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 a letter from a man named Tex. Under the cactus in the middle of the field, something black seeps out of the ground. That is no accident.

Find it

The sonar reads the ground like an MRI scan: depth, size, odds. 70% is not 100%, so you either trust it or pay for another pulse.

Reach it

The drill turns. You bend it around boulders, branch one shaft into the deposits next door and keep an eye on the bill, because a meter of rock costs five times more.

Haul it

The local buyer pays half price and calls it a favor. Your own tankers pay better, until they start to smoke and limp back to the garage. A warehouse lets you sit on your oil while a barrel swings anywhere from $40 to $170.

Read the papers

The story runs for 200 days. Newspaper clippings arrive by mail and move the price: a hurricane in the Gulf, an embargo, snow in the desert. Now and then a telegram shows up with no signature. It is always right.

Scale it

An office brings contracts from refineries, railroads and the army. Operators take over the routine as long as you pay them. Ten fields to buy. And when the cash runs dry, Tex knows a fella with a limousine who lends at 5% a day.

Slow pace, day and night, and Tex, who only speaks up when it's worth listening.