Real life simulation game. Equip and run your own North Sea Oil rig. How fast can you make 100 million dollars? Written by an offshore engineer

This game casts you in the role of an offshore installation manager, whose responsibility it is to co-ordinate and supervise all oil rig operations. You must first allocate your resources, then navigate your supply vehicle supervise drilling operations and operate the platform until you have collected 100 million dollars. An easy task? Try it and see...

Dragon Delta is a semi-submersible oil drilling and production rig in the North Sea. You are the Offshore Installation Manager (O.I.M.) of the rig and you are responsible for the co-ordination of all the activities on the rig in order to maximise oil production. To enable you to do this you have a workforce of 200 men, a weekly budget of $1,000,000, and of course your own intelligence and skill.

Your main objective is to drill for and produce $100 million of oil from the North Sea, in the shortest time that you can.

The first task at hand is to allocate your weekly budget, then navigate your supply vessel to the rig. Once safely on the rid, you have to apportion your workforce, then search the North Sea for the oil strike of the century.

Your first duty as an O.I.M. is to allocate the whole of your weekly budget between the following items:

1. Drilling consumables - chemicals, drill-piping, drill-bits, lubricants, etc.
2. Maintenance spares - machine parts, valves, electronic components, etc.
3. Food
4. Charter berths - you may be unfortunate and require more men to replace those no longer with us. This can be done at the expense of some of your supplies. You can charter berths on the supply vessel at a cost of $10,000 each, which is deducted from your weekly budget. As there is a full crew on the rig at the beginning of the game there is no need to charter any berths to start with.

After your supplies have been loaded on to the supply vessel in Aberdeen Docks, you must steam to Dragon Delta to deliver your cargo. Unfortunately, your navigational equipment has developed a fault, your supplies are vital, therefore you must navigate using chart and compass.

Dragon Delta is positioned 260 nautical miles from Aberdeen on a bearing of 30 degrees.

Your supply vessel steams at 10 knots, that is 10 nautical miles per hour. Therefore on a calm day the vessel would steer a course of 30 degrees for 26 hours and it would arrive exactly on time at Dragon Delta. Unfortunately, the wind and the tide have an effect on your vessel, therefore you must compensate for them in your course and steaming time.

The effect of the wind and the tide and the direction of these effects are shown at the top of the chart.

Study the chart carefully and when you are ready enter your figures for course and steaming time. Your actual course across the water will be plotted on the chart, the end of this plotted course is the beginning of the next one. Note that the wind and the tide effects change after each entry.

Due to the bad weather in the North Sea every attempt to reach Dragon Delta, with the exception of the first one, will result in some of your cargo being swept over the side. Therefore, the more attempts you have to make the less supplies you will have to work with.

Now that your supplies have been safely loaded aboard Dragon Delta you must apportion your workforce between the following departments:

1. Drilling
2. Maintenance
3. Services

Remember your objective, but you must take into consideration the status of your supplies as well.

Somewhere in the North Sea is an oil field; to find it you must drill for oil. After you have drilled a well, a figure will appear on the chart, whcih indicates the total production for that well; the higher the number, the nearer to the centre of the oil field.

If you are using the Joystick to control the movement of the rig then the fire button will drill the wells. If you are using the keyboard then the arrows will control the direction and key D will drill the wells.

The number of wells is dictated by the allocations of workforce and the amount of supplies remaining. On completion of your wells, a reason for the limited number of wells is given: Read it closely, it may give you a hint for future allocations.

Finally, your oil production is totalled and a balance sheet is shown of your exploits to data. To continue the game, press the Space bar for a further week's work.

CLOAD (ENTER)
RUN (ENTER)