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How Prince of Persia Defeated Apple II's Memory Limitations | War Stories | Ars Technica

Ars Technica

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  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2020 to 2026.
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Game developmentHistory and cultureGame programmingRetro games and consolesHistory of computing

Jordan Mechner explains how he overcame the Apple II's severe memory limitations and used rotoscoping to create Prince of Persia.

For today’s episode of War Stories, Ars Technica sat down with Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner to learn about the challenges he faced while bringing his ambitious vision for the game to life. As the 1980's wound down, Mechner found himself fighting against not only the limitations of the Apple II hardware but the impending death of the platform itself. Decades later, Prince of Persia remains a classic example of how the constraints of early gaming led to solutions that advanced the artform. Directed and Produced by Justin Wolfson Edited/GFX by Parker Dixon Footage used in this video: AchievementX360Nerds: youtube.com/watch?v=Zc6F1u2Plpw Old Classic Retro Gaming: youtube.com/watch?v=LqxN-HEfSxU DerSchmu: youtube.com/watch?v=20jf2ti9ZDE Mauri al Pedo: youtube.com/watch?v=JDeIWfz_EM4 Various For: youtube.com/watch?v=LVKJZeSpDR0 Al82: Retrogaming & Computing: youtube.com/watch?v=aZtkPZih-3s youtube.com/watch?v=DK-5jK1-LrQ World-of-Longplays: youtube.com/watch?v=thAmYGc37pA groovymacgames: youtube.com/watch?v=zjR_AhxPnVM OtakuChest: youtube.com/watch?v=Xv20j8ChtRY Dan Prince: youtube.com/watch?v=0pLxQmv8ZFI hirudov2d: youtube.com/watch?v=JZDAPp61aak youtube.com/watch?v=eGxb10aTe5g Kapeesh: youtube.com/watch?v=YAC6zZbrz-g youtube.com/watch?v=77hLHTHMwQo youtube.com/watch?v=8wsrW3VnvCo Connect with Ars Technica: Visit ArsTechnica.com: arstechnica.com Follow Ars Technica on Facebook: facebook.com/arstechnica Follow Ars Technica on Google+: plus.google.com/+ArsTechnica/videos Follow Ars Technica on Twitter: twitter.com/arstechnica How Prince of Persia Defeated Apple II's Memory Limitations | War Stories | Ars Technica

Why it's here

5 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as a fascinating look into retro game development and the clever engineering tricks used to overcome extreme hardware constraints.

barishnamazovon Hacker News • Recommends

On “A platform-jumping prince – History of Prince of Persia's 1990s Ports”

> "For the first time I felt what it's really like to play Prince of Persia when you're not the author and don't already know by rote what's lurking around every corner." This perfectly captures why code reviews by someone who didn't write the original are so valuable. You can't unsee your own assumptions. I remember seeing the following short but extremely interesting documentary about makings of the game as well: link to this video - Essential viewing for anyone interested in game development history.
View on Hacker News

mscdexon Hacker News • Recommends

On “How we made hit video game Prince of Persia”

If you haven't already seen it, I highly recommend watching the "War Stories" video on the making of Prince of Persia: link to this video On a related note, I also highly recommend the "War Stories" video for the making of Crash Bandicoot: link
View on Hacker News

stefanos82on Hacker News • Recommends

On “How we made hit video game Prince of Persia”

I have watched the creator explaining to us in great detail how he came up with so many tiny details that made it a perfect game for its time! Just watch it yourself, you will be in awe! link to this video
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softwhaleon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Examples of games developed by a single developer?”

Arstechnica has a great interview with Jordan Mechner, the creator of this game. A true technical and artistic wizard: link to this video
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ajdoingnothingon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Prince of Persia in JavaScript”

If you haven't seen Jordan Mechner talking about the development of Prince of Persia yet (definitely recommended): link to this video
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clusmoreon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Prince of Persia – how jumping animation was made”

The link doesn't work for me as I don't have an X account, but you can see more in this Ars Technica interview with the X poster: link to this video
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throwaway31131on Hacker News • Mentions

On “The Death of Utilitarian Programming”

…Now the infrastructure for our code is amazing and the machines that execute them abound in resources, especially in the cloud. Now that the yoke has been cast off it makes sense more time is spent on the solution the actual problem you set out to solve in the first place. 0 link 1 How Prince of Persia Defeated Apple II's Memory Limitations link to this video…
View on Hacker News