Bunten wanted to follow up "M.U.L.E." with a game that would have been similar to the later game "Civilization", but after fellow Ozark Softscape partners balked at the idea, Bunten followed with "The Seven Cities of Gold", which proved popular because of its simplicity. By the time the continent data were stored in the computer's memory, there was little left for fancy graphics or complex gameplay - the game had only five resources. It was a hit, selling more than 150,000 copies.