Seven Cities of Gold - videogame classics

[Daniel Thomas]

A new, long essay on one of my favorite computer games - Seven Cities of Gold. It was one that I played to death as a kid, and still find thouroughly entertaining today. I still haven't played Heart of Africa, so I can't say how that compares. Any good stories?


Seven Cities of Gold (http://www.danielthomas.org/pop/classics/cities.htm)

http://www.danielthomas.org/Assets/cities2.gif


Here are some excerpts from the full piece:

"The promise of sailing to the New World, to "discover" the Americas - what a great concept for a game! What a great way to relive history! I don't think this is merely my own nostalgia talking; show me a nine-year-old who wouldn't become hopelessly drawn in after a few moments of play...

"Above all else, Dani Bunten Berry wanted people to connect with one another. Videogames could be something more than quick thrills aimed at boys and teenagers. Family members of all ages could come together and play a great game, just as they would play Bridge or Charades...

"My grandfather is nearly 80 years old, but his favorite game continues to be MULE. I've promised to give him a copy of the Atari 800 emulator, so we all - grandparents to grandchildren - could play together. It's a prospect that thrills him. For me, this is Dani Bunten's legacy."

[mezrabad]

Hey, did you know someone just Homebrewed MULE for the Atari 5200? It's got the four player option for four port 5200s. Anyway, just FYI and I look forward to reading your essay.



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Chronogamer (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/weblog.php?w=42&previous=29) - Every game. Chronologically.

[SoulBlazer]

Seven Cities of Gold, like MULE, is a great game. ;)

As a matter of fact, I JUST got from Zach a scanned manual for Heart of Africa -- and I'm going to write a FAQ for it since there is NOTHING on that game online. I'm also going to ask for help with people here on the board in playing the game so I can get information for the FAQ.

[IntvGene]

Awesome article, Daniel.

This is one of the true gems of gaming. I remember playing this game early in my teenage years, and even then it really impressed me. I love the open-ended nature of the game. It's funny, because there have been so many rave reviews for the modern update of Pirates, and I think that people tracing the history of the game would definitely come to this title at some point. These reviewers need to remember that open-ended gaming is not a modern phenomenom.

Sadly, I never did that well at the game, but I still love it.

If anyone is interested in playing a common game here on DP, let me know (using an Atari 800 emulator). We could create a shared map disk and then post our progress on a thread like this one.

[Lady Jaye]

I've never played Dani Bunten's games, but it's never too late to correct that... one of those days, I oughta install an Atari 800 emulator (is that the only platform on which her games appeared?).

[IntvGene]

I've never played Dani Bunten's games, but it's never too late to correct that... one of those days, I oughta install an Atari 800 emulator (is that the only platform on which her games appeared?).

Nah... Seven Cities of Gold came out for the Atari 8-bit, Apple IIe, C64, and later for the PC and Amiga, etc. A couple of us here have an old affinity for the Atari 8-bit, that's all. :) But, there are some musings on the net that the Atari 8-bit is the best version though. I couldn't tell you for sure.

Heart of Africa came out only for the C64, I believe. M.U.L.E. was originally written for the Atari 8-bit, and also saw release on the NES and C64, as well as the and 5200!

Her later games saw releases on a variety of platforms.

[Lady Jaye]

So, which platforms do you guys recommend the most for her games? Atari 8-bit? Apple II? C64?

[yok-dfa]

SCoG rules big time. I've spent so much time on the C64 version...

I also tried getting it to run on my Nokia 6600 Symbian phone with the C64 emulator 'Frodo' but it either has some compatibility problems or my ROM is bad. Have to investigate it. The only other game i play on my phone is Lasersquad (another classic)

[SoulBlazer]

Lady, I would suggest the C64. Specificaly, an emulator called WinVICE. It can handle C64, C128, Vic 20, etc. Very user friendly, very easy to use. Plus you can 'boost' the speed of the loading so you're not waiting 5 minutes like a REAL C64. ;)

Plus you can play MULE, Seven Cities of Gold, and Heart of Africa all on it -- and that was the ONLY platform Heart of Africa came out on.

I agree with all the praise that Seven Cities of Gold has gotten. A really fun game. And I'd be okay with the shared map idea. ;)

Dan/Danni has a lot of great games out there. Home of the Underdogs has a dedication page to his/her games along with downloads for all of them.

[Daniel Thomas]

I'd suggest the Atari800Win emulator. You get to play four players on MULE - and more importantly, you can play games online! And, it may sound petty, but I think the Atari versions of MULE and Seven Cities look better than on other platforms.

But, by all means, get a C64 emulator, because there's a lot of great games on the Commie 64. I wonder how Heart of Africa plays. Is it essentially the same game as Seven Cities, or were there major changes?

I'm glad everyone enjoys reading these essays I write. They always take several hours to get finished, and it involves a lot of pulling hairs on my part. I really should learn to write faster one of these years, but at least I've been productive this week.

[rolenta]

In his forthcoming book Confessions Of The Game Doctor, Bill Kunkel included one chapter about three gaming people who are now dead. One of them is Dani Bunten (the other two are Ken Uston and Dave Gordon.

[calthaer]

I could never figure out why you had all these natives surrounding you and you had to creep up to the chief in the native village and all that. It was a great game, though. I think I liked "Conquest of the New World" better, though.

[Lady Jaye]

Lady, I would suggest the C64. Specificaly, an emulator called WinVICE. It can handle C64, C128, Vic 20, etc. Very user friendly, very easy to use. Plus you can 'boost' the speed of the loading so you're not waiting 5 minutes like a REAL C64. ;)

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'll have to go for another emulator... remember, I'm a Mac user... Actually, turns out that there's a Mac version of Vice (MacVice). There's also Frodo and Power64.

[SoulBlazer]

VICE is the best Commodore emulator.....Frodo is good as a backup.

I just ordered a CD with 200 issues of LOADSTAR, a C64 disk magazine I used to get as a kid in the 80's and early 90's, speaking of Commodore. Woohoo! I can't wait for that to come. ;)