Sinbad - author Matthew Pegg
            (STAC text/graphic adventure for ST)

            Reviewed by James Judge on a 1040 STe

Sinbad, aaah, I remember the films.  A great muscled man and his
loyal crew fighting the forces of darkness and evil in the shape
of plastic monsters and the like. One thing that really annoyed me
though was Sinbad always won the day and the girl.  Anyway, on
with the game.

After a picture of a ship in stormy waters and a note about
registration (œ3.00 to Matthew Pegg) you are presented with a
picture of a beach on which you have been washed ashore with
debris all around you, the typical Robinson Crusoe start.

You can't go in any direction so you decide to examine the debris
and you find a tinderbox, a piece of driftwood and, after a while,
a cask full of salt.  "Hmmm, what to do now?"  you say to yourself
and you go and dig in the sand and find a green corked bottle.
After uncorking the bottle you are confronted by a genie staring
at its next meal - you!

Have you got something on you that will satisfy his hunger for
now? Will you escape the confines of the bottle? Will you ever
open the old carpet bag? Well if you play the game you will find
out, won't you?

Sinbad is a relatively short adventure comprising twenty four
locations. In every room there is something to do and each
location is in someway connected to the next.  You will, in your
travels, see the history of a carpet (did you read the small
print?), work a ballista, have many nightmares of you in the nude
and become a baby and a ghost! Yep, if this adventure is anything
it's varied.

The puzzles are quite logical (except for one) but, especially in
the bottle, they will make you use your grey stuff and a bit of
commonsense. There are a couple of hints in the text that help
with a couple of puzzles but not enough to spoil the game.

Text is of an extremely high standard that describes each room
well (I have only found one spelling mistake). Humour also makes
an appearance which makes you chuckle but it doesn't go overboard
making the game silly. When you go from one location to the next
the text fades away then the new text fades in.  A very nice touch
if you ask me.

Graphics are in about 60% of the locations and are all well drawn
and clear. There are also two animated sequences both of a candle.
One being lit and another being blown out. This is something I
thought that was impossible with STAC, but still I'm only a
novice.

If there is anything to gripe about with this game is how easily I
completed it. If I were a novice I would have found this quite a
challenge, but as it is, it is rather simple. Also there is too
much fiddling with knobs to alter your age for my liking. It's a
good idea but you have to do it a total of twelve times to
complete the game.

Sinbad is a very good game that gave me a few hours of enjoyment.
I would recommend everyone to buy this game and register to
Matthew. For novices it will be a challenge and for veterans it
will be an enjoyable trip into Matthew Pegg's imagination.

If you do register you will get a free hint sheet and game
(Camelot). The game is excellent and the hint sheet is very
helpful.  After I completed the game I decoded the hint sheet and
I must warn you that (a) they are not minor hints and could spoil
the enjoyment of the game and (b) there are a few spelling
mistakes and for clue 10 you must reverse what you've been doing.

@~Sinbad was given away with Issue 22 of SynTax and Matthew Pegg
@~can be contacted at 70 Malletts Close, Stony Stratford, Milton
@~Keynes, MK11 1DG.