glug glug glug –
To make the classic platformer work, Jordan Mechner had to go through the looking glass.
Lee Hutchinson – Apr , (1:) pm UTC
We’re resurfacing our Prince of Persia
war story from last month to coincide with the release of PoP
creator Jordan Mechner’s book, The Making of Prince of Persia
If you missed the video last month, here’s another chance to give it a look! And if you’re interested in picking up a copy of Mechner’s book, there’s a link at the bottom of the piece.
The largest impact was that up until the tail end of development, PoP
was going to be a largely solitary experience, with a non-violent character platforming his way through a series of dungeons to rescue the princess. The available RAM was simply too sparse to include any additional characters with their own animations and sound effects that would eat precious bytes. But one afternoon, after repeated prodding by another developer with whom Mechner was sharing office space, Mechner took advantage of some assembly instructions and coded up a bit-shifted bad guy that used the protagonist’s animations and sounds — and suddenly the game had a real antagonist.
It was the kick needed to transform an interesting but not terribly exciting platformer prototype into a focused gaming experience, and it led Mechner to pull out all the stops and pull together the additional memory needed for a few more sword-swinging bad guys. He scavenged precious bytes from unused system locations, and, as they say, the rest is history.
Founding a dynasty
Watching this video come together meant a lot to me, because as with so many classic gaming titles, just seeing the images and hearing the sounds evokes memories of long, lazy summer vacation days, where the only decision I had to make was how long I wanted to play on the computer before meeting up with my buddies at the neighborhood swimming pool. Retrogaming is a powerful thing, and anyone who argues that games aren’t legitimately art is either dead inside or a total idiot.
Ars would like to extend a special thanks to Jordan Mechner for the extensive assistance he provided in making sure we got the technical details of this video right ( especially the assembly language part!). Videos like these wouldn’t be possible without enthusiastic developer support, and we’re grateful he’s still excited to talk about old games with us.
(Speaking of Mechner: the book he mentions near the end of the video,
, should be available for pre-orders on Amazon starting today. If you’re a fan of the game, this would make an excellent addition to your library!) (Read More ) Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus (Covid –
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings