Today, we remember a very important game. A game that taught you survival skills, money management, and not to trust red-headed hitch-hikers.
Today, we remember “Cross Country Canada.”
One of the earlier ’sandbox’ box games (meaning you had free-reign over a lot of gaming aspects), CCan, as I remember it being abbreviated, was one of the best edu-tainment titles I ever had the pleasure of experiencing in my youth. And I’m glad I did back then! Had I been older, I would’ve easily overlooked this excellent game.
The premise was simple; you’re a trucker, and you’ve been given the task of picking up a (player determined) number of commodities throughout Our Home and Native Land, and then you deliver them all to the final destination, which I believe was randomly chosen at the beginning of the game. So, for example, you’d start off in any Canadian city of the game’s choosing (again, random each time) and be given a riddle, of sorts, and you’d get 2 guesses to which commodity they’re referring to. I guess they weren’t riddles since they weren’t very witty. It was more like a Jeopardy! question.
“This commodity is glorified in a large statue of the coin that shares its name.” Of course, the answer would be “nickel”. The question itself would be more “fact-y” than that, I just don’t remember how they worded it.
Here’s where it gets interesting. If you had the retail copy of the game, or were playing it in the past 5 years and had access to Gamefaqs.com, you could easily look up where these commodities were to be picked up. The retail copies came with a sheet, listing every commodity and the city/town it was found in. So you’d see “Nickel – Sudbury (and any other place the game may allow you to pick it up from).
However, from a recent chat with a friend, both of us reminiscing about this wonderful game, he told me that he never had the guide. I was shocked, until he explained that the commodities were always placed in a city or town that made sense (hence the Nickel, sort of). You could get oil from Albertan towns. I’m sure there are other examples, but I can’t think of any right now.
The beauty of this game was that, although the time you took was being kept track of (you always had access to what the date and time of day was, in-game), you weren’t on any sort of time limit, and were free to travel all over Canada. Was there a lot to do? By today’s standards, no way. But back then, in the early 90’s, the heyday of CGA (which this game ran in), EGA and VGA graphics, being able to sleep in a hotel or your truck (your choice, and your fine to pay if caught!), the option to buckle or not to buckle your seatbelt, put chains on your summer tires when winter driving, or to pick up a hitch-hiker seemed like total trucker-flavoured freedom! Not to mention having to stop for food at any restaurant that might be nearby.
Speaking of which, if CCan is to be believed, there are a LOT of places called “Joe’s Diner” throughout the provinces. Who is this Joe, and how long has he been in business? Does he have a clear mission statement? Is there a “Joe’s Diner” charity going, like the Tim Horton’s Kids Camp? I hope so. I know that, while playing CCan, I must’ve spent enough to pay off the guy’s mortgage, and reimburse him for the money he dished out sending his kids to college.
But it wasn’t all “Eat, Sleep, Truck” in CCan. No no, there were Dangers. What sort of dangers, you mentally ask me as you read this?
Accidents.
Flat tires.
Falling asleep at the wheel (see accidents)
Police (get those damned chains off of those tires! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING TO THE 401?!?)
Running out of gas.
Speeding, although this was easily avoided.
And last, but not least, hitch-hikers. Yes, you have the option to put your fate (and your cargo) in the hands of some shady-looking, improperly-dressed ruffian who you’ll see by the side of the road. I don’t mean it was always the same guy (and yes, it always was a guy), but it might as well have been, because they all looked the same. But hey, it was 1990, and by that I either mean it may have been a graphics thing, or perhaps all hitch-hikers wore flannel. Who knows?
These “wanderers of the TCH” could sometimes tip you for helping them out, or rob you at gunpoint. It was up in the air what would happen, but I do know they only stole commodities, so you were a-ok for picking everyone up when you didn’t currently have cargo. I found this to be very “Vegas Dream“-y, in the respect that there was no rhyme or reason to the good or bad fortune, it was like a coin-toss. Still fun though.
And let’s not forget the option to play CCan with up to 3 other people! Yes, that’s right, you could all take turns picking up and delivering those sweet, sweet commodities. Too bad it didn’t have a co-op feature. What I wouldn’t give to be able to hide player 2 in the backseat with a gun so that when some random jackass decided to get tough with me, SURPRISE! Now, give ME all of the oil you’ve been stashing away.
As far as the educational aspect, it was definitely there. As I mentioned, there were Jeopardy!-like questions to answer (but it would tell you the answer if you missed your 2 attempts at guessing, so you’d always learn!), but there were other facts spread around the game. Some of them would pop up from time to time, depending on where you were. Yet some of them were more inconspicuous. For example. it was CCan that taught me that there are no roads to or from Churchill, Manitoba. How did I learn that? From trying to drive there, of course. Instead, you had to put in an order at the train station at the nearest city (can’t think of it right now…. Brandon, maybe?) and wait for it to come in. Not in real-time, mind you.
All in all, Crosscountry Canada was a gem among other educational games at the same time, both for its freedom, sense of immersion (albeit limited by the technology of 1990) and the fact that, like it or not, you learned. Hell, I’d rather fire up CCan and do a 9-commodity-run with 3 of my friends than play Halo any day.
Hell of a damned game, that’s for sure.
