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Gold Rush!
0 Playsin 8 hours
Ben & Jess discuss the late period AGI edutainment game Gold Rush! It's kind of weird! It's kind of fun! In a world of arbitrary adventure game deaths, its the king! We also spend a little time talking about its strange sequel made decades later.
Quest Quest podcast is Ben Vigeant and Jess Morrissette.
Editing by Ben Vigeant
Show art by Kevin "WilcoWeb" Wallace
Watch us on Twitch!
Ben: https://www.twitch.tv/ps_garak
Jess: https://www.twitch.tv/decafjedi
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Talk with us on Discord!
https://discord.gg/ve9fqjgPp2
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Transcript
Introduction and Humor in American Hero Narrative
00:00:33
Speaker
It's the story of a great American hero, a young, ambitious city slicker born and raised in urban America.
00:00:45
Speaker
Quite frankly, that that's kind of funny. Quite frankly. That's what they always say in movie trailers. she Yes. That's what they, in a world where quite frankly, a lot of things are happening right now. Back in it.
00:00:59
Speaker
Quite frankly, he's perfectly prim and proper.
Exploring the Concept of a 9-to-5 Workday
00:01:04
Speaker
Caught in the trap of nine to five. Did nine to five exist as a concept in like 1848 or whatever? No, prior to the emergence of the labor movement, it was it was like nine to nine. Yeah. Yeah.
00:01:26
Speaker
but whatever um is this all that life has to offer there has to be more this man is ready for action as of this moment he no longer will accept okay uh oh this as of this moment he's ready for action uh no longer dreaming of advent oh he will accept only this is dreaming of adventure what are you reading from this is that's the start of gold rush really it sounds so strange in the voice right that's the beginning of gold rush that's the beginning of gold this man is ready for action as of this moment he no longer will accept only ellipses
00:02:16
Speaker
he won't and and and mon then and then and then it just says gold rush Underneath it, it says ready dreaming of adventure, but I don't think that's right.
00:02:32
Speaker
yeah. you As of this moment, no longer... all right, hold on. Let's... Okay. Take Okay. okay ah as of As of this moment, no longer will he accept only dreaming of adventure. I was... i was i've i flipped the words. I flipped the words. He will live adventure.
00:02:52
Speaker
As of this moment, no longer... all right. That is, that is awkward. That is, that is not a well-constructed sentence in my defense. yeah As of this moment, no longer will he accept only dreaming of adventure.
00:03:08
Speaker
I mean, yeah, everything about that is a series of weird clauses nested in other clauses. i mean, and and we've had, there was a whole Santa Claus TV series on and Disney Plus. That's right. Let me tell you, Ben. Lots of weird clauses. As someone who grades a lot of papers, I would put brackets around that.
00:03:28
Speaker
And then out in the margin, i would write awkward. As well, yeah, but when you write that as ah as a professor, yeah when you write down bracketed awkward, are you in your head going awkward?
00:03:43
Speaker
I was going to say that exactly before you even started. was going to say, yes, the tone is awkward.
Adventure Game Podcast Introduction
00:03:51
Speaker
This is quest quest, the adventure game podcast. And we, you know what? We started off talking about an adventure game. We did, know, it was up for a little while. Yeah. We're going to stop for about 30 minutes.
00:04:05
Speaker
Set your stopwatches. Uh, how are you doing? Jess? ah You know, Ben, um I'm fantastic. I'm just coming back from from a cookout at a friend's house.
00:04:16
Speaker
cookout is it is it warm where you are you know it's been 85 degrees i'm just having fun i'm just funning you yeah no that's great you all right yeah no it's been like 85 degrees here all week which in celsius i think is about 120 um i mean it real hot real hot but then today it was 50 uh and we have a frost warning underway tonight so who knows and what's that in celsius Frost warning, i think water freezes at negative 270 Celsius. So that's about where we're heading to tonight. Yeah. Very good, Professor. ah where Where I'm at in Chicago, Illinois, ah it is 42.
00:05:04
Speaker
forty two out Isn't that amusing as a nerd? Don't you appreciate that? ah What a number. I can only think of one funnier number. Yeah.
00:05:15
Speaker
I can think of two. can think of two funnier numbers. Oh, oh, please. You're going to make me say the two funnier numbers than 42? think I have a funnier one.
00:05:27
Speaker
You have two, you have a funnier number than the two numbers I have in my number pocket. Yes. And I mean, one of those is relevant the day after we record this.
00:05:38
Speaker
Well, yeah, that's one of the numbers that I have. So you're already running. it I'm better that one. I'm better than my two funny numbers. I have prepared in my comedy chest or 69. Hilarious.
00:05:50
Speaker
And, uh, uh, 42, zero. Okay. so Hilarious. I've got you beat, man. What else? Six, seven. oh for fuck's sake.
00:06:02
Speaker
You know, this might be the worst beginning. No. Of a podcast. No, did you listen to last week? Last week. Did you listen to last week? We're getting worse. We're definitely, the further we go, the worse these become.
00:06:19
Speaker
ah Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, it's a shame. um but you know, ah we count on our listeners to find this charming. Yeah. It's, it's, it will, I, I count on everyone to find, to find this charming, you know, and really a lot of what I do in life. Like, I'm just like, boy, I hope people find this charming. If not,
Charm, Emails, and Listener Interactions
00:06:39
Speaker
oh boy. Yeah.
00:06:40
Speaker
Yeah, I'm in deep shit if no one finds this shit. yeah Like everything that is me. Yeah, I'm like really putting a lot of hope that people are just going yeah, yeah, it's kind of charming. i'm I'm investing heavily in my whole shtick ah working because if not, ready for this? just Ready for a hilarious joke.
00:07:05
Speaker
Yes. Houston, we have a problem. Yeah.
00:07:09
Speaker
project tell mary this uh this weekend so uh talk about houston we have a problem uh all right you know what let's get back on track and back on track back on track only one way i know how to get back on track and that is to read some emails we got emails We got emails. It's here, baby. The mailbag is open. If you want to email us, you can do that. Just go into your email client. Maybe you're using Eudora.
00:07:42
Speaker
I'm not sure what you're using. What are there what other email clients? Let's see. There's AOL mail client. Maybe you're using Hotmail.
00:07:52
Speaker
Maybe you're in Hotmail. Maybe you're in... Some other fourth one, but email us at quest quest podcast at gmail.com.
00:08:03
Speaker
All right. So our first email we have ah from Dion. Hi, Ben. Jess, I just discovered your show. Thank you. And the first episode I listened to was solo quest colon passionate Patty.
00:08:16
Speaker
Oh, no. So you're pretty pissed off. I've been talking whole Just wanted to say i really enjoyed listening to it. And Jess's observations on Patty were really interesting here. i Also read Jess's article on the politics of Passionate Patty. was a very fascinating read.
00:08:36
Speaker
I gamed most from ages six to about 21 and was thinking through the entire period. The only female protagonist I played as was passionate Patty, the lady from Barbarian 2 on the season 4.
00:08:50
Speaker
but Are you familiar? Are you familiar with that? No. Yeah. ah And the lady from Golden Axe. Across hundreds and hundreds of titles I played, isn't that incredible? And Pajan and Patty was certainly the most interesting character, unlike any ah character I can recall from a TV show or film at the time. Here's something you probably didn't know.
00:09:10
Speaker
There was an extremely rare fan-made game version of Larry, Larry for the ah unofficial fan game, made by a couple guys in South Africa in the late 90s.
00:09:23
Speaker
That was quite popular university campuses and dorms, at least while I was in university. I got a copy via a burned CD from someone. I've never heard of this. I haven't. This is fascinating.
00:09:33
Speaker
From what I can recall, the opening and closing scenes features Patty, but the rest of the game is mostly about Larry. Tried for years to track down that game or the guys who development i developed it, but it seems to be lost to time. I've never met anyone from outside South Africa who even knew about it.
00:09:51
Speaker
I live in New Zealand now. There's not a trace of it on the internet, which is a terrible shame. Anyway, great show. I'll be listening to more episodes for sure.
00:10:02
Speaker
I've never heard of this. i haven't either. you know We know someone. We do. Who, ah ah yeah, we know someone from South Africa. That's in the adventure gaming scene. We might have to reach out to a source there that tends to know a lot more than we do about these things. Yeah. I'm fascinated by this. This sounds interesting. i would love to to know more because I i too enjoy enjoy Passionate Patty as a character. I think she makes Larry more interesting. And thank you for the kind words about the the episode and the article. It's been something that I've wanted to talk about ah for years and occasionally find someone who will listen to me while I do it. So thank you. What I'm curious about
00:10:47
Speaker
is This fan game, what was it made in? That's a great question. in the I mean, it's pre-AGS. It's pre-AGS. Unless it's like 99, which seems unlikely from the story.
00:11:02
Speaker
yeah So what do you, like, I wonder what it was made in. That's a good question. Like, you know, did did they, like, was somebody just, like, was this like Mad Dog McCree? Were they they making something?
00:11:15
Speaker
Well... We have to know more about this. Yeah. If if you're listening and i let me take a look at, ah let me take a look at our our downloads here because I do believe we do have Now we don't have that many listeners in South Africa. Our metrics say no. We have listeners. If you know anything about this. have one person location, like according to this in in South Africa. So ah to you, the one person.
00:11:50
Speaker
of ah the the the couple hundred that have been listening to our podcast recently. We have. We've had also, i welcome in we've had a bunch of people join in on the last couple episodes. So I hope you've been enjoying these. um But if you know anything about this, please,
Gaming Reflections and Listener Feedback
00:12:11
Speaker
questquestpodcast at gmail.com. I'd love to hear about this. And thank you for that. Yeah, would I mean, with that level of distribution too, if it's being burned and passed around college campuses and stuff,
00:12:22
Speaker
That's really fascinating. I think about something like, I'm sure Ben, you've heard of the secret of Donkey Island, yeah yeah the unofficial check. um Yeah, Monkey Island sequel. But I think that was actually a commercial release somehow that that moved around. But this idea of distribution in a mostly pre-internet era is fascinating to me. i wonder if it was on BBSs, probably if people were handing it out.
00:12:49
Speaker
and i And I don't know anything about,
00:12:54
Speaker
like, what is what is internet and local network penetration? And what's the BBS scene in South Africa in the late 90s? I don't know any, I don't know a single thing about that. I have zero knowledge. Yeah, so let's speculate. Yeah, let's look speculate based off of,
00:13:14
Speaker
literally nothing i know yeah zero that's fascinating so yeah reach out quest quest podcast gmail.com we have one other uh quick email here from thank you so much hey ben and jess thank you for fulfilling my request and playing beneath a steel sky so glad you didn't hate it i was a little a little bit worried that you might oh wow it's a great it was delightful i enjoyed it really enjoyed it yeah I've always enjoyed the game, mostly for the atmosphere.
00:13:44
Speaker
That's the best part. I'd agree. And honestly, the possible Australia references went completely over my head somehow. And most others. Jess is... I still think I discovered something when I said, and folks, if you missed the Beneath the Still Sky episode, I will quickly explain.
00:14:03
Speaker
There's a robot character you carry around on a circuit board named Joey, and I think because you're carrying him around, it's a Joey like a kangaroo Joey joke and or reference, and it's Australian game. This is mind-melting. Like, this is something that millions of people have played this game, and I apparently am the first one to figure out, making me...
00:14:24
Speaker
The smartest Beneath a Still Sky player ever.
00:14:29
Speaker
The email continues.
00:14:34
Speaker
I have purchased a s sequel both on Switch and Steam, but have only gotten a tiny bit into the game over several years. I will, and I'm hitting all the all the all caps there. Good, good, good, good, good. I will play through it someday.
00:14:48
Speaker
i only recently completed The Secret of Monkey Island for the first time. Go. Thanks again, John. Thank you, John. Thank you, John. It was a pleasure to play beneath the Stiltska.
00:15:00
Speaker
Yeah, thank you for the ever for the nudge. That's been on my list for like over a decade. I spent my list for 30 years. I finally got around to play it. then You know what? have played it sooner. I do think it's a great example. I mean, I enjoyed it a lot playing it, you know, here in 2026. I think if I'd gotten a hold of that game in 94...
00:15:21
Speaker
Absolutely. I would have been obsessed with it. Oh, for... sure yeah i mean as much as i enjoyed it now i think it would have been even more up my alley back then oh absolutely absolutely it it i the the i think our age difference means that i probably should have gotten into it in college because if i got into it at the time it would have scared me too much ah yeah i got into in 94 when i
00:15:54
Speaker
uh yeah what i when i would have been like uh was it yeah i would i would have been eight little too young to maybe appreciate that what is a better part out of yeah that that game would have scared the shit out of me i mean but yeah justed five scared the shit out of you there's no way you could have handled bill scares me i know i know you don't like to talk about it why do you think that our space quest playthrough series ended right before we get to four now i do want to say next week we have a big surprise coming up that's all we do at the end of the episode but you know who knows we'll ever even make it to space quest five i don't i you're making me uncomfortable with all this talk so instead i'm going to change the subject and ask you what have you been playing
00:16:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's right.
Retro Gaming and Mastertronic Discussion
00:16:39
Speaker
Just earlier today, loaded up a game that I haven't played. ah guys swear to God, if this is Overwatch, furious.
00:16:51
Speaker
It's a lot like Overwatch. It is something of like a hero, ah you know, combat game. But have you ever played the nineteen eighty s game?
00:17:04
Speaker
I've never even, i know. Now this game, just so you've got this. Is this something that you got via a burned CD in South African? I bought this at Sears and Roebuck on their on their discount. What year is this?
00:17:19
Speaker
This is gonna be 1987 was the arcade release and then it came out in 88 and 89. Oh, this is an arcade game. Maybe I do know. Let me get this for the listeners. That game is ARGH!
00:17:31
Speaker
It's A-A-A-R-G-H exclamation point. A-A-R-A-A-R-G-H exclamation point. So that is ARGH! What this game is.
00:17:44
Speaker
It's a ridiculous. I'm wanting to say it's a rampage amount. I'm pretty sure. Look, this is a bit rampage. Yeah, it's rampage coded like we all know rampage, right? That's the, you know, kaiju climbing up the buildings, knocking them down, eating people that foot they're like a really fun multiplayer particularly enjoy. But it it it is It was every player.
00:18:10
Speaker
it It still has a fair amount of representation and a lot of like barcades and stuff. Yeah, you'll still stumble across rampage machines. But this is sort of ah like the home version of it and the arcade version of it.
00:18:23
Speaker
You play as either a giant cyclops orc with a unicorn horn or a giant dragon. And you walk around in a number of fantasy esque settings like villages and like an Egyptian city. And I think there's like a medieval setting and stuff.
00:18:44
Speaker
And you destroy cottages and huts and other buildings while fighting this other monster. And you're searching for like a golden dragon egg. And is the very definition of like, we have rampage at home. It's definitely like Timu rampage. And it's terrible. It is. your You're you'rere your kid.
00:19:10
Speaker
What? I know. This looks terrible. No, mean, it's awful. And it's, i mean, I think maybe it started as an Amiga game. and so So I'm looking this up. And so what it was, as it happens, I talked about this other podcast. I really enjoy this video games history podcast. I've i've really, like, recently gotten into called They Create Worlds.
00:19:34
Speaker
And as it happens, earlier this year, they a did an episode on this company that that did this. So it was actually ringing a bell. um But ah it it was a made by Mastertronic.
00:19:53
Speaker
Yes. Which was a ah budget, a like a ah European budget software software. like ah or like ah a budget publisher of software, and they, like, arg, or arg! Yes, there's an explanation point, Ben.
00:20:18
Speaker
Is from a ah period, and this is from memory, so, you know, please listen to their their podcast. They're, you know, they're doing research and shit. I'm just...
00:20:29
Speaker
poorly remembering a podcast from months ago. Just saying things. But I believe what it was was that they, ah like yeah, I'm looking here. It was... An arcade machine based on custom hardware from the Amiga. That's wild. Like that sentence perplexes me.
00:20:48
Speaker
Like it was just kind of a, it was, it was an attempt that they were, they were making. And I don't believe that like Mastertronic is not a ah arcade developer that you really think about.
00:21:08
Speaker
Or, you know, if you're naming, if you're naming games like, you know, the the great arcade ah you know cabinet designers, you're not thinking of Mastertronic.
00:21:22
Speaker
How great does that Cyclops look though? have you got The Cyclops looks great. the the The cover image, and I'm assuming this is for like a release on the Amiga or the the ZX Spectrum or whatever, um on on the Wikipedia page is quite funny.
00:21:43
Speaker
I do recommend that you go... to the Wikipedia page and look at the the cover for whatever release this yeah was. Because it is a Cyclops with ah a horn strangling a dragon while like what looks like a kid with a gun.
00:22:06
Speaker
Like he has a joystick. What's happening there? Okay. Is each of those monsters is like digitally emerging from an arcade cabinet. That's what you're seeing on either side of it. It's a very small, it's a very small. yeah So what you're seeing is zooming in. And now I understand. It was such a popular arcade cabinet, but now they brought it to home systems. Yeah. It was, what a thrill.
00:22:26
Speaker
Yeah. You can see them exploding from those cabinets to wrestle each other. And I mean, The Cyclops. don't know. Cyclops with the unicorn horn feels like it's a bit much. What a what version of this game are you? Are you playing the arcade version DOS version? That's why I played as a kid. The DOS version.
00:22:48
Speaker
Yeah, was a das humter made I it looks great. You know, it looks not terrible. I mean, it looks way worse than the arcade version.
00:23:03
Speaker
Yeah. But I will say the DOS version, you know how arcade games handled on DOS platform? Oh, terrible. Circa like 1988 or so?
00:23:17
Speaker
It definitely feels like that, where even if you had a joystick, it was terribly non-responsive. Playing it now with keyboard is just an exercise in preparation. You know what it made me say the whole time?
00:23:31
Speaker
What did it make you say, yikes? No. Uh, did you say, yuck? No. Did you say, piffle? No, no thank you. No, Ben, I said, argh!
00:23:45
Speaker
Oh, oh, oh, I guess I should have guessed that. That's the battle of the game. Alright, oh, okay. Ben, what have you been playing? Jess, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be Frank here.
00:24:00
Speaker
Nice to meet you, Frank, I'm Jess. Oh, I'm gonna be completely frank. I... this... I have not had a moment other than when I streamed on Tuesday to play anything.
00:24:18
Speaker
Because I was preparing... This is so cool. For... I was just at...
Ben's Ebert Fest Experiences
00:24:26
Speaker
Like, literally... So we're recording this... later than we, we like days later than we, we normally do because my whole schedule has been pretty fucked up past, uh, a couple of weeks.
00:24:39
Speaker
And, uh, one of the things contributing to that is that, uh, I was performing, uh, at the final, uh, Ebert fest, the Roger Ebert film festival in Champaign, Illinois.
00:24:59
Speaker
And I was part of the ensemble for a an episode of Siskel and Ebert at the movies, which, and you're you're probably thinking,
00:25:22
Speaker
What? This is a legendary episode, though. would want to watch that? would would want to watch a reenactment of a root movie review program? Now i'll watch a Civil War reenactment. We talk about that a lot on this on this podcast. I mean, yeah, all day, every day. But but but this was a reenactment of
00:25:43
Speaker
an episode where they reviewed, and it was the first film they reviewed, Full Metal Jacket. and You could watch this on YouTube, and I invite you to. Just you know type in Siskel and Ebert, Full Metal Jacket, full episode.
00:25:58
Speaker
And it's a split decision. Gene loves it. Roger is disappointed. and what more did Roger want?
00:26:10
Speaker
Roger, Roger, walerwa um attorney timmany of ah did write your wa um what Roger did you want from Mr. Stanley Kubrick?
00:26:32
Speaker
I didn't say 2001. Was it that good 2001? Did it not make you laugh like Lolita?
00:26:45
Speaker
Oh. oh That's right. I do have a Jiminy Glick in my pocket. man. But, um...
00:26:56
Speaker
Roger felt that, and I've heard other people say this this too, ah like he didn't dislike the movie. He thought it wasn't up to Kubrick's high quality standard.
00:27:14
Speaker
And he felt that like the other big deal Vietnam movies that had come out to that point, which would be Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter,
00:27:25
Speaker
and platoon were all uh better and he like felt that the the battle scene that is the second half of the film wasn't up to the level of quality that he'd expect from a director like stanley kubrick because it's like i think When I say i've I've heard this, I think the line that people say on on Full Metal Jacket is, I love the first half.
00:27:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's boot camp. And then then, like, people are mixed. I've heard people that love, it's been a minute since I've seen it. I haven't seen it since since I was in college.
00:28:07
Speaker
So i want to I do want to rewatch and and see what I think. Because Gene, Gene Siskel, ah loved it. Like he's like, no, i've he says, I've never felt a kill the way that I did in that scene.
00:28:22
Speaker
and awaken some there And Roger will not have it. He's like, that's a cliche, Gene. Like they start, they hammer and tongs start screaming, like not screaming, but they get really at it. And then, but there' then there's the whole rest of the the show where they review Uh, Spaceballs, another split decision.
00:28:48
Speaker
Uh, Roxanne and Benji the Hunted, and then have a, uh, here's VHS's that you can rent, or Laserdisc's if you want a higher quality.
00:29:00
Speaker
where they talk about other Stanley Kubrick movies, and all of their other reviews come back to how mad they are at each other. that's so good. About their full metal jacket disagreement.
00:29:13
Speaker
Like, they're as I said, they're split on space balls, and it's just like, all right, well, that's that's two you're wrong on. Like... Ben, can we get a quick quest quest? to See if we can spark a similar level of discord that will... We're both too conflict-averse, Jess. Okay, Ben, Spaceballs, thumbs up, thumbs down.
00:29:41
Speaker
I think I'm gonna side with a Gene a very marginal thumbs up. that was That was what Gene's was. He was like... like, I, you know, I don't particularly, like, i he's like, it's not great, but it made me laugh.
00:29:58
Speaker
Light recommendation, thumbs up. And Roger's like, it made me laugh, but it wasn't good enough thumbs down. I'm probably slightly more in the Roger category there. There you go.
00:30:10
Speaker
I mean, yeah, I think maybe. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's fine. Anyway, so so this is a reenactment. The way that this this this reenactment that we did of this the show, two friends, my friends, Steve and Zach.
00:30:27
Speaker
did impressions and I'm gonna say like full theatrical acting. Like I've seen them in costume. Really good performances.
00:30:38
Speaker
and And I'll say ah chazz Ebert Roger, like who was married to Roger Ebert was there and watched it and loved it.
00:30:48
Speaker
So, wow and got photos with them and all of us afterwards. And then photos with Zach who played Roger afterwards, which was just awesome. Amazing. And, but anyway, so ah my role in it was we had an ensemble and we did reenactments of the movie clips.
00:31:10
Speaker
which Which meant that I got to be Pizza the Hut, which was amazing. Oh, man. And, like, I got to do a bunch of little things, but my this was this was an incredible moment.
00:31:22
Speaker
So this is, i this film festival was in this old, like, kind of turn of the century, maybe, or like 19... I guess it would have to be 20s it's a movie house. But it's this old grand movie house in Champaign, Illinois. I think it seats over 1,000 or something. It's very one of my re reenactment things was I was doing famous scene from Dr. Strangelove.
00:32:01
Speaker
of Slim Pickens riding the H-bomb. And so I'm going, woohoo, right? And waving like the cowboy. And I have like this bomb prop that I like wrap my legs around like, and i'm so you know and I'm doing that. And the way that we staged it in this this theater is that when I was done with ah my reenactment on another movie, I exit the theater and I run all the way around it and then I go to the front and I enter through the front and I grab my props and I go and I wait in the the back of the the audience and I'm gonna run down through the aisle doing the slim pickings, right?
00:32:45
Speaker
So here's what happened. i'm I'm there, i'm I'm standing in the back of the audience, I'm watching the show, i'm ready to go, I've got my props.
00:32:59
Speaker
I'm just watching Steve and Zach and waiting for my cue. and And then ah like one of them goes, and who can forget the immortal scene when Slim Pickens rode the H-bomb?
00:33:12
Speaker
And i'm I'm ready to go, and i'm I'm about to run down the aisle. And then this old, frail man steps right in front of me.
00:33:22
Speaker
and slowly starts shuffling down the aisle, and he will not, like, step aside, and he is walking to the front row.
00:33:35
Speaker
Amazing. And so... I just keep going. I just go, woohoo! Did you H-bomb this guy? And then I just go, waaah!
00:33:45
Speaker
And then I'm just like, weee! And I'm just like screaming. Now you're improv-ing. And then the audience figures out what's happening. And so people start losing their minds. People are just scream laughing, and this old man is not going to either speed up,
00:34:07
Speaker
nor is he going to move out of my way. So he's just going to move at like, you know, an inch a second and I'm just going to keep screaming right behind him.
00:34:20
Speaker
Amazing. And then I, uh, and then I exit and I got an applause break. Wow. And that was, I'll say, the whole, like, i went to i went to, like, events and and stuff after the the festival, and I chatted with people, and everybody wanted to talk to Steve and Zach. They especially wanted to talk to Zach, played Roger, because it was the the Ebert Festival. There's a statue of Roger Ebert.
00:34:52
Speaker
outside of this theater in Champaign. It's him sitting in a movie seat with a thumbs up. At least it's thumbs up. would been really mean to... Actually, you know what they should do? Like, there should be, like, a little option to rotate the hand, like, depending on the current state of maybe the country or something. yeah Like, if things are going well, Roger's thumbs up. I mean, just sort of like ah a bellwether, just to get a sense of, you know, where we're at. So... In my version of this story, I like to imagine that you become the breakout star. Oh. And that, like, the next day, there are headlines, like, sensational H-bomb boy, you know, stuns in sisco or and Ebert Fest.
00:35:35
Speaker
And, like, somehow it's like the Bart Simpson on the Krusty show arc. Oh, yeah, I didn't do that. I can see that. Yeah, I mean, like, say the line, Ben, and you're like, wahoo. I happily scream.
00:35:50
Speaker
That seems like the best fate ever, doesn't it? like it it is It's great because, as I said, so I'm at all these after events, and all anyone wants, they want to talk to Steve and and Zach, and that's fine. It's their show, and they did a lot more work than me But you were the highlight.
00:36:08
Speaker
And...
00:36:10
Speaker
But if someone was going to say something else, they're like, oh, you're the guy did the Slim Pickens thing. Oh my God. That's good. i got that from a bunch of people. like
00:36:25
Speaker
So, and and I said to them, I was like, listen, you know, i think, you know, listeners of this podcast have picked up, even if this is your very first episode, if you're Gold Rush fan,
00:36:38
Speaker
Yeah, I'm gonna lose the rest in here. Um, you know, I, I, I mug. I, in, in comedy, in, in comedy shows that I do, in stage shows that i do, I, I mug, I do takes to the audience.
00:36:52
Speaker
I, I, I'm, I fucking act like it's laughing or whatever. 70s variety show. Ben's eyebrows are tired at the end of a set because he's been waggling them so much. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm Charles Nelson Riley-ing. I'm always, like, I'm just turning to the audience and i'm like, yeah. Yeah. I like just begging for laughs.
00:37:12
Speaker
Yeah. And, and that's, you know, I feel okay doing that when it's my show. Yes. But this was, this, this is not my show.
00:37:23
Speaker
I, I didn't direct it. i It didn't start out as your show. It just ended up that way. It was, I was invited to, to be in this and to do my, my very small part. And I was very thankful. it was a lot of And there are no small parts.
00:37:39
Speaker
And, uh, and, and so, and I was like in my head, I'm like, I'm not going to, I'm not going to try to upstage anyone. I'm not going to try to, to, you know, do my hog the spotlight thing.
00:37:51
Speaker
You can, you can ask my, my dear friend, Sarah, who I stream with, she'll tell you. because she's performed on stage with me many times.
00:38:02
Speaker
I'll mug and like change a show just to get as much attention as possible. And I was like I'm like, I'm not, I'm going to be so well behaved. I'm going to be a good little boy. And then, and then, and then Roger up in heaven. And then that old man that you paid to help you upstage. And then, yeah, an old man,
00:38:27
Speaker
here's an, and, and one other Ebert fest story that I'll, I'll say was that, um, so we're, we're driving in and it's a stormy night and, uh, uh, we catch the last screening of that night that we arrive, which is the film get out wonderful movie.
00:38:48
Speaker
Uh, have you seen that? No, you should see it. It's very good. Um, uh and um like we're we're watching it and it's a good second time watch because it has like twists and turns so it's good knowing and so you could be like oh oh i see um but uh so this was my second time but about 20 minutes into the movie everybody's phone goes off.
00:39:19
Speaker
Everyone's. Uh-oh. ah Two miles away, there was a tornado. oh no. Oh, no.
00:39:30
Speaker
And we're all just sitting there, and no one quite knows what to do because it's like, well, I'm not going to go outside. And then, like, and then eventually...
00:39:44
Speaker
they They pause the movie and like an announcer goes on and it's like, attention of film viewers, the Virginia Theater is a designated storm shelter.
00:39:56
Speaker
Oh. So you can remain in your seats, but if you're in the balcony, you have to go down to the first floor. And...
00:40:07
Speaker
and the whole time we're watching the movie after that, like we're watching it. And also all of our props are in the van we drove down in. So we're all kind of like, well, we might be fucked.
00:40:20
Speaker
Uh, but, uh, um, the, uh, ah the for the rest of the movie every now and and again it would be like crickets like a couple more people's phones would just pop off and do that burp burp like the emergency noise yes like great every greatber you know and it's like excuse me I'm trying to watch this this horror film let me enjoy it without being scared uh but anyway ah it's it's now time
00:40:54
Speaker
for us that's right it's now time uh for us uh to talk about the adventure game gold rush now ben i don't think you got the exclamation point there oh gold rush gold rush i think that's how it's supposed to be called rush
00:41:16
Speaker
go west young ben uh-huh oh gold rush just told us So what what is what is the the premise? I mean, this is an AGI game. What year did this come out? 1988. 88. So a little late. One of the last AGI games. yeah It is definitely near the end of the AGI run.
00:41:40
Speaker
but so that and And so this is a ah text parser, like adventure, ah game lower resolution 16 colors and what's what's the plot of gold rush jess other than of course the the incredible log line with perfectly ah formed sentences in it yes that's right i mean yeah you are uh this uh this city slicker from uh brooklyn heights you are uh gerald wilson
00:42:14
Speaker
Gerald Wilson. And you get a letter from your estranged brother, Jake, who has headed out west to California. Like 11 years, I think, since you yes and he his And sends you this mysterious letter. So you decide to head west.
00:42:32
Speaker
uh in search of your brother and in search of your fortune uh in the gold rush in the american gold rush there in california the game then becomes an edutaining journey on your way west where you can uh go across land you can go through the uh through panama to get there or all the way around the Cape of South africa or south America. Not South Africa. That's a much longer trip.
00:42:59
Speaker
We're on Cape. ah But yeah, you go around the tip of South America, come back up. um So you have three branching options with some little different puzzles along the way, depending on which one you
'Gold Rush' Game: Historical and Gameplay Analysis
00:43:11
Speaker
pick. Then you arrive there in California, and it's time to strike it rich, assuming that claim jumpers don't do you in.
00:43:18
Speaker
m Yeah. That's Gold Rush, baby. and That's Gold Rush, baby. It is, yeah, it is a game that is edutainment, but it... Is it more edgy or more attainment, or really not much of either?
00:43:39
Speaker
i think it's a little bit of all three.
00:43:46
Speaker
and think it's a little bit of all three, ah because it's like... there There are moments like when there there are moments where it kind of like teaches at you.
00:44:02
Speaker
Yes. um Where, like, especially when you're in transit in, in like kind of the middle of the game. Yeah. You'll get some big old dialogue boxes explaining to you the perils of whichever version of the journey West you've chosen. Yeah. Like if you're, if you're taking a covered wagon West, it will, uh, like it, you get on all three, you get the Indiana Jones line, which incredible you know yeah we here at quest quest we have been very clear if you can show me a red line moving across a map you've got me at some level like right that is the most fascinating thing I can see uh but um like the uh like going west uh uh via covered wagon um it will
00:45:01
Speaker
Like it it's like, now you're, now you're here. And then it gives you like a little text box on like a city or like the river or whatever. And like a couple of fun, like contemporaneous fun facts.
00:45:14
Speaker
ah And like the the game kind of peppers in educational, like facts as you go through. It's also,
00:45:28
Speaker
um like a really bullshitty game. Yeah, I mean, i think that you know if if Sierra games, especially early Sierra games get knocked for dead ends and soft blocks and just unfair yeah game design, random deaths.
00:45:47
Speaker
um This game is chock full of, I think maybe it's one of the worst offenders in the Sierra catalog in this regard. Like it's literally at one point you can, by way of a random number generator,
00:46:03
Speaker
die of cholera. Nothing you could have done to stop it Nothing you could have done to prevent. just, you got bad luck on the draw on that one. And literally that's what the death message says. is's like, you've died of cholera. There was nothing you could do about it. Sometimes it just happens. Basically the quote is just like, so it's like, oops, well people die cholera and one of them's you.
00:46:22
Speaker
Essentially it's the, and there's lots of stuff. There's stuff that you could easily miss out on early in the game that by the time you get to the end of gold coin, That is hidden in the bandstand right at the beginning the game. you miss out on that, there's a good chance that you can't complete the game. Maybe several hours of gameplay later.
00:46:42
Speaker
It is, if that sort of thing frustrates you in a Sierra game, i mean, Gold Rush is absolutely the classic example of you want to play this one with a with a walkthrough handy. I don't think that the puzzles aren't rewarding enough that the thrill of solving them is worth the frustration of maybe losing a lot of progress in my opinion on this one no this is this is a i i don't have a game it's remarkably charming and we'll get to like yeah i think the the interesting thing about this game is that it feels like and
00:47:27
Speaker
and and I don't know this, but it feels like they played the Oregon Trail and were like, what if we made Adventure Oregon Trail? They do seem to be cut from a similar cloth. Like, I think this game, anyone who plays this, I've got to be thinking is think is got Oregon Trail in the back of their mind, right? I mean, and honestly, I was thinking about this as I played it.
00:47:52
Speaker
This game... maybe more educational than Oregon trail possibly. Like, I think there's more just raw information in it, but I don't think it's memorable in a way that's likely to reinforce some of the content in the way that Oregon trail is. And there's a reason why Oregon trail is still a meme today. i we played gold rush. I think the easy deaths, like the, like you just had cholera.
00:48:21
Speaker
That's that's life or death, I guess. Like, I think that is is them kind of Oregon trailing, because you can just die. Yeah, you die to dysentery.
00:48:34
Speaker
And the thing is, is that in Oregon Trail, that's not that, like, you know, Oregon Trail is feels kind of, you know,
00:48:48
Speaker
roguelike-ish in that yeah you're it's like a sit down play it in a session kind of game like you you play it and you die or you don't you you make it or you don't like you might get like just some bad rng and ah like you know somebody's gonna get sick or somebody's going to get a cold and they're not going to recover and they're going to die or you hit some bad weather. Or when you try to afford the the river, you get knocked out and you lose all of your axles and wheels and yokes.
00:49:20
Speaker
I got those yokes. And like, just have I talked on this podcast about ah playing Oregon trail in um my social studies class?
Educational Games: 'Oregon Trail' vs 'Gold Rush'
00:49:35
Speaker
No, i don't think. I i forget. this is this is one of This is a thing that's bothered me for many years. I would say maybe like probably like, I don't know, 27 years, however long it's been since I've been in middle school. um the i When I was in seventh or eighth grade, i think it was eighth grade.
00:50:03
Speaker
ah we did a unit in my social studies class on um the then most recent version of Oregon Trail which I believe was three it was on CD-ROM and I think it had a little like FMV little acting in it and um We, like, we did a full, like, I assume that the the teacher got, like, you know, a packet from Mac or whoever was producing it at that at that time.
00:50:38
Speaker
ah Like, the the teacher packet of how to use this in your classroom. But um we, like, you know, we read about ah the trail. Like, we did some readings, and that was all interesting. And we did, like, some, like, ah there we discussed.
00:50:59
Speaker
And everybody had their own, like, this was in the computer lab. So everybody had their own game. We weren't all just sitting around one computer. Yeah, gotcha. And um we were ultimately graded.
00:51:14
Speaker
on how well we did on Oregon Trail. And even as like a 13 year old, I'm like, that's bullshit because I've played Oregon Trail for years.
00:51:30
Speaker
And I know that sometimes you could just get fucked. yeah i mean if you're going to grade students on a video game you need a true test of skill like mortal combat yeah you need a true test of skill like something even playing field yeah like yeah none of this bullshit rng something that truly measures out your skill no fucking dice rolls none of this true skill and brain like you know none of this vibe shit No, no. Like a perfectly balanced game. Like Mortal Kombat. This is a really annoying character I'm doing right now. I need something. It needs the perfect, it needs perfect rules. If it has any dice rolls, I refuse to play it because I leave nothing.
00:52:20
Speaker
I need to use my my brain. My brain is the dice roll. Which is why you only LARP. Yeah. as The only fair game. I LARP is slim pickings. Now, but yeah, I think I got a B on it because like half the family died in it. And it's like, yeah, that's what happens.
00:52:41
Speaker
But I mean, I'm still mad about this grading scheme for Oregon Trail all these years later.
00:52:53
Speaker
That's bullshit, man. Yeah, i mean, as an educator, that does bother me. That is not how you should do that. And you and i ben as we've discovered, recording these episodes are more alike than we want to admit.
00:53:10
Speaker
I mean, we admit it constantly. So I don't know if there's a, then we want to admit part because we're constantly saying Every bullshit assignment I had K through PhD that I was ever given.
00:53:26
Speaker
i remember vividly yeah and have held it against the yeah teachers that assigned it. Like I, yeah, i have a long good history of education where I've never forgotten perfect a single assignment I thought was unfair in some capacity.
00:53:38
Speaker
The, um, this is the same, uh, teacher. I'm pretty sure. i think it was the same teacher who we did, a day about, uh, the JFK assassination.
00:53:51
Speaker
And, it was just that she brought her, her friend who was also like a, like who was also her age, who was in, like I think middle, like probably our age or maybe a little younger when JFK got shot. And so it was just essentially, she just brought one of her friends to school to talk about what a weird day of school it was.
00:54:15
Speaker
One of the billions of people who were alive that day. And, and she, and she said something and I've heard this elsewhere. She, she said something that I think about all the time. And, um I've like made fun of ah ah which is she, she said, you know, before JFK was shot, people left their doors unlocked.
00:54:42
Speaker
Wow. It really says something. I, I had a, I was scared to death. My whole childhood that Lee Harvey Oswald may shoot me. Yeah. I had, i had a, uh, in my, my brief, uh, attempt to do a standup.
00:54:58
Speaker
I, I told that story and I said, it really takes something to, to have the thought of and just, you were going here, but it really takes something to, to think like, Oh my God.
00:55:10
Speaker
an assassin has killed the president and I'm next. i
00:55:22
Speaker
You know, like I, I've just been thinking about that lady talking to our class for, for 20, like for, for 27 years and and just being like, yeah, you know, before JFK was shot,
00:55:38
Speaker
we we left the doors unlocked wow wow what a crazy thing to say yeah we used to have grassy knolls everywhere but then we had those them all down we had to we had to get we every knoll was de-knolled and all the grass was we dropped age and orange on them uh yeah just no no no foliage um Yeah. Anyway, a Gold Rush. I mean, this is the this is the tapestry of American history that Gold Rush is also woven into. So everything we set this point is relevant and we're making American history right now. Yeah. So the um so.
00:56:22
Speaker
I think the, what is fascinating to me about gold rush in addition to like kind of the, the Oregon trail of it, because it's also, it's like,
00:56:34
Speaker
In Oregon Trail, a lot of it it exposits like facts at you in yeah a similar way. Like Oregon Trail also tries to teach kids like resource management.
00:56:48
Speaker
And like there's Oregon Trail does a better job of teaching kids stuff um like through the game itself. Yeah, because the gameplay here doesn't reinforce much. It's just dialogue boxes. They just, again, as you said, teach at you. It's like here is a fact. yeah the in but also in oregon trail like when you make it to a landmark or something it will throw a text box at you that's like here's big bull rock or some shit yes a guy was here once like you're like cool man big bull rock yeah no no absolutely i mean that's ah yeah and i think that part of gold rush
00:57:29
Speaker
maybe doesn't quite work because it's not being reinforced mechanically. Again, the gameplay of like resource management in Oregon Trail may be simple, but it's asking students to engage or children who are playing it to engage and try to think through these problems. I don't know.
00:57:50
Speaker
that you you're going through panama and you have to avoid a deadly snake in a kind of sierra way yeah you have to go through like a swamp and it's like kind of the like kind of this invisible maze type thing that's really annoying there's a lot of it's so the game begins as you said you're in brooklyn Um, and out of Brooklyn, uh, there's a a timer. You have 15 minutes. Um,
00:58:23
Speaker
to sell your house like it's like sell your house quit your job and get transit your savings out of the bank yeah and then like yeah like and get transit across if you if time runs out game over yeah i think if time runs out you oh you can take the covered wagon that's oh yeah that's other like taking the boat option is cut off yeah um yeah And it like the it's, it's just like, i find it really interesting. Like, I don't think it's well implemented, but I do think it's really interesting. Like this multi route thing, like the game. Do you have a route that you prefer? Is there one of these three that you find most interesting?
00:59:11
Speaker
Um, you know, the Panama route was kind of, i like Panama. Yeah. I think Panama too. um the uh the the graphics especially in the new york section are absolutely gorgeous um like really beautifully like detailed
Quirks and Design of 'Gold Rush'
00:59:28
Speaker
uh uh 19th century buildings it looks really really cool um and like you don't really get that much kind of urban like other than in the Manhunter games um you don't really get that much urban um settings in AGI games no you really don't um and I mean this is 19th century New York which is not you know it's the New York you think of today but even then like this is still there's still a
01:00:02
Speaker
like a density of ah like stuff to explore and walk around, which is pretty interesting. It's also weird and finicky about like if you walk on the grass, police come and immediately like come at you, which is insane. a really...
01:00:20
Speaker
yes it's a really It's interesting what this game thinks is important for you to to do and to know.
01:00:32
Speaker
And that, like, the game, like, sends cops after you immediately if you step onto the grass in a park. is wild it's hilarious i mean yeah there is i mean yeah you're teaching that lesson and you're also teaching the lesson it's like sometimes people die and there's nothing you can do to stop it if you're you're teaching yeah just i'll again i'm not sure if it's teaching the thing it thinks it's teaching i think it's teaching people that life is kind of bullshit sometimes
01:01:08
Speaker
Um, you can which is an important lesson, maybe an important, more important lesson than knowing about westward expansion during the 19th century. You can get kicked to death by a horse.
01:01:19
Speaker
Yeah. Well, in real life too. Yeah. I mean, there are many there. I just, I'm, I'm looking through, there's a ah YouTube video of ways to die in gold rush.
01:01:34
Speaker
And so now I have ah the the correct dialogue box for for the cholera death on the boat. Are you ready? okay well we There was nothing you could do.
01:01:44
Speaker
Sometimes terrible things happen. i mean, he is that not a useful lesson?
01:01:55
Speaker
You're feeling a little strange and your gums are bleeding. You don't know exactly what is wrong, but something isn't right. Yeah, you know, I'm trying to think like, were my gums bleeding yesterday, but now they are. Probably something isn't right.
01:02:10
Speaker
Sometimes things happen. Shit happens. It's sort of the the moral of the story there.
01:02:17
Speaker
Oh, man. But it's a, as you say, it's a food is running game, running out on board ship. Everyone is suffering. One man has already died. The cook says the provisions are gone. All that remains, all that is left is the ship's mascot.
01:02:35
Speaker
It is now steaming on the table. There is only one problem. I may have waited too long before preparing the pig. it may be diseased.
01:02:45
Speaker
So far, no one has had the nerve to try it. You grab yourself a nice slab of pig meat from the steaming pig. As soon as you sink your teeth into this piece of meat, you realize something terrible is about to happen. Really? Boy, that's never happened to me.
01:03:03
Speaker
and then And then there's a little status message. This is one of the problems of no refrigeration. Why didn't they have refrigeration on that ship? It was pretty stupid of them. They should have had yeah refrigeration. And I was just brought enough food.
01:03:20
Speaker
That's amazing. It it is. This. It's. You know.
01:03:28
Speaker
There's. Sometimes. Like I watch a lot of bad movies. And a great genre of bad movie is children's movie made by people that have no business, like making anything for children. Yes. Yes. And I'm not saying that this is terrible for children, but I am saying that like that, that like what I just read is getting close.
01:03:59
Speaker
Yeah. You know, i feel like, and maybe Sierra did this. I'm not certain, honestly. Sierra, I this was designed by these group brothers, and I think this was their, like, because they they owned this and Sierra didn't. Doug and Ken McNeil. I think that they were given the rights to it after the game was released. But what I wonder is you know I feel like for a game like Oregon Trail and stuff, typically you'll have some sort of blurb on the box that there was ah you know an educator of some sort that may have consulted on it or some sort of seal of approval to suggest that yeah some... And trust me, i I have nothing but animosity for educational consultants.
01:04:47
Speaker
But... usually they have that veneer of authority that someone who understands how to teach children things has at least taken a look at this. Gold Rush definitely has the vibe of an educational game from without that perspective of how an educator might approach some of this echo quest and ah peppers adventures in time and dr brain all feel very sincere in their like in their education um
01:05:22
Speaker
and
01:05:26
Speaker
As a kid, let me say, i didn't play this when I was a kid. yeah I always saw it in the catalogs and stuff. And I don't think I recognized it as being edutainment when I saw it in catalogs. I just assumed this was like any other Sierra game. It's just like, instead of being set in the land of the lounge lizards, it's set in the gold rush. And,
01:05:46
Speaker
I don't think it clicked for me that it was supposed to be educational. Now, going back now, clearly that is what they're going for. um Again, in a very sort of straightforward, obvious way.
01:06:01
Speaker
But yeah, I i don't know. i I find a lot charming about this game. It's weird within the Sierra canon. Like it doesn't feel like most of the- You get hung to death. Yes, yes.
01:06:17
Speaker
ah ah It's like for claim jumping. Yeah. You get hung to death, I believe. Isn't that what happens if you don't enter in the copy protection yeah correctly? Yeah.
01:06:31
Speaker
I mean, and rightfully so. We hate software piracy here at Quest Quest. i agree. Now, is just it is it is just really I don't know. it's it's it's just so It's such a strange, it's such an odd bird of a game, which is why I'm glad that ah some years later, ah it was revisited.
01:06:59
Speaker
Yes. In two forms. Yeah. So first, we're're we're just going to first talk about the initial i ah visiting which was they they came back I think it was in 2014 yeah and uh they they did a a remaster now what if I told you what if I told you those beautiful 16 color a AGI graphics were replaced by
01:07:31
Speaker
the most low budget off the shelf uh like pre-rendered poser 3d uh graphics that you've ever seen yeah like notably bad by the state like 2014 especially like this looks like a game from 2003 Yeah, I mean, it's like right there with some of the early Nancy Drew games is kind of the aesthetic it's given me.
01:08:01
Speaker
i don't know. i mean, it is such a downgrade in the graphics. And what I love about this and the other part of the Gold Rush revival we got around this time is all the signage in the game.
01:08:15
Speaker
Because every sign that appears in the game clearly has the writing on it done not only in a font uh what I would imagine is just a true top font that's been placed on these things but some of the most period inappropriate fonts that you've ever seen we're not talking like literal comic sans, but we're maybe like one degree removed from that when you like walk up to the grocery store and, you know, it just looks like, yep, that looks like a font that probably shipped standard with Microsoft Word. And here it is just plopped onto a sign in the old West.
'Gold Rush' Remaster and Sequel Discussion
01:08:59
Speaker
Yeah. They're terrible. It's, it's, again, it feels like it's, it's the most obvious signifier of, of low budget graphics work in this game to me, but yeah, it's, it, it's such a downgrade. Ben, you've, have you had experience with the remake at all? I, I've, I've tootled around in it a little bit.
01:09:20
Speaker
That's it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it now has voice acting. It does have voice acting. um But and we'll get to that. But when we talk about something else.
01:09:32
Speaker
Would you like to? Would you like talk about? Take us there. Take us there. So there's years after they remastered ah Gold Rush, I believe in 2017. They sequel.
01:09:46
Speaker
um they released a sequel They released a sequel to Gold Rush. Now, Gold Rush ends with you you find your estranged brother who's hiding away because he was accused of a crime that he did not commit.
01:10:02
Speaker
You find him. Then you find a ah vein of gold and as well, you're going to be rich. ah This...
01:10:15
Speaker
uh you uh are are called back to new york because you have to clear ah his and your name i believe this is said 20 years later yes have to clear his name in new york russian back and um and so it's it's a reverse you're going back to new york now and so you've sold your gold mine And now you you're you're traveling back.
01:10:45
Speaker
And New York is now under the thumb of the horrible boss tweed. oh no. Tammany Hall has taken power. And um so ah i i haven't played i haven't played a Gold Rush 2. And Jess, I'm going to say right now,
01:11:11
Speaker
I am hereby, I'm throwing down the gauntlet. I I'm challenging you to play gold rush too on your stream because you've played some interesting games.
01:11:25
Speaker
then I was already planning to do this. I'm, I'm, I'm removing my heavy metal gauntlet and tossing it on the ground and saying, Jess, I challenge you to play because, and, and here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to, I'm going I'm going to, uh,
01:11:42
Speaker
you know, entice you a little bit. I, so I was watching to prepare for this. was watching somebody's long play on, on YouTube because I was like, what is this? What is, how could you make a cold rush to what is that?
01:11:59
Speaker
Jess, would you be shocked if I told you I took one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, audio clips from the game because, and, and I just wanted to stop at maybe one or two, but I, every time i was watching and I heard something that made me laugh,
01:12:22
Speaker
I took a clip and i didn't this is mean I was kind of jumping around too. I didn't watch all three or whatever hours of this. then Hit me with a clip. So so here's here's ah here's a couple clips. Let's go in.
01:12:36
Speaker
Greetings to your boss from me. I'll bring greetings from him. Wait there and see.
01:12:54
Speaker
So that cutoff is part of it now. um Yeah. All right. But here, let me. So that that is pretty good. Right. You agree. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. I mean, yeah. the The second guy sounded like some sort of text to speech program somehow. Yeah.
01:13:15
Speaker
There is a extreme text to speech. ah Like there's there's a real ah text to speech of it.
01:13:28
Speaker
Um, so anyway, so at the at the the beginning of the game, ah you visit with um a ah blacksmith who drops this hilariously long monologue on you.
01:13:47
Speaker
Hello, Smith. We've been friends a long time. and I wanted to be the one to tell you that we are leaving California and traveling back to New York. Of all the people we know here, I'm going to miss you the most.
01:14:00
Speaker
You have been a faithful friend. Jared, I know everyone in these parts, from Sacramento to Placerville, and I mean everyone. I've already heard folks talking about you leaving, and I reckon there's something I best tell you.
01:14:15
Speaker
I fixed the trigger on a fella's rifle a spell ago, and I surmise that he and his disreputable friends are fixing to rob that train of yours and steal them bars of gold you're taking with you.
01:14:27
Speaker
Now, I've been thinking, and maybe I know a way to help you. If you find me a heaping pile of lead and give me a few gold coins, I can make you some gold-plated lead bars that'll look and feel like solid gold.
01:14:41
Speaker
If you switch them for the real ones right before the heist, them boys will take the fake bars, high-tail it away, and never bother you again. If you want to proceed with my plan, just bring me the material I'll need.
01:14:55
Speaker
Just click yes. It just keeps going. um Here's a ah little more about our our blacksmith friend. This is really good. You know horseshoes can't bring good luck.
01:15:07
Speaker
You know all good and perfect things come from above. From the god who never changes. Your god-given friend, the blacksmith, made this horseshoe you found in the ruins at Sutter's Fort.
01:15:23
Speaker
Your God-given friend, the blacksmith. this is a description of a horseshoe that you find. You know horseshoes can't bring good luck. You know all good and perfect things come from above, from the God who never changes.
01:15:37
Speaker
Your God-given friend, the blacksmith, made this horseshoe you found in the ruins at Sutter's Fort. It's so funny to me because it sounds like when he says your God-given friend, the blacksmith, I thought it was like a letter from the, I thought that was like a sign off and a letter from the blacksmith, having not seen the visuals that accompany this, but that's an interesting place to put in your message of, of hope.
01:16:05
Speaker
Here's another thing I'm going to say is that when he's traveling, it does still have like, Edutainment descriptions of the towns that you pass through So it's like wait is this one for kids? It feels like kids because And I don't think this is made by the same people I think this is made by like as some studio that like ended up with the gold rush, but oh my This is a very fine wine.
01:16:36
Speaker
How could you have possibly known? It is clear to me that you are a friend of Mr. Quayle's. I think I can trust you. You can find him at Leonard B. Huge's house, but please don't tell anyone else where he is.
01:16:48
Speaker
He's hiding there because Tweeds' gang has been trying to keep him quiet, if you know what I mean. I had Leonard D. Huge. I... yes. I had to say, i picked that clip because of the, if you know what I mean, the, the, do we think this is text to speech?
01:17:11
Speaker
It's a great, that's a great question. Cause I, There's That one especially. Like the weird sound... It's taking weird pauses around commas and stuff like that that feel... There's a real sound of the TikTok voice, right?
01:17:26
Speaker
Yes. I'm just speaking hypothetically here, but what would you say if you learned someone like me was interested in buying the paper? I've thought about it.
01:17:38
Speaker
Unfortunately, i would have to get a much larger sum of money than someone like you, that is to say, someone in your position could afford. I'm sorry. I know this puts it out of your reach, but I'd have to get something around $35,000.
01:17:51
Speaker
thirty-five thousand dollars I know that sounds like a lot to you, Jared. I'm sorry. That's too much money for you, Jared. You would have to be all cash or a secure banknote. It is. He's just said, I'm sorry, three times in a row.
01:18:06
Speaker
Yes. This game came out before vast proliferation of like LLMs and stuff. Yeah. Like if this game came out like today or like last, last year or something,
01:18:19
Speaker
We could just be like, oh, this was clearly this is a language model. Yeah. An LLM. This is someone is using like chat GPT or something. But this is this this is coming to us. Honestly, this is this is coming to us by real human hands.
01:18:37
Speaker
I don't think it is the dialogue that the the the the someone wrote this a human wrote this but the delivery, the delivery. the The fact that Jared sounds ah has a little bit of the sound of ah like, like he, he speaks like this and all I can think of is Matt Barry when he speaks like a a much less interesting Matt Barry.
01:19:10
Speaker
Yeah. All right. This is it. This is the last clip. This makes me think this translation thing. his name is gregory rayburn he's a sergeant over at the police station you can identify him by his red hair he will know you are a friend of mr quayle if you greet him by saying i've lost my poodleund we all hate those animals and it's a joke among us you should speak with rayburn at the police station
01:19:38
Speaker
this makes me think that this is a translation thing Oh. Poodle hund. Poodle hund. Poodle hund. Poodle hunt. I think it's a translation thing. maybe I thought he said poodle hunt and I was like, no no no they were hunting poodles because they hate those?
01:19:56
Speaker
Jared, there is one policeman you can still trust. His name is Gregory Rayburn. He's a sergeant over at the police station. You can identify him by his red hair. He will know were a friend of Mr. Quail if you greet him by saying, I've lost my poodle hunt.
01:20:13
Speaker
We all hate those animals and it's a joke among us. You should speak with Rayburn at the police station. It also spells it as Pudle. P-U-D-L-E Hund.
01:20:25
Speaker
Which is poodle. Yeah. And that's what they're referring... German for poodle. Yeah, poodle Hund is German. And so...
01:20:36
Speaker
I maybe this is maybe it's it's that this was like this was made in German and then translated and that this is text to speech. That's even so much stranger, though, I feel like.
01:20:50
Speaker
Well, I mean, we make games about German history all the time. And but I can't judge. Isn't like um like Old West stuff really like American Old West stuff really popular in Germany?
01:21:06
Speaker
I think you're thinking of David Hasselhoff. No, no, no, no. I'm i'm i'm not kidding. um I have no idea. Like Old West Germany. um I typed in Old West Germany and said God. Turns out there's a whole country named that. Yeah. All right. a Western...
01:21:27
Speaker
uh old west u.s germany fans cowboy movie popular deutschland yeah try that right here we go uh uh new york times 2014 uh that germany's fascination with the american old west
01:21:48
Speaker
So this is this is a thing. They just love it. They love it. so So there you go. They can't go now. Maybe that's why So perhaps that's why that helps.
01:22:01
Speaker
maybe maybe that that that helps And we do know the adventure game genre was quite popular. Very popular in Germany. Germany. Yeah. So that, that might track. um But yeah, that does hint at maybe a translated script or possibly, I don't know, maybe in certain pockets of ah America at the time, that German name was more common than the French one. And maybe this is like deeply researched and historically accurate.
01:22:28
Speaker
Yeah, that's probably it. I'm just saying, I mean, I'm not an expert in the history. I could, you know, I have an animal expert here in the house. I could wake her from her slumber. Yeah. Yeah. Go, go, go wake up your wife right now.
01:22:44
Speaker
Yeah. um But no, the voice thing is, it has to be text to speak. Like humans don't pause. Like, I mean, even,
01:22:57
Speaker
the if you hired maybe not the greatest voice actors, they're going to attempt to emote. If anything, like, they will attempt too hard to emote, I would think. But...
01:23:08
Speaker
the the pauses around the commas and punctuation is so unnatural. Unless it's been chopped to death. Like if they're recording this like clause by clause and then stringing it together into sentences, you know, maybe, maybe, I don't know, but this is fascinating to me. I need to know more about the making of gold rush too.
01:23:30
Speaker
The, um, are there many documentaries about this game? Yeah, there's, there's several and we should probably, oh yeah I'm looking, I see the PBS frontline on it now. yeah poodle hunt poodle hunt um i'm a real poodle hunt yeah i'm a i'm a i'm a true poodle hunt um but anyway uh so would you say this one is twice as good as gold rush one yes yes i would i would gold rush isn't bad i hope it doesn't sound like we're dunking on gold i mean
01:24:05
Speaker
It's frustrating and it's unfair. And I don't know, like it is very, don't know. Where does this rank among AGI games? Is this, is this one near the bottom? Is it middle of the pack? I don't think it's at the top. It's better than Black Cauldron.
01:24:26
Speaker
think it's better than Black Cauldron. Like, yeah, you know, it's better than any of I will, I will note I'm on the website for gold rush to now, and it has a English in German version.
01:24:42
Speaker
There you go. There you go. So definitely that's going to make sense that it was, uh, that translation error was key to cracking this code. The translation error or possibly again, purposeful, purposeful translation. Um, but yeah, I'm, I'm looking at the list of AGI games and I think, Yeah, maybe you put it ahead of Black Cauldron, maybe.
01:25:03
Speaker
Black Cauldron's beautiful, though. It is. It says Gold Rush. I think Black Cauldron's prettier with its interesting use of the color palette. But I don't know. I mean, what Doll Duck's Playground is in that mix? ah I mean, it's not as good as Larry 1's, not as good as Police Quest 1's, not as good as Space Quest 1 or 2. It's not as good as Mixed Up Mother Goose, is it?
01:25:26
Speaker
No, Mixed Up Mother Goose is a great classic. Not as good as any of the King's Quest games, one through four. It looks like the developer is based out of Germany.
01:25:37
Speaker
Ah, there you go. so All right, yeah. Interesting. oh that I mean, yeah, that um that all tracks. But, I mean, again, it feels like... got whole the rights, why not make the game? It was very much the vibe that the remake and Gold Rush 2 have in common.
01:25:58
Speaker
I find it interesting that you would Gold Rush back to Brooklyn. Yeah. That feels like an odd, yeah mean I mean, you get to take the transcontinental railroad back, I guess, right? ah If you were going to do Gold Rush sequel, what would you do?
01:26:14
Speaker
um he uh um you could gold rush to alaska but that's like what 40 or 50 years later yeah he gold rush so that's gonna be hard you'd be like a so you'd be like a 70 year old man and nobody wants to play that game I, you know, I don't think Gold Rush is a game that really needs a sequel.
01:26:36
Speaker
ah Perhaps that's that's really what the the ah thing to say here is that I don't think Gold Rush really needs ah much, like, i you know, wasn't really wondering what was happening next in the in the story.
01:26:54
Speaker
You know? Yeah. No, I mean, arguably it was fine as it was. I like the, what I'm curious about now i need to play gold rush too, because I'm curious how it handles the political machine of Tammany hall and what version of boss tweed we see here. Like, as I feel like that is a complex history that I'm curious if this game tackles complexly. Oh yeah. I'm, I'm sure.
01:27:21
Speaker
um Well, Jess, i'm i'm we'll we'll enjoy that on your stream, I'm sure, months from now, because I know you have i know you have a couple already in your queue. I got some bangers. know what you have lined up, so i know i know there's a very good ah ah very good game. But think after right now the two very good games I'm playing. um It's time to to play something else. Time to play some ah garbage, and this could be it.
01:27:49
Speaker
Yeah. No offense if any of the developers listen to this podcast. We love you. Maybe we'll change your mind. Yeah. Anyway, thank you so much for listening to us ah discuss ah ah Gold Rush.
01:28:03
Speaker
And interest it's just a weird game. And I love that. but That's what's cool about it. is it's It's weird by the stans of Sierra, even though in many ways it's like prototypically Sierra. It's like everything people remember Sierra games being frustrating for. But it's also not quite like...
01:28:21
Speaker
your other o c a games the there's one thing i have to say there's one thing i have to say about uh uh gold rush 2 is that so when you do arrive in in uh in new york in gold rush 2 it's like biff tannins uh like bad future beautiful beautiful so it It is a little bit of they take the New York ah graphics from ah Gold Rush, the remake they did, and just kind of dirtied them up a little bit. and evil and But guess what? Guess what you can do?
01:28:59
Speaker
you can You can ride a hoverboard. you can You can walk on the grass at the park. And like and it comments on that. it's like oh even It doesn't seem like anyone cares about this anymore. Oh, no. Oh, no. Boss Tweed. Boss Tweed. 20 years ago, a cop would have beat your ass for stepping on the grass.
01:29:18
Speaker
Now, because of the corrupt Boss Tweed, you could walk on the grass. You know, I was just thinking, let me add in one final thought. All right. Because this just occurred to me. Yeah, yeah.
01:29:30
Speaker
I don't think the legacy of Gold Rush at Sierra is games like Pepper's Adventures in Time yeah and Castle of Dr. Brain and things like that. Did we even mention Gold Rush when we talked about Sierra edutainment? I don't know. we read But you know what I think its actual legacy is, is something closer to the conquest games that I think do a lightly educational, much better job of trying to tell interesting history in the format of an adventure game. Like I feel like that's more of the box you put it into than, than maybe the edutainment, uh, category that Sierra, uh, would eventually head toward. This feels,
01:30:16
Speaker
more like a a less polished model of what they would do a much better job with telling the the mythologized histories of King Arthur and Robin Hood.
01:30:29
Speaker
Yeah, I guess so. And also like they can like, camelot can be kind of bullshitty yeah like but it's better like i mean it's not you know not like this nobody i on earth would say that gold rush is a bear game the conquest of camelot would they no one no one not a reasonable person no reason if you do believe that though write to us at quizquistpodcast at gmail.com because we'd love to hear your gold rush thoughts your reactions and
01:31:01
Speaker
Tell us if you like poodle hunts. Yeah. well mean Where do you, yeah. Please let us know where you stand on poodle hunts. Should they be hunted or not?
01:31:13
Speaker
Uh, all right. Well, until then, ah collect all those thoughts, uh, rate and review us, tell your friends, send us an email and join us next week when we discuss space quest for.
01:31:58
Speaker
So here's a question. ah space question? Yeah, a space question. So if Roger's look doesn't change when he goes back in time, does that mean that every character remembers the visual advances that reflect the technology of the time in the Space Quest universe?
01:32:20
Speaker
he at that point is a fourth dimensional being. And what you don't see is by the time he leaves you, let's flats, all of those people have been driven mad.