home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Apple II Magazines (PO)
/
Bits and Bytes Volume 11, No. 05 (1989-11)(Apple Computing Enjoyment Society)(Side A).zip
/
Bits and Bytes Volume 11, No. 05 (1989-11)(Apple Computing Enjoyment Society)(Side A).po
/
ARTICLES
/
EAMON.REVISITED.txt
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1996-12-24
|
4KB
|
74 lines
EAMON .. A golden oldie re-visited
Excerpted from an article By Ray Merlin in Appleseed Newsletter
This is the first role playing adventure game I remember playing on
our Apple II, one disk drive, and at least 32K of memory. Eamon also
runs on the IIgs, and everything in between, including most clones.
To play Eamon, you must first generate and develop a character in the
adventure "The Beginner's Cave" contained on the first diskette in the
series. After the character gains a bit of experience and additional
spells and weaponry, he or she may enter other adventures. To generate
a character, merely give a name and gender to the Irishman who serves
as the gatekeeper, and enter the Main Hall. There, you can use your
200 gold pieces that all characters are awarded as sort of an
enlistment bonus. With this, your character can buy spells, weapons,
armor and a shield. Once equipped, off you go into the adventure.
The Beginner's Cave is the starting point for all the adventures of
the Eamon series - and there are many of them. The club library has a
lot of them and if you are starting from scratch, get at least 2
others besides the Beginner's Cave to give you a real taste of the
series. It is written in DOS 3.3 hence apt to be a little on the slow
side. All the adventures are in text only, not a graphic to be seen
but, like the Infocom series, you don't really need any graphics to
follow along with the action.
Mapping is important in solving Eamon, as it is in any adventure game.
Graph paper is a fine means of accomplishing this. In the Beginner's
Cave you can exit along the same route you entered, but that is
usually impossible in more advanced games. These are usually entered
via trap doors, a space ship crash, teleportation, dream spells and
other imaginative means dreamed up by the creator of the specific
adventure. Knowing where you have been is important, as you will find
yourself frequently back-tracking and exploring offshoots from the
path you were following.
There are utilities available on the Dungeon Designer disk that will
print out the rooms, monsters, treasures and artifacts in the dungeon.
Other utilities will allow you to resurrect a slain character or to
build up the strength of a favored character. Some people call this
cheating; I wouldn't be quite this harsh, but think that printing out
the dungeon prior to entering it (and maybe getting killed a few
times) is akin to shooting sitting ducks or dynamiting fish. After
giving up, it is nice to be able to print it out to see if you missed
anything, and to see how the author designed it. Sometimes a designer
will create an unbeatable adversary, and you can use the utilities to
weaken it a bit so your character has better than no-chance-at-all to
win.
I found I don't have the patience to spend a month of spare time to
play most of the Wizardry or Ultima adventures. Eamon moves rapidly,
is simple, and usually can be completed in one sitting. There is a
"Save game" feature in most adventures, just in case you have to shut
down the computer for a while. Another nice feature is that you can
type "help", or a nonsense word in place of a command, and receive a
list of commands specific to the current adventure. This should be
done as soon as possible after you arrive in the dungeon, as an
unusual command may be in use and this would be the only way to detect
it.
In my opinion, Eamon is for anyone who has basic reading skills,
through adulthood. Give it a try, you might like it.
Editor's note: I checked Ace's library catalog and found that there
are 41 adventure caves listed. Some of the names are just as
imaginative as the commercial variety: viz Caves of Mondamen, Temple
of Ngurct, Furioso, Senator's Chambers, Dragon of Doom etc. In
addition there are Character utilities, general utilities, general
adventure utilities, a mini-adventure and a ProDOS utility for
converting. These will provide enough adventures for the most avid of
game players - and they're for sale at bargain rates. Consult your
catalog (or get the most recent revision from our librarian) get a few
adventures and have fun!