Driller

What is Freescape(TM)? Who's behind this sophisticated 3D graphics system? What is Driller? All these questions were candidly answered by Incentive Software supremo, Ian Andrew, and his team.
    Driller is the new 3D game due for release later this year from the makers of the GAC adventure system, Incentive Software. Over twelve months in development, the game features Freescape(TM), a specially written 3D modelling system for the Spectrum, and contains some of the most flexible 3D graphics ever seen on an 8 bit computer. We completely popped our fruit loops over the Driller demo we saw and immediately despatched an outside broadcast unit down to Incentive Central in Calleva Park, Aldermaston, to get all the hot poop on this advanced program from Incentive boss, Ian Andrew.
    What's it all about, this Freescape(TM) business?
    "Well, the original idea for Freescape(TM) was hatched way back in, 1985, when the concept of a real 3D program for the Spectrum became an attractive prospect. In the end, the writing of the system didn't actually take place until about September of 1986. We wanted a system that would enable the game player to explore a scene and view it in solid 3D, from any angle and from any position with realistic movement and perspective"
    Who designed Freescape(TM)?
    "Well, all of us here, but it's mostly the product of our in-house programming team, Major Developments. The team are known by their 'handles', Linefeed, The Bug and Waferthin. They were helped by some good freelance people, too. The basic program design was all Linefeed's work. It's funny, but we offered the job of making this system to a couple of other groups of programmers, and they turned it down as being impossible."
    So, tell us how it all began?
    "We started by writing a suite of customised CAD programs... that's Computer Aided Design... in which we could create scenes and shapes just from plan views, side views and front views. From those basic designs, whole scenarios can be created. Then the data is compressed so that we can fit larger scenes, and more of them, into the Spectrum's memory. Next we developed a Freescape(TM) editor, a sort of word processor for 3D objects. With it you can edit any of the objects in the scene, alter their colour, and even edit their animation, if they're a moving object like a sliding door on a building, for example"
    The maths for all this is fairly complex, yes?
    "You could say that. The objects are stored and moved as you go through the landscape using '3D Matrix Transformation' formulae, which contain a lot of 32 bit maths, for greater accuracy. Also very complicated is the process where the program 'clips' objects where they hit the edge of the viewscreen. You know, as if an object is half in, half out of the screen? Well, the object is calculated up to that point and clipped or sliced at the place where it falls across the screen boundary"
    So Freescape(TM) was developed specially for Driller. Any other games in the offing?
    "No firm plans just yet, although it's such a good system something is sure to emerge from just playing with the possibilities."
    Finally, what's your opinion of that recent great 3D game, Sentinel?.
    "Ahem. It's very good. Freescape(TM) has much more innovation, but then it would have, being newer. Freescape(TM) has unlimited object shapes, Sentinel has five. Sentinel moves much slower, and playing it was a little bit repetitive... but look, I don't want to knock Sentinel, 'cos it was a good game. Let's say it was a step on the way towards Freescape(TM). And that's going to be brilliant"

DRILLER
Wow! Driller is the first game to feature Freescape(TM), a technique which displays 3D objects, in perspective, as if you were really there! You can walk into and around buildings, look over walls, move, turn, look in any direction and tilt the angle of view, all the way over and upside down if you like, though who knows why you should.
    Your mission, in this spiffy 3D landscape, is to explore the moon circling your planet of Evath, and drill it to release the gas which is building up under the surface. You do this by seeking out the most likely spot, and placing a huge drilling rig on the surface, which burns off the gas and releases the pressure. To help you survey the moon, you have a little cat-tracked vehicle to get around in plus, if you can find it, a super little jet to fly. You can enter and search buildings, pick up fuel gems, activate doorways and solve puzzles.
    This game looks like it's going to make Sentinel look like a game of draughts, so check it out when it's released in October! It'll probably cost £14.95 for cassette, and (wow!) £17.95 on disk for the new +3!

Ratings given by other magazines

	9/10		9/10
	Crash Review		---

Info supplied by the SPOT*ON database

*YS Cross-references*
	Driller/Incentive	YS25	9
	Driller (in Special Action)	YS45	90
	Driller/Hit Squad	YS65	97
	Driller (in Virtual Worlds)	YS69	90
**Some info from Sinclair Infoseek+SPOTON***