Personal Computer News


Drelbs

Author: Bob Chappell
Publisher: U. S. Gold
Machine: Commodore 64

 
Published in Personal Computer News #091

DRELBS

Another US import, Drelbs is a rather strange affair. It's faintly similar to the old Pencil and Paper game where you must join up the four sides of a box to claim it for your own. Here the dots are replaced with a series of gates which turn through 90 degrees when you bump into them.

The aim is the same: close up four gates to create a square. When you have, a pulsating box appears and up goes your score. The create doing all this gate-crashing is Drelb, a sort of winking-eye on legs, which you control with joystick only.

As you would expect, things are not that simple. Patrolling round the maze of gates are two nasties, both of which are graphically simple. One is a fat, snake-like whatsit and the other is a box with a face. Stunningly imaginative, eh?

Drelbs

Contact with either of the nasties is fatal to your Drelb - though he does have several lives. He has no weapon and can defend himself by dodging or trapping the enemy temporarily by closing a box round it.

Any box containing a tapped nasty is represented by a large-size, immobile version of the nasty's face. Your own boxes may stop glowing and change to represent a leering Phizzog. Bashing into a box which is in this condition is bad for the Drelb's health.

And that's about it really. Dodge the meanies and join up the boxes. There may be better things on the higher levels but boredom sets in early and you may not feel inclined to persist.

Movement is smooth but the graphics are pretty mundane and make the game look almost prehistoric by today's standards. Not one of US Gold's better imports compared to some of its winners.

Bob Chappell

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