Review: The prince of persia (Amiga)

mjnurney

we live as we dream. Alone.
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The prince of persia

The evil Jaffar has thrown you into a dark dungeon and plans to marry the girl of your dreams within the hour!

Now thats simply not on is it?

You have one hour to escape from the dungeon, take out Jaffar's guards, find your way through the Sultan's palace and defeat Jaffar himself in this fantastic plat former on the Amiga.

Prince of Persia is a platformer with run and jump gameplay. Your hero must avoid deadly traps, solve some simple puzzles and engage in sword fights with the guards. The player 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.At the centre of the game is the fluid animation of your character, sparse but detailed graphics and minimal sounds that will stay with you forever!

This is another of the big blockbuster games on the Amiga. A platform game thats simple but perfectly done. This is the beginning of the next level of platform games. The C64 had Karateka (also by the same author) which defined animation on the C64 but this is the next level.Only flashback would better this but that was released later than prince.

version of prince where surprisingly similar on the PC/amiga , the sega megadrive was much improved and as of 2011 Prince has been developed for the C64.

Prince of persia 1989
Borderbund
Amiga OCS 512k
whdload version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrKDeNT1ofY

Released versions:
Apple 2
Amiga
ST
Amstrad CPC
C64
Pc engine
DOS
Sam coupe
x68000
master system
mega drive
mega cd
game gear
Fm towns

further reading

http://jordanmechner.com/category/old-school/

http://www.oxmonline.com/prince-persia-creator-jordan-mechner-remake-karateka-interview-inside (interview and old game videos)


Amiga pics below.
 

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Not so sure that the Amiga version is really better than the PC or Atari ST versions. As a matter of fact, it is not as good as MAC / SEGA MD / SNES versions.
In fact, as this game has been ported to every possible 8 bit or 16 bit machine, i barely consider it as an amiga game at all and i have never liked it so much.

Are you sure that PoP and Flashback are from the same publishers? The later is from Delphine Software (french) and PoP is from Broderbund (which i guess is from the UK).
 
You know what I've just been looking at the screen shots and vids of prince on the pc and it looks the same ! The sega version is actually better but I'm not sure if this is a later version.. I'll update the review I think :)

---------- Post added at 22:16 ---------- Previous post was at 22:12 ----------

i haven't seen the mac or snes version but i'll check them out. thanks :)


pics

megadrive : mac sega cd snes snes
 

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Played this many times like many other people. Never got anywhere near finishing it though. Graphically very impressive at the time for sure.

It was certainly ported to just about every available platform in the 1990s didn't the Sam Coupe get a port too?

Good game, I got the xbox live arcade version a few years ago to make up for pirating it on the Amiga :) author got his royalty eventually from me!
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I <3 prince of persia!
first played it on an RM 286 pc at school and was first game I purchased for the miggy

Was this not one of the first games released to make use of rotoscoping? I remember seeing a review somewhere showing the actual snaps of the developers brother jumping around to be digitised...
 
Yes the Sam got a port , well advertised and pushed by mgt at the time but it did little to save the Sam. The c64 recently got a version and the sx spectrum had a Russian version I believe..

---------- Post added at 22:32 ---------- Previous post was at 22:31 ----------

I think Jordan filmed or photoed his brother jumping to use as animation in the game..
 
When I used to play this as a kid I always thought a 'Jaffar' was related to a Jaffa cake?

I'm still one sandwich short of a picnic. I noticed on a form today I filled out a few years ago that I put a circle round 'no' for being pregnant. :oops:
 
The C64 version just blew my mind away. The graphics are just pure awesomeness. I mean it is by no means inferior to the 16-bit version neither graphically or in playability.
 
In all fairness, the C64 version (if I recall correctly) really uses some "features" of the Easy Flash.
I'm not sure a standard CART or Disk version would have been possible, or I should say would have been possible AND been as incredible. ;-)

Have to admit, most of my Prince of Persia experience comes from the Apple // version.

Great game..

desiv
 
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