Prince #1: Prince of Persia PC

One of the classic Shadow scenes. If you don't recognise this, please go and correct that immediately.

The original game by Jordan Mechner would eventually come out on most formats that existed in the world at the time, with the PC/Amiga version being what I would think the most familiar - go through twelve and a half levels in one hour by climbing, jumping, disposing of guards, occasionally being killed in various Knightmare-esque ways. What makes this a great version is the responsiveness of the controls and the way that the Prince automatically detects where you want to jump. It means that whenever you die it's your own fault, which doesn't sound a great comfort, really, but it's better than plummeting down an eighty-storey drop because you pressed Up a fraction of a second too early. (See Prince of Persia 2 PC.)

Fighting is as responsive as you'd expect, with blocking and striking the only two manoeuvres to be carried out. They can be linked together in a kind of block-strike, essential for passing Fatty (middle of the game) and Jafar (end of the game).

It works because the game was kept simple and short and the levels are memorable. It's the first game which seemed to be designed for speed gaming - my best time so far is 38:16 remaining, which is a bit short of the world record of 42:24, but I can safely say that I am at least joint 248th in the world. Bet that impressed you.

Rating: 9 turbanned heads out of 10

Prince #2: Prince of Persia Genesis

An annoying room from Domark's Sega version. You'll be thrilled to hear you have to go through it twice.

The Genesis version (or more correctly, Megadrive in Britain, but I think that that's a vastly inferior name) is very much like the PC and Amiga one, with vastly improved graphics from the original. There's an attempt at music in the background, which is quite catchy even though it can get repetitive.



It follows the levels closely apart from one or two new ones. Unfortunately these new levels aren't terribly good, sometimes requiring a lot of backtracking - some of the classic levels seem to have been softened up a bit as an apology for that. The process is made even more frustrating by the controls.

Prince is a game that, even more so than others, needs a fast response time, and the Genesis version just doesn't have that. Just trying to time a jump feels like walking the character through treacle, and there's a slow fade out/in between screens which doesn't help matters either.

Fighting the guards (who in this version all look exactly the same, including Fatty the boss in the middle of the game) is unforgivably sluggish as well, with Block being rendered almost useless because of its slowness. Combat is reduced to hammering the A button repeatedly while walking forwards in the hope that you might connect with something - which more often than not it doesn't, with the result that without snapshot saves I would never have had the patience to complete this.

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Prince #3: Prince of Persia Mac

I don't have PoP Mac, but this is what it looks like.

I've only played this briefly, after spending a while trying to understand the install procedure while whinknee was out at fowrk. Fowrk? I meant "work". Right, that's it, time for a break.

OK, I've been fully rejuvenated by cornflakes and can carry on. As I was saying, I only played the first couple of levels, and they seem to be the same as the PC's ones. The look of the game is also marginally better, though the blank backgrounds remain. I remember feeling something slightly wrong with the feel of the movement, though - nothing like as tragic as some of the other versions, but there's still a slight tugginess there.

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Prince #4: Prince of Persia SNES

Look at that! Look at it! The clouds parallax, you know.

This is more like it! This Japanese remake of Prince is what Prince of Persia 2 PC should have been like (but sadly wasn't). It took the original, improved the graphics thousands of times, extended the classic levels, put new levels in between those ones, extended the storyline to fit the new (almost doubled) length of the game, put in new bosses, new traps, a slightly unnecessary training mode, and several hundred other things.

The speed of the game has been slightly increased, but not to a huge degree - the pace has just been put up slightly for a more console-like feel. It's as playable as the original and feels like a sequel rather than just an extension of it.

Music is also present in this game, a selection of fast paced Persian themed tunes. They sound as good as you would expect from a SNES.

The only slight problem is that with the addition of new levels, the classic sprint through the twelve levels doesn't exist any more... but that's not worth complaining about, and it's necessary if it wants to improve it. Indeed, I see it as more a sequel than a conversion.

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Prince #5: Prince of Persia Master System

You will never get past this screen.

Prince of Persia on the Master System is odd. The original levels are there, although changed somewhat to suit the machine, the graphics are decent enough in their sixteen-colour glory. The guards are even different colours, even though they all look similar.

What is so bizarre is the physics of it - they're incredibly erratic. Starting and stopping running take no time at all, the jump distance takes you half a screen at some times and completely ignores you at others, and frequently you'll even pause in mid-air for a second like Wile E Coyote before plummeting to your doom. The whole feel of it is just wrong.

One screen that's particularly guilty is in the screenshot above - the one at the top of Level 3 where you have to jump across the chasm quickly before the door on the screen to the left closes. The timing is very tight in all the versions and here it's virtually impossible to get the jump right - provided the controls register at all, it's most likely that the running jump from the edge won't take you far enough, you'll fail to cling on and will die. Again.

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Prince #6: Prince of Persia NES

And block, two, three, four...

Continuing the old console theme here, we have the original Nintendo version in all its mediocrity. Actually the look of it isn't that bad for something so ancient - the prince and guards actually appear more or less like in the original.

Scrolling is used in this game because of the NES's square screen output - the game needs to scroll "screens" left and right so that they're all in play at once. That technique at least is effective and doesn't distract from the game.

Things actually start off well with this one - the feel of it is right, like the PC one. Problems soon become apparent, though. The movement which at first seems perfect has a number of faults, a fairly major one of which is that the "cling on" button doesn't always work. Sometimes the prince will even get hold of a platform then immediately let go of it - which means death, a familiar problem in this game.

Another thing is the combat. Not only is it remarkably hit-or-miss (like every console version's fighting seems to be, bar a few) but because of the graphical shortcomings it doesn't look like they're using swords at all, instead partaking in some sort of bizarre Morris dancing with white sticks. And you can't run away from combat either.

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Prince #7: Prince of Persia Gameboy

Run away! Because you certainly can't fight.

My opinion's divided on this version, actually.

Surprisingly, the movement is quite good, with just a couple of little oddities here and there such as the upward jump not edging you forwards. I managed to get comfortably through most of the first level. It even jumps you at the edge of platforms correctly - this is the best movement by far of any of the ancient console versions. However, disaster struck.

The combat is utterly dire. Neither Block nor Strike work half the time, and even if they do the game sometimes completely ignores your efforts and lets your enemy hit you anyway, or causes your rather blunt-looking sword to sail through the guard you're trying to fight.

So top marks for the movement, but no marks for anything else, sadly for it.

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Prince #8: Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame

Not as good as the original, and the Prince is looking fairly cut up about it.

PC Review's demo of Prince of Persia 2 on their coverdisk was one of the most exciting things that happened to the nine-year-old me. I still have the magazine it came on - July 1993, a time when magazines still had those blue "disk" things on the cover. Does PC Review still exist? I've no idea, I haven't bought a PC magazine in years. Anyway, the demo was only about six screens long but it was still played to death.

It's only recently that I realise that the sequel wasn't as good as I first thought. As I mentioned ages ago in the commentary for PoP 1 PC, the first problem that the game has is that the automatic detection of where to jump has been taken out. This isn't usually a problem, you eventually get the hang of what distance away from the edge you have to press the key - but it can be very frustrating indeed, especially on levels like the infamous horse statue one where you have to make a series of precise leaps at the end of the level. If you press Jump a split-second too late or early, you plummet to the bottom of the level and have to restart. It's rather unfair.

Another thing - the game is slower than the first. It's not chronically slow, you really need to look closely to see it, but the speed difference is there. It's most noticeable in combat, where you have to block very early on in order to survive. Combined with the fact that the levels are longer, it makes dying a frustrating experience (as I imagine it would be).

The "Shadow and the Flame" concept is poorly thought out and is largely irrelevant to the game - during the later levels, it's possible to detach your shadow from your body by rapidly pressing Left and Right, in a technique that's never documented anywhere. This reduces you to three health points and allows you to explore the level without dying, but there's nowhere that you ever need to do this.

As for the flame, the way that you get it is incredibly clever, but too hard to work out - especially as what you need to get it is missable.

The maps are less memorable than the original because they contain a huge amount of rooms that you never need to explore, and there are very rarely multiple routes through a level. It's still a good game, but it feels awkward and unfair in places, and despite being simpler, the original is more enjoyable.

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Prince #9: Prince of Persia 2 SNES

Scrolling! Blink and you'll miss it.

After the greatness of the SNES version of the original, I thought that this would be similarly triumphant - however, the conversion was handled by a different company this time and the difference between how they were done is quite astounding.

The game looks pretty much the same as the PC version, but with a couple of major differences - first, the static screens of the PC version have been replaced with expanses of level that scroll horizontally. This isn't a huge setback - as much as the original static screens are very much the style of the game, it doesn't rely on them, and while the scrolling is an odd way to do things it's not a problem.

What is a problem is the way that the game has been sped up to a huge level. It looks like it's an attempt to quicken the pace like in PoP SNES, but such a lightning speed is inappropriate for the game. For the platform sections it's just incredibly uncomfortable, but you need to move your fingers faster than a hummingbird beats its wings if you want to have a hope of fighting. You can imagine the Benny Hill music playing in the background as you escape the palace at the beginning.

The cutscenes are also missing from the game. However, the levels have been faithfully converted, and it would be as good as the PC version if the sheer speed of it didn't make it unplayable.

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