Klondyke 1980

A Finnish boardgame that is in many ways similar to Afrikan tähti, but is set in the 1849 goldrush in Alaska, and expands on the basic idea of that game. The game board has spaces for 25 face-down chits but there are actually two sets of chits placed on top of each other, green and black; and black chits may only be searched (turned face-up) after ALL the green chits have been discovered. Instead of looking for one special chit that allows a player to win the game, the aim is to dig gold worth of $2000 and then head for the nearest starting point, which are located corners of the gameboard. At this point, other players however still have a chance to compete for victory, for if one of them manages to find the 'Letter from Home' chit among the black chits, that triggers an end-of-game race in which the first player to reach any corner is the winner. As an added bonus, the finder of the letter gets to double their movement afterwards, while other players (excluding the one who triggered the end of the game) have the added handicap that they have to visit Klondyke first.

The starting points are named after six well known gold diggers from this period: Big Hawk Haida, Annie "Get Your Gun" Oakley, James W. Marshall, Kit Carson, C. G. Larsson and Jim Bridger. There is a very short biography of each in the rules, and a short history of the Alaska goldrush.

The game is dedicated to the designer's daughter Inka.