Prince of Persia (1989 video game)

Prince of Persia is a 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. 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, life-like motion.

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

Plot

The game is set in Ancient Persia. While the Sultan is fighting a war in a foreign land, his vizier Jaffar seizes power. Jaffar's only obstacle to the throne is the Sultan's daughter. 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. To win the game 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.

The character of Jaffar is loosely based on Ja'far bin Yahya Barmaki, a Persian vizier who was executed for allegedly having an affair with a princess. He is a recurring character in the Arabian Nights and elsewhere in film and literature.

Gameplay

The gameplay is similar to the later Prince of Persia games as the player can jump through walls, avoid traps and fight enemies

Reception

The game received 5 out of 5 stars in Dragon magazine.

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 computer 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.

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.[ 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".

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

Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame

Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame is a platform game released by Brøderbund in 1993.

Gameplay

Similar to the first Prince of Persia, the character explores various deadly areas by running, jumping, crawling, avoiding traps, solving puzzles and drinking magic potions. Prince of Persia 2 is, however, more combat-heavy than its predecessor. In the first game, enemies appear only occasionally and are always alone, while in the sequel, up to four enemies may appear at once, sometimes flanking the player, and may even be instantly replaced by reinforcements when they are killed. As in Prince of Persia, the trick is to complete the game under a strict time limit that passes in real time. Lives are unlimited, but time cannot be regained (except by reverting to a previously saved game). In other areas, more significant improvements have been made. The graphics are far more complex than the simple look of the game's predecessor, the areas explored are larger, and the variety of backdrops is greater.

Plot synopsis

Setting

The game takes place eleven days after the events of the first game, in Persia as well as various other locations. During this period of eleven days the Prince was hailed as a hero who defeated the evil Jaffar. He turns down all riches and instead asks for the Princess's hand in marriage as his reward, to which the Sultan of Persia reluctantly agrees.

Plot

Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame begins as the Prince enters the royal courts of the palace. Before he enters, however, his appearance turns back into that of a beggar. Nobody recognises him, and when he attempts to speak with the Princess, a man who shares his appearance (Jaffar, who is magically disguised) emerges from the shadows, ordering him to be thrown out. With guards pursuing him, the Prince jumps through a window and flees the city by way of merchant ship.

The ship is struck by lightning, cast by Jaffar, just as a mysterious woman appears in the barge and asks the Prince to find her. He regains consciousness, and finds himself on the shore of a foreign island. He comes to a cave full of evil skeletons that fight him. He finally escapes on a magic carpet.

The Prince arrives in another strange mountainous land far away. He first heads into the blue ruins, a large ruined temple filled with screaming head creatures and snakes as well as booby traps. At one point the Prince's mother, revealed to be the mysterious woman on the ship, shows herself, and explains about her husband's death, and her plight to abandon the Prince so that he might live. He escapes on a magic horse statue which comes to life.

The prince goes to a red temple inhabited by birdmen, who wear bird helmets/masks and worship a bird Goddess. In the temple, the Prince finds that he can separate from his body, transforming into the shadow that Jaffar's magic mirror created in the events of Prince of Persia. The Prince uses this move to steal the sacred flame of the temple, and then travels back to Persia on the magic horse statue. Here he immediately encounters Jaffar who transports the prince to a chessboard like place as a final torment. The Prince confronts Jaffar, who flees. The Prince transforms into the shadow bearing the blue flame once again, and casts fire at Jaffar, killing him for good. The Princess awakens from the spell Jaffar set upon her, and the Prince orders the former Vizier's ashes be scattered. As the Prince and Princess ride into the distance, however, it is revealed that an old woman is watching them through a crystal ball.

Ports

Titus Software ported the game to the SNES and released it in 1996. It has some missing features and lacks several levels, including the last one. On August 11, 2006, the Mega Drive port was leaked. Ported by Microïds, this conversion was going to be published by Psygnosis, as depicted in the leaked version, but it was canceled in an almost complete state for unknown reasons. The game can also be unlocked in the Xbox NTSC version of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time by finding a secret area. The GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox PAl versions of the game lack Prince of Persia 2, with that secret area unlocking the original Prince of Persia early instead. The PC version of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time lacks the secret entirely.

The Macintosh version has high resolution graphics (640x480), the MS-DOS and SNES version only low resolution graphics (320x200).

Prince of Persia 3D

Prince of Persia 3D, developed by Red Orb Entertainment and published by The Learning Company for Microsoft Windows, is the third game in the Prince of Persia series. The game debuted in 1999, 10 years after the original, and incorporated 3D graphics in its gameplay.

In 2000, a Dreamcast version under the name Prince of Persia: Arabian Nights was developed by Avalanche Software and published by Mattel Interactive, which had previously purchased both Red Orb Entertainment and The Learning Company. Many of the control flaws from the original PC version were corrected and other notable bugs were fixed, improving the gameplay of this port, although it still suffers the same camera problems. This version was only released in North America.

Plot

Prince of Persia 3D begins with the Prince and Sultan of Persia visiting the Sultan's brother, Assan. Soon enough, the Prince's personal bodyguards are killed, himself locked in the dungeon, and the Sultan taken by Assan. The Prince escapes the dungeon, and it is revealed that the Sultan of Persia promised Assan many years ago that his daughter would marry Assan's son, Rugnor, not the Prince. The Prince finds the two, but Assan kills the Sultan by mistake, while trying to kill the Prince. Assan runs, but the Prince decides to pursue Rugnor, who has taken the Princess of Persia captive. The Prince and Rugnor have many standoffs, but when it becomes clear to Rugnor that the Prince won't give up, and the Princess won't submit to him, he decides to kill her. He ties her to a large gear machine, attempting to crush her. The Prince, however, arrives before this happens, kills Rugnor, and deactivates the machine. The Prince then escapes with the Princess, via a flying beast, but the Prince takes the Princess in the opposite direction of Persia, rather than towards it.

Reception

Prince of Persia 3D garnered mixed reviews from critics. IGN gave it a 7.1 "good" rating, praising its unique score, fluid animations and well made graphics, and the jumping mechanics.[ Gamespot gave it a 6.0 criticizing rough character models, difficult camera effects, and unresponsive controls, but praising the action.