Struggling through Prince of Persia
Oct. 25th, 2011 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidnThis one's been a while in the making, largely because my plan for it turned out to be a little ambitious. For this video, I was determined to complete the NES version of Prince of Persia, as it's been one of my favourite games ever since I first played it in the mid-90s - on the DOS version, I can breeze through it in under twenty minutes.
Unfortunately, I was only to discover the NES version's comparative dreadfulness through playing it - it casts off the cut-scenes, responsiveness of the controls, and many key parts of the game, making me think that it must have been made by people who were a bit pressed for time. But I persisted - and the resulting experience makes it one of the parts of this experiment that, rather opposite from the jealousy of console-owning friends I had at that age, made me very glad that I grew up with the PC instead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zaxWD0BVSs
This is a fairly huge video, and it's been edited down from its original running time of upwards of one hour - I imagine that it's only interesting to watch the whole way through if you're familiar with the PC version of the game and can appreciate the differences as I get caught out by them. You get about seven minutes of unbroken gameplay, and then I start being a bit more liberal with my time-altering superpowers. It features:
Good luck. If you decide to stick with it through the whole 45 minutes, you'll need it.
Unfortunately, I was only to discover the NES version's comparative dreadfulness through playing it - it casts off the cut-scenes, responsiveness of the controls, and many key parts of the game, making me think that it must have been made by people who were a bit pressed for time. But I persisted - and the resulting experience makes it one of the parts of this experiment that, rather opposite from the jealousy of console-owning friends I had at that age, made me very glad that I grew up with the PC instead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zaxWD0BVSs
This is a fairly huge video, and it's been edited down from its original running time of upwards of one hour - I imagine that it's only interesting to watch the whole way through if you're familiar with the PC version of the game and can appreciate the differences as I get caught out by them. You get about seven minutes of unbroken gameplay, and then I start being a bit more liberal with my time-altering superpowers. It features:
- Twelve excruciating levels
- Four thousand retakes
- Three thousand and ninety-nine instances of me saying "Right!" overconfidently after a retake
- Even more bizarre exasperated noises (coming soon as a Best Of collection)
- Nearly melting the bleep machine
- The same eight bars of music repeated for all eternity (cut out during editing in this video - you're welcome)
- Skeletons where they shouldn't be
- Lack of other objects where there should be
Good luck. If you decide to stick with it through the whole 45 minutes, you'll need it.
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Date: 2011-10-27 03:30 am (UTC)Man, this is one of those games that I'd like to see played atlas (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CoQ-wXR_iw)-style.... I have such a hard time keeping all these all-alike hallways straight...
That floaty potion is a bit.... odd! I mean, it's not like there's a "leap of faith" involved; they put it in a place where there's virtually no chance of NOT deciding to drink the potion, and there's no way to know that the fall would have been fatal without taking it.... it's not like they're daring you to try the fatal fall that you wanted to take earlier but couldn't find a way to; they're just giving you a free potion, then leaving you to try jumping, and then going "oh, huh, this would've killed me, but I guess I'm floating instead?" Floating unexpectedly like that should've been an awesome moment! Freeing you from the threat of gravity, letting you take the leap that you knew would simplify things if you could just make it.... oh, bah, whatever.
"I think they might have extended that just so that, with the scrolling of the screen, you can see that there IS something to grab onto there" I was wondering if they would do anything like that! I figured the alternative was that they put something like the Mario World L+R buttons on Select, or something... and just hoped that people were curious enough to press it in screens that don't let you scroll there on your own :P I have to admit, as cruel as it's set up to be, most of the changes DO seem like the result of focus testing to iron out the REALLY unfair bits...
"Can you hear me on the keyboard by the way, saving state..." Yes ;) (Although, I don't need to tell you it now, you've already edited it.... PIME TARADOX...)
"I miss the between-level animations; they would give you some hint as to what to actually DO in the levels..." Really? The only ones I remember were just the princess fretting as she looked at the hourglass... What were the other ones like?
I don't know what, but something reminded me of the boxart.... as much as the PC version (http://www.giantbomb.com/prince-of-persia/61-2561/) had that wonderful pulp flair to it, conjuring up that air of adventure and mystery.. there really is something awfully classy (and apt) about the SNES version (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/02/24/prince-of-persia-snes-included-with-the-forgotten-sands-on-wii/), isn't there? I guess they knew it was meant for a more cerebral audience than the standard console fare, ultimately...
Now that I think about it, I wonder how many games actually existed on NES and SNES simultaneously like that?
Hah! And now I JUST got to the part where you mention the SNES game. :) Now I'm curious how different/similar it was!
What tension would there normally have been in the part with the mouse? I guess they make you wait longer, give you time to say "dash it all" and reload your save file before finding out that you actually HAD done it right after all? (See my earlier remark about focus-testing away the distinctly frustrating bits, if that's what it was!)
Does the game still have a countdown timer noise for the timed gates?
It's funny they say "exit opened", when for the rest of the switches you just have to bloody well figure out what they did..!
"Cut out some things in the name of getting through the game more quickly, we're not Final Fantasy 13 here" -- wasn't FF13's whole problem that they cut out too much? Or am I misunderstanding what you mean..
"Let's see if this [sneaking] trick works..." Y'know, I was just thinking earlier "it's so weird how they turn even when you're a whole floor below them", but then I held back from saying it because I figured "well maybe it's that they hear your footsteps" -- now you're saying that the original had a puzzle where if you tiptoe, he WOULDN'T turn? I love that they thought of it too :) This game really is a labor of love...
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Date: 2011-10-27 05:17 pm (UTC)Perhaps the oddest thing about the floating potion in level 7 is that you don't even have to take it! The fall is short enough to survive if you hang by your fingertips from the ledge with the potion and just let yourself drop. On the PC, you get some floaty music to indicate to you that something's changed, but... yes, it hasn't been an impassable pit until then - you've only seen it if you didn't cling on in time at the very start of the level.
I might have exaggerated the usefulness of the cut-scenes in my ranting about what had been cut out - the only one that would have made much difference is the one before level 8, where you see the princess sending her mouse out to... do something (I'm not really sure, now I say it). That would at least give some indication that you might be about to be rescued (I know it did to me), rather than having a mouse suddenly show up and open a door for you - but otherwise, you're right that the PC version involved a rather long pause at that door before rescue comes, potentially leading you to believe that you've done something wrong. The SNES version did it well - instead of just one door, Jafar appears and catches you between two of them, but a few seconds after he leaves the mouse turns up to open the way forward for you.
It seemed to be released on the consoles at a weird point between the eras (it was on both the Master System and Megadrive as well) - almost like how games of the time would have a version on the consoles and a very cut-down or completely different attempt at them on the handhelds. The SNES version really is very different - the same template for the game exists in that you can recognize some rooms scattered around the doubled length of the game, but it adds a vast number of new obstacles, boss fights and normal enemies. It was a sequel in all but name, really.
The game has no... separate countdown noise for the timed gates - on the PC, they opened quickly, then slowly clicked back down into place, with the noise of them coming down indicating that you had to hurry up. Here on the NES, they whoosh up, wait silently for a bit, then whoosh down again.
And yes, at that point in level 10, you could go a short way around by tiptoeing across the floor for a while, turning around and then climbing up to hit the guard in the back (if you tried it without him being turned around, he would just knock you down). Even in an era with 'sandbox' games promising so much to do in them, there really is something charming about the amount of detail that went into just twelve levels of environment in this one.
The SNES box artwork is actually the one I'm most familiar with as that same impression of the Prince was used on the Ultimate Collection, the first legitimate copy of the games I owned... but yes, the original's artwork is really unusual and distinctive, for a game. Each version had their own fairly unique approach to the aesthetic - the Genesis version of the Prince was played by Mark Hamill, and the Mega CD one frankly looks like it should have been voiced by Strong Bad.
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Date: 2011-10-28 01:47 am (UTC)I've been wondering myself whether the guy making that Metroid one had a special plugin, or was just painstakingly patient - but come on, Prince Of Persia couldn't be any simpler, it doesn't scroll! :) All you'd have to do is move your gameplay footage to cover a different part of the map every time the game changes screens... (Hell, the more I think about it; you could even do it in Flash, and save an awful lot of bandwidth in the process...!)
Anyway, it looks like the same guy has actually already thrown together an example of one level from the game, so you can get a taste of what it would be like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqhNhs9jD8A
"yes, it hasn't been an impassable pit until then - you've only seen it if you didn't cling on in time at the very start of the level."
Oh, shoot -- but, I guess that's what would happen to most people upon playing that level for the first time? (I didn't realise it was the same room, hence my desire to see it played Atlas-style ;) ) That would make me rescind my statement about the drop not being foreshadowed, at least...
"The PC version involved a rather long pause at that door before rescue comes, potentially leading you to believe that you've done something wrong. The SNES version did it well - instead of just one door, Jafar appears and catches you between two of them, but a few seconds after he leaves the mouse turns up to open the way forward for you."
At least the SNES version has a fancy mini "cutscene" of sorts, to indicate that this is a major point in the level - to me at least, it would feel very different than just thinking "oh fuck, the door closed because I took too long". (Though I'll admit it's a more pleasant compromise than just having the mouse show up instantly... although it would also make me wonder why Jafar doesn't finish the job right then and there!)
"there really is something charming about the amount of detail that went into just twelve levels of environment in this one."
That's the old problem with video games as value propositions - Portal arguably had a similar approach, but the only way they could justify selling that to people was by giving you two other games with it.... downloadable games are starting to alleviate this slightly, but even then it seems like far too often, the length of a game is being held up as the element that all other budgetary concerns have to bend to suit.. ah well.
"the Mega CD one frankly looks like it should have been voiced by Strong Bad."
You wouldn't have a hard time convincing someone that it WAS! That YAHHHH (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6k9u7YuiqI#t=0m53s) is completely..... indescribable. :) (And an especially odd choice since they had a much... er.... slightly more suitable one right after it!)
Also, wait, what? How did the graphics get a DOWNGRADE from cartridge (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkxcBHl62nk) to CD (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqLXxXfrtYE)?
Somewhat relatedly, I just stumbled onto the fact that this game was originally written for the APPLE ][ ! I had no idea! When I first saw youtube videos of an Apple ][ version, I just thought, "oh, how embarassing, they'll port it to ANYTHING; there's no chance of a later game like this running REMOTELY well on that kind of hardware..." Man, seriously, my respect for what they accomplished has just about doubled upon learning how EARLY they pulled all of this off! Unthinkable!
... did I just say "they"? Because really, it was all one guy, wasn't it. Jordan Mechner. That's even more staggering. I guess you can count his brother too -- given what a fan you are, I assume this isn't news, but I might as well ask because it would be horribly remiss of me not to share this with you if you haven't seen it - are you familiar with the original footage (http://vimeo.com/1854745) that he traced the animations from? Truly uncanny when you see the exact frames jump out at you from a human being...
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Date: 2011-10-30 11:52 pm (UTC)And yes - a recent spate of Prince of Persia activity over the last few weeks (which was only partly directly caused by me) inspired me to download and try the original Apple II version. It does have some issues with slowing down when more than a couple of objects are on the screen, but the controls are otherwise perfect and responsive, despite the game's relative ugliness making it seem like it should feel sub-par - the shakiness on the console conversions isn't innate to the limited hardware, it's just that the original one was made by somebody who actually cared about what he was doing!
I've seen some of the original footage before - it's so difficult to remember, now, that it's not just a matter of him slapping up a video from his digital camera on to Youtube, and that this was all recorded on VHS with a camcorder the size of a suitcase. I love that the new independent downloadable market has reintroduced the idea of the lone bedroom coders, but thinking back to the time before people had the tools that we do now... it's very impressive, what they accomplished.
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Date: 2011-10-31 02:49 am (UTC)What's wrong with just moving a video frame around a map? Sure, it's not perfect, but it's never going to look perfect anyway just because you never really see him cross the screen threshhold... it's the principle! But, if you really want it to 'save state'- why not just cut the video into the various screens (which would probably make your job easier anyway) and then leave the previous video in place when it finishes running :)
the shakiness on the console conversions isn't innate to the limited hardware, it's just that the original one was made by somebody who actually cared about what he was doing!
Amen!!
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Date: 2011-10-28 08:34 am (UTC)I can't think of a single coherent thing to say.
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Date: 2011-10-28 07:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-29 02:04 am (UTC)