Islands of Sinbad, The
Zenobi Software 
1997
- Language:
- English
- Authors:
- Jack A. Lockerby
- Systems:
- PAW
- Platforms:
- Spectrum
- Genres:
- Myths and legends
- Entered by:
- Gunness, Strident, Sudders
- Added:
- 10-05-2010
- Edited:
- 30-10-2025
Synopsis
Throughout the country people were dropping like flies and your poor unfortunate family were to be no exception. After ten days of harrowing sickness both your Mother and Father passed away and you found yourself alone in the world for the first time in your life. Grief stricken and distraught you vowed to leave this place of sadness and to journey to happier places. So it was that you made your way to the local harbour where you signed on as a deck-hand on a vessel bound for the islands of the Eastern Seas.
For the first part of the voyage your mind was spent more in learning how to keep the contents of your stomach where they belonged than in enjoying the new vistas that came your way. But after a while you gained your "sea legs" and things took on a healthier glow.
"Looks like there is a storm brewing," said the first mate and you saw no reason to doubt him. After all, he had been a sailor all his life and was surely capable of reading the signs of such a thing approaching. Sure enough that night a great storm broke and though your vessel was a stoutly built one it was still tossed about like a cork. You hung on to the sides of your bunk and prayed for the storm to abate, but worse was still to come. A great wave, almost four times the height of your ship, crashed down around it and sent it and the crew to the bottom of the ocean. Luckily for you somebody up there decided that now was not your time and you found yourself cast ashore on a large island.
Notes
Some sources on the Internet list this game as 1987, but that is an error as you can clearly see from the copyright on the loading screen.
Originally written for the ZX Spectrum and published by Zenobi Software.
In 2018, John Wilson made an unofficial port of the game for Amstrad running on the CP/M version of the PAW. This version is untested.
Resources (Upload file)
- Solution
- by terri
- Hints
- by terri
- Further Info:
- Search at Museum of Computer Adventure Game History
- Search at Spectrum Computing
- Search at The Tipshop
- Search at World of Spectrum
[+] Users who have solved this game
[+] Users currently playing this game
There are some irrationalities and bugs in this game which are unusual for a Jack Lockerby Spectrum original of his games. Certain items only appear and wash up on shore if you actually look in the appropriate directions and from certain points of the island. I don't think a shipwreck only happens because you have been looking in its direction. Or perhaps Jack was an advocate of the philosopher George Berkely's concept of subjective idealism, encapsulated in his Latin maxim:"Esse est percipi" ("To be is to be perceived").
Another item exists but doesn't exist at the same time (Schrodinger's wooden pieces?) If you carry the box when you break it you are subsequently armed with several small wooden pieces that you can never drop and just take up an annoying part of your inventory limit. If you are going to become a Luddite, make sure any item you have gleaned in your traversal of the island is on the floor before administering the coup de gr?ce.
Observance as a catalyst for occurrence also appears in another of Jack's games, that is Realm Of Darkness.
Another annoyance in this game is the real-time element of the roc taking off from her egg in search of food. This happens every couple of moves over and over again and makes it almost impossible to type quickly enough to visit that area regardless of emulator speed. This is illogical as she is supposed to be flying far and wide in search of sustenance for herself; she must really bolt her food. This is also supposed to be a large island yet you can visit all four corners in four moves. I never knew my legs were that long.
I would warn anyone but the very experienced and patient to avoid this game. It is Jack's valedictory effort and it is extremely tough; some of the parser commands needed are just odd and there are very few if any alternatives. Trying to phrase the command to enable me to descend into the cave and also to cover myself in a certain substance had me tearing my hair out and the correct command in each case didn't figure in the first dozen options that I logically tried. You can add lots of softlocks and a few bugs to the mixture as well. The back story is intriguing as ever with Jack's creations but I can't honestly say I have enjoyed the game for the reasons given above. If you are new to his work try almost any of his thirty-four other creations.