Jordan Mechner and Price of Persia
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: feedback@theycreateworlds.com 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/