My Gold Rush playthrough

[notbobsmith]

Just started playing a few days ago. So far it is pretty good. I definitely prefer this style of adventure versus the Dynamix titles. I just left Brooklyn via stagecoach. I know that there are three routes that you can take, and I was intending to leave it up to a vote as to which route I should take, but I only had enough cash for the stagecoach. As I left Brooklyn, the game told me that I had 48 out of 60 points at this point and that the housing market crashed when the gold rush goes into full swing. So I guess I dallied too long and couldn't afford the ship routes.

I got this version off of Steam. It looks like all references to Sierra have been removed.

There is an odd little bug. For some reason, there's a period (.) always present in all of the places where you can type. In the command line. Where you select the directory to save/restore. While typing the name of the save game. Only the period never is actually part of the file name. And the period is always at the end as you type. It's not a problem, it's just strange.

[BBP]

Glad you're enjoying it!

Stage coach is the "easy" one of these three. Panama is hard and the one you need to take for max points. Cape Horn is one with the highest chance of dying. But no matter which route you take, don't forget the mantra "Save Early, Save Often!"

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmm, I never played Gold Rush. How old is it? What do I need to do to play it (e.g. do I need DOSBox?) I'm just wondering.

Also, I heard that GR is incredibly difficult - e.g. that I have an 80% or so chance of dying... is that true?

[notbobsmith]

Hmm, I never played Gold Rush. How old is it? What do I need to do to play it (e.g. do I need DOSBox?) I'm just wondering.

It's an AGI era game originally released in 1988 and, yes, requires DOSBox.

Also, I heard that GR is incredibly difficult - e.g. that I have an 80% or so chance of dying... is that true?

I've heard that there is a certain element of random chance that results in death, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

If you're curious it's on sale on Steam for $0.68.

[BBP]

You can die at random at the travelling sections. Cape Horn and Panama are more brutal than Stage Coach for that.

I think I'm the one who came up with the 80% chance of dying - at the Cape Horn section you can get an overheated engine and while I was trying to replicate that for a video I was also measuring the odds of how often I could make it to the fishing scene without dying instantly - I played the section 50 times and only made it 10 times. Cholera, iceberg, rocks, blown valve...

[Tawmis]

Death is indeed random, and as BBP said - the other routes seem to have higher chances of death.

As for the points you missed, it can be as easy as not going to one specific screen and looking at something...

Also... floorboards.

[BBP]

You didn't walk on the grass, did you?

Once I had such problems with coordination I just kept walking on the grass somehow - if you do that for long, a cop will show up and tell you to keep off the grass, and the game will rub it in when you leave Brooklyn.

[Rath Darkblade]

Oh dear. If you walk on the grass for too long, is that an insta-death?

"Smokey the Bear Sez: Do not light Savannah fires!" (I know that has nothing to do with Gold Rush, and it's not a death. But random things like that just reminded me of Smokey. The first time that happened to me in QfG3, I thought my hero really died).

[BBP]

Did this version of Gold Rush remove the timer bug?

[Collector]

Did this version of Gold Rush remove the timer bug?

The only timer "bug" that I am aware of is because of a bad CP crack.

[BBP]

I mean the one that:

If you play the game on fast or fastest levels, the timer runs much slower and you can wait forever until the real estate agent pops up.

[BBP]

Ya know, I'd never finished Gold Rush, today I thought I'd pick it up for laughs and whaddayaknow I'm now further than I've ever been in that game...

[notbobsmith]

Also... floorboards.

I did find the gold coin under the gazebo if that is what you are referring to.

You didn't walk on the grass, did you?

Once I had such problems with coordination I just kept walking on the grass somehow - if you do that for long, a cop will show up and tell you to keep off the grass, and the game will rub it in when you leave Brooklyn.

Once I realized that I lost points, I restored to a previous save. I am that way.

[Tawmis]

Also... floorboards.

I did find the gold coin under the gazebo if that is what you are referring to.

Yup!

The game rewards looking at things too... so there's a few things you would need to look at to get the point(s) for. There was one screen I remember when I first played, that's not even remotely required - but gets you 1 or 2 points for finding it and doing something, again, not even mandatory for the game.

[notbobsmith]

Making progress. I made it to the fort in California. I did encounter some random deaths along the way. The first time I left Independence, I made it to the next point where I could save without any problems, but then I thought that there were more points to be had so I tried again. Fell off a raft. Cholera. I'm not sure I how feel about this from a game design standpoint. On one hand, death being random *is* the point. And they do make it clear that these events just happen. Just try again. I'm just not sure how the intended audience might see this, especially if they've played other Sierra games. "I died. I must've done something wrong." And then when they encounter puzzles that do need to be solved, they might get the wrong idea that this is also a "random" death. For me, it was no problem, but I knew enough of the game to expect this.

Otherwise the game is pretty good. I see the educational value in it. I also like how the character sprite changes over time. The Brooklyn version, clean shaven in the suit. Frontier version with beard and work clothes. When he is dangerously close to dehydration/starvation, his posture even changes. He's hunched forward a bit. It's a nice touch.

Another little oddity. Sometimes text ends up on the bottom of the screen instead of in a box. I've seen text placed there in other games so it doesn't look completely out of place, but not this frequently. Was this and the "period" thing I mentioned earlier always in the game, or did it crop up when the developers rereleased it?