Ports were released in 1983 for the Apple II and Commodore 64, in 1984 for ColecoVision and the IBM PC (as a self-booting disk), then in 1985 for MSX and the Sharp X1.

As the player traverses the maze, the pipe grows longer, but pressing a button quickly retracts the head.

ANALOG Computing said that Oil's Well for the Atari 8-bit was a "truly different and challenging" variant on the "'gobble the dots' theme", with good gameplay and graphics.

[2] Dave Stone in Computer Gaming World stated that "The action's well-paced, the difficulty progressive.

While getting to a higher level is somewhat dependent on getting the right breaks — good eye-hand coordination, timing, and strategy are essential".