The Seven Cities of Gold (video game)

The Seven Cities of Gold
Commodore 64 cover art
Developer(s)Ozark Softscape
Publisher(s)
Designer(s)Danielle Bunten Berry
Platform(s)Amiga, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, IBM PC, Mac
Release1984: Atari, Apple II, C64
June 1985: IBM PC[1]
1986: Amiga, Mac
Genre(s)Strategy
Mode(s)Single-player

The Seven Cities of Gold is a strategy video game created by Danielle Bunten Berry (credited as Dan Bunten) and Ozark Softscape and published by Electronic Arts in 1984. The player takes the role of a late 15th-century explorer for the Spanish Empire, 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 Southwest United States. It is considered to be one of the earliest open world video games.[2][3][4]

  1. ^ "1985 Index" (PDF). Computer Entertainer. Vol. 4, no. 10. January 1986. p. 6.
  2. ^ Suellentrop, Chris (May 8, 2017). "'Civilization' Creator Sid Meier: 'I Didn't Really Expect to be a Game Designer'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2017-08-08. Retrieved 2017-07-19. Pirates! was probably the second open-world game after Seven Cities of Gold.
  3. ^ Koon, David (February 8, 2012). "Dani Bunten changed video games forever". Arkansas Times. Retrieved 2017-07-19. Seven Cities of Gold, an Ozark Softscape title produced for EA in 1984 that eventually became the best-selling game of Bunten's career, was one of the first video games to take a stab at an 'open world' concept, allowing players to explore a virtual continent and set their own path rather than follow a regimented series of events.
  4. ^ Bailey, Kat (March 9, 2012). "These games inspired Cliff Bleszinski, John Romero, Will Wright, and Sid Meier". Engadget. Retrieved 2017-07-19. It was one of the first games with randomized maps and an open world.