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*Brøderbund
*Brøderbund
*[[Riverhillsoft]] (Japan)
*[[Riverhillsoft]] (Japan)
*[[Arsys Software]] (SNES)
*[[Ubisoft]] (iOS, XBLA, Virtual Console)
*[[Ubisoft]] (iOS, XBLA, Virtual Console)
}}
}}
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''Prince of Persia'' was originally released for the [[Apple II series|Apple II]] in 1989. One year later it was ported to other personal computers such as the [[Amiga]], the Amstrad CPC, the [[Atari ST]], and the [[IBM PC compatible|PC]] ([[MS-DOS]]). [[Riverhillsoft]] then ported the game for the Japanese [[NEC PC-9801]] platform in 1990, which first introduced the protagonist's "[[turban]] and vest" appearance. Mechner was impressed with the PC-9801 version, which would later form the basis for all subsequent versions of the game. The game was then ported in 1991 to the [[Sharp X68000]], which ran it at a [[display resolution|high resolution]], and the Japanese [[PC Engine]], which utilized the Super CD-ROM format and featured a new [[Red Book (CD standard)|Red Book]] [[video game music|audio soundtrack]]; this version was distributed in the US two years later. In 1992, when the home console market was growing steadily, versions for the [[Sega Master System]], [[Sega CD]], [[TurboGrafx-CD]] (the American version of the PC Engine), [[NES]], and [[Game Boy]] were released, as well as a version with enhanced artwork for the [[FM Towns]] and [[Macintosh]].<ref name="hg101_pop"/>
''Prince of Persia'' was originally released for the [[Apple II series|Apple II]] in 1989. One year later it was ported to other personal computers such as the [[Amiga]], the Amstrad CPC, the [[Atari ST]], and the [[IBM PC compatible|PC]] ([[MS-DOS]]). [[Riverhillsoft]] then ported the game for the Japanese [[NEC PC-9801]] platform in 1990, which first introduced the protagonist's "[[turban]] and vest" appearance. Mechner was impressed with the PC-9801 version, which would later form the basis for all subsequent versions of the game. The game was then ported in 1991 to the [[Sharp X68000]], which ran it at a [[display resolution|high resolution]], and the Japanese [[PC Engine]], which utilized the Super CD-ROM format and featured a new [[Red Book (CD standard)|Red Book]] [[video game music|audio soundtrack]]; this version was distributed in the US two years later. In 1992, when the home console market was growing steadily, versions for the [[Sega Master System]], [[Sega CD]], [[TurboGrafx-CD]] (the American version of the PC Engine), [[NES]], and [[Game Boy]] were released, as well as a version with enhanced artwork for the [[FM Towns]] and [[Macintosh]].<ref name="hg101_pop"/>


An enhanced version for the [[SNES]] had been released,<ref>{{cite web|title= Prince of Persia (SNES/SFC)|url=http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/588588-prince-of-persia|publisher=at [[GameFAQs]]}}</ref> and a [[Mega Drive|Mega Drive/Genesis]] version was released later in 1993. Another port was released for the [[Game Boy Color]] in 1999. [[Java (programming language)|Java]] versions for mobile devices appeared in the early 2000s. For the revival title, ''[[Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time]]'', the Macintosh version was included as a secret that could be unlocked. The first level of the game was also made into a secret 3D [[minigame]] in ''The Sands of Time''. The NES version of the game's music was composed by [[Commodore 64]] musician [[Mark Cooksey]]. While the game does not have credits, he has confirmed that he was the composer to the game.
An enhanced version for the [[SNES]] had been released by [[Arsys Software]],<ref>{{cite web|title= Prince of Persia (SNES/SFC)|url=http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/588588-prince-of-persia|publisher=at [[GameFAQs]]}}</ref> and a [[Mega Drive|Mega Drive/Genesis]] version was released later in 1993. Another port was released for the [[Game Boy Color]] in 1999. [[Java (programming language)|Java]] versions for mobile devices appeared in the early 2000s. For the revival title, ''[[Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time]]'', the Macintosh version was included as a secret that could be unlocked. The first level of the game was also made into a secret 3D [[minigame]] in ''The Sands of Time''. The NES version of the game's music was composed by [[Commodore 64]] musician [[Mark Cooksey]]. While the game does not have credits, he has confirmed that he was the composer to the game.


The [[SAM Coupé]] version, released in 1992, is unique because it was programmed unofficially using graphics copied pixel by pixel from paused frames of the [[Amiga]] version and only shown to [[Domark]] (the UK distributors of ''Prince of Persia'') for potential release near completion.{{Citation needed|date=July 2008}} Although the computer had a very small user base and no other mainstream support, the release was allowed because of the very high quality of the conversion and the fact that it would incur almost no further development costs. Due to its independently produced status and the fact that the work was done almost entirely by one individual, Chris White, this version of ''Prince of Persia'' has several unique bugs.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}
The [[SAM Coupé]] version, released in 1992, is unique because it was programmed unofficially using graphics copied pixel by pixel from paused frames of the [[Amiga]] version and only shown to [[Domark]] (the UK distributors of ''Prince of Persia'') for potential release near completion.{{Citation needed|date=July 2008}} Although the computer had a very small user base and no other mainstream support, the release was allowed because of the very high quality of the conversion and the fact that it would incur almost no further development costs. Due to its independently produced status and the fact that the work was done almost entirely by one individual, Chris White, this version of ''Prince of Persia'' has several unique bugs.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}

Revision as of 20:49, 30 August 2012

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
Cover art used for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST and MS-DOS versions
Developer(s)Brøderbund
Publisher(s)
Designer(s)Jordan Mechner
Artist(s)Riverhillsoft (updated character design)
Platform(s)Apple II (see Ports)
Genre(s)Cinematic platformer
Mode(s)Single-player

Prince of Persia is a fantasy platform game, originally developed by Jordan Mechner and released in 1989 for the Apple II, that represented a great leap forward in the quality of animation seen in video games.

After the original release on the Apple II, Prince of Persia was ported to a wide range of platforms. The game managed to surprise and captivate the player despite being at first glance, repetitive.[2] This was achieved by interspersing intelligent puzzles and deadly traps all along the path the player-controlled Prince had to take to complete the game—all this packaged in fluid, lifelike motion.

Prince of Persia influenced a sub-genre, which imitated the sprawling non-scrolling levels, fluid animation, and control style.[3]

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. Jaffar's 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, under threat of execution, to become his wife. The game's nameless protagonist, whom the Princess loves, is thrown into the palace dungeons. The player must lead the protagonist out of the dungeons and to the palace tower, defeating Jaffar and freeing the Princess in under 60 minutes. In addition to guards, various traps and dungeons, the protagonist is further hindered by his own doppelganger, an apparition of his own self that is conjured out of a magic mirror.

Gameplay

IBM PC version of Prince of Persia
Mechner used videos of his younger brother, David, as a reference for the original animation of the game

The main objective of the player is to complete the game within one hour. The player must lead the game protagonist out of a dungeon and into a tower. Doing so requires bypassing traps and fighting hostile swordsmen. The game consists of twelve stages (or levels). To complete a game, all twelve stages must be completed in one session. 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 he 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 dying too much will eventually give the player too little time to complete the game.

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 a unlock trigger and a gate.

Hostile swordsmen (Jaffar and his guards) are yet another obstacle. The player has to obtain a sword in the first stage, which he can use to fight these adversaries. The protagonist's sword maneuvers are limited: He can advance, back off, slash or parry. Enemy swordsmen also have a health indicator similar to that of the protagonist. Killing them involves slashing them until their health indicator is depleted.

A unique trap encountered in stage four, which serves as a plot device, is a magic mirror, whose appearance is followed by an ominous musical tone. The protagonist is forced to jump through this mirror upon which his doppelganger emerges out of the other side. This apparition later hinders the protagonist by 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.

Development

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.[4] 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.[5]

Ports

Prince of Persia was originally released for the Apple II in 1989. One year later it was ported to other personal computers such as the Amiga, the Amstrad CPC, the Atari ST, and the PC (MS-DOS). Riverhillsoft then ported the game for the Japanese NEC PC-9801 platform in 1990, which first introduced the protagonist's "turban and vest" appearance. Mechner was impressed with the PC-9801 version, which would later form the basis for all subsequent versions of the game. The game was then ported in 1991 to the Sharp X68000, which ran it at a high resolution, and the Japanese PC Engine, which utilized the Super CD-ROM format and featured a new Red Book audio soundtrack; this version was distributed in the US two years later. In 1992, when the home console market was growing steadily, versions for the Sega Master System, Sega CD, TurboGrafx-CD (the American version of the PC Engine), NES, and Game Boy were released, as well as a version with enhanced artwork for the FM Towns and Macintosh.[6]

An enhanced version for the SNES had been released by Arsys Software,[7] and a Mega Drive/Genesis version was released later in 1993. Another port was released for the Game Boy Color in 1999. Java versions for mobile devices appeared in the early 2000s. For the revival title, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the Macintosh version was included as a secret that could be unlocked. The first level of the game was also made into a secret 3D minigame in The Sands of Time. The NES version of the game's music was composed by Commodore 64 musician Mark Cooksey. While the game does not have credits, he has confirmed that he was the composer to the game.

The SAM Coupé version, released in 1992, is unique because it was programmed unofficially using graphics copied pixel by pixel from paused frames of the Amiga version and only shown to Domark (the UK distributors of Prince of Persia) for potential release near completion.[citation needed] Although the computer had a very small user base and no other mainstream support, the release was allowed because of the very high quality of the conversion and the fact that it would incur almost no further development costs. Due to its independently produced status and the fact that the work was done almost entirely by one individual, Chris White, this version of Prince of Persia has several unique bugs.[citation needed]

The PC Engine/TurboGrafx-CD and Sega CD versions used the CD format to incorporate animated cutscenes with voice tracks and CD Audio soundtracks. Both versions of the game had modified graphics that seem to be based on the Macintosh version, where the Prince had a turban and colored clothing. Jaffar appears in the final level whereas the enemy encountered in the penultimate level is a champion guard.

The Mega Drive/Genesis port also had improved graphics and background music. The Mega Drive version differs with the Genesis version in that it has four additional unique levels and new kinds of potions (one that freezes time, others that give additional minutes to complete the game and one that causes a small quake and make panels collapse).

The SNES version is also unique. Aside from graphic and aural enhancements, the game has twenty levels instead of the original's thirteen; the original levels that remain have some extra rooms or different routes. Also, there are boss battles that involve not only swordfighting but dodging as well. Unlike other versions, the player is given two hours to rescue the Princess. The prologue is also different, showing the protagonist courting the Princess, then being arrested and beaten. The scene of the protagonist being beaten is only available on the Japanese version of the game;[8] it was censored in the North American and European versions. The SNES version was ported and developed by Nihon Computer System and published by Konami in North America and Europe. This version for the Wii along with the Game Boy Color version for the Nintendo 3DS has been released together by Ubisoft on Nintendo's Virtual Console in January 19, 2012.

In addition, the Apple II version of the game was included as an unlockable content in the Wii version of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands.

Prince of Persia also got unofficial ports to the ZX Spectrum, programmed by Nicodim and released in 1996[9], and to the Commodore 64, programmed by Andreas Varga and released on October 16, 2011.[10]

Ubisoft released a remake of the game called Prince of Persia Retro for the iPhone and iPad, which seems to be based on the Macintosh version.

Reception

The game received 5 out of 5 stars in Dragon magazine.[11]

Despite critical acclaim, 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. Prince of Persia would go on to influence cinematic platformers such as Flashback as well as action-adventure games such as Tomb Raider.[6]

Remake and modifications

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.[12] 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".[13]

Reverse engineering efforts by fans of the original game have resulted in detailed documentation of the file formats of the MS-DOS version.[14] Various level editors have been created that can be used to modify the level files of the DOS version.[15] With these editors and other software, over sixty mods have been created.[16]

Source code release

On April 17, 2012, Jordan Mechner established a GitHub repository[17] containing the long-thought-lost original Apple II source code for Prince of Persia.[18] A technical document describing the operation of this source code is available on Mechner's website.[19]

References

  1. ^ Mechner, Jordan (2009-05-03). "Prince of Persia released". jordanmechner.com. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
  2. ^ "Jordan Mechner's personal diary", Jordan Mechner's blog.
  3. ^ "Prince of Persia Retrospective", gametap.com, May 5, 2008.
  4. ^ October 20, 1985 | jordanmechner.com
  5. ^ Gamasutra - Features - Game Design: Theory & Practice Second Edition: 'Interview with Jordan Mechner'
  6. ^ a b Kurt Kalata (08/12/2011). "Prince of Persia". Hardcore Gaming 101. Retrieved 22 June 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "Prince of Persia (SNES/SFC)". at GameFAQs.
  8. ^ "Prince of Persia (Super Famicom - Uncensored Opening)".
  9. ^ Hyde, John. "Prince of Persia 1 ZX Spectrum". Prince of Persia Unofficial Website. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  10. ^ Varga, Andreas (2011-10-16). "Prince of Persia for Commodore 64/128 released". Prince of Persia C64 - Development Blog. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  11. ^ Lesser, Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk (December 1992). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (188): 57–64.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ "1UP Classic review". 1UP.
  13. ^ "Xboxic Classic review". Xboxic.
  14. ^ "Prince of Persia Specifications of File Formats" (PDF). Princed Development Team. 2008-01-05. Retrieved 2011-05-07.
  15. ^ "Modding Community; Level Editors". PoPOT.org. Retrieved 2011-05-07.
  16. ^ "Modding Community; Custom Levels". PoPOT.org. Retrieved 2011-05-07.
  17. ^ https://github.com/jmechner/Prince-of-Persia-Apple-II
  18. ^ "Prince of Persia source code successfully rescued". Retrieved 2012-04-17.
  19. ^ http://jordanmechner.com/wp-content/uploads/1989/10/popsource009.pdf
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