Oil's Well

Oil's Well (a pun on "all's well") is a video game published by Sierra On-Line in 1983. The game was written for the Atari 8-bit family by Thomas J. Mitchell.[1] Oil's Well is similar to the 1982 arcade game Anteater, re-themed to be about drilling for oil instead of a hungry insectivore. Ports were released in 1983 for the Apple II and Commodore 64, in 1984 for ColecoVision and the IBM PC (as a self-booting disk), then in 1985 for MSX and the Sharp X1. A version with improved visuals and without Mitchell's involvement was released for MS-DOS in 1990.

For the 1929 short film, see Oil's Well (film).
Oil's Well
Cover art
Developer(s)Sierra On-Line
Publisher(s)Sierra On-Line
Programmer(s)Atari 8-bit
Thomas J. Mitchell [1]
Apple II
Ivan Strand [1]
Composer(s)Ken Allen
Platform(s)Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, ColecoVision, IBM PC, MS-DOS, MSX, Sharp X1
Release1983: Apple, Atari, C64
1984: ColecoVision, IBM PC
1985: MSX, Sharp
1990: MS-DOS
Genre(s)Maze
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay

The player attempts to manage an oil drilling operation and collect oil. This is done by moving the drill head through a maze using four directional control buttons; the head is trailed by a pipeline connecting it to the base. Subterranean creatures populate the maze; the head can destroy the creatures, but the pipeline is vulnerable. As the player traverses the maze, the pipe grows longer, but pressing a button quickly retracts the head. The player can advance through eight different levels.

Reception

Dave Stone reviewed the game for Computer Gaming World, and stated that "The action's well-paced, the difficulty progressive. While getting to a higher level is somewhat dependent on getting the right breaks — good eye-hand coordination, timing, and strategy are essential."[2]

Ahoy! stated that while the Commodore version's graphics and sounds were only "serviceable; gameplay is, in my experience, unique ... Recommended".[3] InfoWorld called the IBM PCjr version "a clever, basic game".[4]

The U.S. gaming magazine Computer Games awarded Oil's Well the 1984 Golden Floppy Award for Excellence, in the category of "Maze Game of the Year."[5]

Legacy

Despite already being a clone of Anteater, several additional clones borrowed the theme of Oil's Well: Pipeline Run for the Commodore 64 in 1990[6] and Oilmania for the Atari ST in 1991.[7]

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References
  1. Hague, James. "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers".
  2. Stone, Dave (April 1984). "Micro-Reviews". Computer Gaming World. 1 (15): 44, 46.
  3. Davies, Lloyd (April 1984). "Oil's Well". Ahoy!. pp. 57–58. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
  4. Mace, Scott (1984-08-13). "PCjr: Back to Basics". InfoWorld. p. 38. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  5. "Computer Games Magazine 1984 Golden Floppy Award for Excellence". Computer Games Magazine: 18. July–August 1984.
  6. Pipeline Run at Lemon 64
  7. "Oil's Well". Atari Mania.
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