Gameplay

The game requires the player to maneuver the excavation probe, through a first-person view, through eighteen regions of the moon Mitral, and place a drilling rig in each of them to allow a minimum of 60% 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 upon sight, and you 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, the only exit from this level is to be retruned to the start level.

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.

 

Packaging

Driller was lavishly packaged compared to much game software available at the time. As well as having a large box, it also came with an instruction manual, a novella detailing the game's plot and background and a cardboard "map" of Mitral that could be folded into a 3D representation of the eighteen platforms around the moon, and used by the player to mark successful drilling locations.

Full title:	Driller
Year of release:	1987
Publisher:	Incentive Software Ltd (UK)
Producer/Author(s):	Major Developments (Chris Andrews, Paul Gregory, Stephen Northcott)

 

Praise for the game was unequivocal and unanimous. 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."