A ZX Spectrum classic that won't bore you to deathThe search for 3D always seems to have been the holy grail when it comes to gaming. While Sony and Nintendo follow Hollywood's lead by having a flirtation with RealD technology (or whatever Nintendo's glasses-free version of it is called), merely representing a 3D space on a 2D screen has always been full on in the minds of games programmers.
With the advent of the early 3Dfx and Voodoo graphics cards we saw an arms race of sorts which continues on today. Number of polygons on screen at one time, the size of textures in memory, the resolution it can display it all at... The exact details are for engineers and fanboys to get wet over, for the rest of us it means one thing – displaying a game in such a way so our brains can process that 3rd dimension and make it all that more believable and pretty.
But even before this polygonal willy-waving contest began there was still a desire for 3D, one of the earliest of which was the ZX Spectrum classic Driller. It’s a game I remember well, I certainly remember the positive critical response it received. Seeing this “3D” effect was a hell of a big deal in the 2D days of the 1980s, and Driller must have looked amazing.
Of course that’s back then. I’ve found revisiting these old games like a good way to break those rose-tinted glasses that everyone has. Nothing is more sobering than seeing your old favourites with the modern world laughing over your shoulder.
Tackling the story line first… It’s a long one that spans 22 pages that involve a dying Earth and a new Earth like planet named “Evath” found for colonisation – then the plot gets really convoluted with frozen embryos being sent and raised by the crew’s children’s children. On Evath they find big crystals named “Rubicon crystals” that solve their energy problems. Then there’s some deal about exiles who live on one of Evath’s moons (called Mitral), they’ve mined the shit out of that moon, and it could possibly explode due to gas build up – taking Evath’s population with it. Especially with a big-arse meteor heading straight for it.
Anyway, the task of the game is to make each of the 18 sectors of Mitral safe by positioning a drilling rig over the gas pockets. Not made easy by the fact the exiles are trying to kill you. Silly exiles – we’re trying to save you too!
As I mentioned before, upon release back in 1987, critics praised the game pretty much across the board. It’s easy to see why, Driller takes place in an impressive (for the time) 3D world. The engine is use was called Freescape, and it would also be utilised for a sequels and a handful of other games, including in 1991 when Domark released 3D Construction Kit which I suppose could easily described as being a bit like Little Big Planet for the Speccy. I seem to remember it was possible to record play throughs of your own creations, which could be saved to tape and shared. An early example of machinima no doubt. Sadly my Google-Fu is weak and I cannot find mention of this anywhere on the Internet.
Anyway, I digressed there a bit too much… There is still fun to be found playing Driller. I found exploration of the moon to be engrosing even though it’s very simple to today’s standards. Word of advice though – read the manual first. I mean, skip the story if you want to get straight into the game, it’s bad 80s sci-fi and as such should be avoided but do pay attention to the bits related to your task and game play as there’s nothing in game to actually tell you what the heck to do. Plus there’s a lot of different buttons to do different things, such as rise up and down, place and remove drills and even the speed with which you turn and move. Once you know what you’re doing there’s an enjoyable romp through the world which stands out well against the rest of the Spectrum catalogue.
Drilling down
On the negative side, in contrast with modern games it does show it’s age. That’s no surprise at all of course but I think some of the problems were just as off-putting back then. For example feedback to some of your actions is unclear and confusing as to what is going on, particularly when it comes to what switches do – and what objects are switches to begin with. It’s also easy to die from falling as even small distances are lethal. There’s a flying hovercraft to be found, but that can’t place drills, so I never really found a great use for that. It also falls back on trial and error when it comes to placing some of the drills. Some times there are clues as to where to place them, which can be satisfying once you figure them out, the trial and error ones are just annoying since it costs energy to place and remove a drill each time.
One thing I found to make my time with Driller more enjoyable, and something that obviously was not possible back in the day, was setting the emulated CPU speed in Spin (my Spectrum emulator of choice) up a few notches. This makes Driller a lot smoother, a lot easier on the eyes than the slide-show it normally is.
Driller was also unusual for the amount of thought that went into the packaging. It came in a nice cardboard box, with a relatively hefty manual and a map of the 18 areas which could be folded up paper craft style to create a 3D representation of the moon itself. Sadly re-releases went the standard plastic cassette case route which didn’t have the moon model and most likely got rid of the “novella” as well. Shame.
If you’re interested in Driller – and if you’ve never played it, you really should as it’s an interesting view into the beginnings of the 3D FPS obsession that came to life in the 90s – then you’ve got two choices. First emulation, for which I can recommend the World Of Spectrum entry for Driller. There you’ll also find a PDF file of the manual (including the story). There’s also a remake of it available here. Although I haven’t tried it, so I can give no guarantee of quality there.
The next Red Dead game will be called...
(0) (03/09) 
Welcome anonymous user.
You can have your say below and post a comment,
but why not sign up and register for an account?
#1 - peej - on 19/07/2010 at 08:26 wrote:
#2 - HairyArse - on 19/07/2010 at 10:01 wrote:
#3 - peej - on 19/07/2010 at 10:03 wrote:
I remember being similarly addicted to Mercenary on the C64 and spending hours with it just pissing around blowing stuff up. Looking back on it now it feels so basic and primitive but yep the imagination did a lot of filling in the blanks.
#4 - DDevil - on 19/07/2010 at 17:08 wrote:
#5 - Retroid - on 19/07/2010 at 17:12 wrote:
:)
#6 - kentmonkey - on 19/07/2010 at 18:48 wrote:
I think I'll give this a go. I'll probably give up on it after five minutes for something new and shiney but I'll still give it a go.
#7 - Sillothian - on 19/07/2010 at 22:15 wrote:
I loved the sense of scale the Freescape titles gave you, but I don't think I ever had the patience to fully appreciate Driller. I do remember enjoying Total Eclipse, which was set in an Egyptian pyramid, but I don't think I completed that either ;-)
#8 - Whizzo - on 19/07/2010 at 23:45 wrote:
#9 - Tiger_Walts - on 21/07/2010 at 12:05 wrote:
#10 - YouKnow - on 14/08/2010 at 14:19 wrote:
Fail #2: "Sadly my Google-Fu is weak and I cannot find mention of this anywhere on the Internet." First result for "'3D Construction Kit' Spectrum": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_Construction_Kit