DOS Days

Gold Rush!

Released: 1988
Published by: Sierra On-Line
Developed by: Sierra On-Line
Author(s): Ken MacNeill, Doug MacNeill, Robert Eric Heitman, Anita Scott, Chris Iden, Jeff Stephenson

                             
EGA 16-colour graphics

 

Introduction

The year is 1848 and word has reached Jerrod Wilson, a newspaper journalist in Brooklyn Heights, of the whereabouts of his long lost brother, and shortly after the rumours of possible immense wealth out West.

Maybe it was his brother's disappearance some years ago, or maybe just the call of the wild, but Jerrod had an itch for adventure, a desire to follow in the rich tradition of his ancestors, Jerrod not only wanted to discover his whereabouts, but he also longed to learn about the mysteries that lie beyond the borders of Brooklyn Heights, the only home he had ever known.

Did You Know?

The game provides 3 ways to reach the West: (1) Travel by ship through Panama then on foot through the jungles of Central America, (2) By stagecoach, canal boat, steamer and wagon train across the heartland of America, or (3) become a Seafarer and take the long, perilous journey down to Cape Horn and up to California!

What does Jerrod's future hold? Will he continue with the nine to five routine (yawn) of a secure yet somehow unsatisfying career? Or will he break free of his chains and head out west to where the action is?

His fate lies in your hands. Become Jerrod Wilson, and face the challenge of the California Gold Rush as you race against time and the perils of travel on a realistic simulation of life on the wild west frontier. Immeasurable riches lie just 2500 miles away! Good luck!



Intro sequence for Gold Rush!

System Requirements

System Requirements Intel 8088/8086 CPU (80286 recommended), 256 KB RAM
Graphics support for Tandy/PCjr, Hercules, CGA, Composite CGA (16 colours), EGA (max. 320 x 200 in 16 colours)
Audio support for PC Speaker and Tandy/PCjr only.
Keyboard and Joystick supported.
Original Media Five 5.25" 360 KB (DS/DD) or two 3.5" 720 KB (DS/DD) floppy disks.
Installed Size (MB) 1.3 MB

 

Copy Protection

Gold Rush! has manual copy protection. In the original game box was a manual entitled "California Gold - Story of the Rush to Riches".

 

How to Setup

.There is no configuration utility apart from a batch file that can be used to install the game from floppy to hard disk.

 

Problems

Symptom: The PC speaker sound is getting pretty annoying!
Cause: The game is from 1988 - that's all you got back then! Gold Rush! does support Tandy/PCjr 3-voice audio if you have one of those machines. If you don't there is still a way to improve the sound...
Resolution: Install this patch by Anders Olsson - it allows the Tandy 3-voice (+1 noise channel) audio to be played through your MIDI interface. It therefore requires a hardware MIDI unit like a Roland MT-32 - it will not work on your Sound Blaster.

Symptom: I have put my house up for sale, but a buyer never comes.
Cause: You are running a cracked version of the game and you are running in FAST or FASTEST mode.
Resolution: Turn the game speed down to NORMAL or SLOW until the house is sold.


To Quit the Game

To quit the game, press Ctrl-Q and choose 'Yes' at the prompt to return to DOS.

 

Supporting Documents

This section provides you with all of the original documentation found in the game box, plus any third-party guides I've discovered.


Save Games

To save the game at any point, hit F5 to bring up the Save Game dialog. Enter in a drive and directory where you wish to store the save game file(s) and hit Enter. You will then be presented with a number of 'slots' to put your save game into. Move the cursor up and down to choose one, hit Enter again and give you save game a textual description, followed by Enter to complete the Save.

To restore (load) a previously-saved game, hit F7, choose the drive and directory to search and hit Enter. The save game slots will appear from which you can choose one and hit Enter to load it.

Versions of the game known to exist

Version Date Comments
Demo 1988 Sierra's Demo Pack 4 comprised non-playable demos of Gold Rush!, Manhunter 2, Mixed Up Mother Goose, Police Quest, Space Quest II, and Leisure Suit Larry.
2.01 23 Dec 1988 Uses AGI interpreter version 3.002.149
  2000 The Software Farm re-release of original game, called "Gold Rush! Collectors Edition" - still has the copy protection. The Software Farm is owned and operated by Ken and Doug MacNeill (the original game authors).
  2014 Re-release of original game (digital download only) by Sunlight Games, called "Gold Rush! Classic". Copy protection removed. Requires a Pentium 200 MHz, CD-ROM drive, 30 MB of hard disk space, and runs on Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8.
  1 Dec 2014 Gold Rush! Anniversary - the remake of California Gold Rush by The Software Farm. A completely new development, but retains the same storyline. Over 130 pre-rendered screens and animations in full HD, high-quality voices and new recorded music, choice of parser or point-and-click.


Original Floppy Disk Contents

The floppy disks have a volume label of "GOLDRUSH! 1", "GOLDRUSH! 2", etc. (both formats are like this). Here are each disk's contents:

    Disk 1 of 5 (5.25" 360 KB DS/DD) v2.01:

     
                
    Directory of A:\
    AGI                 40,520  18/11/88  23:31
    AGIDATA  OVL         7,488  18/11/88  11:10
    CGA_GRAF OVL           684  18/11/88  11:10
    EGA_GRAF OVL           591  18/11/88  11:10
    HGC_GRAF OVL         3,075  18/11/88  11:10
    JR_GRAF  OVL           470  18/11/88  11:10
    VG_GRAF  OVL           362  18/11/88  11:10
    SIERRA   COM         3,134  29/07/88  20:32
    EXIST    COM            98  19/09/86   9:41
    MAKEPATH COM            74  22/04/87  12:05
    RESETDSK COM            12  19/07/88  11:40
    INSTALLH BAT         1,244  13/10/88  23:11
    _GR      BAT            37  13/09/88  14:01
    _INSTALL BAT           904  13/10/88  23:23
    WORDS    TOK         6,110  22/12/88   7:12
    OBJECT               1,814  13/12/88  10:25
    GRDIR                2,399  22/12/88  19:37
    GRVOL    0          25,070  22/12/88  19:33
    GRVOL    1         207,528  22/12/88  19:34
    GRVOL    10         20,612  22/12/88  19:37
    GRVOL    11         10,123  22/12/88  19:37
    GRVOL    12          3,976  22/12/88  19:37
    GR122388 QA             68  23/12/88   9:47
            23 file(s)        336,393 bytes
             0 dir(s)          12,288 bytes free

    Disk 2 of 5 (5.25" 360 KB DS/DD) v2.01:

     
    Directory of A:\
    OBJECT               1,814  13/12/88  10:25
    GRVOL    0          25,070  22/12/88  19:33
    GRVOL    2         125,702  22/12/88  19:34
    GRVOL    10         20,612  22/12/88  19:37
    GRVOL    11         10,123  22/12/88  19:37
    GR122388 QA             68  23/12/88   9:47
             6 file(s)        183,389 bytes
             0 dir(s)         176,128 bytes free

    Disk 3 of 5 (5.25" 360 KB DS/DD) v2.01:

    Directory of A:\
    OBJECT               1,814  13/12/88  10:25
    GRVOL    0          25,070  22/12/88  19:33
    GRVOL    3         279,567  22/12/88  19:35
    GRVOL    9          26,174  22/12/88  19:37
    GRVOL    11         10,123  22/12/88  19:37
    GR122388 QA             68  23/12/88   9:47
             6 file(s)        342,816 bytes
             0 dir(s)          16,384 bytes free
     

    Disk 4 of 5 (5.25" 360 KB DS/DD) v2.01:

    Directory of A:\
    OBJECT               1,814  13/12/88  10:25
    GRVOL    0          25,070  22/12/88  19:33
    GRVOL    4         259,527  22/12/88  19:36
    GRVOL    9          26,174  22/12/88  19:37
    GRVOL    11         10,123  22/12/88  19:37
    GR122388 QA             68  23/12/88   9:47
             6 file(s)        322,776 bytes
             0 dir(s)          36,864 bytes free
     

    Disk 5 of 5 (5.25" 360 KB DS/DD) v2.01:

    Directory of A:\
    OBJECT               1,814  13/12/88  10:25
    GRVOL    0          25,070  22/12/88  19:33
    GRVOL    5         227,102  22/12/88  19:37
    GRVOL    9          26,174  22/12/88  19:37
    GRVOL    12          3,976  22/12/88  19:37
    GR122388 QA             68  23/12/88   9:47
             6 file(s)        284,204 bytes
             0 dir(s)          75,776 bytes free
    
         
     

    Disk 1 of 2 (3.5" 720 KB DS/DD) v2.01:

    Directory of A:\
    AGI                      40,520 18-11-1988 23:31
    AGIDATA  OVL              7,488 18-11-1988 11:10
    CGA_GRAF OVL                684 18-11-1988 11:10
    EGA_GRAF OVL                591 18-11-1988 11:10
    EXIST    COM                 98 19-09-1986  9:41
    GR122388 QA                  68 23-12-1988  9:47
    GRDIR                     2,399 22-12-1988 19:46
    GRVOL    0               78,086 22-12-1988 19:42
    GRVOL    1              552,584 22-12-1988 19:44
    HGC_GRAF OVL              3,075 18-11-1988 11:10
    INSTALLH BAT              1,244 13-10-1988 23:11
    JR_GRAF  OVL                470 18-11-1988 11:10
    MAKEPATH COM                 74 22-04-1987 12:05
    OBJECT                    1,814 13-12-1988 10:25
    RESETDSK COM                 12 19-07-1988 11:40
    SIERRA   COM              3,134 29-07-1988 20:32
    VG_GRAF  OVL                362 18-11-1988 11:10
    WORDS    TOK              6,110 22-12-1988  7:12
    _GR      BAT                 37 13-09-1988 14:01
    _INSTALL BAT                586 17-10-1988 12:21
       20 File(s)           699,436 bytes
                             17,408 bytes free

    Disk 2 of 2 (3.5" 720 KB DS/DD), v2.01:

    Directory of A:\
    GR122388 QA                  68 23-12-1988  9:47
    GRVOL    0               78,086 22-12-1988 19:42
    GRVOL    2              556,217 22-12-1988 19:46
    OBJECT                    1,814 13-12-1988 10:25
        4 File(s)           636,185 bytes
                             91,136 bytes free
         
     

 

Installed Directory Contents

Once installed, the following directory structure exists in the game directory:

    Full Install chosen

     
                
    Directory of C:\SIERRA\GOLDRUSH
    .            <DIR>         05/09/21   13:49
..           <DIR>         05/09/21   13:49