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.

Cheats

The original game do not include any cheat, however, in the first area, it is possible to change into the jet mode if the player shoots the door of the storage a number of times (this depends on the specific release, but it should be enough shooting 25 times or less). This works correctly in ScummVM.

While this was not confirmed by any of the game developers, it looks like this was a shortcut that allows to explore all the areas of the game for debugging without getting into the jet later in the game.

Besides the general Freescape cheats, this engine also implements some specific Driller cheats:

Automatic drilling: it allows to drill in any part of the areas and always obtain 100%.

Bugs

Freescape games allowed a level of freedom in movement that was ahead of their time. As expected, with the increased complexity of their engine, it also included some bugs. This is an incomplete list of bugs in the original implementation:

The player can step into the geometry. To reproduce:

1. Start the game, start walking straight and cross to next area just next to the wall.

2. Turn left and walk a few step.

3. Go back to the previous area. You will be teleported inside the wall.

This issue is still unfixed in ScummVM.

Palette swaps are not preserved when moving between areas or re-loading. To reproduce:

1. Start the game and go to the storage area in Obsidian.

2. Shoot the lights.

3. Leave the area and re-enter. The lights are on again. Saving and re-loading in that area will have the same effect.

This issue is partially fixed in ScummVM.

No palette swap special effect is played when the player takes damage in Mitral. It is unclear if this is a bug or not, but the color used for the special effect in Mitral is invalid (21).