SINBAD AND THE GOLDEN SHIP (Mastertronic) Journey with the famed mariner across an island filled with natural and supernatural dangers. Over 100 illustrated locations capture the wonder and excitement of the Arabian Nights. Features include split- screen graphics and scrolling text. Full sentence analysis and save game routine. THE LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN SHIP There is a legend that dates back to the war between Persian and Greece. The tale describes a War Ship made from solid gold. The Shah of Persia summoned seven Babylonian wizards and commanded them to build the finest vessel that ever sailed, to be the flag ship of his fleet. For twenty one days the wizards toiled, using the help of spirits and magic, until the task was finished. On the twenty second day the wizards presented the Shah with a priceless ship constructed from gold and decorated with gems. No man could serve on its deck. The ship's captain was one of the mighty lords of the Djinn and its sails were furled by spirits. The legend recounts the battle in which the Golden Ship led the Persian fleet against Greece. The gods of Greece were powerful and joined their people in battle. Poseidon rose from the sea and the Persian fleet was scattered. The tales differ but many say that the Golden Ship survived and the Djinn, being of a greedy nature, stole the valuable prize. It is said that the Golden Ship still sails the ocean and many men have gone in search of it. The story so far ... The ship sailed for thirty days across uncharted seas. Its captain was either unconcerned or unaware of the unrest amongst the crew. Each day he stood by the wheel, his eyes searching the horizon. Sinbad wondered what quest would encourage a captain to sail his ship into such perilous waters. The appearance of sea birds indicated that land was not far off. But the hypnotic song of the Sirens, that was carried by the East wind, was an omen to the sailors that the land was not safe for mortal men to walk. The captain was doomed never to sight land. Suddenly, without warning, a large tentacle rose out of the ocean and wrapped itself around the captain and dragged him into the water. Another tentacle came crashing through the hull and the deck below Sinbad was ripped from the ship and tossed into the sea. Sinbad lost consciousness but he did not drown. Sinbad was about to embark on another adventure ... Playing the game: Sinbad is a graphic/text adventure in which you control the actions of the Arabian Nights character Sinbad the sailor. The computer holds a fantasy landscape complete with obstacles and foes to defeat. You control your character by typing in English commands. For example: "TAKE SWORD" will allow you to pick up a sword if one is to be found at your location. "GO NORTH" will move your character one location to the north if it is possible to move in that direction. Full sentences of up to 59 characters can be entered. You can enter the above commands as "TAKE SWORD AND GO NORTH". VOCABULARY: All the standard adventure commands are understood and acted on by the computer. For those of you who are new to adventure games there follows a list of commands to help you get started. TAKE - This command should be followed by the name of an object. "TAKE ALL" instructs your character to pick up all the objects at his present location. DROP - Follows the same rules as TAKE but allows the player to drop objects that the character is carrying. NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST, UP, DOWN - All move your character one location in the stated direction. INVENTORY - Lists out the objects being carried. LOOK - When playing the game, details of your present location might scroll off the screen. The "LOOK" command will restore those details. SEARCH - The SEARCH command will list out any objects dropped at your present location. EXAMINE - The command "EXAMINE" followed by the name of an object can give you more details about the object. SAVE - This command allows the player to save a partially completed game onto a blank tape for playing at a later date. To load a saved game you must first load in the main program. When the program has loaded and displays the message "WHAT NOW?" enter the command LOAD. Now put your saved game into your recorder and start the recorder on play. The game will now continue where you left off. Some of the commands can be abbreviated to a single letter: N-NORTH, S-SOUTH, E-EAST, W-WEST, U-UP, D-DOWN, T-TAKE, I-INVENTORY, O-OPEN, L-LOOK. These are only a few of the commands held in the computer's vocabulary. To list more would give away some of the problems to be overcome. A help sheet for Sinbad is available to customers by sending a S.A.E. to Mastertronic. GRAPHICS: At the top of the screen Sinbad features a graphics window. When the window is on, a graphic display shows your present location. When the window is off the title screen is displayed. To turn the window off or on press key 1.