Texas Oil Baron

Texas Oil Baron is an oil tycoon game where half of the action happens underground, in cross-section.

You inherit a patch of Texas, $60,000, and Tex, a neighbor who swears the oil is "somewhere down there". Where exactly is your problem.

Find it

The sonar shows a deposit like an MRI scan: depth, capacity, probability. 70% is not 100%. You drill on its word or pay for another pulse.

Reach it

The drill turns. You steer around boulders, bend toward the smudge, branch off one shaft into the deposits next door. Rock is five times harder and five times pricier per meter, so the route matters.

Haul it

The local buyer pays half price and calls it a favor. Your own trucks and tankers change the math, except they wear out: first they smoke, then they limp back to the garage and sit there until you fix them. A warehouse lets you wait out the market, which swings from $30 to $150 a barrel.

Scale it

An office brings contracts from refineries, railroads and the army: better rates, hard deadlines, a penalty for every day you're late. Operators take over the routine as long as you keep paying them. Ten fields to buy, each with its own geology underneath.

Slow pace, day and night, music that doesn't rush you. And Tex, who only speaks up when he's worth listening to.