Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online

Eamon Trivia 01: The Curse of Talon

2012-02-03T12:54:00.006-05:00

Progress is going well on Eamon Deluxe 5.0 and I'm close to sending a Beta 3 copy to my testers and hopefully a public release in the near future. Until then I need a few fun distractions to take away from the tediousness that comes with parts of the revision process.

When converting Classic Eamon adventures to Eamon Deluxe, I get to see into every nook and cranny of that adventure and often find things the average player would be likely to miss or never even see at all. This can be due to a number of reasons, including obscure special events, erroneous code or the author's personal Easter eggs to name a few.

Although I haven't kept a list of what I have found over the years (and I wish I had), I usually left notes about anything interesting I found in that particular adventure's hint files. I thought it would be fun to make semi-regular blog entries to share some of these amusing oddities and include some screen shots as well. I'll list the Official Eamon Guild number and the Eamon Deluxe number, followed by the adventure name. So, here we go...

Today's trivia: EAG#SD156/EDX#09-3

THE CURSE OF TALON by Sam Ruby.

There is an unused room in The Curse of Talon called The Butt. I have no idea why it was there and will probably never know but I find it pretty amusing nonetheless. I converted that adventure several years ago and had forgotten about the Butt Room until recently when I was reorganizing The Sam Ruby Adventures for the Eamon Deluxe 5.0 revision. Apparently I found it amusing back when I converted it too because I expanded on it, placing "monsters" from the database that were no longer needed in the Butt Room and leaving an Easter egg that could be used to access it.

To enter the Butt Room in the Apple II version, use Control-C to break the program and enter the command shown in the screen shot. To leave the Butt, use the same method, but change "R2=51" to "R2=R3".

In the Eamon Deluxe version, simply cast your POWER spell to be teleported into the Butt. [snicker] Going in any direction will take you back to the room you came from. (Note: GIVE 5000 to a neutral monster in Eamon Deluxe to turn them into a friend.)

Eamon Deluxe 5.0 Beta sent out to playtesters!

2012-01-27T03:25:00.003-05:00

I have just finished sending out the Windows installer to those who volunteered to play test Eamon Deluxe 5.0. If you were on my list, please check your email for a message from Eamon Deluxe that has the installer attached. If you were on my list and did not get a copy by now, please email me and I will send another. I currently have 20 play testers and have room for 10 more, if anyone is interested in trying out the last 10 Beta copies, send an email to eamondeluxe ( at ) gmail.com

Eamon Deluxe Beta 98% Ready to Go (and Other Info)

2012-01-26T16:40:00.000-05:00

Eamon Deluxe 5.0 Beta status:

For those who are waiting to play test the beta version of Eamon Deluxe 5.0, it is roughly 98% ready to send out. I'm only about a month late for when I wanted it to be ready which isn't bad in the programming world and [fingers crossed] hoping to maybe even send it out tonight, so be sure to check your inboxes. Thanks again to the play testers, and yes, I still have openings if anybody else is interested. Just email me with your preferred OS info.
-Frank

Classic Eamon -> Eamon Deluxe converted adventures chart:

The most frequent questions I have been asked over the years all tend to involve "missing" adventures. Well, I actually got around to counting the number of Eamon adventures that have been converted to EDX for the first time ever and compiled a little chart (which I hope makes sense) and even I was impressed with the sheer volume. I think in a few more years ALL Classic Eamon adventures will have been converted. Note that I haven't really gotten the hang of text formatting on this blog right yet so the text wraps around in unwanted places which I am choosing to ignore. :-)

Eamon Deluxe Adventure Conversion Chart
Update: 25 JAN 2012

Adventure type codes:
EAG = Eamon Guild Numbered Official Eamons (Apple II only)
C&P = CLONES/PORTS/MISC (Unnumbered, Softdisk, Swordthrust, PC, Atari, etc.)
EDX = Eamon Deluxe Original Adventures

Format for conversion list:
Eamon Deluxe Adventure #/Total number of adventures in set
/(Conversion Notes (+)=converted, (-)=awaiting conversion), tech notes)

01: 06/00/01 = 07 (+06 EAG, +01 EDX)
02: 09/07/00 = 16 (+09 EAG, -07 C&P:SwordThrust)
03: 05/00/00 = 05 (+05 EAG with 50% New EDX-original Material Integrated)
04: 20/00/00 = 20 (+20 EAG technically the last 2 were EDX Originals First)
05: 05/01/00 = 06 (+02 EAG, -03 EAG, -01 C&P:Unnumbered)
06: 04/00/00 = 04 (+00 EAG, -04 EAG missing)
07: 03/01/00 = 04 (+03 EAG, +01 C&P:Softdisk)
08: 09/00/00 = 09 (+09 EAG)
09: 15/03/00 = 18 (+05 EAG, -10 EAG, +03 C&P:SoftDisk)
10: 07/00/00 = 07 (+07 EAG)
11: 19/00/00 = 19 (+19 EAG)
12: 15/00/00 = 15 (+02 EAG, -13 EAG)
13: 21/00/00 = 21 (+21 EAG)
14: 21/00/00 = 21 (+21 EAG)
15: 20/00/00 = 20 (+04 EAG, -16 EAG)
16: 20/00/00 = 20 (+00 EAG, -20 EAG missing)
17: 20/00/00 = 20 (+00 EAG, -20 EAG missing)
18: 14/00/00 = 14 (+10 EAG, -04 EAG missing)
19: 21/00/00 = 21 (+21 EAG)
20: 00/00/01 = 01 (+01 EDX)
21: 00/00/01 = 01 (+01 EDX)
22: 00/00/01 = 01 (+01 EDX)
23: 00/04/00 = 04 (+01 C&P, -03 C&P:Atari & unnumbered)

Total: 254/15/04 = 274
Converted: 164/05/04 = 173
-----------------------------
Conversions left: 090/10/00 = 101

(Conversions currently in progress: 05/01/00 = 06, leaving only 95 left to convert)

So there you go. 173 fully converted/EDX original, 6 in progress and 95 left to go.

Eamon Deluxe Updated Adventure List:

This is my most recent list which shows the current Eamon Deluxe Library (including "missing" chapters in their proper placement):

;(Lists updated: 25 JAN 2012)

LIST 1: EAMON DELUXE ADVENTURE LIST

Adventure # Eamon Deluxe Classic Adventure Conversion Sets
-------------------------------------------------------------
00 Eamon Deluxe 5.0 System Environment
01 Beginner's Adventures
02 The Donald Brown Adventures
03 The Jim Jacobson Adventures Deluxe
04 The John Nelson Adventures
05 The Tom Zuchowski Adventures
06 The Pat Hurst Adventures
07 The Frank Kunze Adventures
08 The Nathan Segerlind Adventures
09 The Sam Ruby Adventures
10 The Roger Pender Adventures
11 The Robert Parker Adventures
12 Best of the Classic Adventures
13 Classic Eamon Adventures, Vol. 1
14 Classic Eamon Adventures, Vol. 2
15 Classic Eamon Adventures, Vol. 3
16 Classic Eamon Adventures, Vol. 4
17 Classic Eamon Adventures, Vol. 5
18 Classic Eamon Adventures, Vol. 6
19 Worst of the Classic Adventures

Adventure # Eamon Deluxe Original Adventures
-------------------------------------------------------------
20 Journey across the Muerte Sea
21 Realm of Fantasy
22 A Runcible Cargo
23 The Lost Treasures of Eamon

Eamon Deluxe 5.0 Progress Update and More Screen Shots.

2012-01-16T02:32:00.005-05:00

I'm happy to announce that the beta version of Eamon Deluxe 5.0 is nearly finished and I hope to be sending copies to the play testers very soon now. There is still room for a few more testers so email eamondeluxe (at) gmail.com and include a description of what OS you are using if you are interested. Here are a few more screen shots which show some newly added features.

Eamon Deluxe 5.0 Screen Shots

2012-01-11T00:41:00.007-05:00

I took a few screen shots of my pre-test beta version of Eamon Deluxe 5.0 over the past few days so those that are following the progress can get an idea of what it will look like. Keep in mind that this is a rough unfinished copy with no icons or final design decisions yet but it DOES work perfectly in Windows so far and that is good news.

The following are shots showing Eamon Deluxe running on Windows 7 and Win XP and give samples of the revised Main Menu (no more bad color usage and awful 40-column text!), adventure selection menu, Graphic Main Hall, Beginner's Cave, and a couple comparison shots that show the new "VI Mode" setting which allows full compatibility for visually impaired gamers. VI Mode implements dual menus and extra descriptions to things those players previously missed while not sacrificing any convenience or visually-oriented special effects that caused problems in the past. Progress is still moving fairly well and I still hope to have those beta copies sent out very soon.

Eamon Deluxe v5.0 Progress Update.

2012-01-09T17:21:00.002-05:00

I am very pleased to announce that late last night I managed to produce what I believe to be the first ever one-click fully installed and playable set of Eamon adventures in history. My installer worked perfectly on both the Win XP and Windows 7 64-bit computers I used to test them, complete with desktop icon, start menu shortcuts and an uninstall option. (Hmm... What form of lunatic would want to UNINSTALL Eamon adventures from their computer? I am providing that option merely for the sake of completeness.)

Production has been coming along much better than I ever would have predicted with merely finding the free time to get it done being my biggest obstacle so far. The Eamon Deluxe system was in much worse shape than I had thought and the perfectionist in me has taken over adding more to the workload. Nearly every program is getting some sort of revision and I also have several new submissions that have to be fine tuned and added as well. One of those submissions is a brand new Eamon Deluxe adventure by a first time author who has created what I can only describe as a masterpiece.

I am still taking requests for play testers, send a message to eamondeluxe ( at ) gmail.com and please include a brief description of your computer and Operating System as I need to know which installer package to send.

To those that have already volunteered to help with testing, thank you very much and as you can tell by this blog, you should be getting your Beta copies very soon.

Cheers!
-Frank

Needed: Playtesters for Eamon Deluxe v5.0

2012-01-06T20:37:00.004-05:00

There is a new version of Eamon Deluxe very close to being finished and anybody who is interested in helping with testing it out for bugs, OS compatibility, or just has random opinions, suggestions, etc. is invited to email me and request a pre-release beta copy to play with. Send your request to: eamondeluxe (at) gmail.com

Right now I am especially looking for testers using Windows Vista, Windows 7 (32 bit), experienced Mac users and anyone with visual impairments who uses screen reading software.

There are too many details to list right now but I will say that a major overhaul and upgrade on the entire Eamon Deluxe system is being done and the upcoming release should run on any popular OS. All of the classic Eamon adventure sets will be included as well, albeit in a partially unfinished format for a few, but still playable. All in all I think I last counted about 20 previously unreleased Eamon conversions that will be included. There is also a VERY excellent Eamon Deluxe Original Adventure that I recently received and am in the process of playing and adding as well, but that will be the subject of a separate blog post soon enough.

That's all for now. Keep your swords sharp and I hope to hear from some of you soon,
-Frank

Welcome Frank!

2012-01-05T22:57:00.000-05:00

Have Eamon Deluxe questions? Frank has rekindled his interest in Eamon Deluxe offered to contribute to our little Eamon community to help answer any questions you may have about Eamon. Welcome Frank!

Guests writers wanted

2011-12-09T19:00:00.000-05:00

Eamon is not, and has never been a one voice medium. There are definitely people out there who have something to say about Eamon, even if it's been twenty years since they last played.

So, I'd like to offer this soapbox. Want to write something about Eamon? Write it up and send it to me and I'll repost it here. Not only will it appear on the blog, it'll get reposted to the website (the Eamon news section of the front of http://www.eamonag.org/) and the facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/EamonGuild).

Have a lot to say? Let me know and I can set you up as a co-author of the blog.

Your input is welcome in whatever form... Tell us about your first experience playing Eamon... About that great adventure you wrote, but never sent in to be published... that piece of fan mail you received from someone who played your adventure... Your excitement in finding Eamon again after all of these years... Whatever it is, we want to hear about it!

Matthew

Maher part III

2011-11-20T23:20:00.001-05:00

In his third post about Eamon, Maher looks at the divergence of Eamon and Swordthrust, and how John Nelson got involved in the world of Eamon. Check out http://www.filfre.net/2011/09/eamon-part-2/

Maher looks at Eamon

2011-10-16T12:00:00.001-04:00

Part two of Jimmy Maher's examination into the history of Eamon is now available at http://www.filfre.net/2011/09/a-journey-into-the-wonderful-world-of-eamon/

What do you think? Do you agree with his assessment of Eamon?

A new history of Eamon

2011-09-21T23:18:00.000-04:00

Jimmy Maher has been busy writing a history of the early days of Eamon. There's some pretty good stuff here and it's worth checking it out: http://www.filfre.net/2011/09/eamon-part-1/

Special thanks to Ken Gagne for sending me the link!

Apple on the iPhone?

2011-08-29T17:05:00.000-04:00

Huw Williams sent this update:

Just wanted to mention that Eamon is now available on the iPhone via "iBasic", a simple little app by Akeysoft Group that lets users play a few different Apple II games. No frills, but still kinda neat. :)

http://iphone.akeysoft.com/iPhone_Playground/Welcome.html

Gartin Manor re-released

2011-07-30T13:47:00.000-04:00

Greg Gioia has sent me an updated version of Gartin Manor, 26 years after it was originally released.

This update corrects some of the room connections and descriptions and fixes a bug in the flee routine. Additionally, he does describes the method of returning to the main hall. This is important because the original reviewer could not find an exit!

Interested? Why not download it at http://www.eamonag.org/programs/Dos33/d3_144(2011edits).dsk? You can then post your own review by commenting below or by writing on the wall of our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/EamonGuild.

Thanks Greg!

Wade Clarke's responses to Leadlight reviews

2011-06-24T17:00:00.002-04:00

Wade Clarke emailed me a few months ago to respond to some of the Leadlight reviews. His email is reprinted below:

"Thanks for showing me your EAG article about Leadlight. You covered a good cross-section of opinions in your links to reviews.

I think ultimately that Eamon, or at least my game, is not as archaic compared to modern IF as it may seem at a glance. For instance, the ability to type more than two words often adds little to a game, and a recent survey at intfiction.org demonstrated that in modern games, people only need to type two words 80% of the time anyway. Another point of interest is that even a straight Eamon 7 can take punts at abbreviated words, something Inform cannot do at all (unless the programmer specifies every abbreviation manually).

Combat with random elements is a design choice that has fallen out of favour rather than something which is actually invalid, and I noticed there wasn't a single reviewer who admitted they might simply be bad at this game :) … they just blamed the invisible die rolls and spammed their save games, rather than think about how they were playing. Like in a console survival horror game, you can definitely become a better player by making judicious choices based on experience.

I think the most valid criticism of the game was that some people felt the heroine did not react enough to all the horror. And I realised in retrospect this is a function of the fact that no description can be longer than 255 characters, so some emotional reactions which would have required longer pieces of prose to pull off successfully, had to be dispensed with within a sentence, and looked glib as a result. But this only bothered a minority of players, so I figure it's an okay trade-off considering the fact that I managed to keep paying off all the interactive scenery in room descriptions of 255 characters or less. And that I had to manually justify them for the 40 column screen as well!

I just received my copy of Juiced GS today, and I like your quote about building a ship in a bottle. That is certainly how I feel about the game."

Eamon on Adrift

2011-06-04T16:07:00.002-04:00

Last month, Wade Clarke sent an interesting thread on one of the forums for Adrift, a modern IF system.

If looks like someone has developed an Eamon converter for both Inform 6 and Adrift 5. Check out http://forum.adrift.co/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7203

Announcing Leadlight

2011-04-09T17:50:00.000-04:00

In case you didn't hear the news, there's a new Eamon game out there. Written by Wade Clarke, Leadlight is the first Eamon game to have ever made it into the annual Interactive Fiction Competition. While Leadlight didn't win, it came in 14th place out of 26 entrants, it really offered an opportunity for the IF community as a whole to be exposed to Eamon, perhaps for the first time.

I honestly think that it would have scored better had it not been on the Eamon system. As much as I love Eamon, I think we can all recognize that it is archaic in comparison to modern IF systems. When reading some of the IFcomp reviews, complaints about the game ranged from the lack of modern IF shortcuts to inability to UNDO a death in combat to the chunky lettering on an emulated Apple screen to the random nature of the combat to just the fact that it's on an emulated system.

But there were some good things too! One reviewer called it "the perfect Halloween treat--perfect for a night when you want some creepy thrills" while another states "this game is highly recommended to all those who believe they might like a game with random combat and unfair death traps, for it is surely among the best games of that type." I was surprised by the number of people who weren't completely put off by Eamon! Then again, there were mixed emotions. "I am fascinated to say that I simultaneously got really into this game and also have almost nothing good to say about it."

This snippet of a review may sum it up best:

This would have been a pretty damn good game twentysomething years ago. It has a coherent setting, it's good at gestural, tell-you-as-you-need-it information-delivery, it has hints of a plot that is, if not particularly striking, at least somewhat considered. (It seems highly likely that we're either hallucinating or caused all the horrors with our BRAIN.) The trouble is that IF has improved rather a lot over the past twentysomething years.

Since you're here, reading this blog, I can only imagine that you've played Eamon and are familiar with it. In a way, these complaints are similar to the old complaints about the older v4 Eamons when v7 was widely available.

So what do you think? Have you played it? Are these accusations fair? Should Leadlight be judged compared to modern IF standards or should it be judged in the Apple II/Eamon context which was the basis of its creation?

Mapping Eamon

2011-04-07T12:00:00.020-04:00

I've made many maps during my days of Eamon but have always wanted an easy way to make clean crisp maps. I recently came across Trizbort, a free tool designed for "interactive fiction" uses such as Inform and TADS. That didn't stop me from trying it out on Eamon!

Here's an example map (click for more detail):


The Beginners Cave

Check out http://trizbort.genstein.net/index.php to give it a try.

Eamon on Facebook

2011-04-03T12:19:00.001-04:00

Interested in talking to others about Eamon? Want to show your support for the website? Go to the Eamon Adventurer's Guild facebook group and click on the "Like" button!

I want to "advertise" the website, so to speak, but also have a community wall available which would allow discussions to take place. Let me know what you think!

Announcing the Eamon Museum

2011-04-03T02:19:00.000-04:00

After eight years, I've decided that development in Eamon is essentially finished, probably forever. As such, I'm converting the website to a type of museum. I'll still maintain some Eamon news via this blog, but formal work on the website will be mostly stopped after I wrap up a few loose ends here and there.

I don't want to say that Eamon is completely dead. This website will continue to stay open as a tribute to the Eamon that was! I simply can't justify spending lots of time on the Eamon website for so relatively little reward.

Keep in touch! I'll still be here...

Want to convert some floppies?

2010-03-10T00:15:00.000-05:00

Jason Scott, the aforementioned creator of the Get Lamp documentary has reviewed a few new products that can download Apple II disks to a PC. Check out his two recent blog posts at http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/2503 and http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/2492 for more info.

New website in beta testing

2010-01-22T22:11:00.000-05:00

Two news stories in one day! How about that!

I'm planning on converting the Eamon site to run using the Joomla Content Management System. The big advantage to using a CMS is that I can allow others to do work for the Eamon site without waiting for me to code things manually as I must currently do.

For instance, say you wanted to write a new review. I could simply set you up as an editor. You could write your review and post it to the site. Trusted users would be able to post instantaneously. Others would post after I reviewed it to make sure it wasn't trash or spam.

In the end, we get a dynamic site which encourages user participation without being so delayed or burdensome. A win for everyone!

The beta version of the new site is online at http://www.eamonag.org/joomla/. About 80% or so of the material from the old site is online. Give it a spin, kick the tires, and let me know what you honestly think. I want this to be a tool that people will use so your input is greatly appreciated.

Feel free to leave feedback comments below or email them to me at eamon-guild@gmail.com.

Eamon to be included on the "Get Lamp" DVD

2010-01-22T22:05:00.000-05:00

Sorry for not posting too much on the blog but Eamon has been rather slow for the past few years.

One interesting tidbit is that the entire Eamon catalog in the form of the Eamon CD will be included on the "Get Lamp" documentary which is due to be released later this Spring. The CD has been compressed into a file which will be included on the DVD-ROM section.

I don't know to what extent Eamon itself will be discussed on the documentary, but if you've ever played Zork, Infocom, Adventure, or the like, I'm sure you'll be impressed with the DVD. See more detail and ordering information at http://www.getlamp.com/

I'm excited that if nothing else, Eamon will have a chance to be preserved, even if this website were to ever go down.

New Eamon additions!

2009-03-13T23:49:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Wade Phillips and Paul Sanders, we now have four new Eamon adventures on the site.

Paul Sanders found "The Crypt Crasher" which was originally written for the Atari. I had heard of other Atari Eamon adventures, but this is the first one that I've come across. As such, I haven't assigned it a number or anything. It's just "out there". You can see the new Atari Eamon website at http://www.eamonag.org/pages/eamon-atari.htm

Wade Clarke found three Eamons that he had written in the early 1990s.

#252. Cliffs of Fire	W. Clarke	Dos 3.3
#253. The Prism of Shadows	W. Clarke	Dos 3.3
#254. Dawn of the Warlock	W. Clarke	Dos 3.3

I haven't had the chance to review any of the above as of yet. Any review contributions are most welcome!

New Eamon Walkthrough

2008-04-13T10:41:00.002-04:00

Chris Davies contributed a new walkthrough of Sam Ruby's Storm Breaker. It's an excellent companion to the original and very helpful if you've had trouble solving Storm Breaker. Highly recommended!