Prince of Persia — stories left

The same magazine's special supplement "PC Engine All Catalog '93" (1993-10 issue) was positive about the character modelling, saying "the characters move very realistically", but negative about the controls, saying "it takes a little time to get used to how your own character moves".

Also, the game magazine Chozetsu Daiwazarin '98 Spring Edition (Tokuma Shoten), published in 1998, introduced it with a positive comment on its controls, saying that "it is put together with a good control scheme for a handheld game, so it plays comfortably".

Though the use of rotoscoping was regarded as a pioneering move, Mechner later recalled that "when we made that decision with Prince of Persia, I wasn't thinking about being cutting edge — we did it essentially because I'm not that good at drawing or animation, and it was the only way I could think of to get lifelike movement.

Mechner has said that when he started programming, the first ten minutes of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark had been one of the main inspirations for the character's acrobatic responses in a dangerous environment.

The DOS version was developed at the same time as the Apple II version and shipped a few months later; with better graphics and sound than the original, it became the source for most other platforms, and Mechner said that he would recommend it to most modern players.

He wrote that Prince of Persia "succeeds at being more than a running-jumping game (in other words, a gussied-up Nintendo game)" because it "captures the feel of those great old adventure films", citing Thief of Baghdad, Frankenstein, and Dracula.

In 1992, The New York Times described the Macintosh version as having "brilliant" graphics and "excellent" sound.

Reviewing the Genesis version, GamePro praised the "extremely fluid" animation of the player character and commented that the controls are difficult to master but nonetheless very effective.

Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) likewise assessed the Genesis version as "an excellent conversion of the classic action game", and added that the game's challenging strategy and technique give it high longevity.

In 1991, PC Format named Prince of Persia one of the 50 best computer games ever, highlighting its "unbelievably good animation".

In 1996, Computer Gaming World named Prince of Persia the 84th best game ever, with the editors calling it "an acrobatic platformer with amazingly fluid action".

In April 2020, Mechner did an AMA on Reddit where he stated that he would be releasing his journals from the development of the game as a book and users could ask any questions that they may have about the game to him.

Prince of Persia is a single-screen action game developed by the American company Broderbund and released on 1989-10-3, and is the 1st title in the Prince of Persia series.

In the "Cross Review" feature of the magazine Famitsu, the four reviewers gave 7, 8, 6, and 5, for a total of 26. Gekkan PC Engine gave 90, 95, 85, 85, and 80, for an average of 87 out of 100, and Marukatsu PC Engine gave 9, 7, 8, and 7, for a total of 31 out of 40. In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by PC Engine FAN, it scored 23.71 out of 30, as shown below.

This score also placed it 56th among all PC Engine titles (485 titles in total, as of 1993).

In the "Cross Review" feature of the magazine Famitsu, the four reviewers gave 6, 6, 6, and 4, for a total of 22. In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by Family Computer Magazine, it scored 20.2 out of 30, as shown below.

In the "Cross Review" feature of the magazine Famitsu, the four reviewers gave 5, 8, 8, and 8, for a total of 29. In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by Family Computer Magazine, it scored 21.70 out of 30, as shown below.

This score placed it 89th among all Super Famicom titles (323 titles in total, as of 1993).

In the "Cross Review" feature of the magazine Famitsu, the four reviewers gave 5, 5, 6, and 5, for a total of 21. In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by Mega Drive FAN, it scored 20.08 out of 30, as shown below.

Prince of Persia received a positive critical reception, but was initially a commercial failure in North America, where it had sold only 7,000 units each on the Apple II and IBM PC by July 1990.

In July 1990, the NEC PC-9801 version sold 10,000 units as soon as it was released in Japan.

It was then ported to various different home computers and video game consoles, eventually selling 2 million units worldwide by the time its sequel Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame (1993) was in production.

In 2012, the source code for the APPLE II version was released and became a talking point.

The game was critically acclaimed and, while not an immediate commercial success, sold many copies as it was ported to a wide range of platforms after the original Apple II release.

Reviewing the Genesis version, GamePro praised the "extremely fluid" animation of the player character and commented that the controls are difficult to master but nonetheless very effective.

Though the use of rotoscoping was regarded as a pioneering move, Mechner later recalled that "when we made that decision with Prince of Persia, I wasn't thinking about being cutting edge — we did it essentially because I'm not that good at drawing or animation, and it was the only way I could think of to get lifelike movement.

Mechner has said that when he started programming, the first ten minutes of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark had been one of the main inspirations for the character's acrobatic responses in a dangerous environment.

Prince of Persia received a positive critical reception, but was initially a commercial failure in North America, where it had sold only 7,000 units each on the Apple II and IBM PC by July 1990.

Several other titles that were not released in Japan have also come out.

Though the use of rotoscoping was regarded as a pioneering move, Mechner later recalled that "when we made that decision with Prince of Persia, I wasn't thinking about being cutting edge — we did it essentially because I'm not that good at drawing or animation, and it was the only way I could think of to get lifelike movement.

Reviewing the Genesis version, GamePro praised the "extremely fluid" animation of the player character and commented that the controls are difficult to master but nonetheless very effective.