Oils Well
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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Extend your oil-mining robotic arm deep below the earth's crust to mine oil and line your pockets. But watch out for the monstrous bugs that lie in wait for you -- one touch of them to the robotic arm and you lose a life!

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Summary

Similar to Anteater, but with an oil theme

The Good

Oil's Well is an arcade game by Sierra On-Line, released in 1983 for the popular 8-bit computers at the time. The game is similar to Anteater, which hit the arcades in 1982. Chances are that you haven't even played this game at all, so here is a rundown of it. An anteater appears on screen, and you must guide your snout through a maze of passages, collecting larvae and making critters not come in contact with any part of your snout other than the top. 

Of course, in this game the objects are different. The major difference is that the anteater is replaced by an oil refinery, and the developers etched OIL on top of it to make sure you don't forget. The sun is replaced by the timer that counts down, the snout becomes the drill head, and the larvae is also replaced by little pellets of oil you need to pick up. The creatures, however, remain the same. One of the creatures looks like the androids from Berzerk

Instead of pulling your drill arm back to the top every time a creature threatens to touch it, you can eat a pellet to make the creatures slow down for a few seconds so that you can eat them easily. What's good about it is that you get to watch them as they gradually speed up. The drill arm isn't quite as flexible. If you take a wrong turn somewhere, you can't make it change direction. You have to pull it back above the passage you were and take a different direction.

The game gets more challenging as you proceed through it, with mazes full of dead ends and structures that block off access to other passages, meaning that you'll probably spend about five minutes in the level. I like since this is an oil-themed game, "Easy", "Medium", and "Hard" is replaced by "Regular", "Unlimited", and "Premium" respectively. An advanced difficulty means that the creatures move a lot faster.

Both the mazes and the oil refineries look better as you proceed through the game. There is a two-note humming sound as you gather the oil. I like to think that it is coming from the refinery. The sound that you hear when you get the power pellet is reminiscent to Boulder Dash's. The "Get Ready" screen has a nice sound effect as well. 

The high score table is shown when the current game ends, and the way your name and score appears at the bottom of it but works it way up to where it should be is a nice touch. There is actually an ending after you complete all eight levels, which is excellent since I haven't seen a proper ending in a Sierra game until now. It is just one of those "Congratulations" screen, but at least it looks spiffy. 

The control scheme is easy to get used to. As usual, pushing the joystick in a certain direction will move the drill. Pressing the fire button will make the drill retreat. This is usual for any creatures you see above where you are, and wish to retreat back so that you can deal with them.
The Bad

The creatures do not have animations; they remain static as they move across the screen. The same can be said for the drill mouth.
The Bottom Line

Those few people who have played Anteater will know how to play this game. The graphics have been modified, and the drill arm behaves differently. The graphics get better in every level, and there is an actual ending to this game. If you like Oil's Well, try the remake released by the same company in 1990, which has all the features of this version plus improved sound and graphics.

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Alternate Titles
"Oils Well" -- Atari 8-bit/C64 in-game title
"Oil's Wall" -- Misspelled MSX in-game credits title


http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/oils-well_
