Lost Dutchman Mine

Lost Dutchman Mine is an adventure/simulation video game developed and published in 1989 by Magnetic Images. It was released for the Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS.

The title was designed by David Lindsley, who had worked previously on a game called Gold of the Realm (1988), which didn't have much success.

The story of Lost Dutchman Mine is based on the legend of a lost gold mine in Arizona, USA. The premise of the title is straightforward: the player is a miner who has to find a way to survive. To achieve this, he must make it through each night with enough food and a place to sleep. The ways to accomplish these objectives are what give the adventure its charm and make it so good.

First of all, the gameplay is random and nonlinear and has several ways to approach it, so you can feel free to move between the village and the desert and make your own decisions to get to the end of the day in the best way. Among the options, the character can go from winning money playing poker against NPCs to shifting to an action title and catching criminals with a bounty on their heads. On the other hand, one can opt for a fishing mini-game to grab food or even search for gold in the various mines that appear randomly in each playthrough.

Also, there are other features, such as a calendar that runs in real time. Besides, there are many items in stock to advance the plot. Finally, a free-roaming entry can not end without multiple endings, in which the main character can end up dead or even an owner of a vast fortune.

Although the graphics are not the most critical part, they feel fresh because, appealing to the free nature of the story, the protagonist has different scenarios to visit. Among them are a lake, the desert, the mines, and the city, each with its colors in continuous interaction with the yellows present in the menu and in all the environments, characteristic of the idea of the old west that it is wanted to evoke. There is no music, but when the adventure starts or ends, we are flooded with a pleasant sound that invites us to continue with the challenge.

The reception of the game was mixed. But some critics were happy with the simplicity and the challenge that Magnetic Images had offered them. If you like the settings à la The Oregon Trail, and if you're looking for something fun and friendly but also a challenge and do not fall into a path that the developers force you to take, this is your game.