Original: Apple II · 1989
Jordan Mechner's rotoscoped platformer began life on the ageing Apple II and was ported to a vast range of platforms across the following decade, its uncannily fluid animation surviving every conversion to redefine how games moved.
Prince of Persia was designed and implemented by Jordan Mechner and published by Broderbund in 1989 for the Apple II — a machine already well past its prime, which makes what Mechner achieved on it all the more remarkable. The game's defining feature was its animation: as with his earlier Karateka, Mechner used rotoscoping, tracing over live-action footage to produce movement of a fluidity and weight that no contemporary game approached. The reference footage came from two sources. For the Prince's running, jumping, and falling, Mechner filmed his younger brother David performing acrobatic stunts in white clothing, then traced the frames. For the swordfights, he turned to cinema, tracing over the celebrated duel between Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). The resulting character did not move like a video game sprite — he had momentum, hesitation, recovery, and a believable relationship with gravity that made the game's lethal traps and pits feel genuinely dangerous. The game was not an immediate commercial success on the Apple II, but it went on to sell enormously through an extraordinarily broad porting campaign that carried it onto virtually every platform of the following decade — DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, the NES, SNES, Game Boy, Sega Genesis, Master System, Game Gear, and many more besides. Each conversion had to grapple with the same challenge: the game's appeal rested almost entirely on the quality of its animation and the precision of its physics, and a port that compromised either would fail. The best conversions, notably the SNES version, expanded the game with new levels and enhanced presentation while preserving the essential feel. Prince of Persia's influence on game animation is difficult to overstate. It demonstrated that convincing, weighty, human movement was achievable and that players would respond to it powerfully, establishing a standard that the "cinematic platformer" subgenre — Another World, Flashback, Blackthorne — would build upon directly. Its long tail of ports made it one of the most widely played games of its era, and the technique Mechner borrowed from animation studios became a fixture of game development for years.
The original, by Jordan Mechner. Rotoscoped animation traced from footage of his brother and from The Adventures of Robin Hood.
The version most PC players know, with improved colour and sound; became the definitive version for many.
Substantially expanded with additional levels and enhanced audiovisuals while preserving the original's animation and physics.
A wide spread of console conversions of differing quality; the game ultimately reached a vast range of platforms.