Prince of Persia

aka: Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia, Pers Prensi, PoP, Prince de Perse, Prince of Persia Retro
Moby ID: 196
Apple II Specs
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Conversion (unofficial) Included in See Also

Description official descriptions

While the Sultan of Persia is fighting a war in a foreign country, his Grand Vizier Jaffar orchestrates a coup d'état. His way to the throne lies through the Sultan's lovely daughter. Jaffar kidnaps her and threatens to kill her if she refuses to marry him. Meanwhile, the man the Princess loves is thrown into the dungeon. He has only one hour to escape from his prison, defeat the guards on his way, and stop Jaffar before the terrible marriage takes place.

Prince of Persia is a 2D platformer that is commonly regarded as a progenitor of the cinematic platformer genre. Rather than following the more common jump-and-run mechanics, it focuses on careful advancement through fairly complex levels, emphasizing the protagonist's vulnerability and survival aspect. Rotoscoping technique is used to give more realism to the animation of the characters' movements.

The protagonist must avoid deadly traps, solve some simple jumping and environmental puzzles (such as stepping on pressure plates to raise portcullis), and engage in sword fights with the guards. The player character has an infinite amount of lives, but has to restart at the beginning of a level each time he dies, and must complete the game within an hour. The hero starts with three units of health, which can be replenished with small health potions or permanently increased with large jars.

The Game Boy Color and SNES versions of the game feature additional levels and new enemies. The Genesis version has a new intro, an altered set of graphics and four new levels.

Spellings

  • הנסיך - דו קרב בארמון - Hebrew spelling
  • הנסיך הפרסי - Informal Hebrew spelling
  • プリンスオブペルシャ - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Apple II version)

19 People (12 developers, 7 thanks)

Original game design by
Original programming by
Original graphics by
Produced by
Music composed by
Live-Action Footage Modelled by
Special thanks to
Disk routines by
Sound routines by
Title screen by
Cover artwork by

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 81% (based on 83 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 524 ratings with 13 reviews)

An interesting, different platform game.

The Good
Well, the creator spent a pretty time animating the characters and it shows.. the animation is incredibly fluid and good-looking.. modern people would probably not believe that it has been drawn instead of 3d-rendering.. Also, the motif has been captured well.

The Bad
Well, the dungeons all look the same and one or two of the puzzles can cause you to scratch your head for some time..

The Bottom Line
An interesting platform game that has next to nothing to do with 'regular' platform games like Sonic and Mario.

DOS · by RmM (68) · 1999

WOW!

The Good
Having only just found the original disk and manual whilst clearing out the attic, all work had to stop for an hour whilst I was whisked back a few years to when I first played this game. Back then it was on an old IBM PC the size of a house with a rather dull CGA, (remember them - only four colours on screen at once - mostly pink, blue and white?), monitor. Most games that I'd seen reviewed in glorious VGA, (even EGA didn't seem quite as bad), none of them really lived up to their promise in CGA; but Prince Of Persia was even glorious in only four colours. The animation was amazing - like nothing we'd ever seen - and the atmosphere was still there ... albeit pink!

Now, playing it on a machine that not only beats the chunky old IBM, but positively smacks it into the ground, sets it on fire and pees on its ashes; the game is still a marvel - and in full colour! The gameplay is still all there, hunting through endless corridors just doesn't get boring as this are so well thought out that you can forgive the game its' repetitive imagery. Even the password protection is imaginative, asking you to drink a potion matching a certain letter from the printed manual - what other game of the time employed such innovative thinking and technical wizardry?

The Bad
Looking back now I realise the limitations of the game - but is that because we've been 'spoilt' by the developments in gaming since then or is it because my tastes in games have changed? Given that I've just spent an hour jumping over falling stone slabs, jabbing wildly at fat guards and plunging to spiky deaths and then felt compelled to come and write this review; I can't really complain that it's the game. So, really this title should be looked back at, remembered in time and taken in context of gaming development. Also, I couldn't get the digitised sound to work on this new machine - really wish I had that back instead of indistinguishable blips from the PC speaker, (I didn't think they were still in PCs these days as I hadn't heard one for so long!).

The Bottom Line
I'd recommend that anyone wanting to get involved with game development take a look at this game - first play it, get the feel of the game, soak up the addictive gameplay. Forgive it it's dated approach and limited graphical outlook and just immerse yourself in the experience. Then go back and look at it form the point of view of a level designer - see how crafty it is, how it pulls you in to the atmosphere of the locations - how it coaxes you to make those jumps that just look way too big. Finally, follow the path of games since then - see the titles that really worked and were an improvement and don't forget to play the titles that didn't work; we can learn much more from our mistakes than we can from our successes.

DOS · by Adam Jennings (47) · 2007

A gaming experience you can never forget

The Good
Prince of Persia had much more than everything you wanted from a platform game, so much that it became a whole different genre. In many ways, this game was way ahead of its time and presented gamers an amazing experience they would never forget.

Atmosphere:

What strikes you first is the graphics of the game. It is very detailed and colorful. The middle-eastern theme is an exotic theme with lots of possibilities, which makes it a great choice. Unfortunately it is very rare, especially compared to medieval and even far-eastern themes. This theme is very well applied, with so many ornamental designs, pillows and pillars which makes you feel like you are in a One Thousand and One Nights story. The sense of duality in the game, which is first implied by the dungeon levels versus the palace levels is also a good idea to make things more interesting. Also, the semi-isometric view of the levels also make the environment seem much more realistic than that of any other game. Combined with an unforgettable soundtrack which sounds great even with the PC Speaker, the atmosphere, overall, is perfect.

Then you've got the animations. Starting from the very beginning, when you see the prologue, where Jaffar enters and has a conversation with the princess. The detailed animations of her hair, the Vizier's cape, make you feel you're watching a movie.

The realistic animations, aren't just animations. They are also a key element in the realistic gameplay. Most platform games back then had protagonists that barely moved their legs while running, or even jumping. The movement usually didn't even seem to be associated with the running animation. They also jumped in an inhuman manner, many times higher than their heights, and again, barely moving their legs. This was not the case with the Prince. The Prince runs really using his legs, with obvious steps, and jumps like normal people. And the fact the you can know how far he can go with any number of steps or how far you can jump in different situations is a key element in the gameplay. Some distances you can take jumping from where you are and some by making a running jump only.

Which brings us to Gameplay:

Controlling the Prince is really simple: You have four movement keys (the arrow keys) and one action button (shift). That's all it takes to make moves that other platform games of the time didn't even have. Using these keys you can run, make a vertical jump, crouch, move one step, take a leap, make a running jump (which took you further than a leap), make a long running jump (which took you a little further, using the action button), climb up or down a ledge, hold on to a ledge, open and close doors (these are done simply by stepping on certain pressure-plates), and drink potions...

The game also has a fighting system, another feature that makes the game way better than other platform games, which usually had a button to shoot a projectile weapon of some kind--even the ones featuring swords as a weapon operated in a similar manner, it just wasn't projectile and instead affected enemies at close range. The Prince of Persia featured a much more realistic sword-fighting, which made the fighting more complicated, but still simple to control. The Prince basically enters "fighting mode" when he encounters an enemy, by drawing his sword. The player has four options: move (forward or backward), attack, parry or sheathe sword (which makes him vulnerable but mobile, until he chooses to draw his sword again).

Again, as opposed to other platform games of the time (and even of today), the Prince cannot jump higher than a real life person can and cannot fall a long way down; he gets injured for a medium fall, and dies for a long one.

Speaking of, the health system in Prince of Persia is also more realistic than its counterparts. It features a number of "lives", initially 3, which basically represent the number of blows the Prince can take before dying. The Prince is injured (loses one life) when he gets hit by the sword, falls a medium fall (two floors), a brick falls on him, or drinks a blue potion. If he gets hit by the sword on his back, falls a long way down (three floors or more), or is caught by a trap, he instantly dies--regardless of how many lives he has.

The Experience:

Prince of Persia has a lot of elements throughout the game that make it more than a platform game, and evolve into an action/adventure.

First and foremost: You have 60 minutes to save the princess, and the game is in real time, which means you have 60 minutes to complete the game. This is of course, impossible if you are playing the game for the first time. But although criticized for being an insanely difficult mission, I'm glad that this is the case, because it means that the game CAN be completed in 60 minutes, but if you do that the first time you play the game, then that's a damn short playing time you've got. Today we actually value games with the average time of gameplay, and want at least 20 hours or so to complete a game. Why should Prince of Persia be just a 1-hour game? Fortunately, it isn't, and it is very difficult so you'll have to restart the game at least a couple of times. This might not sound good now, but back then, Prince of Persia was already the best game you could play, so I think it didn't really matter if you could complete the game or not, you were going to play it again anyway...

Let's go back to the game. The levels in general, although linear in principle (there is usually one way to complete a level), have a non-linear layout where you can usually go left, right, up or down. You have to find your way through the levels. For example, at the very first level, you start as a prisoner in the dungeon without your weapon. So you must find a sword first, and then go further. The levels sometimes also have alternate paths to complete the level or secret areas where you can get healing or extra life potions. This encourages exploration despite the time limit.

Throughout the levels, there are pressure plates to open and close doors, doors slowly closing down when opened (giving you a time limit to make it), traps, unstable bricks (which fall a little after you step on them or hit them from below), and enemies that get tougher each time, some even having their own fighting styles (parry a lot and counter-hit, or always wait for you to make the first attack, etc). Combined with the great level design, these features make every level a puzzle on its own.

But there's more. You also have surprising unique puzzles such as the undead, the mirror, the green potion(s), and much more that I do not want to ruin for those who might still want to play this game and haven't yet...

The Bad
The only thing about the game that can be disliked is the high difficulty. A game which requires action and fighting skills and solving puzzles with a 60 minute overall time limit is practically impossible for a first timer. But as I said, if you could complete this great game within the first 60 minutes you played it, wouldn't that be very disappointing?

The Bottom Line
Prince of Persia is a ground-breaking game that defined a new genre and was followed by great games like Another World (a.k.a. Out of This World), Flashback and BlackThorne, featuring similar adventure elements and puzzles, detailed graphics and animations, and realistic controls.

If you haven't played it, you've missed a lot.

DOS · by erseN akçay (23) · 2007

[ View all 13 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Developed by Mechner or Brøderbund? Игги Друге (46656) Jul 29, 2014
Triangular Version - Info Please Arjon van Dam (1247) Feb 19, 2013
ZX Spectrum UNOFFICIAL port Rola (8486) Aug 5, 2012
Jordan Mechner made the source code available chirinea (47504) May 26, 2012

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Prince of Persia appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Animations

The animations were modeled from live video. In particular, the Prince climbing onto a ledge was spliced from two different takes: Jordan's brother pulling himself up a ledge to his chest, and a reversed clip of his brother on top of the ledge climbing down. The technique use to animate the characters is called Rotoscoping. It was also used in one of Mechner's other games, Karateka.

Commodore 64, BBC Micro and Atari 8-bit amateur versions

According to the Prince of Persia Unofficial Website, a Commodore 64 version was not released at time. There was a preview created that played the theme and showed some scenes but the game never emerged. It is unknown why. A Commodore 64 port was made at last by an independent coder in 2011. Information is available at popc64.blogspot.com

Bitshifters also released a port of the game to the BBC Micro. It took advantage of the Apple II game code being made public by Jordan Mechner and the hardware similarities between the Apple II and the BBC Micro, which share the same CPU. It needs 128k of RAM and is available from here.

And finally, on december 2021 yet another amateur version was revealed, this time for the Atari 8-bit computers. It is available here in disk and cartridge formats. It requires 128K of RAM, so it won't work in every one of these computers.

Development and release

An excerpt taken from the, as of 2012, defunct official Prince of Persia 3D web site http://www.pop3d.com/

Today, several dozen artists and programmers are involved in the creation of a computer game. But in the 1980's, computer games were normally created almost entirely by one person. And for Prince of Persia that person was Jordan Mechner, a then 25 year old recent college grad. Jordan created the story, characters, and levels for Prince of Persia. He programmed the game and drew the graphics. And when Jordan needed help, he didn't go far from home. His dad composed the original music. And his brother served as the Motion Study actor for the Prince. Truly a labor of love, Prince of Persia took nearly 4 years to be completed.

Mechner scored gold in 1989 when Prince of Persia was released. Described by PC Review as "an ever-present in any compiled list of classic games of all time," it has sold nearly 2,000,000 copies and won numerous awards, including "Game of the Decade" from Generation 4/Canal+ in 1997. The game was published first on the Apple II platform, but soon made it to virtually all platforms in existance at the time including: DOS, Macintosh, Amiga, NES, SNES, GameBoy, Sega Genesis, Sega Mega Drive, Sega CD, Game Gear, Commodore 64, and FM Towns. It's popularity was not confined to just the United States. In all, the game has been published in the United States, Canada, England, Germany, France, Spain, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, China, Korea, and Israel.

Manual

The manual for Macintosh/IBM release of the game had a figure of Prince in the right bottom corner of each spread. If you flip through the book, Prince would jump.

References to the game

Prince of Persia was alluded to in Episode 705 (Escape from the BronxMystery) of the TV show Science Theater 3000. During an underground chase scene, Tom Servo quips: "It looks like Prince of Persia."

Censorship in the SNES version

The North American Super NES release was censored --- a scene found in the Japanese version's introduction sequence showing the hero being tortured is missing from the US version. As a result, the music loses sync with what is happening on-screen.

Source code

On April 17, 2012, Jordan Mechner released the source code of the Apple II version. You can find it here.

Awards

  • Amiga Power
    • May 1991 (Issue #00) - #12 in the "All Time Top 100 Amiga Games"
  • Computer Gaming World
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) - #84 in the “150 Best Games of All Time” list
    • February 2006 (Issue #259) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
  • FLUX
    • Issue #4 - #42 in the "Top 100 Video Games of All-Time" list
  • PC Gamer
    • November 1999 - #43 Best Game of All Time
  • Retro Gamer
    • Issue #37 - #9 in the "Top 25 Platformers of All Time" poll

ZX Spectrum version

A version for the ZX Spectrum was in development by the same people that made the SAM Coupé port but it was never released due to licensing problems with Domark. Later a Russian team released an unofficial Spectrum port of the game.

Information also contributed by Big John VW, Chentzilla, [leileilol](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,76785/), [LepricahnsGold](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,60099/), [Mickey Gabel](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,584/), [NewRisingSun](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,47798/), [PCGamer77](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,1717/), [Sean Gugler](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,56787/) and [William Shawn McDonie](http://www.mobygames.com/user/sheet/userSheetId,4177/)

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Donny K..

Sharp X68000 added by Rola. Wii added by Charly2.0. iPad added by MrMamen. Nintendo 3DS added by CrankyStorming. Amiga added by Famine3h. SEGA Master System added by Bock. Game Gear added by chirinea. PC-98 added by Infernos. Apple II added by KnockStump. TurboGrafx CD added by Kaminari. Macintosh added by Zovni. iPhone, SAM Coupé added by Kabushi. SEGA CD added by Blood. Atari ST added by Terok Nor. Amstrad CPC added by cafeine. NES added by Longwalker. FM Towns added by Unicorn Lynx. SNES, Genesis added by Syed GJ. Game Boy added by quizzley7. Game Boy Color added by Jim Fun.

Additional contributors: IJan, MAT, Adam Baratz, Roedie, Jeanne, Jalal Noureddine, Kabushi, Henry Calot, Martin Smith, Norbert J, Pseudo_Intellectual, Crawly, Neville, ctrl turk, Patrick Bregger, MrMamen, yenruoj_tsegnol_eht (!!ihsoy), Jo ST, qpossum, FatherJack, ZeTomes.

Game added August 10, 1999. Last modified February 12, 2024.