Gold Rush!

Gold Rush! is a video game in the adventure genre developed by Sierra On-Line, Inc. and published by Sierra On-Line, Inc. originally released in 1988. It is currently playable on DOS.

In Gold Rush!, Jerrod Wilson (the player character) receives a letter from his long-lost brother (who fled town years earlier when he was hastily charged and convicted of a crime he didn't commit) asking him to join Sacramento, California. As if that wasn't enough for Jerrod to sell everything and bid a fond farewell to his native Brooklyn, under the seal was one of the first California gold nuggets seen on the Atlantic shores of the United States. Thus Jerrod bids farewell to his peaceful life as a newspaper publisher and becomes a harbinger of the great Gold Rush of 1849, hoping to find his brother and 'strike gold' (literally).

Released late in the life of Sierra's AGI engine, Gold Rush! features some previously unseen gimmicks from the more advanced SCI engine, such as expanded characters, but is best known for the three available routes to California: overland, traveling by ship to reach the Atlantic shore of Panama, crossing the isthmus and then getting a second ship on the Pacific shore, or making the perilous boat trip around Cape Horn. Each route has its dangers: Cholera may strike while you are crossing the northern states or your ship may sink. As usual in Sierra's adventures, instant death occurs if the player is careless, but it will also happen randomly. Another important (and innovative) concept is that the game is timed. If Jerrod takes too long to leave Brooklyn, tickets to California increase in price and his house is devalued.

Gold Rush! is available at a reduced price on the following websites and is no longer abandonware.