Computist #89 (1992)
Eamon MCMXCII
by Jeff Hulburt
Origins
In the mid-70’s, if you had a 300-baud modem terminal, you could dial up most ‘time share’ systems and play the first computer adventure. “Adventure Land’’ (“The Adventure”, etc.) was — in fact, still IS — a textonly game which challenges the player to solve puzzles, overcome hazards, and collect goodies. In a Text Adventure’, you type in commands and get text descriptions of what happens as a result. For instance, GO NORTH might produce something like “You are in a rocky gulch with high cliffs to the east and west. The way continues north and south. An iron grate covers an opening in the ground.” (Hint: OPEN GRATE!)
With the arrival of for-real home computers like the Apple II, text adventuring really ‘took off. We had the Scott Adams quests (e.g. “The Pyramid of Doom”), Infocom’s “Zork” (I-III), “Enchanter”, “Wishbringer”, etc., assorted adventures from other vendors, and ‘home brew’ efforts published in magazines like Computist and SoftSide. The early ‘80’s also saw the beginnings of Eamon adventuring.
Eamon?
“Eamon” is not a single adventure. It is a text adventure play and authoring system originated by Don Brown. His idea was to provide both a character creation/jumping-off point for many adventures AND the tools by which he and fellow enthusiasts would produce an unending stream of new scenarios. Don wrote “The Beginner’s Cave” and a few other early adventures; but, most of the over 200 Eamon’s are by numerous creators who joined in later.
Indeed, “Eamon” is people. It is chiefly due to efforts of the many “fellow enthusiasts” that Eamon adventuring continues to flourish. The Apple Avocation Alliance was largely responsible for organizing, numbering, and distributing the early Eamons. Besides writing several adventures, John Nelson helped collect submissions and expanded the capabilities of MAIN PGM (the main game program) through version 6.2.
Via the Eamon Adventurer’s Guild (EAG), Tom Zuchowski deserves most of the credit for adapting to Apple II series improvements, assuring product quality, and, in general, maintaining order in modern Eamonville. Tom has also produced a number of scenarios; and, his version 7.0 of MAIN PGM is just one of many contributions to Eamon game development. Chuck Haight has been a solid Eamon supporter from its earliest days. Computist not only publishes Guild ads, but, as a distributor, supplies Eamon adventures and authoring materials (complete with fancy diskette labels!) at unbeatable prices.
The Guild does not pay for submissions and all Eamon materials are public domain. Anyone can copy them, place them in user group libraries, or post them to bulletin boards. (Of course, club libraries and BB’s are not nearly so likely to have the latest version of each adventure as is an official distributor like Computist.) Possibly, Eamon’s best ‘selling point’ is that the many people who make it work do so, mainly, for fun.
“Eamon” is also a place, one dominated by an imposing structure known as The Main Hall. Here you can buy and sell arms and armor, bank your gold, and hire a wizard to teach you Eamon’s four ‘stock’ spells (Blast, Heal, Power, Speed). Presiding over the Main Hall is a burly Irishman whose first question is always “What’s yer name?”
To get started, you enter a character name. If the name is not found in the CHARACTERS file, the character is created — you pick gender and the program assigns Hardiness, Agility, and Charisma plus skills numbers for five Weapon types (Spear, Axe, Club, Bow/Gun, Sword) and Armor use. There is no strict limit on the number of characters you and/or others who use the same “Eamon Master” (Main Hall) diskette can create; but, you can bring in only one hero per adventure. Since scenarios often allow some development of skills and attributes, players usually stick with a single character throughout their Eamon questing.
The Main Hall’s most important attribute is that it leads to so many interesting places. Just select “Go on an adventure”, pop in the diskette for your chosen quest, and you’re off! As far as I know, no one has ever explained how leaving the Hall in this manner can place you at the mouth of a cave, before the gates of a city, on a Star Base launching platform, … ; or, indeed, how returning from such disparate locales so often lands you “on the road leading to the Main Hall”. Tom Zuchowski has speculated about “strange forces” brought to bear by the influence of orbiting suns. My guess is that magic, super science, and time portals are all involved.
The Adventures
When Computist published its first major Eamon article in 1983 there were only about 25 adventures; but, even then, quality varied wildly from scenario to scenario. Thanks to the EAG, serious bugs have, for the most part, been tracked down and eliminated; and new submissions are checked out more thoroughly. The Guild publishes a 10-page journal (four issues per year/ $7) where fixes for any newly discovered bugs appear. Along with news and reviews of late releases, each issue also lists authors and ratings for all 200+ adventures.
By far, the majority of Eamons are built around swords & sorcery themes running the gamut from whimsically Zorkian wanderings through Conanesque quests and Dragonlance-style crusades. Others may send you back to the time of dinosaurs, into the future to battle robots and mad scientists, drop you into a modern city to solve a crime, deposit you at the entrance to a haunted manse, or … . There really is no limit to the possibilities. In terms of both numbers and variety, the challenge is practically endless.
Relatively few scenarios incorporate actual mazes (i.e. places where you are supposed to get lost); but, with up to 200 locations allowed via the standard game program, exploration is a goodly portion of every Eamon challenge. Most players rely upon simple line-and-box maps to keep track of treasures, puzzle-locked doorways, and other key features of the gamescape.
More so than in most other text adventures, critical achievements in Eamon tend to involve overcoming dangerous adversaries. In combats you trade blows to ATTACK MINOTAUR, BLAST GOLEM, etc. until all the bad guys are dispatched or flee. Most scenarios allow you to flee as well (one or more particularly aggressive monsters may follow) and a few permit three or four restorations should YOU be the one dispatched. Usually, getting killed ends the game and you must either create a new character or use a resurrection utility to restore the old one.
Some Infocom devotees may be turned off by Eamon’s emphasis upon combat. Understandable; however, there are numerous adventure-enhancing side benefits. First, the need to overcome adversaries, makes character development and acquisition of better weapons ‘mean something’. It greatly increases the stake you have in your character. Second, not all “monsters” are unfriendly; some will join you for the duration of a quest. (In Eamon, every character is, technically, a “monster”. This includes critters, as well as guards, wizards, elf bowmen, princesses, etc..) Acquiring helpful recruits adds another dimension to the challenge; and, besides, it’s more fun to go questing with stalwart companions at your side. Finally, as a Russian revolutionary once observed: “You can’t make a soup without slicing monsters.” Crusading against evil wizards, wicked queens, and other powerful foes naturally tends to be a rough business.
In text adventuring, “parsing” is equated with how well the game seems to understand your typed-in commands. A very good parser, such as the one you find in Infocom games, can make sense out of inputs that ‘sound’ the way people really speak. Since you don’t have to fish around for just the right command, it is much easier to try out ideas. You play the game, not the game program.
Most Eamon adventures employ a two-word parser. To move, you enter commands like GO NORTH (or NORTH, or N). You may also OPEN CHEST, GET JEWEL, ATTACK VAMPIRE, DRINK POTION, READY LONG BOW, READ SIGN, … .Typically, an adventure recognizes 50-75 command words and the names of any monsters and artifacts. (The reason for the variation in number of available commands is that many authors modify MAIN PGM, which is in BASIC, to add words.) Entering an invalid command automatically produces a list of commands the particular game understands.
The down side of Eamon’s simple parser is that you must sometimes experiment to find the command that does what you know must be done. Scenario development is also impacted. To assure playability, Eamon authors have tended to avoid building-in complex puzzles. The up side is that, by the time youVe gotten through your first two or three adventures, you have a good feel for how the commands are used and pretty well know what works and what doesn’t. Then, too, many preVersion 7.0 games employ author-originated mods which let the program understand synonyms, make sense of command abbreviations, and otherwise behave more intelligently. All of these are standard 7.0 features, as are improved capabilities for checking the status and inventory of any ally, trading items, and handling puzzle-oriented entries like PUT CUBE IN SLOT.
With so many games produced by so many authors, quality continues to vary a great deal. EAG nails bugs; but there’s no question that some worlds are better ‘filled-out’ with richer prose and more interesting challenges. Playing time is another inconsistent variable. Most of the early adventures offer no GAME SAVE; yet, some may be good for barely an hour while others can run to four or five. The range is even larger for the newer games (including several multidiskette quests) which often do, happily, offer a SAVE option.
Picking a ‘good one’ is a lot like shopping for something to read: you look for a juicy sounding title and a favorite author. EAG’s reviews and ratings are a fair guide, too. (Each adventure is rated on a 1-10 scale; 10 is highest.) Predictably, however, many fun-to-play early adventures tend to be down-rated due to lower playing times. Most scenarios fit on a single diskette; and, at $1 each, you can afford to go for ‘good prospects’ AND experiment with ‘unknowns’. A ten or twentydollar investment is guaranteed to deliver several evenings of adventuring challenge.
Eamoneering
Back in the early days of computer adventuring we collected Eamons more or less automatically from our local user group (HAAUG) library. Incredibly, I did not become a player until just the last couple of months, when c^uriosity about the adventures included on Computist Library Disks took hold. So far I’ve made it through thirty or so scenarios. Fun (and more than 170 still ahead!); but, the real hook turned out to be the ‘other side’ of Eamon: programming and game development.
Among our vintage “AAA Eamon” adventures I came upon one not listed by EAG! (Kind of like finding an unpublished Brahms symphony.) “The City of Sorcerers” was playable; but, one notable bug and some undeveloped areas of the gamescape made it obvious the adventure was not quite finished. (Also, a dead give away, an early version of the dungeon editor was on the same diskette.)
I fixed the bug and began to fill-in some gaps and polish a few rough edges with the idea of sending “‘City’” to EAG for registration under the original author’s name. Well, one thing led to another and it soon became clear that 1. the version 6.x DUNGEON.EDIT I was using needed a user-friendliness transplant; 2. the version of MAIN PGM (which wasn’t even named “MAIN PGM” in those days) imposed too many restrictions BECAUSE 3. I was making so many changes that a completely new adventure was taking shape! With the latter realization I copied the original, added the REMed bug fix, and mailed it to the Guild. “The City of Sorcerers” was where it belonged in the first place; and I was free to develop my own scenario.
First, I needed a better editor. NUEDIT began as a program intended’to allow a player or designer to ‘walk through’ a gamescape (using normal N, S, etc. commands) and read descriptions without having to fight monsters. With a nice text editing routine lifted from DUNGEON.EDIT and using Beagle’s Program Writer ($49.95) running on the Ilgs, it wasn’t long before the new editor was ready for serious work. (Writing NUEDIT was fun and a valuable refresher course in BASIC. In case you are thinking of learning a new programming language: Step One is to find something interesting to program.)
Anyway, armed with NUEDIT.6 and a more modern version of MAIN PGM, I was enmeshed in sculpting my new scenario when what should arrive in the mail but Tom Zuchowski’s version 7.0 package! Complete with on-disk manual, this IS a major upgrade (still DOS 3,3-based) offering a larger gamescape, better speed, built-in GAME SAVE, and optional 80/40 column display. Towhich you can add a host of new artifact types (e.g. containers, keys, hidden doors, …), better parsing, and other features guaranteed to enhance puzzle development. My ‘old format’ files were soon moved to 7.0. As for EAG’s 7.0 editor, it is an improvement, but still too cumbersome. NUEDIT.6 became NUEDIT.7.
Along with the version 7.0 game creation materials, Tom included a beta version of a new ‘‘Multi-disk Supplement” (which, he notes, has never actually been used to create a game) and materials for authoring in 40 or 80 column ProDOS. Since my adventure is not seriously pushing 7.0’s normal 1diskette limit, and DOS 3.3 works on our 11+ and Ilgs, and our Eamons are all DOS 3.3 versions, I haven’t tried the MDS or ProDOS stuff yet. (Speed would be a decisive ProDOS advantage except that most “DOS 3.3” users actually run some version of Beagle’s Prontodos.)
Granted, ProDOS may be ‘the wave of the future’; and, in fact, EAG now has ProDOS versions of roughly half the adventures. For now, 7.0 under ‘3.3 is, by far, the best tested, best documented format for Eamon authoring. Most of the newly released ‘Guide for Eamon Adventure Designers and Players is devoted to version 7.0 play, utilities, and programming.
Note: The 21-page ‘Guide’ is available from Computist. It’s the best introduction yet to Eamon adventuring AND it saves the bother of printing out the on-disk 7.0 manual. You’ll find plenty of nuts & bolts detail covering Eamon text files, MAIN PGM, and LEADIN PROGRAM (a ‘raw’ game startup program where you can place introductory text? etc.). Evidently, the booklet is free with every order. There is one error — one which occurs in the on-diskette manual, too — on page 14, artifact Format 1 shows parm 5 as “Weapon type” and parm 6 as “Complexity”; it should say parm 5 is “Complexity” and parm 6 is “Weapon type”.
The ‘Guide’ recommends that a game author have most of his/ her scenario mapped-out BEFORE even booting up the editor. Perhaps experienced Eamon makers actually do it that way. Newcomers, however, can learn a great deal by starting with a rough idea, creating a few rooms with neat things to find and monsters to fight; and, then, giving the new adventure a try as a player. Changing (a copy of) an existing adventure is another good way to get started. Whatever your approach, once into creating an Eamon world you won’t want to stop. Eamoneering is addictive stuff!
No PC?!
As far as I know, there is no PC or other non-Apple II equivalent for the Eamon Guild of Adventurers. (And, after speaking with Tom Zuchowski, my impression is that Hell may well freeze over before EAG changes its II-only policy.) Clearly, converting and test-playing 200+ adventures for another machine format is the sort of task one normally assigns to a monastery. It isn’t likely to happen.
Happily, our PC-only readers can get into Eamon via a lowcost ‘Eamon Kit’! According to flyers from some Apple-stuff vendors, an Apple 11+ with mono monitor sells for $58. Add a disk drive and 80-column card (required for just a few adventures) and your total cost should fall somewhere around $200. (Comparable He and Ilgs ‘kits’ sell for about $450.)
The Programs
NUEDIT.792 lets you edit a version 7.0 adventure or create one from scratch on a formatted diskette. (It will work in 40 or 80 column mode, whichever is active when the program is run.) When started, NUEDIT first asks you to insert the diskette to be edited. If NUEDIT detects an incompatible version it will tell you and then exit. If a compatible (7.x) version is detected NUEDIT takes you to the main menu ready to do editing.
If no adventure is found, NUEDIT will ask if you want to start a new adventure; if “YES”, you will be asked for a name and the number of movement directions (6 for NSEWUD or 10 to permit NE, NW, etc. movement). NUEDIT then creates the standard Eamon TEXT files (7.0 default values are in parentheses):
eamon.name: Name of the adventure. Number of directions (6 or 10), and Version number (7.0)
EAMON.DESC: descriptions of Rooms (records 1-200), Artifacts (201-400), Effects (401600), Monsters (601-800). *DESC Record length is 242; max length of each description is 238. Record of this file has current counts of rooms, artifacts, effects, and monsters followed by record lengths for the ‘ROOMS (72), ‘MONSTERS (92), and ‘ARTIFACTS (72) files.
EAMON.ROOMS: Each record has Name of a “room’*/ location (max length= 38), room # Destination for each movement direction (for each direction, 0= none), and room Lumination (1= lighted, means the player must have a lighted torch, etc. to see).
EAMON.ARTIFACTS: Each record has Name of the artifact (max length= 30), Value in gold. Type #, and Starting location plus four additional parms. The meaning of the latter depends upon artifact type. The 7.0 MAIN PGM recognizes 1 1 artifact types (e.g. Treasure, Weapon, Container, Door, etc.). NUEDIT includes formatsAabels for all 11 and allows 4 additional user-defined types.
EAMON.MONSTERS: Each record has Name of the “monster’’ (max length= 30) followed by 11 parms to set hardiness, friendliness, starting room # etc.. Each record can describe just one monster or a group of same-kind monsters.
There is no separate *EFFECTS file because an effect is a text message (max length= 238) contained entirely in ‘DESC.
At the start of new adventure creation, NUEDIT writes just one dummy record for each game element (room #1, artifact #1, effect #1, and monster #1).
Once at the main menu you press ‘R’ to view/edit Rooms, *A’ for Artifacts, etc.. When ‘R’, ‘A’, ‘E’, or ‘M’ is selected you are given the choice of entering the number of the room, etc. to view/ edit OR pressing ‘+’ to create one or more new records, (i.e. after selecting ‘M’, pressing ‘+’ and entering “25” will create 25 dummy, ready-to-edit monster records.)
Most of the time you will be viewing/editing. For example, pressing ‘R’ and entering “73” will produce a display showing the room #, Room 73’s name, the room’s description, and the # of the room or door/gate you can reach by movement in each direction. Prompts at the bottom of the screen indicate that you may move to Room 72 or Room 74 using the arrow keys; OR, you may move to a destination room by pressing a directions key (like ‘N’, ‘S’, etc.). If the destination is a door/gate artifact, NUEDIT checks to see that the door and ‘room beyond’ both exist and automatically moves you to the room on the other side of the door. (Note: NUEDIT ignores any attempt to view or do anything to a room, artifact, etc. which does not yet exist.)
Entering ‘C and then, say, “142” copies the current room to Room 142. Entering ‘#’ and, say, “55” is a quick way to hop to Room 55.
‘Z’ lets you edit displayed information. The cursor is set at the beginning of each item’s field and you enter text or numbers as appropriate. (Pressing ‘RETURN’ with no changes retains the original and moves you to the next item.) Text editing is the same as in EAG’s editor (CTRL-I inserts a space, etc.). One important change is that any text character at the length limit for a Name or Description is automatically pushed out when you do an insert. When done, NUEDIT lets you ‘Save’ the changed Room, ‘Redo’ editing without throwing away your work, or scrap the changes (the original display appears). ‘SPC exits to the main menu and CLOSEs all open files.
Viewing and editing Artifacts, Effects, and Monsters works much the same. When you have fixed choices, as in picking an artif act’s Type, the current selection is shown (e.g. “Container”) and the “<— —>” prompt reminds you to make your selection using the arrow keys.
Other main menu options let you change your adventure’s name or get a Room Connections display. The Name Change option affects the name stored in eamon.name and, possibly, the name of the your adventure’s startup program. (The startup program is a user-made program or renamed LEADIN PROGRAM which has the same name as the adventure. To start play MAIN HALL reads eamon.name to get the adventure’s name and runs the startup program, which ends by running the main game program.) If a startup program has not yet been placed on the adventure diskette or it is still named LEADIN PROGRAM, etc., then Name Change affects only the name in eamon.name.
The Connections option is very helpful for quickly checking your adventure’s layout. It shows the selected room’s destinations (or “exits”) by direction ALONG WITH the exits for each destination. (Due to clutter, this option is not available in 10-direction mode.)
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF EAMON and MAIN HALL programs have changed very little over the years. One enterprising author did produce an Ultima I-style map-graphics version of MAIN HALL. “Graphics MAIN HALL” seeks to patch a serious Eamon deficit, the absence of a cumulative Experience numiber, by letting you convert gold into attribute and skills boosts at various training centers and shops. GMH never ‘caught on’, partly because 1. It is too easy to overenhance your character; and, 2. Having to steer a figure around on the screen maps slows down transactions. Mainly, though, the problem is format. A graphics interface doesn’t ‘belong’ in the Hall. The TEXT Main Hall remains the standard, accepted version because that’s the way Eamon players like it.
Modified versions of Eamon’s two core programs plus the new EXP.UPDATE program are listed in this issue. They add several enhancements without disturbing Eamon’s traditional ‘look’ and feel:
Experience: The new MAIN HALL automatically runs EXP.UPDATE each time you return alive from an adventure. Your character gains Experience based upon gold obtained, new/better weapons brought back, and any gains in attributes and skills awarded by the scenario. Experience translates into Level advancement, whereupon you can select an attribute or skill to increase. The same program also records and displays the name of each adventure you have experienced along with the number of times played.
Roster: n ‘WORLD OF EAMON, a new option lets you display names of all characters in the CHARACTERS file. You can also obtain an Experience display for any character showing adventures played and number of times for each.
Restoration: It is no longer necessary to run a separate utility to restore a killed-off character. In ‘WORLD OF EAMON you need only visit The Temple of Restoration.
Locker: in MAIN HALL, a character who meets the Level requirement can buy a space in the Adventurer’s Lockers. This space holds up to eight weapons. You can visit your locker at any time when at the Main Hall to deposit, retrieve, or swap-in items.
Status: the MAIN HALL character status display shows Experience and Level along with more detailed information on Magic skills and Armor Expertise. Similarly, displays for the Banker, Weapon Shop, and Magician now include useful information (e.g. gold in your possession, spells you already know, etc.) to help speed-up and simplify transactions.
Since installing the above enhancements, my dad and I have played through something like fifty adventures including ancient “AAA Eamon” versions of the earliest scenarios, newer 6.2 games with and without GAME SAVE, and the latest 7.0 scenarios. That the mods work and are compatible with any CHARACTERS file and characters already in existence is not especially remarkable given that information ispassed back and forth among Eamon programs via TEXT files. Inputs and outputs are clear-cut and easy to keep track of. The same applies to the two new files each active character acquires: a name.EXP file (for experience data) and a name.LOC file (for locker data).
Probably, the most important mod is the incorporation of a true Experience attribute and recording of a character’s adventures. The purpose is to up the stakes and deliver a more tangible payoff for player successes than mere gold. Advancing in Level and getting to increment Hardiness, Agility, etc. certainly qualifies. So does the ‘status symbol’ value of a high Level ranking. Now, even ‘weakie’ scenarios are worth completing; and, of course, a character with a long record of adventure credits (i.e. a genuine, provable history) becomes more real and more fun to play.
So far, so good. However, as veteran E am oners well know, there are some adventures which shower the character with enormous wealth, hefty attribute boosts, and doubledigit skills gains. Other scenarios may be just as extreme in the other direction. Either way, Experience would be devalued.
Consequently, EXP.UPDATE includes a ‘change filter’ which suppresses scenario-induced shifts in attributes and skills to just a point or so. In the same spirit, beyond roughly 10000 gold, wealth increase has little effect on calculated Experience gain; and, to squelch the ‘honey pot’ effect, potential Experience gain is less each time you replay any adventure.
Experience is also the one change likely to evoke some suspicion of risky, bomb-prone trickery. There are just three ‘tricks’, all fairly straightforward. First, to derive an experience gain, EXP.UPDATE compares the character’s status and possessions before the adventure (saved in name. PRE) with status and possessions after.
To remember the name of the adventure, MAIN HALL copies it into the DOS error message area before running the adventure. This does no harm; and EXP.UPDATE is able to retrieve the name when you return. (If the adventure is restarted from a SAVEd game, EXP.UPDATE detects an invalid name and asks you to reinsert the adventure diskette long enough for it to read the name.) Finally, MAIN HALL needs to know whether it was RUN by an adventure’s MAIN PGM (if you are alive, it sends you to EXP.UPDATE) or by either ‘WORLD OF EAMON or EXP.UPDATE (you stay in the Main Hall). It can tell by PEEKing at the command buffer. The “RUN MAIN HALL” commands in ‘WORLD’ and ‘UPDATE’ have extra spaces inserted.
Of the other changes, only the Locker offers benefits which may not be apparent, especially to new players. The old MAIN HALL ownership limit of four weapons looks okay UNTIL you consider that 1. Weapons break! It’s nice to have a good backup; 2. You want to develop skills for all FIVE weapon types; 3. It is handy to have some high quality weapons to carry into an adventure for use by allies you may acquire; and 4. When you’ve got your Locker and it’s full, you are certain to complain that the eight extra spaces are not nearly enough! (I settled for eight to avoid having to scroll the Lockers display.)
To install the enhanced Eamon play programs, first make a ‘just in case’ backup of your “Eamon Master” play diskette. Now, copy the new programs. The ‘WORLD OF EAMON and MAIN HALL will replace versions already there. EXP.UPDATE uses 21 sectors; and, for the new .EXP and .LOG files which will be created, you should figure on 8 or so sectors per active character. That’s it. Veteran Eamoners caii look forward to a new dimension of play. As for newcomers, the Wonderful World of Eamon awaits!