News
New Adventure: Cliffs of Fire
Feb. 10, 2018
The latest adventure to come to Eamon Remastered is Cliffs of Fire by Wade Clarke. This is a quest to recover a magic sceptre from a renegade priest who has built a sinister castle atop the cliffs. The map is small, at just 37 rooms, but the descriptions are very well written and there are several well-done puzzles, including a couple of room mazes that can be disorienting. This is a definitely a mapper's adventure.
January update
Jan. 31, 2018
It's been a busy January for Eamon Remastered. The project has been featured in several websites. Matt Clark, maintainer of the Eamon Adventurer's Guild, has written about Eamon Remastered on the Eamon Adventurer's Guild blog. Wade Clarke, author of three adventures in the early 1990s, has also written a review of Eamon Remastered on his blog. Thanks for the interest and the reviews!
Any long-time Eamonauts who read this might wonder how I decide which adventures to port over to Eamon Remastered. There are over 250 to choose from, and I must have some reason for this, right?
The main criteria I use are quality of the adventure, and the amount of custom code required. Quality for me includes the descriptions of rooms, artifacts, and monsters, the layout of the map, and the special effects used to create the quest. Often, a quest with well-written descriptions and a well-thought-out map can be a good play, even if there is not much special programming. Other adventures may be poor quality and not very interesting. I generally don't plan to port most of the adventures rated below 5.0 on the EAG adventure list.
The custom code aspect is a bit less subjective. To port an adventure, I have to basically compare the adventure's Main Program with the base Main Program, find all the special code, and figure out how to rewrite it using the Eamon Remastered event handler system. The more complicated the adventure, the more work this is. For some adventures, like Escape from the Orc Lair, or John Nelson's Moleman adventures, this was fairly simple. I've looked at other adventures and decided they were difficult but worth it, like the Prince's Tavern or the Curse of the Hellsblade.
As for those spectacular but very heavily customized adventures, some of them I might never be able to port. Tom Zuchowski's Walled City of Darkness was a brilliant adventure with a fantastic, elaborate quest and many puzzles. But, Tom customized the Main Program so extensively that I doubt I'll ever be able to decipher all the custom logic.
What's next? I'm currently looking at Cliffs of Fire by Wade Davis and Temple of the Trolls by John Nelson. More information soon.
New Adventure: The Black Castle of NaGog
Jan. 28, 2018
The latest adventure for Eamon Remastered is a quest to find a golden idol that can save a hero from demonic possession. It was first written by Doug Burrows and first published on the Apple II in 1986.
This features a number of special effects, such as a couple of nasty traps (what did you expect when you open old tombs in a dungeon!), lots of secret doors, a pretty decent puzzle, and even an ambush or two. The combat starts out easy but gets tough in a hurry. You'll probably want to bring your best magic sword for this one.