Gold Rush!

[Collector]

The news of a Gold Rush! remake broke last week. I have been aware of this for a while, now, but was not at liberty to say anything as I was under an NDA. I have been informed that I can now reveal what I know.

Sunlight Games GmbH has acquired the rights to produce and publish a remake or the old classic. It is projected to be released sometime around 2014/2015. Apparently it will support both a parser and a point and click interface. It will be available in both digital download and disc.

http://sunlight-games.com/en/?nav=detai ... sh!&sys=pc

Not only have they received the rights to remake this classic, they also will be distributing the original. I was contracted to create a distribution package for the original. This is version 3.0 without the annoying manual check copy protection scheme. Since this was removed from the code by the MacNeill brothers, it has no timer bugs like there was from the cracked version floating that had been around on the internet which has some serious timer bugs created by the crack. This version will have no trouble, even if you set the speed to its highest setting.

It has been tested on Windows 7 and 8, but there should be no problems on Vista or XP. While the game is English only, the installer and utilities will be bilingual (English and German). The original should be available soon. I am waiting for Sunlight to send me the final documentation, including a digital copy of the original map, before I can do a final compile.

[Tawmis]

This is so amazing! Congrats for being recognized for all your amazing work!

[Alistair]

Congrats Collector. I never played the AGI original so this will be a good excuse to play.

Good to see some of your hard work in tangible results. Hopefully this isn't the last time!

Regards,
- Alistair

[AndreaDraco]

Congrats Collector, and what a great news! Gold Rush is a gem!

[adeyke]

It's great that the game is being made available again, and it's great that your skill with the installers is being recognized.

However, I must admit that the news of the remake doesn't really excite me. From what I hear, the game is full of dead ends, random deaths, and unforgiving timed sequences. So unless they're also modernizing the game design, I don't think it's a game I'd be interested in playing. That's not to say it's necessarily a bad game, just that it's not my cup of tea.

Also, if the screenshots they've posted are any indication of what the game will actually look like, I really take issue with their description of those as "state of the art". The original game had the very limited 160x200 resolution and 16 colors, but it used those amazingly well. At that resolution, it's necessary to simplify and iconify things to even make them out. For example, you can't have a grey item next to a grey wall, so one or the other will need to be colored. And small objects either need to be enlarged, or you'd just accept that it's only going to look like a pixel. The remake screenshots have a resolution of 1920x1080, so they don't have any such restrictions. And yet, it looks to me like, for the most part, they're just directly modelling the original artwork in 3D and slapping on some generic textures. The result is something really bland, amateurish, and lifeless.

[gumby]

Well done, it's great that your hard work in putting together your top-notch installers is generating you some revenue

[tassieboy]

This is very exciting news. I never owned the original Gold Rush and the version on sarien.net was pretty buggy when I tried it.

It's exciting that they have aquired the rights to do this legally. I would imagine that means the game will not be free like a lot of other Sierra remakes. That's ok, I would pay money for this anyway.

Looking at the screenshots, the graphics are beautiful and very much respectful of the original artwork. I'm certainly looking forward to hearing more about this, and cool that they got you to package up the original Collector.

[Tawmis]

It's great that the game is being made available again, and it's great that your skill with the installers is being recognized.
However, I must admit that the news of the remake doesn't really excite me. From what I hear, the game is full of dead ends, random deaths, and unforgiving timed sequences. So unless they're also modernizing the game design, I don't think it's a game I'd be interested in playing. That's not to say it's necessarily a bad game, just that it's not my cup of tea.

The game is ruthless.

There are dead ends; because depending on what route you take to travel, if you don't buy the right thing, you're as good as dead. However, if you read the book that came with the game, it pretty much told you, in great detail, what the best things to purchase were, depending on the route you took. I also think it embraces what it was like to travel back then. So yes, there's the random disease that can hit you, and kill you (only during your travels, initially - that I am aware of). But once you make it to California, there's no disease (that I am aware of) that will wipe you out. Al Lowe said it best, "Save Early, Save Often."

[Tinuviel]

This was the first Sierra game I ever played; I am still very angry with myself for selling it a long time ago. It's what got me interested in games and Sierra games especially.

The game had a lot of dead ends, but so what? Remember the original Oregon Trail? I was always dying from something ridiculous in that, too. Frustrating, sure, but I still enjoyed the game.

Congratulations, Collector. That's very cool they recognized the good work you do in getting old games to run on new systems.

[Rath Darkblade]

Tinuviel! It's great to "see" you again. How are you? What have you been up to? I've recently read the lay of Beren and Luthien, so I just 'twigged' as to the full story behind your 'handle' on this board. *G*

Congratulations on being recognised, Collector! *s* I've never played Gold Rush. What is it about? *curious*

[Baggins]

This is cool to hear. It would be cool it they extended the game somehow. More routes, puzzles etc.

[Tawmis]

A few more screen shots are available, and it has it's own site. I am very excited about this.

http://www.goldrush-game.com/en/remake/

[adeyke]

Well, the new graphics are significantly less terrible than the previous versions. And they're apparently still works in progress. That's reassuring.

[Tawmis]

Well, the new graphics are significantly less terrible than the previous versions. And they're apparently still works in progress. That's reassuring.

For me, I'd buy it from the other graphics. This game was simply incredible. Story and choices were so amazing, especially for back then.

[adeyke]

That would then be a good reason to buy the game 26 years ago .

Personally, I'm still interested to know if they've modernized the game design at all. Just randomly and unavoidably dying isn't really something I consider acceptable in a game, for example. And, of course, there's the issue of the general quality of the product. Given the abysmal quality of their Game Tycoon 1.5, for example, I'd very wary.

As for actually buying it, though, no matter how good it ends up being, my usual "incredibly cheap and on Steam" criterion applies.