Uncharted Waters (video game)

Uncharted Waters Daikoukai Jidai
North American NES box art
Developer	Koei
Publisher	Koei Tecmo Games
Composer	Yoko Kanno
Series	Rekoeition, Uncharted Waters
Platforms	PC-88, Macintosh, MS-DOS MSX, X68000, NES, Genesis, SNES
Release	May 1990: PC-88 1990: MS-DOS 1991: Mac, MSX, NES 1992: Genesis
Genre	Role-playing
Mode	Single-player

Uncharted Waters is a 1990 video game published by Koei. It is the first game in the Uncharted Waters series and was released in Japan under the name 大航海時代.

Plot

The player plays the game as the character Leon, a Portuguese son from a fallen noble family. In the storyline, Leon seeks to return glory to his family name.

Gameplay

Uncharted Waters is a game in which player captains seek great trade wind routes and the major currents. The story is set in 1502 A.D. It was released on the PC-88 in May 1990.

Reception

Dave Arneson reviewed the game for Computer Gaming World, and stated that "in the final analysis, Uncharted Waters is mildly interesting as it stands. When compared to what it could have been, it is more than mildly disappointing. Someone may yet design the 'ultimate' game of 16th century exploration, but it isn't here yet". In a 1993 survey of pre 20th-century strategy games the magazine gave the game two stars out of five, stating that while its geography was inaccurate and user interface "could bear improvement", "game play can be interesting".