Prince of Persia

Absolutely brilliant platform adventure game that I spent hours on end playing on my old Apple IIc+. You were a poor nobody who fell in love with the Princess of Persia, and the evil guy who was watching the kingdom while the king was gone (vizar?) had you imprisoned in the deepest dungeon of the Imperial Palace because he wished to marry the Princess and thus gain control of the entire kingdom. You had one hour of actual game time to reach the top of the palace and rescue the princess.

Years later, my summer camp had a copy of the game, and none of the other counselors believed that I could beat the game, since they could all barely get past the second dungeon. I sat down, cracked my knuckles, and beat the game with twenty-four minutes to spare without losing a single life. They never questioned my l33tness again.

I first played this Prince of Persia on my IBM PC Compatible, 386 25 MHz, sometime in 1989. It was great. It was one of the fist PC games that used rotoscoping to make great action graphics.

It of course has spawned a number of sequels:

• 1989 - Prince of Persia - the original that took 4 years to complete, that was on almost all gaming platforms starting with Apple II.
• 1993 - Prince of Persia 2 - The Shadow and The Flame - by Broderbund Software.
• 1999 - Prince of Persia 3D - by Red Orb.

See also
http://www.pop3d.com/html/leg/leg.html

Steps to defeating the first level of Prince Of Persia without getting the sword.

This has been tested extensively on the PC version with hardware dating from a Tandy 1000, to a Pentium III system. I have heard that on the Nintendo version to get past the first guard it is as easy as running towards him and jumping at an appropriate time, causing you to jump past (through) him. Thanks to my childhood chum, John L.P., who says he dreamt the below method up.

If the visual aid at the end of this writeup appears distorted, I apologize. I have tried to write these instructions so as not to require the visual aid, but it sure helps!

Beginning room (Room 1): Not much to do here except fall down to Room 2.

Room 2: From this room there is a guard in the room to your right (Room 3), and the sword is quite a few rooms to your left. Take only a few steps into Room 3.

Room 3: The guard will advance upon you, be patient and turn your back on him. Be sure to be as close as possible to the exit to Room 2. The guard will pass the torch and just about be in front of the patch of brick on the wall. Run NOW, back into Room 2.

Back in Room 2 If the Guard did NOT follow you: He has taken up position just outside the exit to Room 3. To lure him into Room 2 try running towards Room 3, but change direction at the last minute. The character will slide along the floor in order to change direction, and you will appear in Room 3 for less than a second. The guard should take up chase now.

Back in Room 2: Run all the way to the left side of Room 2, and position yourself beneath the ledge that will take you in to Room 4. The guard will continue to advance slowly. When he has advanced to the point between the column and the rightmost torch pull yourself up onto the ledge. This is the most crucial step, and will require the guard to be positioned just right if you are going to make it past him. He should be to the left of the rightmost torch OR blocking your view of the torch.

Room 4: Find the hidden ceiling panel, climb up into Room 5.

Room 5: On the right side are 2 ledges, climb up these so you are at the top level of Room 5. The top ledge will be a floor switch, It will open the gate to your right. Jump across and through the gate. This will bring you back into Room 1.

Room 1 (again): Not much to do here except fall down to Room 2. Take care to orient your character so when you hit the ground in Room 2 you will be facing Room 3. Also, lower yourself down by holding onto the ledge, hanging, then dropping.

Room 2: RUN!!! You will hit the ground, the guard will turn around but politely wait for you to stand up before attempting to slay you. If you positioned the guard correctly he will not have time to cut you in half if you take off as soon as you can.

Room 3: Proceed to Room 6. I like to do some victory jumps here.

Room 6: Finish the level as normal.

I hope this helps you save a few precious minutes you can use to finish the game.

What about the sword? Since when you encounter the guard at the beginning of Level 2 you draw a sword, we must assume our hero found a spare sword on the staircase somewhere.

Visual Aid:

______________________________________________
|C            #        #                |XXXX|
|C    t   t   #        #                |XXXX|
|C____________#__ _____#      __________|XXXX|
|XXXXXXXX 5 XX|C  |XXXX|  t t C   |X 1 XXXXXX|
|XXXXXXXXXXXXX|C_ |XXXX|______C_  |XXXXXXXXXX|
|XXXX|  t      C  |XXXXXXXXXXXX|   C       |X|
|XXXX|______  _C__|XXXXXXXXXXXX|___C_  ____|X|__________________________________________
|#  t     C        t C     |XXXXXXXX|   |XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX|                    |
|#_______ C__________C__   |XXX 2 XX|   |XXXXXXXXXXXX 3 XXXXXXXXXXX|                    |
|XXXXXXX||XXXXXXXXXXXXX|   |XXXXXXXX|   |XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX|__      ddd         |
|XXXXXXX||XXXXXXXXXXXXX|  t C   t C      C    C       t    t     C  C     t ddd  t      |
|XXXXXXX||XXX 4 XXXXXXX|____C_____C______C____C__________________C__C_______ddd_________|
|XXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX|
|XXXXXXX|  |XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 6 XXXXXXXXXXX|
|XXXXXXX_SS|XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX|

Key:   C=Column  t=Torch  #=Gate  d=Ending Door  S=Spikes

Prince of Persia was created for the Apple II in 1989 by Jordan Mechner, who had previously written the popular early fighting game Karateka. Prince utilised rotoscoping to animate the main character (created by filming Mechner's brother performing the dashes, rolls and leaps that the hero could perform). As Mechner worked on the game practically single-handed, it took nearly four years to complete.

The game gives you an hour to traverse the dungeons of the palace, in a bid to rescue the princess from the evil Grand Vizier Jaffar. Along the way you would get into sword fights with skeletons, and fall victim to many spiked pits and guillotine blades. The PC version of the game will run on practically any PC in existance (I remember playing it for long hours on our old IBM 8086).

PoP was ported to nearly as many formats as Tetris, gaining more features (for better or worse) with each new incarnation. Mechner created a sequel for the PC, and went on to create the rotoscoped adventure game The Last Express. There was recently a new version of Prince of Persia called Prince of Persia 3D, but unfortunately it sucked.