Release Date: 1980

Original Platform: Apple II

Played On: Browser - Virtual Apple II (http://www.virtualapple.org/)

Objective: Go on over 200 adventures made by members of the Eamon community.

How it Works: Eamon is a text-based RPG in which the player goes on adventures in order to retrieve treasure. As a stat-based RPG, the player has numbers assigned to "Hardiness" (a measure of strength), "Agility" (a measure of speed), and "Charisma" (a measure of likeability by NPCs). Players can be equipped with weapons, armour, and spells in the game's hub, the Main Hall. From here, a large number of adventures may be explored. Dungeons contain a large number of puzzles and enemies to defeat in order to gain the largest amount of treasure possible.

To control the character, Eamon uses a simple parser based on a given list of commands. These include attacking, directional commands for movement, and using items picked up by the player.

Thoughts: Eamon is the first completely text-based game I've played for this blog (not including Oregon Trail). The parser is very limited, based on simple verb-subject phrasing. I found that this limits the puzzle solving aspect of Eamon and focuses the game on combat and exploration. That being said, the attribute system used in combat feels fairly advanced for such an old game.

During my playthrough, I only tried out the first two adventures, The Beginner's Cave and The Lair of the Minotaur. The layout of these dungeons was very simple, making combat the only real challenge, mostly due to low stats. I can see how the game could become more engaging as attributes are improved, but with the selection of other text adventures available, I'm not willing to invest the time needed to truly enjoy Eamon to its fullest potential.