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-compute