The Eamon Adventurer’s
Guild
SEPTEMBER 2000
News and Opinions:
Did you notice the new envelope labels? The EAG return address had been getting rattier and rattier for the past few issues. Our youngest cat thinks that the EAG rubber stamp is a great chew toy. It finally got so bad that it was no longer readable, and I set up the labels on the PC.
This issue will carry the final offer of the EAG Eamon disk set. Now that you have your CD, you won’t ever need the disk set again. But if any of you ever do decide that you need a set of floppy disks, you can still get them. I just won’t be printing the offer as a regular feature of the newsletter any more.
This issue marks another change in content. Between the release of the CD and a general reduction in Eamon activity, many of the newsletter features have become obsolete. From this point forward I will no longer insist on a full ten pages. Content will run for however many pages it takes to print news, correspondents, a walk-through or two, and a list. Additional items such as letters will of course appear from time to time. In the future I will aim for 8 pages, anyway. This issue would have had a second walk-through, but I had the flu and got behind.
By now you should have gotten your CD-R. I am afraid that I made one omission that would have made life easier for you. The Eamon Master disks are not bootable. You must first boot off of a disk that has DOS or ProDOS on it, such as the DOS 3.3 or ProDOS master disks before you can use any of the Eamon disks. The Dos 3.3 and ProDOS 4.0.2 masters can be found in the non-Eamon folder.
For that matter, virtually none of the Eamon disks are bootable. These files are the same ones that I uploaded to Genie, and DOS 3.3 or ProDOS were deleted from them to make them smaller in those days of 2400-baud modems.
Stop
the Presses!
It appears that I screwed
up the CD. It does not have a complete set of Eamons on it. I apologize for
this, and you will be receiving a new copy in a few months after I have fixed
this and a few other errors that have come to light. I’ll also add new EAG
newsletters, of course.
Membership/subscription fee for 4 issues:
US-Canada: $7.00; foreign:
$12.00; in
This newsletter is published 4 times per year, in March, June, September, and December
This document is released to the Public Domain. Any part of this newsletter may be reproduced without permission. Please honor the privacy of the members listed herein, and ask their permission before distributing their names or addresses.
This newsletter was composed in its entirety using Word 2000 on a Pentium computer. It was printed on a Hewlett-Packard 830c inkjet printer.
We are always looking for new material! If you would like to publish your own letter or article in this newsletter, feel free to send one in.
If you would like to add your own Eamon adventure to the EAG list, send it on a disk to the above address. It will be assigned an Adventure number, and tested for bugs and other problems. An informal critique and disk with bug corrections will be returned for your final comment, action and approval before release.
BACK ISSUES:
NEUC 'Adventurer's Log':
Mar'84, May'84, Aug'84, Oct'84, Jan'85, Mar'85
May'85, Aug'85, Oct'85, Jun'86, Jan'87, Oct'87
EAG back issues: 1988: - Jun, Sep, Dec
1989,'90,'91,'92,'93: Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec
1994,'95,'96,'97,'98: Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec
1999: Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec
2000: Mar, Jun
Price: EAG members: $1.00 each
non-members: $2.00 each
Our mail-order Eamon
vendor:
Kula has a full-set update of the entire Eamon collection of all DOS 3.3 and 80-col. ProDOS titles. You can buy with confidence from them.
Eamons are available online at various sites. Two that I can recommend are ground.ecn.uiowa.edu and ftp.gmd.de
EAG EAMON DISK
OFFER
EAG members can obtain the complete Eamon set from the EAG. This contains both the DOS 3.3 and 80-col. ProDOS Eamon collections archived to 3.5 disks. These are ShrinkIt archives. To access the ProDOS titles, you need one 3.5 drive. The DOS 3.3 titles require both 3.5 and 5.25 drives.
The EAG members' price for the entire set is $25.00. To take advantage of this offer:
1) This offer requires that you supply the disks. You must include 19 DD 3.5 floppies with your payment. NOTE that these MUST be DD disks. My drives cannot read nor write to HD disks!
2) You must use a shipping container that I can re-use to return the filled disks to you.
3) The $25.00 price includes formatting the floppies with ProDOS. If you format the disks for me, the price is $20.00. This reflects the timesavings I get from not having to do the formatting. It doesn't matter what ProDOS volume name you use since they will be rewritten.
4) If any of the above requirements are not met, the disks will be returned unfilled, and the shipping cost will be deducted from your refund.
5) Both versions of 8-bit ShrinkIt and basic instructions are included with the set.
Purchasers of the set will automatically get free updates at irregular intervals.
Eamon Walk-Through
19 Death Trap Mar98
62 The Caverns of Doom Mar97
74 DharmaQuest Mar00
77
107 The Last Dragon Dec99
114 Thror's Ring Dec96
116 The Iron Prison Dec99
120 Orb of my Life Sep98
126 Pyramid of Anharos Jun98
127 The Hunt for the Ring Dec98
129 Return to Moria Jun99
132 Rhadshur Warrior Jun96
145 Buccaneer! Dec97
147 The Dark Brotherhood Sep96
150 Walled City of
161 Operation Endgame Jun97
194 Attack of the Kretons Jun00
220 Catacombs of Terror Sep00
239 Idol of the Incas Sep 99
SD137 Redemption Jun00
I want to make a note about Sam Ruby's best Eamons. You are not seeing Walk-Throughs in this section for Sam's best works, because these Eamons typically include very complete hints and solutions programs on the disk. For example, "Storm Breaker" has a SOLUTIONS program, and "Animal Farm" has BASIC TRAINING. Both of these programs offer fairly complete walk-throughs of their own.
Always check your Eamons for bonus programs on the disk! Several of the better authors have been known to do this on occasion.
A Walk-through of Eamon #220
First, the hints for those of you who want to solve this on your own. There’s really only one: read everything very carefully. You will face about a half-dozen puzzles, and they are for the most part very obscure. But if you pay attention, you will see strong hints and even outright solutions as you work your way through the catacombs. If you catch all of the clues, this is actually a fairly easy foray.
A second, lesser hint is that you must be ready to give up your best treasures or companions at certain points.
One of the potential companions is far more valuable than the others. It was obvious to me which one to choose.
Note the new commands: HIRE, DISMISS, JUMP, SACRIFICE, and throw. POWER is gone.
Let’s get started!
If you played this straight, without this walk-through, you would probably miss several key actions and would have to backtrack to do them after you found the proper clue. Here we will do them as we come to them. This could happen, if we were lucky enough to think of all the right things to do as we went.
You start out in a large field. What are those bumps? Examine them and find some diamonds. Get them.
Head W into the shack. Open the cabinet and find a sterling silver cup. Get it, and return E.
Go N twice and find a river of blood! Get some blood. Return S.
Go E to the cave entrance and kill the rock eater. Get the torch. (Remember that this is a version 7 Eamon, and that your spell ability will regenerate, so you might want to top your health off after each battle.)
Go E and kill the Icy Black Hand of Death. Grab the sword if you want it. (From here on I will only mention getting items that you must have. Feel free to grab anything. None of the magical swords are really awesome weapons; most come in around 2D4 to 3D5.)
Go S. Oops, it’s dark – light the torch.
Go E twice and get the sacrificial knife.
Go N twice and kill the orcs.
Continue N to a large chamber, and find a scroll. Read the scroll and learn of a magic word: ZOOMBA. This word teleports you back to this room. (We won’t be needing this word, but it would be very useful indeed if we needed to temporarily depart from one or more tests to search for the solution.)
You can rouse the statue by freeing him, but be forewarned that he won’t be friendly and is a very strong opponent.
Go W. You will find combat in the rooms to the north and south if you want it. The combat to the south is quite challenging.
Continue W and kill the rats. You’ll find more combat in the rooms to the north and south, if you want it. A 10-swallow healing potion is in the south room.
Go W, then N, and meet the Overlord and the outlaw. You can only hire one companion at a time, and neither of these two impresses me very much. Let’s look around some more. Return S.
Go S and meet Gar and Ryu. A pair of fast talkers, but not much else to recommend them. Let’s look a bit more. Return N.
Go W and meet the Sage and Ralkor. If the Sage is talking straight, he would be a great asset. Hire the Sage. Heed his advice!
Return E four times to the large chamber.
Continue E. Go into the north room and get the skull. Return S. Examine the south room if you wish.
Continue E. Examine the north room if you wish.
Go S. Hey; there is something on these walls. Let’s see if we can get something here – try examining the writing. Aha! Read the writing. Two passages:
SACRIFICE YOUR BEST COMPANION AT THE TOP OF THE TOWER – IT IS THE ONLY WAY.
And:
BLOOD FROM A SILVER CONTAINER WILL SOOTHE THE DEMON.
(What a lucky break that we already happen to have a silver cup filled with blood!)
Return S, then go E and N. The Sage says that there is a trapdoor down. If you go down, you’ll find a Gamemaster who will let you gamble your money, health, or companions. As near I can tell, it’s a sucker’s game, as the odds appear to me to be stacked 2-1 against you.
Return S, then continue S again. Free the headless skeleton (the skull is the key – I don’t exactly understand it, either.) Find yourself with a new companion.
Return N. Examine the east room if you wish. Then return W three times to the large chamber.
Go N twice. Enter the west room and open the box. Read the Pamphlet of Destruction and learn how to pass the First Test by using the magic word QUALCAST.
Return E. Examine the east room if you wish.
Go N. The Sage says there is a secret door in the west wall! Open the door, and go W into an ancient library.
Read the Teacher’s Book and learn of the first four Tests: magic, then skill, then intelligence, then magic again.
Read the Odd Book. I suspect that this passage refers to the skull.
Return E, then continue E into the other room. Get the granite key. Return W.
Go N to the Gateway. Note the Sage’s advice!
Open the gate and go N.
Your First Test! Remember the Pamphlet of Destruction? Say QUALCAST. The monster vanishes!
Your Second Test! The book said that this one is a game of skill. The solution is fairly obscure: throw the diamonds.
Your Third Test! This one is subtle, but we have the clues. We know that it is a test of intelligence, and we remember that the Sage advised us that we’d have to use our brain to succeed. Let’s try exactly that. (USE BRAIN.)
Your Fourth Test! At first it seems hard, but then we remember that it was listed in the teacher’s book as a test of magic. Blast the crystal.
A glass tower! Now the Sage advises you that you must kill him in the tower. And we remember the writing on the wall that said that a sacrifice must be made at the top of a tower. So be it.
Go U twice. Sacrifice the Sage. Alas, indeed.
There is nothing else to do in the areas you have already seen. There’s only one thing to do: jump out the window.
Go S and meet the Demon. Use the blood to win him over (USE BLOOD.)
Continue S into the treasure room. (Seems that a treas- ure room should have some treasure in it, doesn’t it?)
Go W twice. You’ve won!
Eamon Adventure Listing
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