Gold Fever!

Gold Fever! is an action game with platform elements in which the player controls a miner searching for gold. At the beginning of the game the miner is at the uppermost tiers of the mine. Scattered around the five levels of the mine are little piles of gold. The goal is to move towards them and pick them up. To move the miner safely from level to level the player steers him up or down the vertical shafts in the floors. There are complications, such as runaway ore carts, which interfere with the miner's progress by knocking him down. Three collisions and the player is out of miners, ending the game. The miner will be able to jump over the obstructions if the player times the jumps perfectly. This adds from 30 to 40 points to the player's score. If the miner can cross a chasm by running across a boxcar, he earns another 20 points.

The miner's troubles also include having to jump over a murderous claim jumper who will, from time to time, ambush him. Sometimes it is also necessary to leap over boulders. Moving from one tier to the next before the rocks appear on screen doesn't help the player evade them; they always appear on the same tier as the miner.

Once the miner has collected all the gold on the screen, he can make a run for the exit at the lower left of the screen and begin the process on the next level. Each of the nine levels becomes increasingly difficult as the player proceeds. The miner needs to collect more gold on each succeeding level, the obstructions are faster, and as a result the player must change the timing of the jumps. The oxygen supply is limited, and slow-moving miners tend to suffocate.