Free Prince of Persia loving, even on Windows 7

*slam* dulununu nuuuuuuu

Hot on the heels (ish) of the free Syndicate love, another absolute classic that you 100% need to rediscover or, if you are under the age of 20 something, play for the first time and realise how much more care went into games design before everything was just a slightly different version of Gears of War.

The original Prince of Persia (POP) is a beautiful game. For it's day, and even now, the simple graphics are really very attractive and serve the game perfectly. The game story and mechanics are equally simple and yet frustratingly challenging and addictive. You are there to save the princess. Yup that's it. Kinda like Mario. There is just one 'button' which if you weren't a veteran or didn't have a manual could take a while to find (I remember when I first got the game I must have pressed every key to find it).

It's shift. There. You owe me.

Pretty much everything is done with the shift key. Movement is, shockingly, controlled with the arrow cursors - left and right should be obvious, jumping is up and ducking is down. Running jumps and funny little crouch hops can be achieved with combinations thereof. Shift is used for clinging onto ledges, taking single steps (very useful for hazards, you'll work it out) and for the marvellously basic sword fights. Pressing up in a swordfight will block, pressing down will usually make you die (try it). Up also enters the end of stage doors. You should figure out quite early that the pushplates on the floor open gates and doors; each end of stage door has one of these plates, but not always on the same screen.

Links to files:

abandonia.com/en/games/10/Prince+of+Persia

dosbox.com

This game works 'out of the box' in combination with DOSBOX. Follow all the directions in the Syndicate tutorial to install and set up your DOSBOX options first (minus the specific parts about 'synd.bat'). Extract the game files to PRINCE under your dos games folder. Run by changing directory to PRINCE and the command to start the game is, yes, PRINCE.

cd prince [enter]
prince [enter]

The game is fairly unique in that it's designed to be played straight through in one go! You have one hour (real time) to save your beloved princess. If you don't make it, you fail. Start again. Unforgiving, yes, but brilliant as well. You have unlimited 'lives' but die and you will start at the beginning of the stage (the big blue ornate door).

Enjoy, and be sure to support the awesome people over at abandonia.com!



PS whilst this game is basically an hour long see-if-you-can-complete-it affair, it does apparently have a save/load option within it's key set.

CTRL+Q - Quit Game
CTRL+A - Restart Level
CTRL+R - Restart Game
CTRL+S - Sound On/Off
CTRL+G – Save Game
CTRL+L SHIFT+L – Load Game
ESC - Pause Game

edit: except saving doesn't seem to work in DOSBOX. Will find out how!
Ah-ha! Fixed. Told you shift did everything.