General:

Date of Release: 28^th 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.

Issue Differences (click to enlarge pictures)

The table will show how to tell the different Issues that were made:

The battery covers seem to have a number on the back, but they seem to vary a lot and I won't even speculate what the difference is.

Box Variations (Click to enlarge):

Game Variations:

Shipping Box:

Fits 10 games

Instructions (English):

Instructions (Japanese):

Instruction Variations:

Other Paperwork: