Oil Panic is the first Multi Screen series Game & Watch released in May 1982. The game is an Oil Station with three floors. On the first floor, two customers are waiting to fuel up. On the 3rd floor there is an oil leak and you have to control the worker to left and right to catch the oil drops in his bucket.
The bucket holds only 3 drops of oil then you have to move to the veranda and drop the oil to the oil drum on the second floor held by the station boss. You have to drop the oil in the right side, where the boss is waiting with the drum otherwise the oil will drop on the clients and you will miss one.
This handheld game requires a lot of technique and timing. You get a miss every time you fail to catch the oil drop (oil falls on the floor) or when the bucket already has 3 oil drops, or when you drop the oil through the veranda and the boss is not waiting below you (the oil will fall on waiting customers).
Two customers are waiting at gas station to fuel up. Meanwhile, an oil leak from a pipe on the third floor is causing confusion. Move the station helper left and right to catch the leaks in his bucket. Oil falls in drops. Helper's bucket holds three drops then you have to move helper out to the veranda to pour the oil in his bucket into the Boss's oil drum on the second floor. Be careful not to drop oil on the waiting customers.
The upper screen is a zoom-up of the third floor of the gas station where the Helper is. All three floors of the gas station appear on the lower screen.
Source: intheattic.co.uk
General
Date of Release: 28th May 1982 Model Nr: OP-51 Acronym: Oil Panic Rating: DC3V 0.0002W Battery: Alkali-Manganese batteries LR44 (or SR44) x 2 Manufactured: Japan Sold: More than 1,000,000 Worldwide Nr. of players: 1 Lives: 3 Modes: Game A & Game B Controls: Left and Right Buttons. Other Buttons: Game A, Game B, Time, Alarm & ACL
Game-Play
Oil Panic is the first of the Multi-Screen Series. Here two Customers are waiting at a Petrol station to fuel up. Meanwhile, an oil leak from a pipe on the third floor is causing confusion. The station helper tries to catch the drops of oil in his bucket by moving left or right. The problem is that the bucket only holds three drops at a time, so to empty his bucket he needs to go out on the veranda and pour the oil into the Boss's oil drum on the second floor. You have to be careful not to drop any oil on the waiting customers.
Game differences
Game B requires more coordination, technique and timing.
Trivia
Highest possible score is 999. When the score reaches 300 any misses will be removed. If there are no misses then another Boss appears to help catching oil in his drum and oil caught from either Boss earns double score. This lasts for about 20 to 30 seconds.
Cheats and tricks
Remember that the game only ends if you have 3 misses on either screen. If you are stuck, try to get the miss where you have the least misses recorded.
Points
1 point for every drop caught. If you have one drop in the bucket and pour it into the drum, you score 1 point. If you have 2 drops you get 2 points, but if you have 3 drops, you score 5 points.
Misses
Upper screen you get a miss when you fail to catch an oil drop or when you try to catch an oil drop when the bucket is full. Lower screen you get a miss if you pour oil over the customers. When either upper or lower screen has 3 misses (shown by fire on the upper screen and by spilled buckets on the lower screen.), the game ends.
Other notices
If you hold in Game A or Game B key the highest previous score will be displayed. If the unit is left as it is after game is over, time display will appear in about five minutes. A game is not interrupted even if TIME key or other game keys are depressed during game playing. Pressing ACL switch or removing batteries erases high score from memory.