Tribble Trouble

Jim Scarlett wrote the very good Doombugs, which was published by Workforce and seems to have been rather underrated. That was an original but fairly simple game to play. Tribble Trouble is a highly original game and a very difficult one to play.

For those who remember the Star Trek series, it may be possible to recollect an episode called ‘The Trouble With Tribbles.’ Tribbles were cuddly, cute but rather troublesome creatures that began multiplying on board the Enterprise until they posed a serious threat to the ship. In this new game they are still cute and cuddly and even more of a menace. The hero of the piece is Brian Skywalker (yes, Luke’s little known brother), and he’s a Tribble Farmer on the planet Noom. When on a mission to round up wild tribbles, his Noomrover runs out of fuel and Brian is forced to herd his tribble back to base on foot.

This trek takes him and his tribblesome herd through five sheets of sheer hell. In the first Brian is stranded near his Noomrover at the foot of Firebug Mountain, beside a river which he must cross. Gems sparkle occasionally and then he can dash up and dig out a rock, nudge it into position and fling it into the river. The first stones sink down, so he has to make two lines of three rocks on the bottom, and then another two rows of three on top. When this is done, it will be possible to take a tribble across to the next screen. The problems, however, are soon manifest. Tribblesome trouble starts when the tribble, never content to stay in one place, start to emerge from the Noomrover. The Firebugs that live on the Mountain like eating tribbles, so they start to move in. Tribbles also run straight at the nearest water and drown.

Fortunately, they are fairly obedient-ish, and will follow Brian if he’s near. This lets him lead them up and pop them back into the top of the Noomrover.

In sheet two, The Goofer Desert, the tribbles eat goofers but are killed by cacti, and Brian sometimes gets caught up too. Then there’s the Spheroids’ cave. Spheroids, too, like tribbles, and in the Snappers’ Lair, the Snappers like tribbles, while the tribbles run off everywhere after the mushrooms. In the last screen you must get all the escaped tribbles back into their pen before the air runs out. In fact the only ‘good’ thing about this game is that for once you can play the part of a hero who is practically indestructible!