One day this is going to be the greatest game of all time, and then two days later I don’t know if I should even finish it." But since these journals are what I actually wrote on that day, at that moment, there’s a lot of ping-ponging back and forth. "If I were to write my memoir of Prince of Persia now, with hindsight, I would put everything in perspective, give everything the appropriate weight. Of the book, Mechner tells Gamasutra, "In a way, I feel that that gives a lot truer picture" of the development of Prince of Persia than a newly-written book would.
To compliment these selections, hand-picked for Gamasutra by Mechner himself, Gamasutra is happy to present a brand new interview about his experiences. These extracts of his new e-book, The Making of Prince of Persia, clearly show how the game took shape over the course of its lengthy development process. Over the course of three year period of development, Mechner would partner with Broderbund Software, move to California to work on the game, and radically rethink and retool the game. Prince of Persia also influenced a sub-genre, which imitated the sprawling non-scrolling levels, fluid animation, and control style pioneered by Prince.In 1986 Jordan Mechner began work on the game that would define his career, Prince of Persia, on the Apple II. This was achieved by interspersing intelligent puzzles and deadly traps all along the path the Prince had to take to complete the game-all this packaged in fluid, life-like motion. The game managed to surprise and captivate the player despite being at first glance, repetitive. Mechner has said that when he started programming, the first ten minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark had been one of the main inspirations for the character's acrobatic responses in a dangerous environment.Īfter the original release on the Apple II, Prince of Persia was ported to a wide range of platforms, including the Amiga, Apple Macintosh, DOS, NES, Game Boy, Sega Mega Drive, Game Gear, SNES, Sharp X68000, Atari ST and SAM Coupé. Also unusual was the method of combat: protagonist and enemies fought with swords, not projectile weapons, as was the case in most contemporary games. Mechner used a process called rotoscoping, in which he studied many hours of film of his younger brother David running and jumping in white clothes, to ensure that all the movements looked just right. Prince of Persia (often shortened to "POP") is a platform game, originally developed by Jordan Mechner in 1989 for the Apple II, that was widely seen as a great leap forward in the quality of animation seen in computer games. Win the game now, as this mode is only for practice. Skips a level, but leaves you with 15 minutes of time. Turns sound ON/OFF, along with the music. Note that time will still flow, so if you keep restarting a level for one This will only reset the current level you are on in case you get To back up your game, copy the Prince.sav file into Also note that you can only save a game at a time. You have to be at least at Level 3 to save. Shows you the amount of time you have left. While jumping, hold Shift to catch the other ledge and hold. Hold and press Up + Left or Right to make a careful jump. Hold to hang on to ledges, walk slowly, pick up stuff, and fight.
As above, Prince runs forward for a shortĭistance if button is tapped Prince runs continuously if button is held.
Prince will run forward for a short distance if tapped While swordfighting this will put your sword away.
Prince will crouch for as long as the button is held. While swordfighting Up is used to block an attack. If there are some loose slabs above you, hop to touch them and they will fall. If there is a ledge above, hold up to jump and climb up the ledge.