Prince of Persia

1989 video game

Original description from the source, not translated.

YEAR 1989

GENRE Action-Adventure

PLATFORM Sega Genesis, ZX Spectrum, Mac operating system, iOS, Commodore Amiga, DOS, Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Master System, Amstrad CPC, Game Gear, Sega CD/Mega CD, TurboGrafx-16, SAM Coupé, Classic Mac OS

ABOUT THE GAME

Prince of Persia is a 1989 cinematic platform game developed and published by Broderbund for the Apple II. It was designed and implemented by Jordan Mechner. Taking place in medieval Persia, players control an unnamed protagonist who must venture through a series of dungeons to defeat the evil Grand Vizier Jaffar and save an imprisoned princess. Much like Karateka, Mechner's first video game, Prince of Persia used rotoscoping for its fluid and realistic animation. For this process, Mechner used as reference for the characters' movements videos of his brother doing acrobatic stunts in white clothes and swashbuckler films such as The Adventures of Robin Hood. The game was critically acclaimed and, while not an immediate commercial success, sold many copies as it was ported to a wide range of platforms after the original Apple II release. It is believed to have been the first cinematic platformer and inspired many games in this subgenre, such as Another World. Its success launched the Prince of Persia franchise, consisting of two sequels, Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame (1993) and Prince of Persia 3D (1999), and two reboots: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003), which was followed by three sequels of its own, and Prince of Persia (2008).

Source: Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0 — Prince of Persia (1989 video game) · retrieved October 19, 2026

PROVENANCE

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