The Eidolon

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The Eidolon
Developer(s)	Lucasfilm Games
Publisher(s)	Epyx
Designer(s)	Charlie Kellner
Engine	Custom
Release date(s)	1985
Genre(s)	First-person shooter, Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	N/A
Platform(s)	MSX, Atari XL/XE, Commodore 64
Media	floppy disk
System requirements	disk drive, 64KB memory
Input	Joystick and Keyboard

Screenshot of one of the dragons at the end of each level

The Eidolon was one of two games in Lucasfilm Games' second wave (December, 1985). The other was Koronis Rift. Both took advantage of the fractal technology developed for Rescue on Fractalus!, further enhancing it. In The Eidolon, Rescue's fractal mountains were turned upside down and became the inside of a cave. Charlie Kellner was the project leader, designer, and lead programmer for this game.

The game was supplied on a flippy disk. One side had the Atari version, the other side had the Commodore 64 version. Due to the memory requirements (64kB), the Atari version would only run on a XL/XE with 64kB or more memory.

[edit] Story

The player finds the Eidolon in an abandoned, dustful laboratory, feeling curiosity for a device covered on a coat, apparently recently used. What may have happened, the player investigates and by accident is transported to another dimension, trapped on a maze cave. His only possibility to survive is the Eidolon's main energy weapon. Long sleeping creatures are awaken by the feeling of the energy emanated from the Eidolon.

[edit] Game development

The player is trapped on a maze of caves in which reside increasingly dangerous creatures that feel attracted to the Eidolon and attack it in an attempt to absorb its energy. The Eidolon has four ways of attack, each of a color. The enemies are vulnerable only to one.

Energy orbs of different colors can be found in the cave and can be shot to be absorbed.

Enemies hold diamonds that block the passage to the Dragon that guards the exit of each cave.

The final battles with the dragons tend to be fast paced action, in which the dragon spits energy orbs of different colors at the Eidolon, that can be caught being fired with the correct energy color.