               E A M O N  A D V E N T U R E R ' S  L O G
                      National Eamon User's Club
               ------------------------------------------
                   Volume 1 Number 5 - January 1985


John Nelson      - President and part time critic
Bob Davis        - Almost President and full time critic
Dan Cross        - Semi-President and critical critic
Gary Flanagan    - Dragon-Drawer
Jeff Harris      - Come home
The Dover Boys   - Keepers of the Way


A WORD FROM THE EDITOR

Last issue we unintentionally stepped on some toes unfairly. We have no beef with those people who sell Eamon for less. It's a free country and we'd be the last to try to change it.

Consider the problem:

In trying to control bugs, we find it necessary to standardize the Eamon diskettes - to try to get all copies out there the same. Part of the problem we have in doing this is some people have versions of the diskettes that are very old and even printing fixes to these doesn't help because the fixes don't match the programs. We find it impossible to match these up because we don't have the older versions. It would be nice if we could somehow have a free exchange policy to get everybody updated at once, but this would wear out the disk drive of anyone attempting it. Therefore a fee has to be charged to copy the diskettes. Anyone unwilling to pay this fee will then have outdated copies of the diskettes. This was the problem we were trying to address. We were not trying to blast competitors. We apologize to those who took offense to this.
 
                            
                            ----------
                            EAMON NEWS
                            ----------
The last couple of months have seen a lot of activity in the area of new adventures. We have not only gotten a bunch of new adventures, but some things have occurred to some existing adventures. All of the new adventures have not been tested yet, but we will list them for you to let you know they exist.

Originally we wanted to hold back adventures and not distribute them until they were thoroughly tested, but since we have been getting so many, we thought it would be unfair to hold them back until we could test them.

The new adventures are:

79. Castle of Count Fuey by Don Brown
80. The Search for the Key by Don Brown
81. The Rescue Mission by Don Brown
82. Escape from Mansi Island by Scott Starkey
83. Twin Castles by Jim Tankard
84. Castle Rivineta by Robert Karsten
85. The Time Portal by Ed Kuypers
86. Castle Mantru by Steve Costanzo
87. Caves of Hollow Mountain by John Nelson
88. The Shopping Mall by Alan Porter
89. SuperFortress Lin Wang by Sam Bhayani
90. The Doomsday Clock by Jim Tankard
91. FutureQuest II (2 disks) by Roger Fender

M3 Master Diskette version JT (for Jim Tankard) - Jim has added some new programming to the Master diskette to include a special weapons shop. The way you access this special weapons shop is to select it from the menu in the main hall of this Special Master diskette. The shop allows you to buy a special weapon, provided you are willing to allow one of your own weapons to be 'copied' using a special weapon copying machine. You must pay a fee for this copying process and can then buy a weapon that someone else has donated.

A couple of adventures that were expected to be done by this issue were The Sorcerer's Spire by me (John Nelson) and Warlord of Warrick by me (ditto), but I haven't had time to finish these yet.

Some of the adventures above (three to be exact) are old Donald Brown adventures that used to be tournament diskettes. They were converted to standard adventures at the request of our friends at 3A. There are no differences in the adventures themselves, only in the fact that they have been de-tournamentized. The non-tournament versions have the following differences from their tournament counter-parts:

1. No master programs (main hail, etc.)
2. Scores are not kept on non-tourn. versions.
3. They are played from the master diskette as any other adventure.

If you already have the tournament versions, there is no real reason to order the non-tournament versions. The club will continue to distribute both versions.

Two diskettes have been removed from the distribution list temporarily to make major program revisions. These adventures are:

21. Quest for Marron
84. Castle Rivineta

The Quest for Marron diskette had same routines that were rather shaky and portions of it are being re-written. Most of these routines were in very obscure areas, but I wanted to clean them up and improve the adventure. When this adventure is finished, a trade-in will be allowed on your old copy.

The second diskette Castle Rivineta was received in questionable condition. While testing it and looking through the code, I noticed several things that needed to be changed. It uses the original base program (straight from the Beginner's Cave) without the special programming for the Beginner's cave being removed. This adventure will be converted to version 5.0 before being distributed by the club.

In addition to the adventures listed above all adventures have been 
converted to standard files. These adventures are:

2. The Lair of the Minotaur
3. Cave of the Mind
4. Caves of Treasure Island

By making this change, you will be able to edit or list these adventures with the standard dungeon edit and list programs. All members may receive copies of these upgraded adventures by sending their original adventure diskette and $1.00 to cover postage and handling.


                         ----------------
                         NOTICES AND JUNK
                         ----------------
The results from the questionnaire sent out in July have finally been tallied and are now on display. Of the 400 questionnaires we sent out, we received 60 (some of them filled out) for a whopping 15% participation. We are told this is good, especially since the questionnaires were not accompanied with return-addressed, stamped envelopes.

Assuming the club is well represented by these 15%, the members seem to be very diverse, ranging in age from 9 to 58 and ranging in sex from male to female.

The following answers to the questions are given in percentages and may not always add up to 100. In fact, some of them are over 100 since more than one answer could apply. One thing to keep in mind is some of the questionnaires were filled out by people who decided not to join the club.

Average age 27 years, 9 months, 18 days

1. What type of computer do you use?
        79%      - Apple
        10%      - Franklin
         5%      - Work, school, library, etc
         5%      - Other

2. How often do you play Eamon?
        36%      - Once a month         
        33%      - Once a week         
        10%      - 2-5 times a week         
         7%      - Once a day
         5%      - Once a year
         5%      - Never

3. What do you like most about Eamon?
        25%      - Inventiveness/variety of authors
        15%      - It is unprotected
        13%      - Can create my own adventures
        12%      - Role playing/building up character
        10%      - Simplicity
         5%      - Cost
         5%      - Playing it

4. What do you like least about Eamon?
        13%      - The bugs
        13%      - Authors fall short of the mark
        10%      - Runs too slow
         8%      - Simplicity
         5%      - Doesn't have multi-character capability
         3%      - One word commands
         3%      - Not all adventures have SAVE feature
         3%      - No graphics

5. What would you like to see improved in Eamon?
        13%      - Better adventures/more challenge
         8%      - SAVE feature on all adventures
         7%      - Graphics
         5%      - More character interaction
         5%      - Multiple characters
         3%      - Have all adventures tested before release
         3%      - Convert to other computers
         3%      - Better descriptions in adventures
         3%      - More/better documentation
         3%      - Non-violent adventures

6. Newsletter column ratings - averages (10 highest).
        8.3      - Bug Bytes
        8.2      - Spotlight On:
        7.9      - Designer's Den
        7.7      - Club News
        7.1      - Notices and Junk
        6.3      - Terminological Inexactitudes

7. I think the National Eamon User's Club:
        73%      - is going to be worth the membership dues I paid.
        63%      - has made Eamon more reliable and fun for me.
        27%      - has helped me to create my own adventures.
        20%      - is a front for organized crime.
         7%      - doesn't serve my special needs/interests in Eamon.
         5%      - is not responsive to questions and special requests

8. Check all adventure games that you play.
        92%      - Eamon
        672      - Zork I/II/III
        57%      - Wizardry
        55%      - Ultima
        50%      - Infocom
        40%      - Dungeons and Dragons
        38%      - On-line
        30%      - Scott Adams
        15%      - SwordThrust
         3%      - Knight Quest

9. Which adventure game do you like the best? (We threw out the why part of 
this question)
        27%      - Eamon
        20%      - Wizardry
        12%      - Infocom

10. What do you like most about the newsletter?
        26%      - No opinion
        20%      - Reviews of adventures
        12%      - Bug fixes
        12%      - It is informative
        10%      - Adventure design help
        10%      - Central clearinghouse for new adventures
         5%      - Humorous
         3%      - Deals with Eamon only

11. What do you like least about the newsletter?
        61%      - Fine as is/no opinion.
        12%      - Too short/not enough issues.
         7%      - The silly parts
         5%      - Cost.
         5%      - Too diverse/not enough in depth
         2%      - Journalistic style needs improvement.
         2%      - Doesn't match the color scheme of my room.

12. What would you like to see in future issues of the newsletter?
        36%      - No opinion
        22%      - More adventure reviews/descriptions
         8%      - More design help
         7%      - More bug fixes
         7%      - History of Eamon
         3%      - More questions/answers
         3%      - A column about the utilities
         2%      - Converting Eamon to other systems
         2%      - Naked women and coupons for free money

As stated before, a diverse group. By the way, all these answers are real and each will be given equal consideration when we determine newsletter content, club goals, etc.

The results here made us feel generally elated and largely appreciated and have instilled renewed vigor in our quest for an Eamon standard. We extend thanks to those who took the time (and postage) to send in the questionnaires.
                          
                          
                          --------------
                          ADVENTURE TIPS
                          --------------
Last issue we talked about which adventures were 6.0 and which were 5.0 and before. There is a way to tell for sure, but it requires a little program. The program follows:

 1 REM DISPLAY VERSION
 2 REM BY JOHN NELSON
 3 REM
10 D$ = CHR$ (4)
20 HOME: PRINT "INSERT ADVENTURE AND PRESS A KEY...";:GET A$: PRINT
25 ONERR GOTO 20
30 PRINT D$;"OPEN EAMON.NAME": PRINT D$;"READ EAMON.NAME"
40 INPUT ADV$
50 ONERR GOTO 100
60 INPUT ND$
70 ONERR GOTO 200
80 INPUT DV$
90 PRINT "THIS IS A VERSION ";DV$;" ADVENTURE": PRINT D$;"CLOSE":END
100 DV$ = "4.0":GOTO 90
200 DV$ = "5.0": GOTO 90

Type this program in and save it on your utilities diskette as DISPLAY VERSION. It may come in handy as the list of 6.0 adventures grows.

If you are really having a hard time with an adventure and your friends are very limited, this tip may save you some grief. (No pun intended)

When a friend dies, remove their body from the room and when you are clear of all enemies, drop the body and try a POWER spell. No guarantees, but many times this will resurrect them.

Be careful with this, though, because many designers put devious traps in for their POWER spells. You can usually tell while playing the adventure how much care the designer put into his work, and if he didn't put very much special into the adventure, chances are he didn't do anything with the POWER spell. One of the effects in the base program is to resurrect dead bodies.

Bribing monsters with gold is okay, but when you do that, you never see your gold again. (Even when they die.) One way to avoid this is to bribe monsters with artifacts; this way if they still refuse to cooperate and you have to kill them, at least you get the artifact back. Also, if they do become friendly, but die later, you can get it back then too.


                             ---------
                             CLUB NEWS
                             ---------
It's the beginning of a new year. We thought we'd look back at 1983 and try to determine just exactly what we did.

In the beginning of 1983 before the first newsletter, a decision was made to determine our objectives for the year. This is what resulted:

1. Standardizing Eamon
2. Ridding Eamon of bugs
3. Providing a means of knowing which adventures to choose
4. Make adventure designing easier
5. Documenting Eamon
6. Have fun while doing all this.

With the printing of the newsletter, we believe many of these objectives have been and are still being addressed. Namely, points 2, 3 and 4 above. The standardization of Eamon is a long and slow process, but between converting older version adventures and creating Dungeon Designer Diskette 5.0 and 6.0 we believe progress is being made.

The documentation of Eamon is still going on and we appreciate the patience of several of the members. The status of each documentation project is given below.

Which brings us to point 6. Yes, we are still having fun and we plan to continue doing so.

And now, our 1984 club objectives. In addition to the above six points, we have added two others which are very closely related.

7. lower diskette prices
8. Increase membership

Since April of 1983, we have not advertised anywhere. A steady trickle of new members have been coming in, however, hearing about us by word of mouth or seeing old ads. This is very encouraging. After doing some projections, we've found if a good increase in membership were observed, we could afford to lower our diskette prices dramatically. This could also carry over into the documentation since discounts would be received on a greater number of copies to be printed. Therefore, we will be advertising again and anything any member cared to do to encourage membership would be appreciated and to the benefit of us all.

Progress continues on the documentation. Following is a listing of all the documentation and projects in progress.

1. Adventure Descriptions - This document will include a description of all the adventures, as they actually appear in the adventures.

2. Utilities Documentation - Detailed instructions on how to run some of the more complicated programs, along with an index that will help you find the program that will do what you want.

3. Designer's Guide - A comprehensive guide that gives you both an easy to understand text on creating adventures and a quick reference manual if you just need to look up something about how Eamon works. It is filled with examples and includes a complete adventure design from beginning to end to show you how to do an adventure. An additional section that will really help is one that explains the 6.0 features in depth, with examples on how to use them.

4. Master Bugs list - This has been in the revision room for months, but is now up to date with a new format. It gives all of the known Eamon bugs along with the status of the bug and a fix for it if available. (most are)

5. Player's Manual - An updated player's manual that is easier to use and read than the original.

6. Notebooks - The notebooks have been ordered. We did not receive enough orders to pay for the order, so we had to contribute several hundred dollars on our own, but we felt that interest was high enough that we would be able to sell enough to get our money back. If you ordered a notebook, you should be receiving one within 45 days. Along with the notebook we will let you know what the postage/shipping came out to be.

In addition to the projects above, we have been working on some of the utilities programs and I have designed a new adventure. The utilities programs that were worked on extensively were:

LIST/CHANGE - This program is a new utility program that combines the Dungeon list program with some editing routines to allow you to list an adventure to the screen, and if you find an error or misspelling, you can correct it immediately. It should be a big help for us when reviewing adventures we receive. This program will be placed on the upcoming Utilities 5 Diskette.

CHARACTER EDITOR 4.0 - This is a greatly enhanced version of the CHARACTER EDITOR program that allows you to cheat the system. The Previous versions (3.1 and 3.0) were a giant leap over the original program, but now 4.0 allows even more flexibility and is 'cleaner'. The new version can be obtained by ordering Eamon Utilities 4.

BUGLOG - This program has been totally rewritten. We received a letter that the program was not working and when I checked into it, it looked like the program was never finished. I don't know what happened to it, but I re-wrote it. It is far superior to the previous version (even when it was all there). The BUGLOG program is intended to provide you with a place to record Eamon bugs when you discover them. It is NOT intended to be a Master Bugs List. It has no data on file unless you put it on file. I got a complaint shortly after I re-wrote it that said 'it still didn't work'. They were referring to the fact that it didn't list all of the Eamon bugs. I wish I was capable of writing a program that would magically know all of the Eamon bugs and tell me what they were, but alas - no way.

ADVENTURE LOG - Some corrections were made to this program and some improvements.


                              -------------
                              UTILITY LINES
                              -------------
Utility Lines is a new column that will be run from time-to-time to keep you informed on changes in the utilities, how to use them, when to use thee, and other utility related infuriation.

The Eamon Utilities were written to provide extended control over the Eamon system. The original Eamon Utility programs were used to aid in designing and playing Eamon adventures. After the utilities grew into multiple diskettes, it became apparent that they should be organized and divided into logical groupings.

The utilities were divided into four diskettes. These diskettes were assigned to four general areas of Eamon usage.

1. Playing the game
2. Designing adventures
3. Just fooling around
4. Customizing or modifying

At the time these were divided up, a menu program was written to help people select the program they wanted to run. This menu program was placed on all of the utility diskettes with the names of the programs that people were supposed to run.

All programs that concerned the player (or could conceivably concern the player) were placed on Eamon Utilities I. All programs that could concern the designer were placed on Eamon Utilities II. All programs that went along with the monster battle program were put on Eamon Utility III and all programs that were dangerous for the average person to use were placed on Eamon Utility IV.

There is some overlap to this system, however. The CHECK FILES program for instance can be useful to both the player and the designer. It is therefore found on both Eamon Utility I and Eamon Utility II.

At the time this re-organization took place, a general documentation file was created to describe the utilities found on each diskette and what they did. This document was placed on all of the Eamon Utilities diskettes.

This column will be dedicated to helping you use the utilities for their intended purposes and to print revisions and enhancements that will be made in the future.
                            
                            
                            --------------
                            DESIGNER'S DEN
                            --------------
                             by Bob Davis

(John and I decided to swap a few columns this time around just for a change of pace.)

Hello, Adventure Designers. (Hel-lo, Bob.) Today we are going to briefly discuss dead bodies (ech!) and then move on to Eamon magic and special effects.

The dead bodies of monsters are set up as artifacts on the artifacts file. They must be the last artifacts and in the same order as the monsters on the monster file. Therefore, if 40 artifacts exist on the file (some of which may be dummy entries for last minute additions) and 20 monsters exist within this dungeon, the dead bodies would be placed on the artifacts file beginning with #41 through #60 with artifact #41 being monster #1's dead body, #42 is monster #2's dead body, and so on.

When MAIN PGM recognizes that a monster has been killed, to find the dead body it uses this formula in line 7700: A2 = DF + NZ - NM

Where A2 will equal the artifact number of the monster's dead body,
   DF = Defender (number of the monster that died),
   NZ = Total number of artifacts in the dungeon not counting adventurer', 
        artifacts brought in), and
   NM = Total number of monsters in the dungeon.
   
If monster number 2 were to die, the formula would calculate artifact #42 using the values in the previous example. 42 = 2 + 60 - 20

After this number is derived, the monster is taken out of the room; its ready weapon (if any) is placed in the room along with the dead body. (All of this takes place in line 7700.) When the main loop (lines 100-900) is given control again, it realizes you have not seen the dead body or the weapon and will print the long description of each. This is most useful for putting in a description of the monster dying and indicate with the name of the artifact that a dead body is present.

Example:

LONG DESCRIPTION: The pirate staggers and falls. With his last breath he utters a foul curse at you having to do with decomposing in a hot place.

ARTIFACT NAME: Pirate Rick's lifeless body.

There is one drawback to this; the long description will print that the pirate is dying again if an EXAMINE is done on the dead body. Far myself, I can live with it.

THE MAGIC OF EAMON

Original magic and special effects tend to spice up an adventure, giving it an extra flavor arid personality of its own and, surprisingly enough, it is not very hard to do. Imagine having this effect in your adventure: If a character grabs a hornet nest, many small winged creatures pour out of the nest and systematically penetrate the adventurer's body and will keep attacking to the point of death, unless ... the adventurer does a POWER spell to bring a hard rain that knocks the insects to the ground and drowns them in the puddles. Sound like a lot of work Fear not; a few simple program statements and two descriptions on the effects file and you are ready. Here's how...

The very first thing your MAIN PGM will need is a subroutine that will read the effects file. A variable (EF) for the number of the record to be read will be used. I like to put this routine at 25000.

25000 REM /// READ EFFECT ///
25020 PRINT DK$"READ EAMON.DESC,R";EF+200
25040 INPUT A$:PRINT DK$:PRINT A$:PRINT
25060 RETURN

Notice on line 25020 the record number is EF+200. The EAMON.DESC file really is four files in one (room, artifact, effect, and monster descriptions) and the effects descriptions start at record 201. This is all handled automatically when you add effects to the file using any Dungeon Designer diskette. The variable EF will be set up in the magic routines before doing a GOSUB 25000.

Let's say, for simplicity, that the effect descriptions have already been placed in the effects file as follows:

EFFECT #1 - Hornets stream out of the nest in a buzzing torrent of winged barbs, their stings like hot daggers. You wave your arms futilely and fall to the ground, rolling frantically.

EFFECT #2 - The sky quickly darkens and a loud thunderous clap is heard followed immediately by sheets of rain. The hornets are knocked to the ground and drowned in newly formed puddles.

Along with the effects, let's assume the hornet nest is also already on the artifacts tile as artifact #10 and it is in room #20 (in a tree at course). The swarm of hornets will be monster #4 and must be placed in room #0; this is so they will not show up anywhere in the dungeon until the adventurer picks up the nest. Make the courage equal 200 so the adventurer cannot flee from them and the total damage (dice times sides) should be high enough to hurt the adventurer no matter what armor he has. The hornets' dead bodies will be artifact #44 (see first part of this article.)

Now, some of you are saying "This is easy?". When a special effect is set up, the most realistic ones will have all described items in the special effect defined as monsters, artifacts and/or effects. Here is a short comprehensive list of each item in this example the way they were set up above.

ROOM:          #20 Meadow with tree.

ARTIFACT:      #10 Hornet nest.
               #44 Dead hornets

EFFECT:         #1 Adventurer picks up nest.
                #2 Adventurer says POWER after hornets appear

MONSTER:       #4  Hornets.

Obviously you must keep track of each item. An easy way to do this is by obtaining a list of room, artifact and monster names using the EAMON LIST R.A.M. on the Utilities II diskette (which is the designer utilities diskette). A list of effects can be obtained from either the DUNGEON LIST or DUNGEON EDIT programs (version 5.0 or above).

Once all the items (hornets, hornet nest, dead hornets, etc.) are defined, all is ready for the special programming code that goes into MAIN PGM to make the magic happen. When the adventurer enters the meadow with the tree (room #20), he will see the hornet nest because its room number is 20. If this item looks interesting enough or the adventurer doesn't know any better, he will pick it up. When this happens, the GET routine is executed (lines 4000 - 4299). The line to make the hornets appear goes after 4200, which should already have a REMark on it like INSERT HERE SPECIAL EFFECTS OF PICKING SOMETHING UP.

4210 IF A = 10 THEN EF = 1 :GOSUB 25000: MD%(4,5) = ROOM: R3=ROOM: 
GOSUB 3600

Where: A = number of artifact adventurer picked up (already set up for you),
      EF = the number of the effect to print,
      GOSUB 25000 will read the effect and print it
      MD%(4,5) is the room number (field 5) of monster #4,
      ROOM = room number adventurer is in (also set up),
      R3 = ROOM:GOSUB 3600 must be executed when a monster is brought into 
           or leaves the room to determine reactions and set up necessary 
           variables for the battle routines.

In summary, the above line will determine if the adventurer picked up the hornet nest (artifact #10) and if so, will print effect #1, place the hornets in the room and check the hornet's reaction (obviously you would want to set the hornets up with a friendliness of zero).

Unless the adventurer does a POWER spell, the hornets should unceasingly attack. If a POWER spell is invoked, the rains will come and drown the bugs. A line should be added at the beginning of the POWER routine (lines 13000-13999) before any other magic to make sure the hornets attacking gets checked first.

13005 If MD%(4,5) = ROOM THEN EF = 2: GOSUB 25000: MD%(4,5) = 0: 
AD%(44,4) = ROOM: R3= ROOM: GOSUB 3600:GOTO 300

Where: MD%(4,5) = room number (field 5) of the hornets (monster #4),
       ROOM = current room of adventurer (do not check for room 20 in case 
              adventurer fled to another room),
       EF = 2: GOSUB 250000 to print effect #2,
       AD%(44,4) = room number (field 4) of hornets' dead bodies 
                   (artifact #44),
       R3 ROOM: GOSUB 3600 to reset battle variables,
       GOTO 300 to return to the main loop.

In summary, this line will check if the hornets are in the room; if so, effect #2 will print, the hornets are taken out of the room, the dead hornets are brought in the room and the battle variables are reset so the program doesn't think a fight is still in progress after the hornets drown.

The effect descriptions are very useful in the magic and special effects of Eamon. Up to 250 characters can be used to describe the event plus, more than one effect can be read if desired.

The special code itself is very short and simple. The trick is to know where to put the code (each command routine has a remark to start it) and the variables to check and/or change. To help you in that area, below are listed the more common effects performed in Eamon with the variables needed and the proper routines to perform. The routine the code is added to makes the difference if a GOTO 300 (return to main loop) is needed or not.

1. Assess damage to the adventurer.
    DF=0 : defender is adventurer
    D2=n : amount of damage to assess
    GOSUB 7640 will assess the damage

Assessing random damage.
    A= MD%(0,8) : set up adventurer's armour (set to zero to bypass armor)
    S : maximum sides of dice
    D : maximum number of dice
    (D x S = maximum damage)
    DF = 0 : defender is adventurer
    GOSUB 7635 : computes random damage and assess it to the adventurer.

2. Healing the adventurer.
    MD%(0,13) = MD%(0,13) : heal amount
    GOSUB 7650 : Displays injury status (ROGAN IS HURTING).

3. Changing adventurer's spell abilities.
    SA%(S) where S = 1 to 4
         1 = Blast ability
         2 = Heal ability
         3 = Speed ability
         4 = Power ability

These are the permanent spell abilities kept in the character record. The current abilities are stored in S2. In the spell routine is a line:11530 S2%(S) = S2%(S) /2

This reduces the ability to successfully cast a spell in this adventure by half each time the spell is attempted. If you would like the adventurer to be able to cast many POWER spells, change this line to be:11530 IF S < 4 THEN S2%(S) = S2%(S) /2

Or the line could be deleted all-together.

4. Some common adventurer's attributes that can be changed without executing special routines:
    MN$(0) - name
    MD%(0,1) - hardiness
    MD%(0,2) - agility
    CH- charisma
    SEX$- M or F
    AE- armour expertise
    GOLD- carried gold

Teleporting the adventurer, monsters and/or artifacts into/out of rooms was covered in the August 84 issue of the newsletter.
                               
                               
                               ---------
                               BUG BYTES
                               ---------
This issue I would like to cover all of the bugs in the Eamon System. The problem is, I don't have enough room for this. I will therefore cover the bugs fixed since October 1984 and inform you that a complete list of all the known Eamon bugs is available from the club (see Club News). It is called the Master Bugs List. Most of the bugs have been fixed and the uses are typically given on this listing.

A new monitor system has been set up for all the bugs. This system requires the use of two basic tools. 1.) LOG - I keep a log book of all the Eamon adventures. Whenever a change is made to any program, I enter the change into the log, along with the date the change was made. 2.) All programs will begin carrying a Revised Date in a REM statement at the beginning of the program.

This seems to be the best way to keep track of the changes required. This way if you receive a diskette from any source, you can make the changes indicated depending upon the date your program was last revised. For example, if you received a copy of The Death Trap (Adventure #19) and it had a revised date of 11-20-84 in the MAIN PGM listing, you would then have to apply any fixes since that date. Looking at the Log book we would see that the only change made since that point were changes on 12-4-84 on lines 21210 and 21220.

The problem then becomes one of publishing the list of revisions. Also, the log book has only been kept since October '84. If you need older bug information, reference the Master Bugs List. As far as publishing the list of revisions from the Log, that is what I will include in this column. For brevity's sake, I will not give the entire line to be changed, but will tell you what needs to be changed on the line. I will use '...' to indicate where coding exists, but does not change.

By checking the revision date, you can determine whether these program fixes need to be made to your diskettes. If the revised date on your program is earlier than the date of the change then you will need to make the program change indicated on that date.

A general bug was discovered since the last issue and has been fixed in some but not all adventures (yet). We are planning on changing this in all adventures as soon as the newsletter is out. The bug has to do with a monster's reaction to the adventurer. In the original player's manual, it states that a monsters reaction is adjusted by double the difference in the adventurers Charisma and 10. In reality it is half the difference because of the bug. This bug will be listed as a general bug, since it occurs in virtually all Eamon adventures.

GENERAL BUG #4 - Reaction Routine error

The line number needing to be corrected will vary from one adventure to another, but in most of the adventures the following will fix the problem:

Line 3650         change  ... / 2 
                      to  ... * 2

[Other bug fixes were not included.]

                           
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                           SPOTLIGHT ON:
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(Ratings are given on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 the highest. Format is R:D where R Rating for setting, description and plot; D Difficulty, problem solving and survivability.) Playing times are based on actual tests.

#55 The Master's Dungeon (6:4) by Jeff Allen
Reviewed by John Nelson

Extra commands: USE, READ, SMOKE, THROW, DRINK, HELP and QUIT.
Playing Time: 1 - 2 hours.

I tried this adventure in my never-ending quest to get through all of the 'contest' adventures. (The contest CALL A.P.P.L.E. held last spring - summer.) It is only the 4th of these 13 adventures that I have tried but I would have to rate it about second of these four. I believe it is better than The Feast of Carroll (the winner of the contest!).

The room descriptions were fairly good, although there were some ambiguities and I found myself trying to do impossible things to interact with my surroundings. It is not a version 6.0 adventure, of course, so this was not really necessary. The descriptions of the monsters were not bad, although none were dramatic and many were so similar that they must have been related.

The worst thing about this adventure is that action-wise it was somewhat boring. There were very few monsters, and lots of empty rooms. (Although I don't expect every room to have something in it, this one went too far.)


#85 The Time Portal (5:3) by Ed Kuypers
Reviewed by John Nelson

Extra commands: UNLOCK, OPEN, CLOSE, DRINK and MOVE.
Playing Time: 1-2 hours

I didn't quite understand the point to this adventure. It said I was going to check out a science exhibit at the Eamon Hall of Science. The exhibit turned out to be a time portal.

One interesting thing about this adventure was there were multiple settings. One could pass from one setting in time to another by passing through the portal of his choice. Telling too much here may spoil the suspense, so I won't elaborate.

The adventure was paced a little slow for my taste, but was still adequate to keep my interest. It seemed a little small after I had it thoroughly explored.

One nice thing about this adventure is it wasn't too difficult in either problem solving or survivability (as long as you pick your enemies carefully.)


#78 The Prince's Tavern (9:7) by Bob Davis
Reviewed by John Nelson and Dan Cross

Extra Commands: USE, DRINK, SAVE, PAY, and ORDER
Flaying Time: 2 - 3 hours

You are to bring back a 600 year old bottle of the finest Scotch in the land to King Radaar. The trouble is you have to go into the Prince's Tavern to find it.

The descriptions in this adventure are first rate: they are intricate, detailed and different. Some parts are hilarious, some are sad (alas, poor thief) and it is very enjoyable and entertaining.

This adventure has hundreds of special effects programmed into it that make it interesting to play time after time.


#77 Temple of the Trolls (8:9) by John Nelson
Reviewed by Dan Cross

Extra Commands: KISS, JUMP
Playing Time: 4 - 8 hours

This is not your typical 'kill everybody and get everything you can get' adventure. Indeed, quite the opposite is true. It's to the player's advantage to find non-violent solutions to the finer points. Temple of the Trolls strikes that delicate balance between having enough brawn to get in, yet brains to get out.

Rough notes on a dying man's map start you on your quest for Grommick, a Trollish Blacksmith and mighty weapon-maker without human peer who possesses the skill to forge a magic sword. Legends maintain that a stout warrior with a fearless heart and a matchless arm can attain such a weapon.

Written one Sunday afternoon, John Nelson utilized the DDD 6.0 and created a genre of Eamon guaranteed to take a month of Sundays to crack if you don't know what you're doing.* If you like snooping into every nook and cranny, this is the one you've been waiting far.

*Check out adventure tips, October '84 issue


#74 DharmaQuest (9:8) by Roger Pender
Reviewed by Bob Davis

Extra commands: PRAY, HELP and SAVE.
Playing Time: 2 - 6 hours.

Another dull boring night at the Main Hall. Being a bit irritable from inactivity and a quarrel with your lover, you decide to overindulge in Hyperborean mead and insult Hokas Tokas, the resident wizard. Bad move. Hokas says, "Only my sense of honor and discipline prevent me from striking you dead where you stand! Instead, I will send you a quest to the land of Dharma. Perhaps you will learn to help others and not think only of yourself. Perhaps you may even find and conquer the warrior within." With that, he waves his hand and you find yourself in an unfamiliar land.

Roger says there are two missions in this adventure, one within the other. Actually I feel there are three LEVELS of missions: one to help others, another explained in the adventure and the third in the temples of the Greek Gods. I played this adventure approximately 6 times and it continued to hold my interest. (I would have played it more, but I had to stop and write this review.) Some parts of the dungeon are not always accessible each time it is played and special effects abound.

Minor points like exits not described in the short room descriptions and spacing problems of descriptions are easily overlooked when considering the entire scope of the adventure. (I did have a little trouble on how to use the rings at first, but that may have just been me.) Overall - Good job, Roger!


#87 Caves of Hollow Mountain by John Nelson
Reviewed by Bob Davis

I thought I played this, but I can't remember what happened. Sorry.

No further comment. You can stop reading this now and just proceed to the next column.

No, Really -- I don't remember it. I'm sorry.

--- John here. Bob really doesn't remember this one, so I'll let Dan review it.

#87 Caves of Hollow Mountain by John Nelson
Reviewed by Dan Cross

I don't remember it either. It seems like it was a rather generic adventure. You know, kill and run.

--- John here again. Since these guys can't remember what's going on, I'll just review it myself.

Now let's see ... how did this one go again... Oh yeah.

You go into a cave for no particular reason - to have fun, I guess and you find lots at treasure and have lots of fun and slay dragons and eat roast turkey and nearly get chewed to bits by a killer hamster. You find a chicken and decide to eat it, but it doesn't want to be eaten, but you disgust everyone in the room (except Jeff) by eating it anyway. Lots of fun. You should get it.

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                                   P.S.
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As we stated last issue, we have been on vacation (of a sort.) We have not processed any orders or correspondence since about Christmas. This gave us a little time to do some Christmas shopping, spend some time with our families and generally relax for a while.

Now that this issue is out, we will be back to our normal hard working selves. If you have an order in that you have been concerned about, you should be seeing it shortly.
