About Camp Eamon

[The following text is copyrighted by Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online and presented here word-for-word thanks to their generous terms]
#106 - Camp Eamon by Bob Slemon


Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski



MAIN PGM Version: 5 Extra Commands: DRINK, UNLOCK, FREE, TYPE Deleted Commands: None Special Features: Hi-res map in intro Playing Time: 1-2 hours Reviewer Rating: 7.0 Average Rating: 7.0/2



Description: "A group of Nazi fanatics have made plans to invade the Main Hall. Not only have they captured many fine Adventurers, but in their last raid they took the burly Irishman captive. They also took the complete floor plans for the Main Hall. With those, they can invade any adventure they choose -- even this one.

"The Nazi camp is nearby and run by a Herr Hess. It is heavily guarded by both humans and dogs. You can not refuse. The life of every Eamon Adventurer is at stake. There are rumors of experiments going on there, something called --accelerated cloning."

You get a look at a rough map of the compound, and are on your way!



Comment: It's a real hi-res map, too. I'm not sure that it actually helps any, but it's a nice touch. This is a quasi-science fiction offering: the Nazis are not only invading neighboring adventures, but are cloning grotesque half-human mutants to help guard their compound. But it feels more like a contemporary Eamon setting to me than an SF one.

You will pick up plenty of companions as you rescue various denizens of other familiar Eamon adventures, and the bad guys don't hit all that hard. Bring some heavy artillery, at least a 3D8 weapon. The guards are well-armored and can take quite a beating before you wear them down.

Not only that, but Bob re-uses old, dead bad guys as "new" guards whenever you trip an alarm, so you will find yourself fighting most everyone twice before you win through. This gimmick works well to keep the database small, and would have played quite well if the monsters got new names when resurrected. They mostly have names like GUARD #22, so it wouldn't have been all that difficult to manage. But they are not renamed; it is a bit jarring to find yourself fighting people that you have already killed!

This being an older version 5 Eamon, Bob had to invent his own version of things like hidden doors and embedded artifacts. This extra coding was not always elegantly done, sometimes looking for the entire name of a monster or artifact. It is a very good idea in this adventure to always type the complete name of the artifact or monster, just to cover yourself. If you don't, you may not find everything that you need to complete the quest.

There is no "Attaboy/AwShucks" text at the end of the adventure to tell you how you did, so let me tell you what you should do to feel like you have completed the adventure successfully: pick up the maps and the plans, and rescue the burly Irishman. Bonus points for rescuing the Cyclops and killing Hess.

Here are a few hints to keep you from going astray: the corrugated metal box found in prison camps is called the COOLER. The vault is important. UNLOCK won't automatically show you what is beyond the locked door or inside the artifact.

Players of the DOS 3.3 and 40-col. ProDOS versions would do well to watch out for a dirty trick that Bob plays on you if you do a certain action without thinking about the consequences. It's a pretty funny trick, if you have done a recent game save. I won't spoil the surprise by telling you what it is; just trust me and do a save before trying anything unusual.

This one ranks in at about (6) for difficulty, if you remember to type full names and watch those room descriptions for clues.