 | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines for products and services .(January 2015) |
| Goldfields | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | Jacaranda Software |
| Publisher | Jacaranda Software |
| Platforms | |
| Release |
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| Genre | simulation game |
| Mode | Single-player |
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. [1] It was first released for Apple II, BBC Micro, Commodore 64 [2] and IBM compatible systems. [3] The first Macintosh version was later developed using Hypercard. [4] 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.' [3] The game also received a favourable review from the Australian Journal of Reading in 1986. [5] Despite its age, Goldfields remains well regarded as a mining-themed economic simulator with integrated action sequences. [6]
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, [7] who bought the rights to the title after Jacaranda Software's closure in the early 1990s.
An emulated version is available to play on archive.org.