Padge Plays! Retro Edition - Goldfields (1986 - Jacaranda Software) Lets Play Goldfields PC Gameplay
22Welcome to Padge Plays! Retro Edition
In this series I will be playing some well known and less well known games all the way from yesteryear through to the present, sometimes from consoles and sometimes from the thousands of PC games available either through websites such as Steam, Good Old Games (GOG), as abandonware, (Home of the Underdogs) or through emulation software. (Such as WinVice C64)
In this episode we are going back to 1986 to play the game Goldfields by Jacaranda Software! In this game you start in Suze port at the height of the gold rush and you have exactly 1 year to make as much money as you can through working several different jobs and buying shares in the local businesses! And of course you'll be doing a lot of gold diggin! You can pan for gold, use a cradle for gold and of course the old tried and tested way for actually mining for gold too. But it's not all plain sailing, you can get injured on your travels, robbed at gunpoint and even end up in jail if you fail to buy a mining licence and the officers choose not to look the other way... even with a cash incentive!
This is one of those games that I have had with me on my many computers over the years and I like to crack it out every 12 months or so for a big hit of nostalgia and, if possible, better my old best scores in making the most money and finding the biggest nuggets! This was built primarily as an educational game but much like the Oregon trail it has continued to be enjoyable for many years after it should have been due to it's random elements and interesting theme... you should give it a go!
-- ABOUT THE GAME --
Goldfields is a computer game for children which simulates 'life on the diggings' during a 19th-century gold rush. Beginning with a concept by Trevor Jacob, it was developed and published by Jacaranda Software in Australia in 1986. It was first released for Apple II, BBC Micro, Commodore 64 and IBM compatible systems. The first Macintosh version was later developed using Hypercard. The original Goldfields package contained a disk, teacher's guide, four black-line masters and a copy of A Goldfields Journal or A Guide to Prospective Gold Seekers. A review in Australian Educational Computing magazine described it as 'a particularly useful package, adaptable to a number of levels in both upper primary and secondary social science classes. The game also received a favourable review from the Australian Journal of Reading in 1986. Despite its age, Goldfields remains well regarded as a mining-themed economic simulator with integrated action sequences.
Due to its ongoing popularity with children and educators, it was rewritten from scratch for Windows XP and Macintosh OSX by Greygum Software in 2007, who bought the rights to the title after Jacaranda Software's closure in the early 1990s.
The GreyGum Software description:
Goldfields is an historical simulation that allows students to explore the possibilities of life in the goldfields of nineteenth century Australia, as well as developing reading and language skills.
They can choose to run a freight business, work in a pub or a market garden, become a nurse, doctor, councillor, criminal—or even a miner!
The flexibility of the simulation allows the player’s success to be entirely dependent on his or her ingenuity and persistence, as was the case in real life. (Courageous diggers might even find Muir’s Marvel, an enormous nugget which can be found only if they survive floods and landslides.)
Students can print certificates of achievement at the end of each year on the goldfields.
Included in the package are photocopyable worksheets and the Goldfields Journal, a re-creation of the pamphlets which offered advice on all aspects of life in the goldfields. Teachers will find the Goldfields Journal rich in resources, while students will need it to gain full knowledge of the tricks and techniques of gold mining, travelling and surviving in a hostile but exciting environment.
You can check out the new developers Goldfields website here:
https://www.greygum.com.au/website/index.php/goldfields
You can also "see" it here:
http://www.old-games.com/download/5277/goldfields
You'll need DosBox to run it too... Get it here:
https://www.dosbox.com/
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Whilst you're here check out my other videos!
Check out the Padge Plays! playlist here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkLG67k4e7kfilvf8XbNHiLBUlFOoc7Ga
Let's Play Surviving Project Zomboid Survivors Mod here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkLG67k4e7kfPuZMTn376zfZhHSAxerns
Let's Play The Curious Expedition:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkLG67k4e7ketGibm_1wLE8yy2ZR4D_lM
#RetroGaming #DOSGaming
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