Seven Cities of Gold Question

[Static Universe]

Obscure question time:

Does anybody know what the differences are between the difficulty levels in the DOS version of Seven Cities of Gold? I can't seem to notice any.

I used to love this game on the Commodore 64, and have recently been playing the DOS version I d/l'ed from an abandonware site.

The game seems significantly dumbed down to me (you can't even sail off the edge of the world anymore ). Granted, I'm playing peaceful style, but the DOS version justs seems much easier than what I remember. I can't tell the differences between the difficulty levels at all.

[Skanky Burns]

I haven't played the Seven Cities of Gold, but I did recently play an old game (Carrier Command) that I used to think was very hard. I remember playing that for over a month and having difficulty. My recent attempt saw me complete the game within a few hours.

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
I haven't played the Seven Cities of Gold, but I did recently play an old game (Carrier Command) that I used to think was very hard. I remember playing that for over a month and having difficulty. My recent attempt saw me complete the game within a few hours.

Granted, Seven Cities was not exactly an action packed game on the C-64 platform, but I don't remember it being a total cakewalk like the DOS version is. There were some challenges.

My suspicion here is that the game was dumbed down by Electronic Arts decree when it was ported to DOS.

Something similar happened to another game the Seven Cities developers wrote called M.U.L.E., which was very popular, but EA insisted on making some ridiculous changes to it. The DOS version of M.U.L.E. never came out.

[Richard Bruns]

The difference is how much gold you start with. On easy, you have enough to outfit two ships, and on difficult you´ll only be albe to afford one.

I had a lot of fun with that game, even if it was pretty easy. The fun isn´t in the challenge, it is in the exploring and experimenting.

[Static Universe]

So gold is the difference? D'oh, I should've noticed that. I try to beef up my gold quickly by scouting out the Inca(Aztec?) villages first, so I get up to twelve ship fairly quickly.

I seem to recall reading that native scouts will also lie to you on max difficulty if you have been abusing the natives, but I have not been able to verify this.

The lack of a save feature makes testing difficult. It also makes completing the game harder, as I do not want to leave the program running for days on end while I try to discover 100% of the territory.

Still one of my favorite games of all time though.

Thanks for the info.

[Richard Bruns]

You can save your games. There are plenty of save slots, at least on the DOS version. I forget how they work, but I do remember that the interface was a bit clunky.

And yes, classic software afficionados do complain about the DOS port of this game paling in comparison to the original. They do have commodore 64 emulators and ROM´s, but I don´t know if they are any good.

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by Richard Bruns
You can save your games. There are plenty of save slots, at least on the DOS version. I forget how they work, but I do remember that the interface was a bit clunky.

Good Lord! You can save games just by hitting the escape button!!!

And yes, classic software afficionados do complain about the DOS port of this game paling in comparison to the original.

I knew I was right. But even in its reduced state, it's still pretty enjoyable.

They do have commodore 64 emulators and ROM´s, but I don´t know if they are any good.

I tried them, but wasn't really willing to make the time investment to get them to work properly. (OK, I forgot the C-64 commands and was too lazy to search for them). Perhaps I should...

Thanks!