Apple Panic is a very early Lode Runner-style platformer that is not as good as that classic, but merits mention as one of the first platformers made for PC. It is also the first PC game designed by Olaf Lubeck, who would later become famous as the brains behind Frogger.
In Apple Panic, your goal is to dig holes (or fill them up again) to trick monsters to fall in. Once monsters fall in the hole, you must hit them on the head to kill them, otherwise they will bounce back up with vengeance. Monsters on early levels are orange blobs that are easy to kill, but in later levels, you have to deal with green butterflies that require a hole directly beneath them, and purple ones that require three holes (vertically lined up, of course) underneath to trap. You earn extra points if you drop one monster on top of another. To make matters worse, you have a tight time limit to kill all the monsters on each level, and you can be killed at monsters' touch. Each level has a different layout, but always have five platforms you can dig, and five different columns you can use ladders to climb.
If you have played Lode Runner, Apple Panic won't feel any different except for the higher difficulty level, mostly as a result of time constraints and precise-to-the-pixel digging requirement. The game doesn't break any new ground, but it is still a fun little game that will keep you occupied if you think Lode Runner is too easy. Recommended, but not a Top Dog.
Review By HOTUD
English 
Comments and reviews
Apple Panic is a clone of Space Panic, but not the Colecoware version. The order of release is…
1980: Space Panic (arcade, obscure at the time)
1981: Apple Panic (Apple II, LICENSED port, not clone, of Space Panic)
1982: Apple Panic (ports to other platforms)
1983: Lode Runner (Apple II, done by same publisher but of a different provenance/programmer so likely a clone of Space Panic) + Space Panic (Colecovision licensed port)
1984+: Lode Runner explosion
So technically, Apple Panic broke new ground in a number of areas: it was a licensed port of an arcade game that was actually decent graphically other than Atari 2600 version of Space Invaders, it (from being Space Panic lineage) may have inspired Lode Runner, not the other way around. I suspect Lode Runners inspired puzzles in platformers.
It's odd because Space Panic itself is pretty much the OG platformer since it likely inspired Donkey Kong and thus Mario. There was so much mixing and copying in such a tight window it's hard to know what inspired what though. I'd put Apple Panic in the same bin as Space Panic though instead of treating it separately and derivative.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kcl6r58acbhxoeijp9jns/ww.jpg?rlkey=aakx37h1qk184zd2ywolyaii6&st=a8melhqa&dl=0
calm down aple :(
I cant play it on Vic 20 Emulator. There are only .cert files . Now, I will try for DOS. But played online for DOS but cant find digging and filling buttons. I am going to try download for Dos and will attach joy stick.
Thought this game looked familiar, it is a clone of Space Panic on the ColecoVision from a couple of years prior. Wasted a good several hours on that back in the day.
Kept returning to this one. So challenging.
Wife Played it more than me back in the day .. She figured out at some levels you can park your player at the right spot and not get killed .. She would play it all day long while i worked .. One day when I came home she was very upset .. The Game ended !! .. Yes there is an end to that madness .. Worst part it does not show your High score, that is what made her mad !! .. It had a few credits and said "type 800G to start the game again" (it not work) .. Guess they never debugged it and never thought anyone would play it that long ..
Again the HOTUD reviewer compares a game to a game he knows about, rather than the game it's actually like. This is clearly Space Panic, not Lode Runner.
DOS version keys: 8 = Up, 2= Down, 4 = Left, 6 = Right, Space = dig/fill. Needs slowing down in DOSbox to about 400 cycles.
Excellent game for the VIC-20. One of my first and favorite games. Addicting and fun to play! Many laughs were had in '82 when the apple monsters jumped on the farmer's head! And the sinister music...classic. Hard to find this original so overjoyed to find it here!
I downloaded the PC version. The only keys that seem to work are the 4 key to move left and the 6 key to move right. I can't find the dig key. Any ideas?
Thank you,
Al
Loved this game....Monster spawn the same way they do in Wizard of War. They become tougher and are a different color to illustrate that fact.
Another classic!! Before Lode Runner we had Apple Panic!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWwyhymcDxI
awesome, terrifying? why so?
THIS GAME IS TERRIFYING!!!
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.