Zork: A Troll's Eye View by Dylan O'Donnell
                     (Part of Disk 1214)

                  Reviewed by Nick Edmunds

Ok so we've all done it.  We've all casually strolled into a room,
decapitated the resident, looted their corpse and carried on about
our business without batting an eyelid, but how does it feel when
the tables are turned?

For anyone who ever wondered what those NPCs get up to when you're
not there Dylan O'Donnell has come up with not only an answer, but
also a way for you to experience their world for yourself. In
Troll you play the part of - you guessed it - a troll.  In the pay
of the dungeon master you have been given an axe and told to guard
a room.

So there you are, standing quietly doing your job knowing damn
well it's only a matter of time before a member of the general
public comes along and spoils it.  In this particular instance
it's a pesky adventurer hell bent on a quest for fame and fortune
who will undoubtedly think nothing of slicing up anything in their
path.

All the action takes place in one room, "the troll room" and while
there are exits from this room you cannot use them as your
instructions forbid you leaving your post.  Thus you just stand
there waiting for something to come through one of the entrances.
You're never kept waiting for long as there seems to be a constant
stream of adventurers wielding swords engraved with your name.

Anything sound familiar yet?  Anyone who played the original Zork
(or indeed any other dungeon-based adventure) may well recognise
the little fellow you bullied all those years ago.  And that's
essentially what we have here: a spot of role-play reversal, a
troll's eye view of adventurers, an NPC's revenge.

Remember that original troll in Zork.  Did he last long when you
came up against him? No? Well guess what, he's still not very

hard, only this time he's you. As such if there were a solution to
this game it would read:
WAIT (repeat until attacked)
KILL ADVENTURER WITH AXE (repeat until one of you is dead)
(Repeat all until dead).

Troll is freeware and doesn't claim to be a proper game per se,
but another of those "exercise in coding" and only released
because someone may find it amusing.  Which indeed I did.  The
game itself is an unashamedly one gag idea carried out with tongue
firmly in cheek and raises a few smirks with its cheesy
reminiscence, which provides most of it's appeal. Although the
info section is worthy of mention as it's very well written and
made me laugh properly.

So what do NPCs do when there's no one there? Not a lot really.
In this case mainly wait to die.


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