to make this work "original," there are some changes and "enhancements." Care was taken to revise the weapon abilities in an unusual fashion; the "spear" becomes a "pole arm" and the "sword" category becomes "slashing." Some of the changes are inexplicable; the command "drink" becomes "quaff" and "ready" becomes "prepare." Likewise, while the Load'N'Go Beginner's Cave maintains the map of the standard one, the descriptions are methodically rewritten with the one original contribution being some odd references to a mythical "Lord Gumby" (don't ask me to explain). Playing through its Beginner's Cave feels like reading a research paper by a knucklehead freshman plagiarist.

The interface is, to be fair, significantly revamped. Like Bill Martens' modified Eamons displaying a player's stats (which works well and deserves to be checked out), The Adventure Series seeks to display relevant statistics constantly during the game. In practice, though, the execution of this feature is clunky, taking up over half of the screen, leaving the player with effectively an 18 column display. (If the jump from 40 columns to 80 columns is a significant leap, then this represents an even more significant leap backwards.)

As far as I can tell from an advertisement in the May 1986 issue of Family Computing, there were three disks released: The Beginner's Cave, Cave of the Mind, and River Adventure, a rebranded Zyphur Riverventure.

Disk images of the first are abundant; I'm unable to locate the latter two but I presume they fall into the same plagiarist tradition of the former (though there is through November 19th, 2012 an ebay auction for the third disk; I don't have the $20 to buy it but I'll buy a drink to anyone who grabs a disk image). It looks as though someone picked up the item. The offer still stands, though; I'll buy a drink to anyone who gets me a disk image.

We do have the box art for River Adventure though that for Cave of the Mind is not available. Looking at the box art further suggests that the adventure closely follows the Jim Jacobson classic.

Unlike some of the recent Apple II finds like Eamon Pro, The Adventurer wasn't "lost" (at least the main disk wasn't). It's been hiding in plain sight all along. Indeed, there's a playthrough of The Adventurer Series in the "Let's Play" style up on Youtube right now:

If the reader's thirst is whetted by this video and wants some pure Load'N'Go action for him or herself, the disk image for the first disk can be downloaded at apple2.org. The source of the art for The Beginner's Cave is the quite excellent Museum of Computer Adventure Game History at www.mocagh.org and the source for the art from River Adventure is the site www.thelegacy.de.

Updated to include River Adventure box art 11-18-12.

Apple II Eamon "Le HLM Maudit" ("The Tenement of the Damned")

So in my first post for this blog, I described what I knew about the French conversion of Eamon for the Apple II and immediately began seeking disk images. While I was hoping that they'd be out there, I suspected that what would turn up was a run-of-the-mill Main Hall with a Beginner's Cave merely translated into French. (Did you know that "pirate" is French for pirate?)

But what we got was something entirely different: "Le HLM Maudit," or (with some license in translation), "The Tenement of the Damned," written by J.M. Menassanch. ("HLM" denotes a particular type of subsidized housing and "Maudit" as an adjective means "cursed" or "damned.") It appears to be a short, twenty room romp through the banlieues, with a handful of monsters and written for beginners.

In full disclosure, two points ought to be mentioned. For one, well, it's in French. Moreover, there is a bit of corruption in the disk image that must be sorted out. While the data is all intact, the Main Program has taken a beating. With only one effect, though, I imagine that this obstacle can be overcome relatively easily with some backwards engineering. Stay tuned as I hope to have a translated, working .DSK available soon.

I'm very grateful to Jean-Marc Boutillon of boutillon.free.fr and Arnaud Brossard of apple-iigs.info, both of whom put up with my much-atrophied French and provided much help in securing the disk images.

An additional expression of gratitude is in order. If the reader looks over to the side bar, the reader will notice that this is the thirty fifth post this year. Applying a bit of arithmetic, the reader will also note that were precisely thirty five posts from the site's conception in 2004 through 2011. There's now been as much activity this year as the previous seven years combined. To everyone who has contributed and made this such a good year for Eamon, you all have my gratitude as well.

Updated to reflect the name of the adventure's author.

Glimpse into "Bird's Paradise," a Lost Eamon...

The internet-trawling I've done in search of lost Eamons this past year has been rather fruitful, with quite a few disk images recovered. Sadly, sometimes "lost" really means "lost." But I find that in focusing on the recovery of disk images, it's easy to miss the important feature of Eamon: the stories that are told. Truth be told, I think being told about the content of a lost adventure is just as good as finding it.

Paul Balyoz has been kind enough to share his recollections of such an Eamon, an adventure he wrote titled "Bird's Paradise," and has graciously allowed me to share it here:

As I recall, playing Bird's Paradise went sort of like this: You started in your apartment up high in an apartment building, and in one room there was a bird cage with a bird, like a Parrot. He was... [a] "friend", so he would follow you around throughout the game and not attack you (unless you attacked him first). Exploring your house you realize there is an open window, so you go out the window and onto the ledge. Walking along the ledge you can go in the open window of the apartment next to you, and there's a different bird in there - I think it was a Toucan. The Toucan is your friend too, and follows you around. Now you have two friends.

At the end of the level you confronted the enemy - an Evil Bird King and four ravens, I think, who immediately start attacking! It's a giant epic melee, you and your four friends attacking the evil birds alongside you... [S]ince you have friends who are attacking the enemy, the enemies would not just focus on you - everyone gets one "swing" per turn, and so you'd be swung-at about 1/5th of the time (because you have 4 other pals). The odds were in your favor, but you could still die, just due to random occurrence of being attacked more than normal; or being too novice of a character. 

Paul was also generous enough to provide a related anecdote which will be humorous to any veteran Eamonaut:

I was all proud of my Eamon adventure and played it a few times before unleashing it on the world. A day or two later I invited a friend over to play it. He had a pretty advanced character that I felt would probably survive the end-battle that I didn't tell him about. He had fun playing it - then, when he got to the epic battle he did something I never thought of - the room happened to be a four-way intersection, so he typed "flee" and fled to another room! He did that over and over again, until only one enemy was in the room with him - then he'd attack that monster until it was dead, go back and do it again! "Hey," I said, "that's cheating!" Later I realized, no, it's just an advanced strategy when playing Eamon adventures. 

Paul's blog can be found at paulio10.wordpress.com and is filled with interesting reflections on myriad topics. In particular, the original post that led me to contact him is a charming and sincere meditation on memory and is well worth a read.

Glimpse into "The Palace of Mirrors," a Lost Eamon

In trying to find disk images for the French version of Eamon (detailed in the last post to the blog), I ran across this alluring line from the site mensanator.com:

For the record, I was the author of DUNGEON #222 THE PALACE OF MIRRORS written for THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF EAMON in the early 80's. Although donated to the local Apple ][ user group, it never made it into the Eamon archives that exist today and is probably lost. Luckily, my Turbo Pascal port source code is still extant, so there is a remote possibility that it may be resurrected.

Now, while it may not be as compelling a task as, say, recovering the lost works of Empedocles, I've made it a bit of a mission in the past year to recover lost Eamons. Irrespective of the quality of writing or programming, each Eamon is a little fragment of its author's psyche, encoded in ones and zeroes. I have a difficult time thinking such things ought to be allowed to "go gentle into that good night."

So what's to do? Email the Mensanator, of course.

Unfortunately, the Mensanator was unable to locate the files. But he was kind enough to share the following glimpse into the work:

I always tried to put a unique twist in each of my games. In The Palace of Mirrors, the twist is how would a barbarian interpret the modern world (the Palace of Mirrors is simply a glass skyscraper with mirrored windows). Can he figure out how to use an elevator or a pay-phone? Can you imagine what would happen if he invokes the POWER command when standing next to a 3-prong outlet? Will he recognize that the "box of scrolls" is simply toilet paper, and thus worthless whereas he should take the piles of greenbacks?

This very novel approach certainly had the potential to have been a great Eamon and makes its loss all the more unfortunate.

The Mensanator also described a couple of Eamon-related adventures written specifically for PASCAL, The Land of the Midnight Sun and The Haunted Castle:

In the former, the adventurer starts aboard a ship frozen in ice in the arctic. In that game, I added a COLD function that would accumulate points each turn based on the weather (it was much colder climbing the glacier than walking through the forest. The adventurer had to accumulate burnable objects like twigs and pine cones to keep warm, otherwise, he would freeze to death. Assuming he found the flint and tinder before leaving the ship, he [this didn't come through in the email]... Your quest was to find a magic firestone to free the ship from the ice. If you found it, you could magically burn any object such as weapons or treasure (which you might have to do when lost in a field of snow while snowblind).

I also wanted to develop projectile weapons skills, so not only did I place a crossbow in the ship for him to find, but a novel way to use it. He encounters a monster in a cage. If you swipe at it with a sword or club, the blow simply bounces off the cage bars. The monster also has a crossbow and you quickly learn that a crossbow can shoot between the bars (of course, the BLAST spell would work in a pinch).

In The Haunted Castle, the adventurer is knocked unconscious and wakes up with his gold, armor, and weapons taken from him. His quest is to wander the castle and find them (and any treasure he finds along the way). Instead of COLD, there is an apparition that appears and casts a BLAST spell. If the adventurer makes it to the basement of the castle, he will find a head on a stake that will provide immunity.

Perhaps one of these will turn up eventually. The internet is a huge and tangled place, after all, in which nothing really disappears. Until then, at least we have some record of these lost adventures.

The reader is invited to check out www.mensanator.com as well. (There is a bit of salty language to be found, if you worry about such things.)

Eamon Pour Les Francophones

For any readers of the Eamon Blog of French extraction, tired of having to deal with Eamon for the Apple II in English and hoping to transact with Hokas Tokas et al. in their native tongue, there may yet be hope.

It appears that Eamon had enough of a following in France to warrant a translation, Le Monde Merveilleux d'Eamon, distributed by two companies- Vif Logiciels Domaine Public and Reseau Planétaire. (The Eamon Dragon seems to have made an appearance in the former's game Connall as well.)

According to the collective wisdom of the internets, the Main Hall, Designer Disk, and a handful of adventures appeared in French. 

The mind runs wild with thoughts of the sorts of adventures must have been written for the system. A one-room dungeon adapting Sartre's No Exit? 

GO NORTH

YOU CAN'T LEAVE THE ROOM! 

Or, perhaps, a dungeon inspired by Of Grammatology?

EXAMINE SIGN

THE THESIS OF THE ARBITRARINESS OF THE SIGN MUST FORBID A RADICAL DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE LINGUISTIC AND THE GRAPHIC SIGN!

In seriousness, though, it would be interesting to see what became of this system. Disk images appear to exist, judging from the existence of screenshots (witnessed above) and mention on some message boards. Readers can learn about as much as I know by visiting http://boutillon.free.fr/Underground/Jeux/Connall/Connall.html, from which I took the above screens (there's an interesting examination of the provenance of the dragon there as well). 

Have you played this? Have copies of the disk images? Can you explain Derrida? Leave a comment!

History of 'Imagery', the Commodore 64 Eamon cousin. Part 1

The following was excerpted out of a recent email from Thomas Ferguson to me. For those of you who just Googled "Eamon" for the first time in decades due to a sudden case of 8 bit nostalgia (or are confused and disappointed because you came here looking for the one-hit rapper):

Thomas is an active historian/archaeologist/preservationist for Donald Brown's "Vanilla" Eamon and all other things which mutated from that text adventure/RPG combo masterpiece of yore. He also happens to be one of the best author's ever to pen an Eamon adventure (A Runcible Cargo) and is also the current editor/publisher of the revived Eamon (Deluxe) Newsletter.

Frank,

I don't have the magical powers that you and Matt Clark have, but I'd recommend this as a blog post if its convenient:

https://www.commodoreserver.com/BlogEntryView.asp?EID=D09875B9F0664F729686FB611C01C2D3

Kent Sullivan is posting a retrospective on the company that released Imagery! He's a super nice guy, it seems, and many readers of the Eamon blog would benefit from hearing about our distant cousins, I think.

I also anticipate finishing "Crypt Crashers" [Eamon Deluxe 5.0 conversion of a formerly "lost" Atari ST Eamon original] in the next few days. I've got most of the problems ironed out.

I hope that you're well.

Best,

TMF

I reckon that Thomas is correct about the Dr. Evil Laboratories articles being both interesting and relevant to readers of the Guild blog and plan to post links to the rest of the series as it develops.

So, unless you are still reading this in hope of it being a heavily disguised blog for the rapper, follow the link within the message to check out Kent Sullivan's fun blog and very cool "corporate logo".


Other Imagery! Related links (sort of):

• Minor Reference with Little Info
• Minor Reference with Just as Little Info (Deutsche Sprache)
• Not Helpful At All (Apparently Google felt otherwise)
• Another Google Search Result (Note: contains not a single usage of the word "Eamon".)
• Hmm. Give it a Whirl with a More Fun Search Engine? (I was feeling Ducky.)
• I Was Starting to Doubt the Existence of "Imagery!" (Relevant results at last!)
• Tour Ten Different Beginner's Caves (Each includes a hermit with poor hygiene, a "Limited Edition" TrollsFire and not less than three rats.)

The State of the (Eamon) Union address.

It's been a while since I posted about the progress of Eamon Deluxe 5.0 so I thought I should take care of that while I have a moment.

The current development status is very promising. A beta version of Eamon Deluxe 5.0 is in the works and it will include a limited public release that anyone can download and try out as well a full version that will be sent directly to those who volunteered to be play testers.

I originally predicted a stable version being released around the end of March and it's the middle of June. In the world of software creation, being a few months behind schedule is not too bad at all. Especially if that software is freeware which is created by a team of one in his frustratingly limited spare time.

Initially I hadn't planned to make as many revisions as I have ended up with. Every time I made improvements in one area, it made another area stick out as needing them too. Thus the Creeping Feature Creature slowly took over. It is well worth the extra workload and waiting period though as the potentially finished product is looking very nice and should be able to carry Eamon into the next decade with very little in the way of updates required.

I only have a handful of programs to revise before I can start to get everything in order to release the final beta, with a stable version soon to follow. It shouldn't be too much longer now, and I thank everyone for their patience. The beta release will include a fully functional OS X specific package for Mac users and I am planning on adding a new page to the Eamon Guild website with screen shots and helpful instructions for installing and running Eamon Deluxe on Windows, Mac and Debian based Linux.

Right now Eamon is around 30 years old, and I currently have a version of Eamon Deluxe which will run seamlessly on virtually any OS and/or hardware released in the last 20 years or so. Plus I have received two brand new, very well written adventures so far this year; which makes me ponder whether or not Eamon holds the title of the oldest and most versatile computer RPG system in the world? If not, it seems it should at least be in the top ten...

Eamon Deluxe for Mac Screenshots.

As I have mentioned previously, Eamon Deluxe 5.0 will be cross-platform compatible. The OS X version is just about ready for testing and the beta will be sent out at the same time as the next Windows version. Packages for popular Linux distributions are also in development at this time.

Realm of Fantasy Upgrade and Review

As promised, here is a review for Realm of Fantasy, an Eamon Deluxe original adventure from 2006 which has been upgraded to the 5.0 system as well as enhanced in many areas. I recently worked with the author on revising this strange but very fun adventure. Watch this blog for the upcoming release of another EDX original adventure, the very excellent A Runcible Cargo by Thomas Ferguson, which is in final development as I write this. It's a good year for Eamon.

A stand alone version of Realm of Fantasy can currently be downloaded from the Eamon Deluxe homepage.


Eamon Deluxe #21: Realm of Fantasy by Jared Davis
Reviewed by Luke Hewitt and Frank Black

New Commands: BUY, SELL
Special Features: Fun and manic pacing in a surreal and (literally) colorful environment.
Difficulty Rating: 6 (average 5.5 from two ratings)
Overall Rating: 5 (average 5.5 from two ratings)

This is the second adventure that was written specifically for the Eamon Deluxe platform. Though the name "Realm of Fantasy" is somewhat ambiguous, and the initial rescue-a-friend-from-a-cave quest you’re introduced to seems to indicate swords and sorcery, it doesn't take long before it becomes clear that "fantasy" in this case means dreamlike, fantastic or surreal, as you are introduced to a host of companions and situations from Alice in Wonderland, the Oz books, famous films and even the Super Mario Brothers games.

If the idea of having the likes of The White rabbit and Dorothy duking it out with the infamous Bowser doesn't appeal to you, then you will most likely not appreciate this adventure in its entirety. However, if you are the sort who has a surreal or literary mind then there are definitely some nice touches which will add to the fun. e.g. having the Wicked Witch of the West crushed by Dorothy’s house when she dies, or the freeing of a tin man from two evil trees.

One thing I particularly appreciated is that clearly the author was thinking of the Oz books, not the films, as characters like Momby and Tip from The Land of Oz appear. Dorothy also happens to be wearing silver shoes, not the ruby slippers which they are commonly mistaken for due to the popularity of the well known 1930's musical adaption. This deep knowledge however is rather a double edged sword, since there were some references I didn't understand myself.

The writing is adequate to the task at hand and often humorous in places, even though some of the descriptions are a little short. Some characters and places, such as the Queen of Hearts' Palace, might have done with a bit more description. Though certainly the short length of the descriptions in question is no worse than that found in many Classic Eamon adventures. Plus the surreal situations and settings are fun, light-hearted and much of an improvement over the average underground dungeon.

I didn't notice a large amount of specials (i.e. modifications to the standard Eamon Deluxe base adventure program), but the specials I noticed worked fairly well. Although it did seem as if most of the specials were located near the start of the game and the sort of tapered off where they could have been a bit more evenly distributed throughout the adventure. Indeed even the new commands BUY and SELL are only useable in one specific location and then only for a couple of items. Nonetheless, just having the shop there was a very nice touch, as it was nonexistent in the original, 2006 release of this adventure.

This is definitely a fighter's outing as the Realm contains a very large amount of combat, frequently against seemingly random opponents. I would recommend bringing at least a medium strength character into it, even though you do come across some fairly powerful weapons and healing items as you progress throughout the game.

One interesting fact which you will either love or hate are your many companions (sometimes you will find ten or more of them faithfully following you around), who are likewise pitted against large numbers of foes. In fact, it is fairly common in this adventure to find groups of 10, 20 or even 30 enemies at a time (all of whom die usually with a single hit from your trusty allies).

It can be said that this does make for a different style of battle which adds to the unique flavor of this adventure. I often found myself on the sidelines of the battles, playing healer and supporting my companions as they fought it out with my foes. On the other hand, this also means a lot of mindless tapping of the enter key to skip past combat text which can get somewhat repetitive and wearing. In all fairness though, the unusually large number of companions I met up with also meant that battles against groups of 20+ enemies took less rounds then one would initially imagine.

The small army of companions and extra enter hitting did complicate things several times while I was simply trying to go about exploring rooms and reading the full descriptions for everything. I found myself hitting enter one too many times and inadvertently causing new descriptive text to scroll away before it could be read. This can obviously get a little irritating, though it could also be argued that this was actually more of a symptom of my own impatience with reading the screen than a flaw in the adventure itself.

One feature I did enjoy about having an anomalous multitude of companions was having access to the various items they were carrying with them. In fact, you will most likely want to check the inventory of every companion you come across in order to get some of the bonus items that are sprinkled throughout the adventure.

Overall the system of sitting back and playing healer was a break from the standard combat found in most Eamon adventures which was rather fun (as was seeing Dorothy give the wicked witch what for). It might indeed have been nice if more weapons were found throughout the adventure, and also if those weapons were of random and varied types. An axe-wielding Dorothy or an AK-47 toting Princess Peach would have been a fun inclusion and still would have been within the limits of keeping in tune to the somewhat psychedelic feeling that this game presents.

Overall, if you like (in no particular order): combat, literary references, colorful famous characters, surreal settings, light-hearted fun and/or if you just have a sense of humour then you will enjoy this adventure. Likewise, I recommend the experience of at least one trip through the Realm of Fantasy to every fan of Eamon adventures as it is, in several different aspects, a very unique entry into the Eamon library.

Beta copy of The PC Eamon Museum released to play testers.

The PC Eamon Museum is a compilation of the various known attempts at converting the Classic Eamon gaming system from the Apple II series of computers to the PC family. All of the conversion “exhibits” in the museum were originally written for the MS-DOS operating system and took a fair amount of work and technical knowledge to run on modern computers.

The Museum was created to preserve all of these relics of Eamon history in one place as well as allow convenient access to view and even play them on modern computers. By using some of the Eamon Deluxe 5.0 gaming system framework, including a modified version of the freeware DOSBox emulator, the PC ports of Eamon included in the Museum are now accessible with just a few clicks on a variety of modern computers and operating systems.

Those on the Eamon Deluxe 5.0 play tester list who have reported that they are using Windows and testing in Standard Mode (there is no VI Mode available for the Museum) should check their email for a message and download link regarding the Museum. (If you are on the list and do not receive a message, please email me.)

A public download will also be made available very soon, once the Museum has been initially tested and verified. Visit The PC Eamon Museum homepage on the Eamon Adventurer's Guild site for more details as well as future downloads and updates.

Technological Apocalypse

I just thought I would take a moment to mention why things have been a bit quiet around here lately and also why all the estimated release dates mentioned in the last few blogs had to be pushed up a bit longer.

I was making very good progress on Eamon Deluxe 5.0 as well as the various side projects that have mutated out of it when my household became enveloped in what I can only describe as a technological apocalypse of sorts. It seems that over the period of a week or so nearly everything electronic or mechanical that I was using decided to crash or fail in some way, including two vehicles and nearly every computer in the house. I have never experienced anything quite like that and am really more amazed than annoyed. However it has kept me extremely busy since I do my own repairs on just about everything.

I had to reformat a few computers, including the one that I do all of my work on. Fortunately there was very little data loss, but I still don't have everything back in the order it was before. It also doesn't help that I had five open projects going on at the time of the crash so I have to retrace my steps and figure out where I was at with all of them before continuing work. As of right now, order has mostly been restored and if nothing comes up this weekend, I should be able to finish up a few projects and actually release some software instead of just blogging about it.

Projects that have top priority right now are:

Release the final Eamon Deluxe 5.0 beta to play testers. This is about 70% finished.

Release a stand alone version of Thomas Ferguson's fantastic Eamon Deluxe adventure, "A Runcible Cargo". At the last moment I decided that, since this was such a good adventure, it deserved a complete transplant and upgrade into the new Eamon Deluxe 5.0 adventure programs. This is about 80% finished.

Post reviews and more detailed info about Jared Davis' revised Eamon Deluxe original adventure, "Realm of Fantasy", which I recently released as a stand alone download. I also ordered a copy of Jared's recently published first novel and was planning to review that at the same time to give him a little publicity. I only manged to read a few chapters before everything crashed on me, however, so I'll probably just edit and post the adventure reviews this weekend and review his book at a later time.

Release the beta copy of The PC Eamon Museum project I mentioned in my last blog. The museum contains bundle of three different attempted ports of Eamon to MS-DOS, along with two old versions of Eamon Deluxe from my archives. Currently all of these systems are a lot of work to get up and running on any modern computer. The museum is a cross platform package, based on the Eamon Deluxe 5.0 framework, which makes them now easily installed and playable with just a few clicks to anyone who wants to explore these relics of Eamon weirdness but doesn't have the time or technical knowledge to run the obsolete source files. The PC Eamon Museum appeared to be around 99% done before my system crash so that may hopefully be ready this weekend as well. I'm going to send copies to my play testers first, then create a page for it on the Guild website with public download links.

I still have a few openings for play testers and am gladly accepting offers for help in any other areas (note: experienced Mac and Linux users would be especially helpful right now). Email eamondeluxe (at) gmail.com if interested in testing or contributing to these projects.

Eamon News (lots of it)

There are quite a few Eamon related projects in the works right now. Most of them are very close to being completed so I thought it would be a good time to announce a few of them.

Eamon Deluxe 5.0 Progress.

The third and final Beta is nearly complete for Eamon Deluxe 5.0. There are still some Main Hall and VI Mode character editor bugs to work out and the manuals need a lot of tedious revisions but that is about all that is holding that project up. I also decided to revise the entire Beginners Adventures set (which contains the 5.0 Demo Adventure and six Classic Eamon conversions, including the original Beginner's Cave) and port all of the adventures into the new 5.0 base adventure program, fixing some issues and adding new content to each along the way.

For those who are nostalgic, have now fear: Donald Brown's classic Beginner's Cave has been left mostly untouched, except a few extra items were added which were in the descriptions but didn't actually "exist" in the game. The classic experience is still there though. The other adventures had the same treatment except some problems were fixed in each which involved seemingly missing, or just poorly implemented special effects and events. The revisions have set the release date back a bit, but are very well worth the extra wait.

The best news about the Beta 3 release, however, is that much of it will be available for public download, although the included adventures will be limited to those that have already passed version 5.0 upgrades and testing. The people on my play tester list will get a separate expansion pack which will include all of 175 converted adventures, whether upgraded or not. I still have 5 spots open for Standard Mode play testers and 2 spots for VI Mode testers, so email me if you want to be added to this list.

While anyone who writes software knows that proper release dates are near impossible to set, I'm hoping for the end of April at the latest. Once the base system is stable and fully tested, the adventure sets can be upgraded to 5.0 fairly quickly and the entire package, including unreleased adventures, should be ready by the end of summer.

Help Wanted.

There are a couple areas that are dragging down the release date and eating up a lot of my free time that I get to work on Eamon Deluxe. If anybody has experience programming in FreeBASIC, particularly in converting QBASIC source code into a format that will compile, please contact me. I have not been able to get my simple installer program for adding new adventures to work and have wasted a lot of time on it so far.

Any help revising and proofreading the new Player's Manual and Adventure Design Manual would be very much appreciated as well. I have most of the 5.0 technical details and changes documented already, it just all needs to be put together properly, with any missing details searched out and added in. For me, this is very boring part of the upgrade process and I would rather put my time and energy into programming and bug fixes and get a full public release ready sooner.

Introducing the PC Eamon Museum

A large part of Eamon Deluxe is what I call The Eamon Preservation Project. I currently have a working Beta that installs all of the known PC ports of Eamon in one package that is playable on any OS. Want to see what Jon Walker's Eamon looked like? Or Paul Gilbert's or even John Nelson's for that matter? I took all known source code, compiled programs, etc. and made an Eamon Deluxe style installer and menu that lets you launch and explore all of these relics easily. It also has an "Employee Entrance" to the Museum which lets you tinker around and explore on your own if you know your way around a DOS prompt.

The Museum will also include playable copies of the oldest version of Eamon Deluxe (from 1999) in my archives as well as the last version (4.5, from 2007) I had developed before I started the 5.0 upgrade project.

As noted, the Museum is still in Beta format and will be sent to my play testers before any public release. I have not had much time to develop, test and properly document the Museum as it has purely been a side project for my own amusement until recently. This is another project where any help would be appreciated and speed up release, particularly in the documentation area.


A Runcible Cargo Upgrade and Release
or
"With Apologies to Nathan Segerlind..."

The Eamon Deluxe original that I called "possibly the best Eamon ever written" in a previous blog is being ported into the brand new 5.0 base adventure program before official release. This was a last minute decision on my part, to which the author agreed. Like all good adventures, it isn't an easy job to port and has a lot of special code that has to be applied and tested carefully. While this pushes the public release date up much later than I planned, it is well worth the extra time and effort.

And last but not least, another Eamon Deluxe Original is now available in stand alone format:

EDX#21 Realm of Fantasy by Jared Davis

This was originally submitted as the second Eamon Deluxe original ever written back in 2006. I contacted the author recently and we worked together on a revised and expanded version using the new 5.0 system. While not as complex as A Runcible Cargo, it is a very unique, fun and (literally) colorful adventure.

Jared has also recently published his first book, Outsiders from Oz, a fantasy story set in the world created by L. Frank Baum. I ordered a hardcover copy and am halfway through it. I will be reviewing both Realm of Fantasy 5.0 and Outsiders from Oz in my next blog.

For those who don't want to wait, you can download Realm of Fantasy from the Eamon Deluxe home page and check out Jared's book at Lulu.com or read his blog about it.

New Eamon Newsletter

I'm writing this blog to announce that an entirely original, 10-page Eamon newsletter was just added to the Guild website. While it is named "The Eamon Deluxe Newsletter", this publication is actually intended to be a place for content that relates to any platform or aspect of the Eamon community and is published in the spirit and fond memory of Tom Zuchowski's former EAG newsletters.

The formatted PDF version can be viewed here.

A standard text version can also be viewed from the Eamon Guild Newsletters page for those using screen reading software or similar devices.


The Eamon Deluxe Newsletter, Volume Two is a new incarnation of a project that failed to launch several years ago and is primarily a result of the superb work of Thomas Ferguson, who has volunteered to create more issues in the upcoming months. Thomas has also written a few adventure reviews which can be found inside this issue, as well as the opening article, "A Note on 'Lost Eamons'".

I found Thomas' article to be a very fun, interesting and informative read which sheds much needed light on some lesser known Eamon adventures and attempted ports to other systems that many Eamon fans may yet be unaware of.

The debut issue also features a taste of the contributions we have been receiving from Luke Hewitt, who eats Eamon adventures for breakfast, leaving nothing behind him except empty treasure chests and entertaining, in depth reviews. And, if you look closely, you'll even find a new review (or perhaps "roast" is a more appropriate title), written by myself and spotlighting upon one of the Lost Eamons mentioned in the feature article.

I believe it's been a very long time since two people collaborated on an Eamon project, let alone three, so several rounds of Double Dragon Blombs are in order tonight, as we toast to the runcible Mr. Ferguson for all of his efforts on a job that was, most certainly, well done.

Eamon Deluxe 5.0 Demo Adventure Now Available (update: 03/21/2012)

This is a small adventure that shows off the new base program and the enhanced 5.0 system features. It uses a stand alone system that was created for the sake of releasing adventures while upgrades are being completed on the rest of the Eamon Deluxe 5.0 system.

Click the link below to download:
Eamon Deluxe 5.0 Demo Adventure (stand alone version)

This is a zip file containing a folder called "Eamon Deluxe Demo Adventure". Extract the folder to anyplace that you wish and do the following to start playing:

Windows users:
Open the folder and double-click "Eamon Deluxe Demo Adventure". Press "N" when asked if you need to use VI Mode.

VI Mode for the visually impaired (Windows only):
Open the folder and double-click "Eamon Deluxe Demo Adventure VI Mode". Press "Y" and then "X" to confirm VI Mode.

Mac and Linux users:
Currently you must have the DOSBox emulator installed. Mount the "DX_FILES" folder to DOSBox, switch to the mounted directory, then use "EDX_SA1.BAT" to start.


Please send comments, reports, thoughts, suggestions etc. to eamondeluxe (at) gmail.com (or just leave them in the comments section of this post).


Watch this blog for more Eamon Deluxe original adventures. I'll be releasing A Runcible Cargo next, with two more adventures to follow. Below is a review of the 5.0 Demo Adventure from the upcoming Eamon Deluxe Newsletter.

Eamon Deluxe 5.0 Demo Adventure by Frank Black
Reviewed by Luke Hewitt

Difficulty Rating: 6.0 (out of 10)
Overall (fun) Rating: 7.0 (out of 10)

This adventure is, like the Beginner's Cave, a fairly simple slash and grab scenario for starting level characters intended as an introduction to the world of Eamon Deluxe. There are however a number of very nice points that make the Demo Adventure stand out from the other Beginner Adventures such as the Beginner's Cave.

Firstly, though there is indeed a classic dungeon with treasures, this isn't in fact all that the setting contains. It's entrance and introduction set the scene with you exploring an abandoned building which quickly turns out to be the home of a thief who's gotten himself into trouble with an underground criminal gang which employs brutish monsters as its extra muscle.

While not an original or highly fleshed out plot, this does at least give a little more explanation to what you are doing, and means that the enemies, albeit the usual giants and ogres, have a little more purpose than just random wildlife which got in your way and the treasure was slightly more logically explained than just being a natural feature of underground dungeons.

This plot also gives something of a quest feeling to the game even though there aren't any actual objectives, especially since the final showdown is rather a tough one for a beginning level character and you do get to rescue the thief himself. It even has a very nice exit at the end of the dungeon to go back to the Main Hall, rather than making you backtrack to the entrance as many other adventures do.

Another major factor in this adventure as opposed to the others is the huge range of embedded artifacts. Though there are no puzzles such as passwords, you still do have to make far more use of the EXAMINE command than the others in the Beginner Adventures set. In fact, just about every single piece of furniture mentioned in the room descriptions is examinable, sometimes to your profit, and several monsters are carrying artifacts so using the inventory command on them certainly helps too.

The adventure isn't entirely stand alone either since, as well as some comical references to popular interactive fiction, there are also references to some other Eamon adventures which experienced Eamonaughts will of course pick up on, and new players will find as a tantalizing hint to what the rest of Eamon Deluxe has to offer.

Though it is a demo adventure and uses only the power of the Eamon Deluxe system itself with no fancy programming, the large number of embedded artifacts (those which only show up in the descriptions of other things and not directly until you have examined them) means that players should keep an eye out for objects to examine, since the game strategically uses these to create its puzzles without the use of extra programming. In fact, several points can't be passed without examining your surroundings carefully.

My only minor criticism is that several artifacts are a little fourth wall breaking, such as a "message" which exists only to test in-game error handling; or mentioning that a certain monster has specific attributes, a certain artifact is of a specific type, etc.. But there are very few of these instances when compared to all the other items in the game and this is, after all, a demo adventure for the entire Eamon Deluxe System.

Either way it's certainly worth a visit, and a fun introduction to your Eamon career.