Colorado (video game)

Plot

The game is set in 1801 in the Rocky Mountains along the Colorado River, during the brief period when the region was part of French Louisiana before the Louisiana Purchase. David O'Brian, a poor trapper, rescues the dying chief of a Cheyenne tribe, who gives him a treasure map supposedly leading to a lost gold mine. David embarks on a journey through forests, mountains and rivers, facing hostile humans and wildlife.

Along the way he rescues captured miners, recovers valuable items, trades supplies with the travelling merchant Mac Biggle, and helps friendly Native Americans, including rescuing a child trapped in an eagle's nest. He eventually reaches the legendary mine of Pocahontas, clears a collapsed passage with dynamite, and discovers the mine is real and filled with gold. After defeating a Pawnee chief and rescuing the kidnapped son of the Cheyenne chief, he receives a ceremonial medallion granting safe passage through the tribe's territory, and escapes with the treasure.

Reception

Contemporary reviews were generally favorable. Amiga Action praised the strong graphics, detailed backgrounds and atmospheric Wild West setting, particularly the canoe sequences and varied gameplay, but criticized the awkward controls, frequent need for precise timing and unforgiving difficulty, awarding a score of 72%.

Andy Smith of British Amiga Format praised the graphics, animation and puzzle-solving but criticized the awkward controls and felt the design compared unfavorably with older Spectrum arcade adventures, giving a score of 62%. Carsten Borgmeier of German magazine Amiga Joker praised the Western setting, graphics and environmental detail, describing the scenery as encouraging exploration and the premise as original, but criticized the flip-screen presentation, sparse sound, occasionally awkward controls and frustrating difficulty spikes, awarding 74%. Klaus Segel of German magazine Aktueller Software Markt described the game as competent but unremarkable, praising its humor and inventive touches but criticizing the graphics as merely adequate, weak sound, long loading times and lack of engaging gameplay, recommending it only at a lower price and giving ratings averaging 62%.

Legacy and significance

In a 2023 scholarly analysis, Jakub Majewski argues that the 1801 setting may have been deliberately chosen by the French developers to coincide with the brief restoration of French control over Louisiana before the Louisiana Purchase. He notes that Colorado occupies a unique place among Western-themed video games due to its very rare depiction of the trans-Mississippi frontier before the traditional American Wild West, and as of his research it was the first and still one of very few games to depict this setting, the others being Assassin's Creed III and Assassin's Creed III: Liberation. Majewski also describes the game as an unusually early precursor to later open-world games, citing its large interconnected world, branching exploration, and emphasis on navigation.

Did You Know?

• Colorado was re-released in the United Kingdom in early 1991 as part of the Action 16 budget range.
• The game was among Silmarils' earliest 16-bit titles, produced shortly after the company transitioned away from Amstrad CPC development.