Seven Cities of Gold
| Developer: Digital Creations | Graphics: |
 | |
| Publisher: Electronic Arts | Sound: |
| |
| Year: 1985 | Difficulty: |
 | |
| Genre: Strategy | Lastability: |
| |
| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
6/10 | |
The lazy port of a 1984 Commodore 64 game (originally from the Atari 8-bit), inspired by the myth of the cities of gold. A notable title nonetheless, for its vast world to explore and the freedom it offers in this regard.
You’re a conquistador from the late 15th century, commanding a fleet of ships and in search of the New World, synonymous with glory and wealth … or more likely: storms, shipwrecks, and scurvy.
The “discovery” phase proves rather trivial. All you need to do is head in any direction and wait to “bump” into a shore. The game offers very few instructions, and that’s intentional. It’s your job to navigate and draw a map. Once land is in sight, disembark with an expeditionary group, making sure to bring enough provisions. Your preferred destinations are the native villages. When you visit one, the game turns into a kind of rugby simulation. The villagers rush at you from all sides, leaving you with two options: try to avoid them, find the village chief, and offer part of your cargo until he agrees to trade with you; or just kill everyone, loot the village, and face the consequences…
The real challenge appears after several hours of land exploration, when your supplies start to, well, run out… Ahoy, sailor… Sailor, where’d you park your boat…
The next step is to head back to your home port in Spain to resupply, recruit more hands, and save the game. Don’t forget to report your discoveries to your good king before setting off again, tirelessly combing another section of the continent.
Once you’ve seen it all, there’s always the option to generate randomly a new, New World. It’s one of the earliest examples of “procedural generation”, paired with an open world and a rudimentary form of auto-mapping. Not bad, huh?!
A remastered version, prettier but heavily revamped, was released on PC in 1993.
|
