John Nelson’s attempt to update the Eamon system for the Apple II resulted in the KnightQuest gaming system. It contains considerable enhancements over standard Eamon, and was an attempt to approach true D&D-type gaming. However, the Apple II did not have the resources for such an ambitious enhancement. Because of an extreme shortage of free memory, KnightQuest ran VERY slowly and was very difficult to work with. Then the IBM PC with its 640K of RAM appeared, and John moved his efforts to that platform. However, KnightQuest was never released for the PC system.
KnightQuest has gobs of new features, including 17 total spells: HEAL, CHARM, BLAST, FURY, SCARE, POWER, HARDHIT, LIGHT, TELEPORT, SLEEP, RESURRECT, INVISIBILITY, FORCEFIELD, DARKSEE, ATTALL, RAGE, & PURIFY.
Professions have been added, with possibilities being fighter, thief, cleric, and mage. The character can be a either a Human, a Dwarf, or an Elf. The player can speak one of eight languages: Trollish, Orcish, Dwarfish, Elvish, Gerbish, Falconese, Latin, or Welch.
There are 26(?!) artifact types: Key, Weapon, Armour, Shield, Light, Medical, Tool, Read, Key, Fuel, Teleport, Sleep, Vitamin, Agility, Charm, Scary, Cont., Portal, Effect, Weapon, Food, Drink, Bank, Instruct, Resurrect, and Trap.. Again, I don’t really know what all of these artifacts do. Some artifacts appear to be pre-programmed into the system: Weapon, Armour, “General1”, Readable, Key, Fuel, Container, Portal, Food, Drink, Bank, Instruct, Trap.
Three adventures were written for the system: Amateur Alley is KnightQuest‘s equivalent to the Beginners Cave. It was later converted to “regular” Eamon #247. Curse of the Hellsblade was converted to “regular” Eamon #206, and Quest for the Firedragon was converted to “regular” Eamon #248. These conversions were done by Frank Kunze in 2004.
