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How we made hit video game Prince of Persia

theguardian.com

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Re: How we made hit video game Prince of Persia

#41

Post by eru »

qsera wrote: post #28
meerita wrote: post #22

This was the first game I ever played on a PC, and it will always have a place in my heart. I first played it on an 8086 PC-compatible machine with an amber monochrome CRT monitor (the kind usually paired with MDA or Hercules-style graphics, where everything appeared in those beautiful orange shades). Later, my father bought a 386 PC with a VGA graphics card capable of 256-color modes, which on my monochrome display…

The graphics of Prince of persia took me to those dungeons more effectively than any 4k ray traced modern game could...

That's because you were younger. Nostalgia is a hard drug.

Re: How we made hit video game Prince of Persia

#42

Post by eru »

bentcorner wrote: post #4

I will always have a soft spot for the original Prince of Persia. It was one of those games I played constantly as a child, although only when my dad would let me use his Apple ][c. I only realize it now but it had some very unique game mechanics that even today you don't see very often (ok maybe that's a bit of a stretch but the mechanics were novel to me back then): - Notably you have 60 minutes to finish the game.…

> - There is a satisfying parry mechanic. This is still rare to see in 2d platformers.

You can see if Dead Cells's parrying mechanic works for you.

Re: How we made hit video game Prince of Persia

#46

Post by jdw64 »

glimshe wrote: post #40
jdw64 wrote: post #38

this game was so difficult that I never managed to clear it all the way to the end. I played it in the school computer lab, and it was one of the popular games... I can't remember the names of the others

I once beat it in 27 minutes. I didn't know it was supposed to be hard at the time! I briefly checked speed run records now and that time would have put me in the top 50 "no glitches" ranking! I'm not that good at games... For some reason PoP leveraged some brain circuitry I have with questionable evolutionary value.

That's impressive. You clear this game... that puts you in contrast with me, who can't even become a 'prince' in a game

Re: How we made hit video game Prince of Persia

#48

Post by kriro »

That jump through the mirror blew my mind as a kid. And level 6 oh man took us forever to beat that slightly obese guard. I still remember that we once accidentally walked all the way into that guard and switched places but then were killed by a strike to the back. always wanted to replay and see if I can pass the guard that way.

Re: How we made hit video game Prince of Persia

#49

Post by achairapart »

d3Xt3r wrote: post #7
achairapart wrote: post #5

Just reading "Prince of Persia" and in my head starts playing the oriental background music (by pc speaker! No sound card back then, at least for me). Also, the steps, the gates and all other sound FXs. Most people are/were fascinated by the fluid animations, but this game was perfect from every angle.

I actually rewired my internal PC speaker to a big external speaker just so that I could hear the music/sfx of the game in all its glory. And that awesome intro animation too - never seen anything like it at the time, like simply seeing realistic human faces being drawn in a DOS game was just mind blowing.

Best PC Speaker music ever was Xenon II, by Bomb the Bass[0] (which much later I discovered was a re-rendition of Carpenter' Assault on Precint 13 OST[1]).

May sound silly for some people today, but that was some incredible wizardry at the times, given the limitations (PC speaker was monophonic, square-wave only). As a YouTube comment says: "This is musical equivalent to pixel art."

And a great game too!

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izadA3nSPbk

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5UU2TxOcZs

Re: How we made hit video game Prince of Persia

#50

Post by Someone »

mscdex wrote: post #16

If you haven't already seen it, I highly recommend watching the "War Stories" video on the making of Prince of Persia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw0VfmXKq54 On a related note, I also highly recommend the "War Stories" video for the making of Crash Bandicoot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izxXGuVL21o

That, and more, is available from Jordan Mechner’s site https://www.jordanmechner.com.

Prince of Persia info at https://www.jordanmechner.com/en/library/#pop

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