Jordan Mechner and Price of Persia

They Create Worlds

TCW Podcast Episode 237 - Jordan Mechner and Price of Persia

We continue our look at Jordan Mechner with the development of Prince of Persia. Its cinematic inspirations include Castles of Dr. Creep, the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the 1938 Robin Hood. To animate the prince, Mechner filmed his brother performing stunts, then manually painted key frames, painting his brother white and the background black to make the footage compatible with a limited digitizer. Memory constraints forced creative solutions, like XORing the prince and bit shifting him to create Shadow Man. A promising film project delayed the game’s release, but Prince of Persia launched on the Apple II with groundbreaking animation. A strong Macintosh port and renewed interest following Disney’s Aladdin helped turn the game into a hit across the early 1990s.

The Making of Prince of Persia: https://www.jordanmechner.com/en/books/journals/

TCW 172 - The Computer Price Wars Part 1: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-computer-price-wars-part-1/

TCW 173 - The Computer Price Wars Part 2: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-computer-wars-part-2/

TCW 174 - The Computer Price Wars Part 3: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-computer-wars-part-3/

TCW 019 - The Great Video Game Crash Part 1: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-great-video-game-crash-part-1/

TCW 020 - The Great Video Game Crash Part 2: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-great-video-game-crash-part-2/

TCW 021 - The Great Video Game Crash Part 3: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-great-video-game-crash-part-3/

TCW 071 - A Story of Brøderbund!: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/a-story-of%C2%A0br%C3%B8derbund/

TCW 072 - The MYSTeries of Brøderbund!: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-mysteries-of-br%C3%B8derbund/

The Castles of Dr. Creep: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi2dvxcioBw

First 10 minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUWYmTpYdP4

The Thief of Bagdad (1924): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTXZSVIIk-c

How Prince of Persia Defeated Apple II Memory Limitations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw0VfmXKq54

Prince of Persia (Apple II): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZDAPp61aak

Robin Hood (1938): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USpQGE5sVAY

Prince of Persia (PC DOS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKQX75dBlEI

Prince of Persia (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukSECkajKYA

Prince of Persia (NES): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6hylvkCh-8

Prince of Persia (SNES): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZtkPZih-3s

Prince of Persia (Macintosh): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjR_AhxPnVM

Prince of Persia Re-Release Box: https://bigboxcollection.com/PrinceOfPersia.3DBox

New episodes are on the 1st and 15th of every month!

TCW Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @tcwpodcast

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theycreateworlds

Alex's Video Game History Blog: http://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com

Alex's book, published Dec 2019, is available at CRC Press and at major on-line retailers: http://bit.ly/TCWBOOK1

Intro Music: Josh Woodward - Airplane Mode - Music - "Airplane Mode" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/AirplaneMode

Outro Music: RoleMusic - Bacterial Love: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Rolemusic/Pop_Singles_Compilation_2014/01_rolemusic_-_bacterial_love

Copyright: Attribution: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/