The film was watchable
or do I meant Gemma Arterton was? tomato tomatoe.
Up there with decent Game-Movie tie ins such as Resi and Hitman.
Prince of Persia was surely one of the most ubiquitous Dixons demo titles of the early 1990s. Mesmerised onlookers gazed at the smooth-moving, cartoon-like animation, while bewildered sales drones looked on wondering whether any of these humans would ever manage to get past level one. Hang around long enough randomly pressing …
Absolutely. Proof that flashy graphics do not make a game.
I was addicted to this when i was at school. Playing on a MacPlus, so just back and white graphics. Was still an utterly immersive game. The shock the first time you [spoilers] jump through the mirror and your reflection runs away [/spoilers] i still remember.
And then later, when you finally have to battle your evil reflection and the frustration of trying to kill him over and over until at some point the light goes on over your head and the realise what's necessary... classic gameplay!
In some ways though, I hope they don't try and revive this. The latest Tomb Raider game was very enjoyable, as a story, and was lots of fun to play, but it lacked the depth of puzzles that the original TR and TR2 had. I fear a modern Prince of Persia would be the same, very flashy to look at, even perhaps a great mystical story to follow, but it wouldn't give you the same sense of achievement that the original PoP gave you when you finally found the way to complete a level.
Yes, very fond memories of playing this classic game on my Amstrad PC. Other classic games I enjoyed around that time:
.....Gods - A platform glassic.
.....Xenon 2 - Vertical scroll space shoot em up.
These games were polished; Pure quality.
Dang, I never completed Gods... I got as far as the last boss battle - a a giant serpent dragon thing - and slung a load of axes at him... but no cigar.
I don't think I ever got past the second level of Xenon 2, at least without using the invincibility cheat ('F7' at the VGA/ EGA selection screen, then 'i' in-game)
It was released last year on the 3DS eshop as the Gameboy Color version.
Its one of a few games I have been willing to pay for on the 3DS so far and I wasn't disappointed. As a bonus over the original you can cheat and save the game state at any point. Makes falling to your death less annoying!
I never thought it was that impressive. (TG16 and Neo Geo were around at that time).
Blazing Lasers was 1989 on TG16. (Much better than the PC shooters at the time).
Still good to play now. (I wouldn't play Prince of Persia now - same with the NES there is only a handful of NES games I would still play.)
I never liked it when I played it on a 286 so am fairly certain I wouldn't want to play it now.
(I am not in the business of rebuying stuff unless I actually still want to play it).
There's a version on the Google Play store, from EA, that is absolute gash. All I remember from the original is smooth animation and dying on spikes (much like Another World), so maybe the Android version is actually quite accurate, and I just don't miss the "die repeatedly until you learn the sequence of moves that will allow you to not die" mechanic that dominated games in my childhood (Ghouls & Ghosts, anyone?)?
It's still a classic, though (as are Another World and Ghouls & Ghosts)!
DosBox is the way to go. I can indeed confirm that its playable.
I adored this game, though I came to it far later than many. I built myself a dedicated "early" PC gamer from castoffs in the late 90's and smashed many keyboards (and lost many weekends) to this masterpiece of a game.
Sadly I never did work out how to get past the fight with the reflection. Might have to go back and have another crack.
Spoiler alert!
I haven't played the game (so I may be wrong), but I have seen* that you get past the fight with your reflection by sheathing your sword. Your reflection does the same and doesn't fight you.
* I don't think it was Patrick Moore on GamesMaster, but I can't remember where I saw it.
We used to play PoP on a Netware-based network with RPL-booting disk-less clients where people stayed back after hours to participate in Prince of Persia mayhem. This is by far the best game and nothing has ever come close to it, ever. I don't play games anymore because everytime I consider playing one, i end up comparing it with Prince of Persia.
no, not this rubbish game (it was), but El Reg's new "Mountain Lion" non-colour scheme!
Without red & green I am unable to distinguish the up and down-vote buttons.
I fear many of my fellow commentards will be similarly afflicted and might down-vote me by mistake (sob).
ICON: would be a sad face... if I could.
Great article! I have enjoyed playing Prince of Persia since 1991 installing the software from 3 1/4 inch floppy disks for the first two Broderbund games, CD-Rom for Red Orb's 3D version, and CD-Rom for the first three Ubisoft games.
Lots of fun on a single cpu 800 MHz 1/2 GB memory computer I built in 2000 which is still running and I use daily. About once a year I replay each of those legacy games ... each one a fond memory.
I volunteer on the Ubisoft forum http://forums.ubi.com/forumdisplay.php/59-Prince-of-Persia
kakalukiaJay
This brings back memories! My mate and I played PoP1 through end-to-end on my first ever PC one summer between school and college. Even on my humble green screen the graphics were amazing for the time. We became slightly obsessed with home quickly we could complete key sections - the only game I've ever played where I've developed a similar obsession is Mirrors Edge a few years ago.
The SNES version was the one that got me hooked, think the levels were totally redesigned? the console's controller was one of the better ones for games like this - very precise on the direction controller. Otherwise I think this was one game that actually played better on a keyboard. Total classic whatever!