| Publisher | Brøderbund Software |
| Developer | Brøderbund Software |
| Release date | 1990 |
| Genre | Puzzle Platformer |
Prince of Persia was developed by Jordan Mechner for Broderbund, beginning in 1985, for the Apple II. Unfortunately the system was winding down and the game only began to sell many copies once it was ported to other systems, including DOS in 1990.
The main character of the game is the titular prince of Persia. The King has left the palace and while he is away the vizier, Jaffar, has seized power, locking the King’s daughter in a tower. The player starts out in the palace dungeon, and must fight their way up twelve levels to the top of the tower where they face the vizier himself in a final boss battle.
The player must obtain a sword, and dodge portcullises, spiked pits and falling masonry. In between there are henchmen of the dastardly vizier to fight. Along the way the player can pick up potions. These either restore health or kill the character, depending on their colour.
The game was critically acclaimed, and is known as being perhaps the first ever cinematic platformer, inspiring others such as Another World. Its success launched a whole franchise, including two sequels and two reboots. One of the reboots, The Sands of Time (2003), had three sequels of its own.
- Prince of Persia is notable for being one of the first to use rotoscoping in an attempt to get sprites to move in a natural and smooth fashion.
- Mechner used his brother as the model for the titular prince as well as scenes from The Adventures of Robin Hood for other animations.
- It was originally released for the Apple II and was ported to over a dozen platforms. The best looking release was the Macintosh one (1992) which sported graphics closer to Prince of Persia 2.
- Development of the game took 4 years & was done in Assembly
XBOX Classic release (2007)
In 2007, 4 years after the successful reboot of the series with Sands of Time, the original game saw a complete remaster for Xbox Live Arcade, an online-only service for the Xbox 360. The game was later also released on the PS3.
The remake saw hugely improved graphics but otherwise remained faithful to the original. The graphics were changed to fall in line with the Sands of Time release.
Press thumbnail to start video
DOS vs PS3 comparison – copyright NeoGamer
Start the game with PRINCE MEGAHIT or PRINCE IMPROVED (depending on your version of the game) to enable cheat mode. Once inside the game, press the following keys to activate the corresponding cheats:
- U – View screen above
- H – View screen to the left
- J – View screen to the right
- N – View screen below
- Shift+I – Inverts the screen
- Shift+B – Blanks out non-animated objects
- Shift+W – Float down
- Shift+S – Heal a health point
- Shift+T – Add a health point
- Shift+L – Advance to the next level
- + – Increase time
- – – Decrease time
- K – Kill the guard you are fighting
- Shift+C – Display your Coordinates
- V – Move to top of screen
- R – New life
- C – Show coordinates
Not all cheats work with all versions of Prince of Persia.
Cheats are enabled.
- Download Full version (v1.4)
- Text: Arete
- Screenshots: MobyGames
- Video: Tiago Diniz
- Box art: MobyGames & RedAvatar
