Inspired by the Arabian Nights stories and by the success of movies such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Mechner opted not to make a sequel of his first martial art title, but to create a brand new original game.Īnd, despite being an independent and amateur designer, at the time he was among the first ones to use a pioneering animation technique: rotoscoping. Up until then he had only published one videogame, Karateka, just the previous year. Mechner developed a passion for programming using the assembly language on an Apple II personal computer (a system which was already declining at the time). Jordan Mechner, a young student at Yale University, first came up with the idea to create this game in 1985, when he was just 21 years old.

Of course, the future prince succeeds in his adventure only thanks to the player, who controls him making him running, jumping and sword-fighting.Ī young and brilliant author: Jordan Mechner Thrown prisoner in the castle’s dungeon, the protagonist forces his way out using a sword he found in his prison, and he gets to the palace tower in time to defeat Jaffar. Her saviour, before the fateful 60 minutes run out, will be the brave youth she truly loves, a foreign traveller. The only obstacle between him and the power is the princess, the sultan’s daughter, whom Jaffar kidnaps and locks in a tower, leaving her a terrible choice: marrying him or dying within the hour. In the absence of the sultan, who is fighting a war in a foreign land, the evel vizier Jaffar seizes the throne. Let’s start from the game plot which, as the title hints, takes place in ancient Persia. What made the game published by American software house Brøderbund really unique was its unprecedented level of animation, which made it the first real cinematic platformer and inspired so many following games in this genre. Ī game which earned its place in history, not only for its commercial and critical success, which led to an incredible series of sequels and reboots: from Prince of Persia 2 (1993) and Prince of Persia 3D (1999), to Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time (2003) and the new Prince of Persia in 2008 (but the list may not be over yet, since last year rumours spread out about a possible new chapter) and even a movie in 2010. Realized in 1989 by Jordan Mechner, who was just 21 years old, thanks to a cutting-edge technique: rotoscopingĢ019 marks an important stepstone in the videogame world: the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Prince of Persia.

Prince of persia 3d jordan mechner