Is Oil's Well on Steam?

No. Oil's Well is not distributed on Steam, so there is no Steam Charts or SteamDB player count for it. Its live popularity is tracked here via Twitch viewership instead.

When did Oil's Well release?

Oil's Well was first released on October 1, 1983.

Oil's Well

Oct 1, 1983ArcadeColecoVisionAtari 8-bitCommodore C64/128/MAXSharp X1DOS

Oil's Well — frequently asked questions

Is Oil's Well on Steam?: No. Oil's Well is not distributed on Steam, so there is no Steam Charts or SteamDB player count for it. Its live popularity is tracked here via Twitch viewership instead.
What platforms is Oil's Well on?: Oil's Well is available on ColecoVision, Atari 8-bit, Commodore C64/128/MAX, Sharp X1, DOS, Apple II, MSX, Commodore 64.
When did Oil's Well release?: Oil's Well was first released on October 1, 1983.

About Oil's Well

Players control a snake like pipe. The goal is to eat all the pellets on screen in order to get the highest score possible. Players must do this while avoiding being hit by enemies.

Summary via IGDB.

Oil's Well on Wikipedia

Oil's Well is a video game published by Sierra On-Line in 1983. The game was written for the Atari 8-bit computers by Thomas J. Mitchell. Oil's Well is similar to the 1982 arcade game Anteater, re-themed to be about drilling for oil instead of a hungry insectivore. Ports were released in 1983 for the Apple II and Commodore 64, in 1984 for ColecoVision and the IBM PC, then in 1985 for MSX and the Sharp X1. A version with improved visuals and without Mitchell's involvement was released for MS-DOS in 1990.

Source: Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0).

Game details

Platforms: ColecoVision, Atari 8-bit, Commodore C64/128/MAX, Sharp X1, DOS, Apple II, MSX, Commodore 64
Developer: Sierra On-Line
Publisher: Comptiq
Game modes: Single player, Multiplayer
Themes: Action

Details via IGDB.

Every version compared

Prices, contemporary reception and the studio credited for each release

Platform	Year	Loose	Complete	Sealed	Period reviews
ColecoVision	1984	$40	$94	—	Graphics ★★★½ · Play-Action ★★★

Also released on: Atari 8-bit · Commodore C64/128/MAX · Sharp X1 · DOS · Apple II · MSX · Commodore 64. We haven’t priced or authenticated those versions yet.

Collector value & authenticity

ColecoVision · PriceCharting sold data · Verified 2026-10-19

Loose

$40

Complete

$94

Sealed

—

How often it sells

Loose: about once a month
Complete: about 3 times a year
Sealed: about once a year

Sales frequency from PriceCharting's completed-sale records, as of 2026-10-19.

Price over time

Loose
Complete

A loose copy sold for about $24 in Jul 2009, $51 five years ago, and $40 as of Oct 2026.

Show as table

Month	Loose	Complete
Jan 2010	$24	—
Jan 2011	$27	—
Jan 2012	$36	—
Jan 2013	$26	—
Jan 2014	$30	$250
Jan 2015	$15.70	$60
Jan 2016	$40	$60
Jan 2017	$21	$130
Jan 2018	$35	$71
Jan 2019	$34	$61
Jan 2020	$44	$96
Jan 2021	$59	$103
Jan 2022	$50	$218
Jan 2023	$47	$177
Jan 2024	$45	$155
Jan 2025	$46	$157
Jan 2026	$45	$100
Oct 2026	$40	$94

Monthly price estimates from PriceCharting's completed-sale records, sampled quarterly, through Oct 2026.

Release record

Territory	Label
North America Sierra	End label: SierraVision silver and blue

Source: Model numbers, end-label variants and CBS numbers: the ColecoVision FAQ v4.1, each serial confirmed against Coleco's 1982 catalogue, the game's manual or its UPC; barcodes from PriceCharting, check digits verified

Region: NA
Released: 1984
Controller: Joystick
Players: one or two
Authenticity: Low

Modern re-releases are not tracked for the ColecoVisionLow counterfeit risk

ColecoVision prices, all games & how to spot a fake

Sierra's maze game about drilling for oil is an Anteater-style chase that reached the ColecoVision in 1984 and is hard to find.

Oil's Well started on Atari computers in 1983 and reached the ColecoVision in 1984, according to Wikipedia. It is a maze game in the spirit of the 1982 arcade game Anteater, re-themed around drilling for oil, and Sierra published the cartridge for this system.

Computer Entertainer listed it among March 1984 ColecoVision releases alongside other Sierra titles. No review of this cartridge turned up, so the thing to know is the type: a single-player maze chase.

What the press said at the time

Computer Entertainer Vol. 3 No. 1

April 1984

Graphics ★★★½ · Play-Action ★★★

“This is one of those games that you find yourself saying "just one more round." The graphics are simple, but effective; however, the play is the key to this game. Oil's Well is just good fun!”
— Computer Entertainer, April 1984

Computer Entertainer rated graphics first and play action second, from four symbols (excellent) to one (poor) — diamonds through early 1987, stars after — comparing each game only with other games for the same system.

How the ColecoVision version differs

The ColecoVision port came in 1984, a year after the Apple II and Commodore 64 versions.

Also on other platforms

Commodore 64 · Atari 8-bit

Atari 8-bit

Thomas J. Mitchell

Commodore 64. One reviewer called the Commodore version's graphics and sounds only serviceable, but found the game play unique.

Worth knowing

From the ColecoVision manual. You pick a playing speed of Regular, Unleaded or Premium at the options screen, as well as one or two players.
From the ColecoVision manual. Rare petromin deposits in the deepest caverns create a force field that slows the oozies, though the land mines are not affected by it.
From the ColecoVision manual. There are eight oil fields to clear; as you mine them a refinery is built overhead, and clearing all the fields finishes it.

Before you buy

Standard controller. Sierra used one box across several systems with a sticker naming the platform, so check the sticker says ColecoVision before paying a complete-in-box price. A museum list calls one variant very rare, so confirm what you are being shown.