Driller
| Driller | ||
|---|---|---|
| First release | 1987 | |
| Also known as | Space Station Oblivion | |
| Developed by | Incentive Software | |
| Published by | Incentive Software | |
| Distributed by | Incentive Software, Epyx, Musical 1 S.A., System 4, The Hit Squad, Kixx | |
| Platforms | DOS, Amiga, AtariST, Commodore64, ZX Spectrum, AmstradCPC | |
| Resolution | 320x200, 16 colors (DOS, EGA) | |
| Engine | Freescape | |
| Support | Not yet | |
| Available for Purchase |
No | |
Driller is a action/adventure game featuring scaling and rotating polygon graphics. You're the sole voyager happening upon an abandoned space station that's ready to explode from the pressure of dangerous vapors building up inside. For each sector, you must locate the build-up area, then drill to release the pressure. Features 18 different areas to explore, each with its own unique laws of physics and logic, and a number of secret rooms and hidden levels to discover.
The game was release in the US under the name Space Station Oblivion due to trademark issues with Driller name.
Installation
Required data files
For more information on how ScummVM uses game data files, see the user documentation.
Driller was released in a number of platforms over the years. Depending on release you have, you need to copy different files.
For the DOS release, copy the following files:
- driller.exe
- drill?.exe
- scn1?.dat
For the Amiga release, there are two known releases: the retail and the Kixx release. For the retail release, copy the following file:
- driller
For the Kixx release, copy the following files:
- driller
- console.neo
- demo.cmd
- lift.neo
- soundfx
For the AtariST release, copy the following files:
- x.prg
Other platforms are not supported yet, but they will be in the future.
Regarding Space Station Oblivion, only the DOS release is supported so far. For this release, copy the following files:
- oblivion.exe
- drill?.exe
- cgatitle.rl
- egatitle.rl
Other releases of Space Station Oblivion should be supported soon, when we can get them.
Demos are also supported, following the same instructions (but keeping only the files available). We collected all the known Freescape demos, in case you want to test them. If you find an unsupported demo, please open an issue or contact us.
Improvements
Beyond the general Freescape engine improvements, Driller was re-implemented with the following new features:
- It can be played using the restored music from the original compositor Matt Gray. From the original Driller releases, only the C64 version has music. Other releases are completely silent, despite their hardware could play music. This is likely related with the resource constrains of the release, more than an artistic design. Fortunately, ScummVM allows to play Driller with the intended music. To enable this feature, you must own the song "Driller Theme" from the album The Best Of Reformation (you can either buy the complete album or just the individual song). Place the song "Driller Theme" in the same directory as the data files from any Driller release (several formats are supported including mp3, ogg, flac) and ScummVM will automatically use it as music during gameplay.
- It features improved bounding box collisions and more precise driller rig placement. The technical limitations at the time did not allowed to have precise calculations, but the ScummVM implementation is not limited in that sense.