Prince of Persia is a platform game that was released by Brøderbund in 1989. It was widely seen as a great leap forward in the quality of animation. Jordan Mechner, the author, studied many hours of films (of his brother running and jumping in white clothes) to ensure all the movements looked just right. Also unusual was the method of combat—swordfighting rather than the projectile weapon most games arm the player with. Prince of Persia was released on a wide range of platforms, including the Amiga, CPC, Apple Macintosh, Apple II, Game Boy, MS-DOS, NES, Sega Genesis, Sinclair Spectrum, SAM Coupé, and SNES. The game managed to surprise and captivate the player despite being theoretically repetitive. Like many games of its time, it provided for the player an enchanted atmosphere.
According to the plot, the sultan of Persia was away at war, and the evil vizier Jaffar planned to seize the throne for himself. Jaffar had imprisoned the princess and given her one hour to make her decision: to marry him, or die. The player assumed the role of an adventurer, the princess's true love; he must escape from prison and rescue her before the hour was up, so that the vizier could be defeated, and the hero could become the prince of Persia. The twist was that the hour was not game time, but real time, so the player had to quickly complete the quest.
Prince of Persia has the following official sequels:
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