Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon, Atari ST

The 1988 Atari ST conversion of Cinemaware‘s Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon has considerably better graphics than the Amiga original, even though the ST can’t quite display as many colours on-screen as the Amiga can.

The reason for this – I think – is because the graphics in the Amiga original were created by the original programmer, Bill Williams (and Martha Williams; not sure if that’s his wife, sister or other relative, or not), and graphics were not their forte. The graphics in this version (and all the other conversions of this game) were created by professional artists working for Cinemaware, who were able to produce something a bit more solid.

Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon is an interesting open world adventure/strategy game where you play as Sinbad the Sailor, exploring far-off lands, and the open seas, on a quest to defeat The Dark Prince. It features a number of action-based minigames, as well as features such as recruitment and conversations.

The game does a decent job of recreating the thrills of the classic Ray Harryhausen Sinbad films (and the tales they are based upon), and features some of the mythological creatures that Sinbad encounters in those stories, plus a few new ones. Events are mostly random, so Throne of the Falcon is different every time you play it.