Prince of Persia (computer game 1989)

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Prince of Persia
PoP Logo.jpg
Studio Jordan Mechner
Publisher Brøderbund
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 1989 Apple II

1990 MS-DOS , Amstrad CPC , Mac OS , Game Boy , Nintendo Entertainment System , Sega Master System , SAM Coupé

1992 Amiga , Sega Game Gear , Sega Mega Drive , Sega Mega-CD , Super Nintendo Entertainment System
platform Amiga , Amstrad CPC , Apple II , Atari ST , MS-DOS , FM Towns , Game Boy , Game Boy Color , Sega Game Gear , Apple iOS , Mac OS , Sega Master System , Sega Mega-CD , Sega Mega Drive , Nintendo Entertainment System , Nintendo DS , PC-98 , PC Engine , Super Nintendo Entertainment System , Wii , X68000 , SAM Coupé
genre Jump 'n' run
Subject Fantasy
Game mode Single player
medium diskette
language English
Free variant SDLPoP

Prince of Persia ( "Prince of Persia") is one of Brøderbund first time in 1989 for the Apple II posted Jump 'n' Run . It was developed by Jordan Mechner and ported to numerous other platforms over the years, with the successor Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame released in 1993 . The acquisition of the brand by Ubisoft in 2001 was followed by a series of successors that continued the core theme of the game and was filmed in 2008 as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time .

action

While the Persian Sultan is waging war abroad, his governor, the vizier and magician Jaffar, tries to usurp the rule. To do this, he wants to force the sultan's daughter to marry him. He locks her in the palace tower and threatens to kill her if she does not consent to the wedding within an hour. The only serious danger to his plan comes from the character of the "Prince", an unnamed adventurer and the princess' true love. So that Jaffar cannot thwart his plans, he has him thrown in jail. As a player you have to escape the prison with the character within the hour allowed by Jaffar to think about it, overcome the traps and guards of the palace and kill Jaffar in order to save the princess and to become the "Prince of Persia" by marrying her.

Gameplay

On the way through the palace complex, the game character has to overcome obstacles and chasms by jumping, avoiding traps (e.g. spikes, knives), fighting guards and skeletons, and at the end facing his own reflection, which cannot be defeated by normal fighting. The program puts the player under constant time pressure because the narration time is simulated in real time. Like the princess, the player only has one hour to successfully complete all 13 levels. The game has a save function, which is only available from the third level.

Development history

Emergence

The game was originally developed by Jordan Mechner for the Apple II and is a continuation of his game concept by Karateka , which has sold more than 500,000 times. Brøderbund therefore wanted a continuation. Mechner saw one of the reasons for the success of karateka in its exotic Asian scenario and therefore decided for his next game on a background inspired by the Arabian Nights . The gameplay was influenced by Brøderbund's titles Lode Runner and The Castles of Dr. Creep , from which Mechner took game elements. Another influence was the film Raiders of the Lost Treasure , in which the adventurer Indiana Jones tries to recover an ancient treasure from an old ruin in the opening scene, while he has to avoid numerous deadly traps, sometimes under time pressure.

Mechner relied on rotoscopy for the prince's motion sequence . He filmed his younger brother David performing various acrobatic movements and jumps, and later translated them into computer graphics. The music was composed by Mechner's father, Frances. Prince of Persia was later ported to numerous other platforms, not all of which were officially licensed.

The game was never developed for the Commodore C64 and C128 home computers , as these were already out of date at the time of publication and Mechner had therefore never received a porting order. In 2011 a hobby project published a port for the C64 and C128 by reengineering the original Apple II version.

Source code publication

On April 17, 2012 Jordan Mechner published the previously lost source code of Prince of Persia for the Apple II on GitHub .

reception

reviews
publication Rating
Amiga Game Boy GBC Mac OS MCD Game Gear Mega drive SNES Master system
ASM 8/12 k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A.
Dragon k. A. k. A. k. A. 5/5 k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A.
Electronic Gaming Monthly k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A. 32/40 k. A. k. A.
Gamers k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A. Grade 4 Grade 2 Grade 4+ k. A. Grade 2
Mega fun k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A. 68% k. A. k. A.
Play time k. A. 70% k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A. k. A.
Power play 66% 71% k. A. k. A. goes so k. A. k. A. 72% k. A.
Video games k. A. 68% 4/5 k. A. 77% 39% 70% 75% 59%

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.

“ Prince of Persia succeeds in being more than just a racing and jumping game (in other words: a Nintendo game that has been fluffed up) because it has the atmosphere of those old adventure films [Note: The Thief of Baghdad, Ali Baba and The Arabian Nights]. "

- Charles Ardai : Computer Gaming World, Apple II review

An IGN retrospective from 2010 pointed to certain motivic parallels between Prince of Persia and Disney's 1992 animated film adaptation of Aladdin .

Successor and remake

In 1993 the successor Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame appeared , in which Mechner was only involved as a creative consultant. The last collaboration with Brøderbund, meanwhile taken over by The Learning Company , was Prince of Persia 3D in 1999 . In 2001, the French publisher Ubisoft took over the computer games division of The Learning Company and thereby came into possession of the series rights. However, the intellectual property rights were still owned by Mechner at the time.

Ubisoft expanded the series, initially in collaboration with Mechner, starting with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time with several successors and also released a remake of the first part for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation game consoles in 2007/2008 under the title Prince of Persia Classic 3 . Ubisoft later released the program for iOS and Android . The remake takes over the level structure of the original, but converts it into 3D graphics and the optical style of Sands of Time . The gameplay and controls have been slightly modified and some new movement sequences (jumping off walls, backflip) have been added. Time pressure has been deactivated in the standard game mode, but with Time Attack and Survival there are two other game modes to choose from. The former activates the compulsory hour, in survival mode the player only has one life to finish the game.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Rus McLaughlin, Scott Collura and Levi Buchanan: IGN Presents: The History of Prince of Persia . In: IGN . May 18, 2010. Retrieved June 28, 2013.
  2. ↑ Michael Bonke: Prince of Persia: After more than 20 years also playable on the C64. In: PC Games. October 19, 2011, accessed July 1, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Gus Mastrapa: The Geeks Who Saved Prince of Persia ’s Source Code From Digital Death ( English ) Wired . April 20, 2012. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
  4. ↑ Jordan Mechner: Prince of Persia Source Code - Posted! April 17, 2012, Retrieved April 18, 2012 .
  5. ↑ jmechner / Prince-of-Persia-Apple-II GitHub . Github.com. April 17, 2012. Retrieved November 8, 2012.
  6. ↑ ASM: Prince of Persia (Amiga)
  7. ↑ Hartley, Patricia & Kirk Lesser: The Role of Computers . In: Dragon . No. 188, December 1992, pp. 57-64.
  8. ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly , 1998 Video Game Buyer's Guide, p. 86
  9. ↑ Mega Fun: Prince of Persia (Mega Drive)
  10. ↑ Gamers: Prince of Persia (Mega-CD)
  11. ↑ Gamers: Prince of Persia (Game Gear)
  12. ↑ Gamers: Prince of Persia (Mega Drive)
  13. ↑ Gamers: Prince of Persia (Master System)
  14. ↑ Gamers: Prince of Persia (Game Boy)
  15. ↑ Power Play: Prince of Persia (Amiga)
  16. ↑ Power Play: Prince of Persia (Game Boy)
  17. ↑ Power Play: Prince of Persia (mega-CD)
  18. ↑ Power Play: Prince of Persia (Super Nintendo)
  19. ↑ Video Games: Prince of Persia (Game Boy)
  20. ↑ Video Games: Prince of Persia (Game Boy Color)
  21. ↑ Video Games: Prince of Persia (Mega-CD)
  22. ↑ Video Games: Prince of Persia (PC Engine)
  23. ↑ Video Games: Prince of Persia (Game Gear)
  24. ↑ Video Games: Prince of Persia (Mega Drive)
  25. ↑ Video Games: Prince of Persia (Master System)
  26. ↑ Video Games: Prince of Persia (Super Nintendo)
  27. ↑ Charles Ardai: Good Knight, Sweet Prince . In: Computer Gaming World . December 1989, pp. 48 & 64. Retrieved November 4, 2013.
  28. ^ Ubi Soft Acquires The Learning Company's Entertainment Division . GameZone. March 7, 2001. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
  29. ↑ Prince of Persia Classic Test: The New Old Prince
  30. ↑ We review a pretty XBLA remake of the Prince's first adventure. By Nick Suttner 06/13/2007 . In: 1UP . Retrieved April 20, 2015.
  31. ↑ Prince of Persia Classic: cult game now on Android