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Party like It's 1849 - Gold Rush! Anniversary is Now Available for the iPad

Posted by Jessica Fisher on March 17th, 2015
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Sunlight Games GmbH has released the Anniversary edition of Gold Rush! for the iPad.

Now you can replay the classic 80s game with touch controls, over 130 pre-rendered images, animated scenes, and new music and voice-overs. You'll be crossing time and space to return to the age of the California Gold Rush. You'll take on the role of Jerrod Wilson as he travels one of three paths to his fortune out west. The game includes a rich adventure full of history and classic American locales

Try your luck on the American frontier in Gold Rush! Anniversary HD for $4.99 on the App Store.

Gold Rush! Anniversary is Coming to iOS

Posted by Jessica Fisher on February 4th, 2015

Sunlight Games has announced that they will be releasing the Anniversary edition of Gold Rush! in two parts for iOS. The app is a port of a remake of the classic adventure game. In Gold Rush!, the year is 1849 and you are Jerrod Wilson - a man traveling from New York to California in search of a fortune in gold.

The game is being released in two parts because of its size. Part 1 will have you traveling from Brooklyn to Sutter’s Fort and includes the three treks. In part 2, you Search for Jerrod’s brother and possibly reach the end of your journey.

We don't have an exact release date yet, but Sunlight Games says it should be coming out later this year.

1849's Nevada Silver DLC is Still Searching for the Motherlode

Posted by Rob Thomas on September 22nd, 2014
iPad App - Designed for iPad
Our rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar :: BOOM OR BUST :: Read Review »

A few months ago, I took a look at 1849 from SomaSim. This Gold Rush-themed city builder for iPad had a fair bit going for it, but lacked in a few crucial areas to make it a true stand-out on the App Store. SomaSim has since added in a sandbox mode, and just last week the first content expansion, entitled Nevada Silver, went live.

Set in the wake of the discovery of major silver deposits that came to be known as the Comstock Lode, the expansion shifts focus eastward into the mountains and hills of Nevada. Available via in-app purchase for $1.99, a campaign of six new cities awaits returning prospectors, as well as a sandbox mode for the Nevada mapset.

The core of 1849 hasn’t changed with the coming of Nevada Silver, but it has thrown a few small tweaks into the mix. The trading interface, for instance, is now governed by the comings and goings of the railroad. Trains arrive in the player’s town on a regular schedule from nearby settlements, each of which is looking to buy and sell specific goods. Each train has a set number of cargo slots and while they can be switched up at any time, only a set amount of goods can flow in or out during each visit. It adds a pacing to the buildup of resources that can make seemingly innocuous tasks like “Sell 300 silver to Carson City” take forever when you can only send out three 15 unit loads per visit. And since almost all of the mission objectives in 1849: Nevada Silver require some degree of buying or selling goods, players will need to get familiar and comfortable with the rail trading system pretty quickly.

While it isn’t a part of the expansion per se, the sandbox mode bears mention as it is one of the issues I touched on the game needing during my initial review. Players pick a location for their settlement on the map, which generates size, resources, and the like based on data of the geography of the region they picked. The plot sizes run from “Large” to “Huge” to “Boundless,” which is, contrary to the name, quite bounded. Admittedly, the boundary is fully to the edges of the game’s visual layout, which is a fair sight larger than the maps one encounters in the missions, but it’s still constrained - I would assume due to some sort of technical limitations.

And speaking of technical issues, why on Earth are the tree textures still super-blurry when I zoom in to the game’s tightest camera setting? I know it’s not early onset glaucoma on my part, as everything else is still crisp and clean. It just seems very odd to leave something like this unfixed for a game that’s iPad only, where you know players are going to notice every flaw in your visuals.

The new content in Nevada Silver will take a few hours to get through (mainly due to the whims of the train-based trade economy mentioned above) and if you truly enjoyed the gameplay of the original 1849 then you’ll clearly have a good time with it. I felt the iteration and additions, while welcome, were too minor to substantially change my feelings on the product as a whole. It continues, as before, to teeter on the edge of being truly compelling, without ever fully making the plunge.

1849 Review

iPad App - Designed for iPad
By Rob Thomas on May 8th, 2014
Our rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar :: BOOM OR BUST
"There's gold in that there App Store!" SomaSim brings us a historical city builder for iPad, but 1849 isn't quite surefire paydirt.
Read The Full Review »

GDC 2014 - 1849 is an Interesting Mix of City Builder and Spacial Puzzler

Posted by Rob Rich on March 18th, 2014

SomaSim's 1849 is a sim about the California Gold Rush in the same vein as older objective-driven simulations and city builders. It's also got a surprising amount of puzzle-like elements as you'll quickly find yourself trying to figure out the best way to make use of the limited space you're given.

The core idea behind 1849 is balance. You need to mine gold and other precious metals to earn money. You also need food and lodgings for your citizens and workers or else they'll abandon ship in a heartbeat. But in order to do that, you'll also have to make sure to provide other amenities such as schools and access to a saloon to keep the citizens of your ever-growing city happy. The catch is that every city (of which there are 20, each with their own overarching goals to complete) has a limit to how far it can expand. So in order to create a successful self-sustaining city you'll have to pay close attention to where you place what buildings and how many you construct.

SomaSim is aiming for an early May release. A specific price point hasn't been locked-in yet, but 1849 will be priced at a premium and offer additional content packs in the future.

Strike it Rich in 1849 When Gold Fever Infects the App Store in May

Posted by Rob Rich on February 20th, 2014

SomaSim Games has recently announced 1849; a city management sim set during the California Gold Rush.

You'll have to make good use of an area's topography as you attempt to expand several real cities from the time period - or fail miserably, of course. 1849 will feature a total of 20 different scenarios, most likely involving different cities and events, as well as a sandbox mode for those of you who just want to build and rake in the dough.

1849 is due out in May for the iPad.