
	Platform Apple II Genre Arcade Publisher Broderbund Developer Aik Beng ETA 1983
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Drol

Games where you can’t fight back against your enemies are always an interesting experience. At first there is the frustration of not being able to give them a good smack for attacking you, but after a while it becomes a rush trying to dodge them while going about your business. This was certainly the case with Drol on the Apple II as players operated a cute little robot that had to manoeuvre four story buildings saving people and cute, little animals from aliens, and various creepy crawlies.

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At its core, what made Drol so appealing, though, was that it was good, simple fun. Dodge the enemies, and save those in distress. That’s it. I can remember firing this game up regularly as a kid when I had 20 or 30 minutes to kill. The controls were simple enough, moving the little robot left and right, and up and down (but only through little trap doors scattered throughout the levels).

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The robot coasted along too, so it didn’t really stop, but just changed directions, so one had to commit when jumping over baddies and whatnot.

It was all a very simple set up with the robot exploring four story…I guess “structures” is the word, but basically they were just lines on the ground that represented floors, with players being able to scroll left or right to a limited distance. All the while bad things would be lurking about from the little robot to jump over, with the aforementioned trap doors placed here and there for travelling between the different floors. At the same time, players were looking for the cute animals, and people that needed saving.

This would go on for three levels before repeating itself, only a tiny bit harder than the last go around. What made it very difficult on the next pass was that players had to pass through trap doors that would have a man-eating plant randomly spawn under it, killing the player instantly. It really became a guessing game at which trap door to try, as there was no rhyme or reason as to where the plant would show up. Apparently, one could avoid the plant by timing a jump just right to get back to the upper level, but I never had such luck in the game.

Drol is almost 30 years old now, but shucks if it’s still a fun way to kill a few minutes. It’s even drifted into the realm of freeware now for anyone to enjoy. All you need is a decent Commodore 64 or Amiga emulator, and you’re off to the races.

Mr. Nash

June 5, 2010