Driller Amstrad CPC

Major Developments - Chris Andrew, Ian Andrew, Stephen Northcott & Paul Gregory

Driller

cpc

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***Driller*** (also known as Space Station Oblivion in the United States) is a 1987 puzzle video game. It was written by British developers Major Developments and published by Incentive Software for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and IBM PC. The game was notable for its early 3D game engine, Freescape. ***Gameplay*** The game requires the player to maneuver the excavation probe, through a first-person view, through eighteen regions (in the shape of a rhombicuboctahedron) of the moon Mitral, and place a drilling rig in each of them to allow a minimum of 50% of the gas to escape. The position is established by a mixture of clues from the landscape (including an "X marks the spot" in the first zone) and trial and error. The security systems will attack Lesleigh upon sight, and he must disable or avoid them by any means possible. Only a few can be destroyed by shooting, the rest must be dispatched by mechanical means through switches or similar. The eighteen regions are actually platforms above the true surface of Mitral; the excavation probe cannot fly or hover (although it can rise and lower itself slightly on hydraulics), and moving off a platform causes the player to fall onto the surface, where he is marooned. However, in one area the player can find a garage containing a hovering vehicle that can be used to explore and attack security systems, though not to place drilling rigs. ***Reception*** The game received positive reviews from several sources. CRASH awarded the game 97%, stating that "with a stunning use of 3D graphics, very challenging gameplay, and the fascination of exploring a FreeScape world, Driller is one of the best games CRASH has seen." The magazine's  readers voted it the best overall game of 1987. Your Sinclair gave Driller 9/10 with reviewer Phil South stating "The game took a year to build, and it shows in the quality of the workmanship and the gameplay. I can tell that people are going to be sending in tips for this for months to come. Superb!" Zzap!64 awarded the game 96%. Amstrad Action reviewed the game in the January 1988 issue with an overall rating of 96% and earned the AA 'Mastergame' accolade.  Is joint 3rd highest rated game in Amstrad Action's run. Orson Scott Card wrote in Compute! that "the lame science fiction story ... is a thinly veiled excuse for what's really a programmer's exercise in 3-D graphics. But once you stop expecting the story to make sense, this is a fun game, as you explore a strange world ... a fascinating exprience". Source:[Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driller_%28video_game%29)