Gold Rush!

Overview

Gold Rush! is a 1988 educational adventure game created by brothers Ken and Doug MacNeill. The game uses Sierra's AGI game engine, combining a graphical presentation with a text parser interface.

Story

Players control Jerrod Wilson, a newspaper worker in Brooklyn Heights in 1848. As news of the discovery of gold in California spreads, Jerrod decides to risk it all and undertake the perilous journey west in search of fortune.

After selling his house and securing supplies in New York, the player chooses one of three paths through the game: traveling overland, crossing the Isthmus of Panama, or sailing around Cape Horn. The journey is reminiscent of The Oregon Trail, as the player must avoid death from horrible diseases, starvation, and/or killer ants.

Upon arriving in California, you can wander the wilderness around Sacramento, panning for gold in streams. Eventually, you will find notes left by your brother, leading you to a perilous cave. The final challenge is to venture inside, where -- if you survive -- you may find the mother lode and be rewarded with more gold than you dreamed possible.

Availability

Gold Rush is apparently still available for purchase directly from the MacNeill brothers' company The Software Farm. According to the company's website, customers can purchase the game in a collector's edition that includes a poster-sized map and comes in a handmade wooden box. The website depicts the game being offered on 3.5 inch floppy discs; it is unknown whether other physical media formats are currently available.

The game was also released on Steam in 2014.