The Seven Cities of Gold (video game)

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The Seven Cities of Gold

Developer(s)	Ozark Softscape
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts & Ariolasoft (Europe)
Designer(s)	Dani Bunten
Release date(s)	1984
Genre(s)	adventure game
Mode(s)	Single player
Platform(s)	Apple IIe, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga (1985), Macintosh (1985), DOS (1993)
Media	Floppy disk
Input	Joystick

The Seven Cities of Gold is an adventure game created by Dan (later Danielle) Bunten (and the game development team Bunten founded, Ozark Softscape) and published by Electronic Arts in 1984 for the Apple IIe, the Atari 800 and Commodore 64 computers, as well as the IBM PC and compatibles. The game was produced by Joe Ybarra. The Atari version (codename orange) was the only "complete" version, according to the authors^{[citation needed]}. The name derives from the "seven cities" of Cibola that were said to be located somewhere in the American Southwest.

The player takes the role of a late-15th century explorer for Spain, setting sail to the New World. The player has options to equip and purchase food for the vessel, and to hire men and crew to sail with. Once sailing, the player guides the ship to the New World, then explores the coastline, sets up missionaries and forts, and interacts with the native peoples. The player has the option to peacefully trade with or conquer the natives.

The game is important for pioneering the use of large randomly generated maps, which were made possible by Ozark Softscape's new technology that allowed the C64 to load map data into the game by streaming without interrupting game play. Prior C64 games always required a pause with a blank screen with a notice such as Loading... Please Wait. Since the C64 floppy disk drive was notoriously slow, Ozark's technology was a major breakthrough at the time. The game's well-balanced gameplay and air of suspense also heralded it as one of the best games of its time.

It was released on the Amiga 1000 in 1985 and re-released for DOS in 1993. The DOS "Commemorative Edition" won the Origins Award for Best Military or Strategy Computer Game of 1993. The DOS remake made many changes to the original game, and is more appropriately viewed as a reconceptualization of the gameplay than as a simple cosmetic makeover.

[edit] Goals of the game

While it could be assumed that the goal of the game is to return with riches from the New World, there really are no goals at all. The game has no scoring system and provides the player with feedback from the King, but no interference, if they slaughter the natives. According to Bunten, from an interview in Antic,

"The peaceful approach really works best. I have not used a totally depraved approach and won. You've got to have some friends somewhere. If something goes wrong, you need a friendly mission where you can go back and not have to worry about an insurrection or something. A place you can return to and know that there will be food, for example. You need a series of these relatively safe places even if you are going on a conquest mission.

If you continually abuse the natives you will eventually see a message from the king saying 'Don't treat the natives so badly But keep the gold coming.' This double standard is straight out of history."

In the DOS version, the game is set up in a tier of goals that must be accomplished. For example, the first goal in the DOS version is to establish 1 mission, 1 colony, and three forts in the space of 10 voyages.