Drol
Encyclopedia
Drol is a 1983
computer game published
by Brøderbund
. It was originally released for the Apple II, but was later ported
to the Commodore 64
, Atari 8-bit, and Sega SG-1000. The original list price was $
34.95.
The player controls a robot
flying through a four story maze, attempting to rescue people and cute animals while avoiding traps and enemies such as alien creatures, snakes, eagles, magnets and axes.
There are only three levels, but the game starts over in a more difficult version if the third level is completed. This level is, however, fairly difficult to complete, in good deal because in order to reach the final floor without being eaten by a plant sprouting from out of nowhere, the player must choose between three different trapdoors, and the correct trapdoor varies from game to game. However, with hair-trigger timing, a player can avoid this particular death by quickly flying back up when they've hit an "incorrect" trapdoor, before the plant actually reaches them - while it's a deathtrap, the player is given a chance to avoid it, just a very tiny one.
Drol's reviews by the magazines of the era were generally positive. RUN (magazine), analyzing the Commodore 64 version in May 1984, gave it an "A" — its highest rating — and described it as "fun, funny, and exciting," although it was criticized for slow loading times due to the Commodore 1541
disk drive's notorious sluggishness.
1983 in video gaming
-Events:* A major shakeout of the video game industry begins. By 1986, total video games sales will decrease from US$3.2 billion to US$0.1 billion.* MCA Universal files suit against Nintendo, claiming that the latter company's video arcade hit Donkey Kong violated Universal's copyright on King Kong...
computer game published
Video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....
by Brøderbund
Brøderbund
Brøderbund Software, Inc. was an American maker of computer games, educational software and The Print Shop productivity tools. It was best known as the original creator and publisher of the popular Carmen Sandiego games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon, but moved to San Rafael,...
. It was originally released for the Apple II, but was later ported
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
to the Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, Atari 8-bit, and Sega SG-1000. The original list price was $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
34.95.
The player controls a robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
flying through a four story maze, attempting to rescue people and cute animals while avoiding traps and enemies such as alien creatures, snakes, eagles, magnets and axes.
There are only three levels, but the game starts over in a more difficult version if the third level is completed. This level is, however, fairly difficult to complete, in good deal because in order to reach the final floor without being eaten by a plant sprouting from out of nowhere, the player must choose between three different trapdoors, and the correct trapdoor varies from game to game. However, with hair-trigger timing, a player can avoid this particular death by quickly flying back up when they've hit an "incorrect" trapdoor, before the plant actually reaches them - while it's a deathtrap, the player is given a chance to avoid it, just a very tiny one.
Drol's reviews by the magazines of the era were generally positive. RUN (magazine), analyzing the Commodore 64 version in May 1984, gave it an "A" — its highest rating — and described it as "fun, funny, and exciting," although it was criticized for slow loading times due to the Commodore 1541
Commodore 1541
The Commodore 1541 , made by Commodore International, was the best-known floppy disk drive for the Commodore 64 home computer. The 1541 was a single-sided 170 kilobyte drive for 5¼" disks...
disk drive's notorious sluggishness.
External links
- Video from the C64 Version on archive.org