Bearded Gold Miner

In the game “Bearded Gold Miner,” yet another prospector with a thick beard heads to the Wild West, hoping to strike it rich quickly with gold ore. As they say, luck favors the persistent, but a little help wouldn’t hurt either. The gold lies underground mixed in with ordinary rocks, and the prospector retrieves it with a claw attached to a cable. You have to work against the clock, and on each of the 15 levels, you need to collect a certain amount. Heavy nuggets are worth more, but they’re also noticeably harder for the bearded prospector to pull up. Between levels, you can stock up on useful items, but losing comes at a high cost: after a loss, you have to start all over again.

How to play?

The claw swings on its own; you press a key when it’s pointing at the gold. The cable will lower, and if the throw is successful, the claw will grab the nugget, and the prospector will haul it back up. The top-left corner shows how much you need to collect on the level and how much you’ve already collected, while the top-right corner displays a timer. You have to finish before the timer reaches zero. If you accidentally grab a regular rock, don’t waste time on it—you can blow it up right as it’s being pulled up. After each level, a shop opens with upgrades for the next one: a four-leaf clover for luck, explosives, a scope, and other useful items.