The Seven Cities of Gold (video game)

Infobox VG |title= The Seven Cities of Gold

Commodore 64 version of The Seven Cities of Gold
developer= Ozark Softscape
publisher= Electronic Arts, Ariolasoft (Europe)
designer= Dani Bunten
engine=
released= 1984
genre= adventure game
modes= Single player
ratings=
platforms= Apple IIe, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga (1985), Macintosh (1985), DOS (1993)
media= Floppy disk
requirements=
input= Joystick

"The Seven Cities of Gold" is an adventure game created by Dani Bunten (and the game development team Bunten founded, Ozark Softscape) and published by Electronic Arts in 1984. The player takes the role of a late-15th century explorer for Spain, setting sail to the New World in order to explore the map and interact with the natives in order to win gold and please the Spanish court. The name derives from the "seven cities" of Quivira and Cíbola that were said to be located somewhere in the American Southwest.

Gameplay

The game begins with the player having been given an exploration fleet by the Spanish crown, consisting of four ships, one hundred men, and some trade goods. The game appears showing a city in Spain, a fairly simplified 2D side-scrolling representation of the town consisting of the player's home, a palace, a pub and an outfitters. The player can walk about the town with the joystick, walking into the buildings in order to interact with them via menus. For instance, walking into the outfitters will bring up a menu allowing the user to buy supplies, men and trade goods. Interaction in Spain is fairly limited; the player soon moves to the ships, at one end of the city map, to leave port.

Most of the game is played on a game screen with a small scrolling top-down map in the center and a number of status displays surrounding it. After leaving port the display switches to this map, and the player guides the ship to the New World. At any point the player can bring up a menu with contents based on the player's current location. For instance, if the menu is brought up while on the ship, the items allow you to view the map, or "drop stuff off", the later selection allowing exploration parties to be created by dropping of men and supplies from the ships. When the player is on land as part of an exploration party, the same menu item creates a fort when men are dropped off in it.

Upon arriving in the new world, the player can explore the coastline, set up missionaries and forts, and interact with the native peoples. Approaching the villages results in the map zooming in to show the village, represented by four buildings, and the natives moving about. In the center is the village chieftain, approaching him and opening the menu allows trade for gold and food. The player has the option to peacefully trade with or conquer the natives, and can (with the right choices and luck) sometimes convert them, turning the village into a mission.

The natives can be attacked simply by moving onto them. A few accidental killings is acceptable to the village, and sometimes unavoidable, but too many and the natives will become hostile and attack the party. In many cases the Spanish can overwhelm the natives, who will eventually give up fighting and allow the Spanish to plunder the town. Ambushes are also common, between the towns.

Much of "Seven Cities of Gold" was influenced by historical accounts of the era. Interactions with the natives could be peaceful or hostile, or become hostile due to the language barrier. 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."

The size of the New World was one of the concepts which were integrated into the design; the land had to be detailed and diverse. As a result, data storage and retrieval became a major issue, particularly as the developers did not want lengthy load times to interfere with the game. As described by Bunten, "Our only way out was to use technologies we didn't have until we were forced to invent them."citation | date = October 1984 | last = Bunten | first = Dan | authorlink = Danielle Bunten Berry | periodical = Computer Gaming World | title = Dispatches: Seven Cities of Gold Designer Notes| year = 1984 | pages = 20-21] The game used a streaming system to allow the map to be loaded in without interrupting game play. The game ships with a single "world" closely modeled on the real one, including details as small as the Florida Keys and most well-known rivers. The game also includes a world creating engine that allows the user to build a truly new world, saving it to a user supplied disk.

Versions

The game originally shipped for the Atari 400/800, which was the only "full" version of the original release. [ [http://markus.brenner.de/ea/7cities.html Dani Bunten on The Seven Cities of Gold] ] Versions for the Commodore 64 and Apple II were released soon after in the same year. This was followed by a version for the Apple Macintosh and Commodore Amiga in 1985. All of these versions can be considered ports of the original "classic" version on the Atari. The game won the "Strategy Game of the Year" award from Computer Gaming World's 1985 reader poll, and sold over 100,000 copies.citation | date = Nov-Dec 1985 | periodical = Computer Gaming World | title = Game of the Year | year = 1985 | pages = 32-33]

In 1993 a new version was released for the IBM PC running under DOS. 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. For example, conquering villages in order to turn them into forts and missions as a game strategy became much more difficult. 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 one mission, one colony, and three forts in the space of ten voyages. The DOS "Commemorative Edition" won the Origins Award for "Best Military or Strategy Computer Game of 1993".

References

ee also

* "Heart of Africa"

External links

*moby game|id=/seven-cities-of-gold|name="The Seven Cities of Gold"
* [http://www.c64sets.com/seven_cities_of_gold.html Images of The Seven Cities of Gold package, manual and screen shots]
* [http://www.cyberroach.com/analog/an20/seven_cities.htm A 1984 review of the game]
* [http://www.atarimagazines.com/v3n9/profiles.html Antic Vol.3 No.9] Interviewing Dan Bunten
* [http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/BOOK/BERRY.HTM Halcyon Days article] Interview with Danielle (Dan) Bunten