Eamon Adventurers Guild
March 1994

March 1994

News and Stuff

Annual Financial Report

EAG finances for 1993:

Starting Balance:               $59.23 

Income
	Back Issues:		161.75
	New Memberships:	126.00
	Renewal Memberships: 	378.00 
	Updates:	      	 28.00
	Miscellaneous:           34.00
Total Income:			727.75

Expenses
	Copier:			280.80
	Postage:	     	223.91
	Supplies:	      	 57.63
Total Expenses:          	562.34

Ending Balance:                $224.64

A good year. Membership continues to hover near 100, where it has been for almost the entire history of the EAG. We seem to pick up new members at just a high enough rate to offset the ones who leave.

The renewal percentage remains nice and high, with the main reason by far for not renewing being that the member’s Apple II had broken or was sold. Quite honestly, I expected to see a significant decline in membership with the announced demise of the Apple II and the new inexpensive PClones and Macs hitting the streets, but so far that hasn’t happened at all.

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You have all probably heard by now that the Apple IIe has followed the Apple IIgs into oblivion. Apple cited very low order numbers compared to Mac orders. (Gee, I wonder why?) There has been a lot of loose talk about Apple licensing the Apple II to an outside vendor.

Don’t believe it. What would Apple gain by generating competition for the Macintosh? They want the Mac to be the education machine of choice, not a competitor’s Apple II clone.

I’ve been told that Apple has also discontinued their mail-order sales of Apple II hardware and software. What is Out There now is all we will ever have.

That’s actually fairly good news for those who stick with the Apple II. This turn of events has put a lot of downward pressure on the price of used Apple II equipment. Some peripherals like disk drives are holding their value compared to a year ago, but most everything else is down a lot from this time last year.

Don’t panic. Everything you could conceivably want is readily available from used-equipment outfits like Sun, Pre-Owned Electronics, Alltech and others. And real deals are to be had in the private market.

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I’ve heard some concern that the EAG is changing its emphasis to the GS because of unusually high GS news in the last few issues. Not so!! The EAG will continue to be exclusively Eamon-oriented and will continue to encourage authors to make their new stuff new stuff work on all Apple II models, and in both DOS 3.3 and ProDOS.

The EAG’s emphasis has always been on designing and writing new Eamon adventures. The features of new Eamon stuff is completely in the hands of the person who writes it. Some people are interested in doing stuff that only works in ProDOS or on the GS. That’s their decision, not mine, and I do support anyone who feels that way. People write Eamons for FUN and it’s important that they have fun doing them. I will merely report what is going on.

I personally use a II+, IIe, and GS. Admittedly, the II+ sees little use except to check new stuff for compatibility or to look at the details of an Eamon adventure while I have Appleworks running on the IIe, but it does still get used on a regular basis. I used it just last week to make sure that a new Eamon works right on the II+.

As long as I am running things, I will make everything possible available for the II+ and in DOS 3.3 format. Some things simply can’t be made to work in this framework, but so far that has been less than one percent of all the Eamon stuff.

Don’t sweat it. <grin>

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There Are Rumors that Sam Ruby has several projects in the works. He’s likely to give Softdisk first crack at them, though. Who would have thought that Sam would prefer getting $700 for an Eamon to giving it away for free?

Softdisk is definitely worth getting. They regularly offer some sort of text adventure or RPG, and they are good.

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EAMONAUT OF THE MONTH

It looks like Phillip Moore gets it again this time, with a bunch of bug reports and a couple of nice letters. Phil gets 6 more Eamon disk sides of his choice.

Special mention to Frank Kunze and Phil Schulz, who have been a real pleasures to work with on their new Eamon adventures. Frank and Phil will get their rewards when their adventures are finally released.

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I’d like to take a moment to mention that I am now doing the newsletter with Appleworks 4.0. This is a very nice program. If you’re doing anything more complex than simple correspondence, you might want to get it. However, I must mention that it is fairly huge, taking up almost an entire 3.5 floppy with no extra TimeOut modules installed!

New Adventures

#224 Prisoner of Darkness by Phil Schulz

You find yourself a prisoner in a dark cell, and must find your way to freedom. Contains several interesting twists, and a half-dozen puzzles of medium difficulty. There are companions to be won and obstacles to overcome. Phil has thoughtfully placed a couple of “stoppers” that help keep you from putting yourself in an unwinnable situation.

Letters

Can you unsave a DOS 3.3 game? I have saved game in a no-win position. (The key I need to open a door is on the other side.) Help! - Phil Smith

Sure, this is easy to do. Simply delete the ile GAME.PTRS from the disk. (Note that this is only necessary to do for DOS 3.3 games. The ProDOS versions automatically delete the saved game if you elect not to resume playing it at startup.) - Tom

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When I was exiting to the Main Hall and selling my excess weapons there was an ILLEGAL QUANTITY ERROR IN 2330….CH = 300. Is this a bug? - Phil Moore

Heh. There’s a problem, all right, but it’s not with the program. A “normal” high Charisma is about 22. Your Charisma is 300, or about 20 times higher than Paul Newman’s. You simply stepped outside the bounds of character stats that the basic MAIN PGM can handle. Next time, try dropping it by about 90%. - Tom

Dungeon Designs

SPECIAL NOTICE I’m facing a problem with this column: I am having a bit of difficulty coming up with stuff to write about that hasn’t already been covered in past issues. If there’s something that you would like to see discussed or explained, please let me know about it!

Miscellaneous Notes and Suggestions

Monster Weapons: Few things detract from the feel of combat like silly and inappropriate weapon assignments. Pay attention to the monsters’ weapon numbers! If the monster is supposed to be carrying a weapon, be sure to actually assign him a “real” weapon that is included in the artifact database. If the monster is fighting with natural weapons (teeth, karate, whatever) be sure to give him natural weapons by assigning a Weapon Number of zero.

Note that you can set up individual monsters as “unarmed” by giving them a negative weapon number. A good example of when this is appropriate would be a freed prisoner who has no weapon but will fight if given one.

The game’s play can really get screwy when a multiple-monster is carrying a real artifact-weapon and drops or breaks it during combat. (I don’t mean that the program breaks, just that this event reads very poorly.) Avoid this by not assigning a real weapon to multiple monsters unless there is some overriding reason for such a weapon to exist. When possible, give all multiple-monsters “natural” weapons, even if they should be carrying real ones. Minimize the confusion by making little or no reference to the monsters’ weapons. If there are just two or three members of the group, it might be better to make them individual monsters and assign real weapons to them.

Artifact USER Fields: The artifact database fields named USER are not used by the MAIN PGM. It doesn’t matter what is put in these locations, since this information isn’t used for anything. The DUNGEON EDIT program makes them available so that authors can easily use these locations for special programming data of their own.

Synonyms: Be sure to use the synonym checking routine for your embedded artifacts. See the June ‘92 EAG newsletter for a step-by-step tutorial of this powerful feature.

Special Checking: When you add special programming that checks for specific artifacts, never make the check by comparing the artifact’s name to S$! Always use the variable “A” and compare “A” to the artifact number you are looking for.

What difference does it make? It uses the standard player interface, which permits the player to expect certain responses from certain inputs by utilizing the standard checking code. One of the worst mistakes that new Eamon authors make is to bypass the standard interface routines.

Let’s do an example. Let’s say that something special will happen when the player picks up an artifact named MAGIC WAND. Let’s say that this wand is Artifact #12.

WRONG WAY:

4060 IF LEFT$ ("MAGIC WAND",LEN(S$)) = S$ THEN (special programming)

Problem: This line won’t detect right-end abbreviations; the command GET WAND won’t see it.

WORSE WAY:

4060 IF S$ = "MAGIC WAND" THEN (special programming)

Problem: This line won’t detect any abbreviations; the command GET WAND won’t see it, and neither will GET MAGIC.

RIGHT WAY:

4060 IF A = 12 THEN (special programming)

Benefits: Improves execution speed by making use of already-executed existing code; utilizes standard interface that detects truncated words. The player expects to be able to use commands as short as G M, and this line will do it.

How does the “right way” work? If you look at the GET routine at 4000-4020, you will see that it calls the subroutine at 4800 to see if the artifact named by S$ is available. If the artifact is available, the routine at 4800 sets the variable A to the number of the artifact. So, you see, all of the checking has been done for you already by the time you get to your special programming at line 4060.

Closed Artifacts: Containers, readable artifacts, and drinkable artifacts all have the option of being open or closed. Unless there is a strong reason to have it closed, you should be sure to leave readable and drinkable artifacts already open in the database. For example, it’s irritating to the player to have to OPEN an ordinary book before reading it, as the READ command implies opening the book as well.

Unfortunately, the editor defaults drinkable and readable artifacts to the closed state. Be sure to enter the open state for anything that isn’t locked or tied to special effects upon opening.

Containers are a special case; it doesn’t matter which state they are in, as the OPEN command functions to empty them out onto the ground. However, you will of course want to have “locked• containers closed!

Bugs’n’Fixes

#43 Priests of Xim! Date Fixed: 1/30/94

Problem: A monster has a control character in its name, making it impossible to attack. Fix: Change Monster 12’s name to SPIDER

Also, the standard speedup mods were added.

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#95 Maze of Quasequeton Date Fixed: 1/16/94

The “standard” YOU SEE speedup mods were added.

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#97 The House of Secrets Date Fixed: 1/16/94

Problem: Treasure value is calculated incorrectly; can possibly be negative value. Fix: In Line 4210: change AD%(60,1) = (WT - MD%(0,1)) * 20 to AD%(60,1) = (MD%(0,1) * 10 - WT) * 20

The “standard” YOU SEE speedup mods were added.

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#115 The Ring of Doom Date Fixed: 1/28/94

The standard speedup mods were added to the search routines at 4700 & 4800.

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#131 Nucleus of the Ruby DOS 3.3 ONLY Date Fixed: 1/14/94

Problem: UNDEF’D STATEMENT IN 1200 Fix: Delete Line 1200

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#149 Elemental Apocalypse

149A The Indoor Forest Date Fixed: 1/14/94

Problem: SYNTAX ERROR IN 13030 Fix: In Line 13030, change GOT300 to GOTO 300

149D Assault on the Element Lords Date Fixed: 1/14/94

Problem: UNDEF’D STATEMENT IN 11500 Fix: Delete :IF RL = 100 THEN 11600 from Line 11500

Problem: SYNTAX ERROR IN 31110 Fix: There is an embedded control-K in the line. Recopy the line to remove the control-K.

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#165 Animal Farm DUNGEON EDIT DOS 3.3 ONLY Date fixed: 1/14/94

Problem: TYPE MISMATCH IN 50 Fix: In Line 50, change ND$ = 6 to ND$ = “6”

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#180 Gamma 1 Date fixed: 1/14/94

Problem: TYPE MISMATCH in 13040 Fix: In Line 13040, change AD$(A,4) to AD%(A,4)

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#194 Attack of the Kretons DOS 3.3 & PRODOS-40 Date fixed: 1/14/94

Problem: SYNTAX ERROR IN 9540 Fix: 9540 GO = GO - SL: IF M = 8 AND SL < 75 THEN GO = GO + SL: PRINT : PRINT CHR$(34)”THAT AIN’T ENOUGH,”CHR$(34)” GROWLS STAN.”: L = L + 2: GOSUB 58: GOTO 9120

Adventure Reviews

#43 Priests of Xim! by Marty & Ed Bauman

Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski

MAIN PGM Version: 5 Extra Commands: EXIT, PRAY, UNLOCK, BUY, SAVE Deleted Commands: None Special Features: None Playing Time: 1-2 hours Reviewer Rating: 4.0
Average Rating: 5.7/3

Description: “Welcome to the Priests of Xim! As you travel through the tomb, you will encounter many powerful enemies. However, the rewards will far outweigh the costs. Because of the large amount of time required to complete the full adventure, it is possible to leave, if decide you cannot go any farther. However, if you wish to enter the tomb again, you will have to pay hommage again, and start over. Please wait 1 minute.”

Comment: The above is an exact copy of the entire introduction. I think that it serves fairly well to give you a taste of the flavor of this offering. This adventure didn’t originally have SAVE and made special provision for exiting at any time via the EXIT command, but SAVE was added by the NEUC.

This is straight kill’n’loot with a handful of locked doors to open. Contrary to the intro, the bad guys are medium-to-lightweight and sometimes decide to ignore you after first presenting a very hostile description.

The “hommage” that you must pay to enter is 70% of all your gold. I managed to scrounge together less than 4,000 GP of loot, or about 32,000 GP short of what I was charged to enter the tomb.

I found this to be a mediocre offering largely because the authors threw whatever popped into their heads into the dungeon map, which makes very little sense and has lots of incongruities. It is painfully obvious that they were running out of ideas and patience in the last quarter of the dungeon, which is decidedly poorer in quality than the first half, which is pretty darned good.

If the entire dungeon was up to the standards of the beginning, this would be a real keeper. But instead it winds down to what I felt was a disappointing ending. Still, you should note that the average rating is quite a bit higher than mine, indicating that several people enjoyed it more than I did.

#95 Maze of Quasequeton by Brian Kondalski

Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski

MAIN PGM Version: 4 Extra Commands: None Deleted Commands: None Special Features: None Playing Time: 30 min. Reviewer Rating: 4.0
Average Rating: 3.2/4

Description: “You have heard that a group of fighters have gathered in the Maze of Quasequeton. You know that they are lead by a man call the Master. You must find him and kill him. Good luck!”

Comment: And that is the introduction in its entirety. I think that it sums up the content of the adventure nicely. The dungeon map consists of a mere 18 rooms. No special effects. No secret passages. No companions.

This is classic ‘hack’n’slash’ fare: kill everyone you meet and grab anything that isn’t nailed down. The poll ratings on this one range from (1) from a puzzle fan to (5) from a hack’n’slasher. It’s very short and simple, but it’s cleanly written.

It’s very easy to complete. Being very simple and short, it may be a good choice for young Eamonauts.

#115 The Ring of Doom by Sam Ruby

Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski

MAIN PGM Version: 6 Extra Commands: EAT, REFORGE Deleted Commands: SAVE Special Features: None Playing Time: 1-2 hours Reviewer Rating: 5.0

Description: “Ages ago, in times few remembered, the Dark Lord, Sauron, fashioned Rings of Power in his Land of Mordor. One he made for himself, and it was the mightiest, for it could control the others.

In all, twenty rings were made. The Elves were not tricked by Sauron’s false friendship, so they hid their Rings. Sauron has taken back the Seven of the Dwarves. The Nine are used by the Black Riders, the Nazgul, who are Sauron’s most powerful servants. But the One was lost.

Lost that is, until now. The One has been found, by the ‘good guys’, fortunately, for if Sauron recovers it he will be invincible!

Being a mighty warrior and hero of the land, you are summoned to a council of the Wise, and the leaders of the free peoples. A debate occurs over the question of what to do with the Ring.

The council’s leader says, after long debate, “We must destroy it. Doing that will destroy Sauron. It must be thrown into the Mountain of Fire, Orodruin, called Mount Doom. However, Mount Doom lies in the land of Mordor, where Sauron dwells.”

You volunteer to be the ringbearer. You must go through a mountain pass called Cirith Ungol and into Mordor. There you will throw the Ring into the fire of the mountain. You are given some Elvish waybread, shards of a once-mighty sword, and a flask of a magical liquid.

Comment: This adventure is classic Ruby from his “Middle-Earth period”. It is a reasonably accurate rendition of Frodo’s portion of The Return of the King, beginning at the Rangers’ hideout and continuing on to the Cracks of Doom.

This is a very tough adventure, with very dense combat, and often harsh consequences for wrong decisions. To enhance the danger, Sam deleted the SAVE command from the adventure. Get it right, or die. Because of the very intense combat, I give it a (9) for difficulty. Bring your strongest character and heaviest weapons!

The puzzles are pretty easy, if you have read Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings books. If you haven’t read them, then some of the necessary actions may be pretty obscure. If you’ve read the books, it’s a Hack’n’Slasher’s delight.

Here are a few hints to lighten the difficulty: the reforged sword is a 5D5 weapon; if that’s a big gun for you, then be sure to watch for the opportunity to reforge it. You can complete the Quest even if you do not have Frodo, Sam, or Gollum with you. Look for the Rangers at the beginning, they will be invaluable in combat.

Sam did a pretty nice job with special text. There are many secret passages, and every one has its own special text announcement. Overall, a nice job. It would easily have garnered a higher rating if not for the high difficulty.

#138 Starfire by Ed Phillips

Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski

MAIN PGM Version: 6 Extra Commands: None Deleted Commands: None Special Features: None Playing Time: 30-60 min. Reviewer Rating: 6.0
Average Rating: 4.8/4

Description: “Looking around calmly, you quicken your pace. Ahead of you the Black Mountains loom ominously. You smile inwardly. This is the home, you’ve been told, of the fabled Starfire, a sword made by the great forger Gnomedestries.

Soon it will be yours. Beside you marches your friend Thug and Thug’s vicious pet Imp, who offered to help you with your Quest.”

Comment: This is a rather plain-vanilla Eamon adventure. There are no puzzles to solve other than the discovery of several ordinary secret passages. The map of 58 rooms is very straightforward and has no nasty surprises.

However, there is plenty of combat. You might find yourself in trouble if not for your two very powerful companions, who carry their share of the load.

This adventure, though simple, is competently laid out and cleanly constructed. It is a worthy candidate for young Eamonauts and those who are just getting their feet wet in Eamon.

Two hints: save the potion for real emergencies; try to get around the dragon by FLEEing instead of fighting him (he’s a very tough opponent!)

Random Article to Fill Newsletter

I put together a disk a few months back that contains the “Dungeon Designs” columns from the newsletter. I sent it out to the Public-Domain people, but never quite got around to announcing it. It is now in the Adventure Listing.

I’ve been thinking about putting the same kind of disk out for the newsletter’s “## Bugs’n’Fixes” columns. It’s apparent that few if any of the P-D vendors are performing the published bug fixes. I’ve even had reports of people getting old versions of stuff that I do send out new disks for, such as the Main Hall or DDD.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any of the old NEUC “Adventurer’s Log” bug-fix columns in disk form. What do you think? Is it worth putting such a disk together, even though it will only have five years’ worth of bug fixes?

Eamon Adventure Listing