Development Journal for Price of Persia • Hacker News Board

Re: Development Journal for Price of Persia

#11

Post by tfh » Mon, Nov 23, 2009, 5:11 AM UTC

you can download the original prince of persia here :

http://www.bestoldgames.net/eng/old-games/prince-of-persia.p...

use dosbox (http://dosbox.com) to run the exe. This brings back childhood memories. Learning how to use the command line to play prince on a 386.

The journal really motivates me to start writing my own. I would help me to clarify my thoughts and keeping my goals in mind..

Re: Development Journal for Price of Persia

#12

Post by ericd » Mon, Nov 23, 2009, 5:33 AM UTC

josephkern wrote: post #6

This is a great find. Thanks! BTW, I love the reference videos that were shot for the animation.

Yeah, even just seeing the still frames brought flashbacks of those animations.

Re: Development Journal for Price of Persia

#13

Post by ericd » Mon, Nov 23, 2009, 5:34 AM UTC

Amazing story of a very exciting and chaotic time in computing and computer games.

Re: Development Journal for Price of Persia

#14

Post by jcl » Mon, Nov 23, 2009, 3:34 PM UTC

I was fascinated to learn that Jordan was working in the same office as Robert Cook, the guy who was making D/Generation, a game I remember fondly. Like Prince of Persia, it also has an enemy who is a dark version of the player.

(The lineage of the concept is more complicated than one game borrowing from the other, however: The journal entries show that another coworker, Tomi, suggested the dark version of the player, while Robert suggested creating the dark version by jumping through a mirror.)

Re: Development Journal for Price of Persia

#15

Post by joezydeco » Tue, Nov 24, 2009, 4:38 PM UTC

It's a great read, but you kind of cringe knowing in hindsight that the Apple ][ market was drying up and there was Mechner, working on screen plays and taking months at a time away from development of the game.

It does have a happy ending that the PC market started to kick in, but man.