Prince of Persia (1989 video game)

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This article is about the 1989 video game. For the 2008 game of the same name, see Prince of Persia (2008 video game).
Prince of Persia
File:Prince of Persia 1989 cover.jpg
Cover art used for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST and MS-DOS versions
Developer(s) Brøderbund
Ports
Publisher(s) Brøderbund
Ports
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Designer(s) Jordan Mechner
Platforms Apple II (see Ports)
Release date(s)
      Genre(s) Cinematic platformer
      Mode(s) Single-player

      Prince of Persia is a 1989 fantasy cinematic platformer originally developed and published by Brøderbund and designed by Jordan Mechner for the Apple II. In the game, players control an unnamed protagonist who must venture through a series of dungeons to defeat the Grand Vizier Jaffar and save an imprisoned princess.

      Much like Karateka, Mechner's first game, Prince of Persia used rotoscoping for its fluid and realistic animation. For this process, Mechner used as reference for the characters' movements videos of his brother doing acrobatic stunts in white clothes and swashbuckler films such as The Adventures of Robin Hood.

      The game was critically acclaimed and, while not an immediate commercial success, sold many copies as it was ported to a wide range of platforms after the original Apple II release. It is believed to have been the first cinematic platformer and inspired many following games in this subgenre, such as Another World.[4] Its success led to the release of two sequels, The Shadow and the Flame and Prince of Persia 3D, and a reboot of the series starting in 2003 with The Sands of Time.

      Plot

      The game is set in ancient Persia. While the sultan is fighting a war in a foreign land, his vizier Jaffar, a wizard, seizes power. His only obstacle to the throne is the Sultan's daughter (although the game never specifically mentions how). Jaffar locks her in a tower and orders her to become his wife, or she would die within 60 minutes (or 120 minutes in the Super Nintendo version, which has more and harder levels). The game's nameless protagonist, whom the Princess loves, is thrown prisoner into the palace dungeons. In order to free her, he must escape the dungeons, get to the palace tower and defeat Jaffar before time runs out. But in addition to guards, various traps and dungeons, the protagonist is further hindered by his own doppelgänger, an apparition of his own self that is conjured out of a magic mirror.

      Gameplay

      File:Prince of Persia (1989 video game) IBM PC Version gameplay.gif
      Mechner used videos of his brother as a reference for the original animation of the game (IBM PC compatible version)

      The main objective of the player is to lead the nameless protagonist out of a dungeons and into a tower before time runs out. This cannot be done without bypassing traps and fighting hostile swordsmen. The game consists of twelve levels (though some console versions have more). However, a game session may be saved and resumed at a later time only after level 3.

      The player has a health indicator that consists of a series of small red triangles. The player starts with three. Each time the protagonist is damaged (cut by sword, fallen from two floors of heights or hit by a falling rock), the player loses one of these indicators. There are small jars of red potion scattered throughout the game that restore one health indicator. There are also large jars of red potion that increase the maximum number of health indicators by one. If the player's health is reduced to zero, the protagonist dies. Subsequently, the game is restarted from the beginning of the stage in which the protagonist died but the timer will not reset to that point, effectively constituting a time penalty. There is no counter for the number of lives; but if time runs out, the princess will die and the game will be over.

      There are three types of traps that the player must bypass: Spike traps, deep pits (three or more levels deep) and guillotines. Getting caught or falling into each results in the instant death of the protagonist. In addition, there are gates that can be raised for a short period of time by having the protagonist stand on the activation trigger. The player must pass through the gates while they are open, avoiding locking triggers. Sometimes, there are various traps between an unlock trigger and a gate.

      Hostile swordsmen (Jaffar and his guards) are yet another obstacle. The player obtains a sword in the first stage, which they can use to fight these adversaries. The protagonist's sword maneuvers are as follows: advance, back off, slash, parry, or a combined parry-then-slash attack. Enemy swordsmen also have a health indicator similar to that of the protagonist. Killing them involves slashing them until their health indicator is depleted or by pushing them into traps while fighting.

      A unique trap encountered in stage four, which serves as a plot device, is a magic mirror, whose appearance is followed by an ominous leitmotif. The protagonist is forced to jump through this mirror upon which his doppelganger emerges from the other side. This apparition later hinders the protagonist by stealing a potion and throwing him into a dungeon. The protagonist cannot kill this apparition as they share lives; any damage inflicted upon one also hurts the other. Therefore, the protagonist must merge with his doppelganger.

      Once they have merged, the player can run across an invisible bridge to a new area, where they battle Jafaar (once the final checkpoint is reached, the player will no longer get a game over screen even if time runs out). Once Jafaar is defeated, his spell is broken and the Princess can be saved. In addition, the in-game timer is stopped at the moment of Jafaar's death, and the time remaining will appear on the high scores.

      Development

      File:Prince of Persia sketches by Jordan Mechner.jpg
      Mechner used hand-drawn storyboards such as this to layout the game's level design and character movements

      Development for the game began in 1985, the year Jordan Mechner graduated from Yale University. At that time, Mechner had already developed one game, Karateka, for distributor Brøderbund. Despite expecting a sequel to Karateka, the distributor gave Mechner creative freedom to create an original game.[5] The game drew from several sources of inspiration beyond video games, including literature such as the Arabian Nights stories,[6] and films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark[7] and The Adventures of Robin Hood.[8]

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      For a few seconds, the camera angle has them in exact profile. This was a godsend. I did my VHS/one-hour-photo rotoscope procedure, spread two-dozen snapshots out on the floor of the office and spent days poring over them trying to figure out what exactly was going on in that duel, how to conceptualise it into a repeatable pattern.

      Jordan Mechner on how he used the final duel between Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone from The Adventures of Robin Hood to create the game's swordfighting mechanic[5]

      Mechner used an animation technique called rotoscoping, with which he used footage to animate the characters' sprites and movements. To create the protagonist's platforming motions, Mechner traced video footage of his younger brother running and jumping in white clothes.[9] To create the game's swordfighting sprites, Mechner rotoscoped the final duel scene between Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone in the 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood.[8] 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 has said that when he started programming, the first ten minutes of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark had been one of the main inspirations for the character's acrobatic responses in a dangerous environment.[10]

      For the Japanese computer ports, Arsys Software[11] and Riverhillsoft[2] enhanced the visuals and redesigned the Prince's appearance, introducing the classic turban and vest look. This version became the basis for the Macintosh version and later Prince of Persia ports and games by Brøderbund. Riverhillsoft's FM Towns version also added a Red Book CD audio soundtrack.[2]

      Ports

      File:Prince of Persia SNES.jpg
      Screenshot from the Super Nintendo port developed by Arsys; this version features enhanced graphics and more levels than the original Apple II release

      After its release on the Apple II, Prince of Persia was ported to a variety of platforms. Below is a list of the ports that were developed.

      Official
      Port Release Developer Publisher
      Amiga 1990 Domark
      Amstrad CPC 1990 Brøderbund
      Atari ST 1990
      MS-DOS 1990
      SAM Coupé 1990 Revelation
      NEC PC-9801 July 1990 (1990-07)[2] Arsys Software[11] Riverhillsoft
      Sharp X68000 April 30, 1991 (1991-04-30) Riverhillsoft
      TurboGrafx-CD November 8, 1991 (1991-11-08)
      PC Engine 1991
      Sega Master System 1992 Domark
      Sega Game Gear 1992
      Sega CD 1992 Riverhillsoft
      Game Boy January 1992 (1992-01) Virgin Games
      FM Towns June 1992 (1992-06) Riverhillsoft
      SNES July 3, 1992 (1992-07-03) (JP)
      November 1, 1992 (1992-11-01) (US, EU)      		 Arsys Software[12] Masaya (JP)
      Konami (US, EU)
      NES November 2, 1992 (1992-11-02) Virgin Games [13]
      Macintosh 1992 Brøderbund
      Sega Genesis 1993 Domark
      Game Boy Color April 15, 1999 (1999-04-15) Ed Magnin and Associates [14] Red Orb Entertainment [14]
      iOS (Actually "Retro", replaced by "Classic" version on 2011) May 28, 2010 (2010-05-28) Ubisoft
      iOS (Actually "Classic") December 19, 2011 (2011-12-19)
      Nintendo 3DS January 19, 2012 (2012-01-19) [15]
      Wii January 19, 2012 (2012-01-19) [15]
      Unofficial
      Port Release Developer Publisher
      Enterprise 128 1990 Brøderbund[16]
      Electronika BK-0011M 1994 Evgeny Pashigorov, Pasha Sizykh [17] Flame Association
      ATM Turbo 1994 Honey Soft, Andrey Honichem Moscow
      ZX Spectrum 1996 Nicodim [18] Magic Soft [18]
      MC Software [19]
      HP48/GX 1998 Hewlett-Packard[20]
      TI-89, TI-92 2003 David Coz[21]
      Commodore Plus 4 2007 GFW & ACW [22]
      Commodore 64 2011 Andreas Varga [23]
      Linux, Microsoft Windows 2014 David[24] This port, called SDLPoP, uses SDL.[24]

      Reception

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      Reception
      Aggregate score
      Aggregator Score
      GameRankings 80% (1 review)[25]
      Review scores
      Publication Score
      Dragon 5/5 stars [26]
      EGM 32/40 (GEN)[27]
      Adventure Classic Gaming 4/5 stars [28]
      Génération 4 90%[3]

      Charles Ardai of Computer Gaming World stated that the game package's claim that it "breaks new ground with animation so uncannily human it must be seen to be believed" was true. He wrote that Prince of Persia "succeeds at being more than a running-jumping game (in other words, a gussied-up Nintendo game)" because it "captures the feel of those great old adventure films", citing Thief of Baghdad, Frankenstein and Dracula. Ardai concluded that it was "a tremendous achievement" in gaming comparable to that of Star Wars in film.[29]

      In 1992, The New York Times described the Macintosh version as having "brilliant graphics and excellent sound ... Sure, you could do all this years ago on a Commodore 64 or Atari 400. But those games never looked or sounded like this".[30] Reviewing the Genesis version, GamePro praised the "extremely fluid" animation of the player character and commented that the controls are difficult to master but nonetheless very effective. Comparing it to the SNES version, they summarized that "the Genesis version has better graphics, and the SNES has better music. Otherwise, the two are identical in almost every way ..."[31] Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) likewise assessed the Genesis version as "An excellent conversion of the classic action game", and added that the game's challenging strategy and technique give it high longevity.[32] EGM's panel of four reviewers each gave it a rating of 8 out of 10, adding up to an overall score of 32 out of 40.[27]

      In 1991, the game was ranked the 12th best Amiga game of all time by Amiga Power.[33] Prince of Persia would go on to influence cinematic platformers such as Flashback as well as action-adventure games such as Tomb Raider,[2] which used a similar control scheme.[34]

      Despite a positive critical reception, the game was initially a commercial failure in North America, where it had sold only 7,000 units each on the Apple II and IBM PC platforms by July 1990. It was when the game was released in Japan and Europe that year that it became a commercial success. In July 1990, the NEC PC-9801 version sold 10,000 units as soon as it was released in Japan. It was then ported to various different home computers and video game consoles, eventually selling 2 million units worldwide by the time its sequel Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame (1993) was in production.[2]

      Remake and modifications

      A few DOS games were created using exactly the same game mechanics of the DOS version of Prince of Persia. Makh-Shevet created Cruel World in 1993 and Capstone Software created Zorro in 1995.[35]

      In 2007, Prince of Persia was remade and ported by Gameloft. The remake, titled Prince of Persia Classic, was released on June 13, 2007 to the Xbox Live Arcade, and on October 23, 2008 on the PlayStation Network. It features the same level design and general premise but contained 3D-rendered graphics, more fluid movements, and Sands of Time aesthetics.[36] The gameplay and controls were slightly adjusted to include a wall-jump move and different swordplay. New game modes were also added, such as "Time Attack" and "Survival".[37] The game has also been released on Android.[38]

      Reverse engineering efforts by fans of the original game have resulted in detailed documentation of the file formats of the MS-DOS version.[39] Various level editors have been created that can be used to modify the level files of the DOS version.[40] With these editors and other software, over sixty mods have been created.[41]

      Source code release

      On April 17, 2012, Jordan Mechner established a GitHub repository[42] containing the long-thought-lost[43] original Apple II source code for Prince of Persia.[44][45] A technical document describing the operation of this source code is available on Mechner's website.[46]

      References

      1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Prince of Persia review, Generation 4, issue #25, September 1990
      4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      7. ↑ Gamasutra - Features - Game Design: Theory & Practice Second Edition: 'Interview with Jordan Mechner'
      8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      9. ↑ October 20, 1985 | jordanmechner.com
      10. ↑ Gamasutra - Features - Game Design: Theory & Practice Second Edition: 'Interview with Jordan Mechner'
      11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Prince of Persia release info, Moby Games, October 3, 1989
      12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Electronic Gaming Monthly, 1998 Video Game Buyer's Guide, p. 86
      28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      34. ↑ Blache, Fabian & Fielder, Lauren, History of Tomb Raider, GameSpot, Accessed Apr 1, 2009
      35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      36. ↑ Review of Prince of Persia remake by Nick Suttner, 13 June 2007, 1Up.com
      37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      41. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      42. ↑ Prince of Persia Apple II
      43. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
      46. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

      External links

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