Sunday, October 16, 2011

Prince of Persia for Commodore 64/128 released

The C64 conversion of Prince of Persia, based on the original Apple II code by Jordan Mechner has been released today.
It requires a Commodore 64 or 128 (or maybe even a C64GS if you own one) and an EasyFlash (or 100% compatible) cartridge.
You can download the cartridge image from this CSDb page

Here are some screenshots and a few movies of the game:








During the next couple of weeks I will post my development diary. Details about the work on this conversion, pitfalls and little success stories. In short, pure C64 coder drama. Don't miss it!

44 comments:

  1. yah i rmb playing this game back in 98 and i was barely 6 years old , It was Horror for me D:

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  2. That's crazy! Back in 1989, when I was making POP on the Apple II, I couldn't get anyone interested in doing a C64 port... because it was too old a system :)

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  3. Hey Jordan!

    Great to hear from you, and thanks for lifting that secret for me. I always wondered about the reason.

    Anyway, if you fancy seeing your old code again, I'll be posting chunks of disassembly here shortly, albeit with different names/labels.

    Thanks for creating an awesome game. I've spent most of the last 2.5 years digging through your work, dissecting it and putting it back together in different form. It was a huge pleasure working on making the kid run and jump again...

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  4. This is very impressive work!

    Seeing the kid run and jump again brought back a lot of nostalgia re. playing with that crappy joystick on my old 286 back in '94. I'm looking forward to seeing how you did it (-:

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  5. I'm amazed and humbled by the amount of work this must have taken. Did you actually work from the disassembled Apple II 6502 object code? Because the Apple II source code is lost, as far as I know... at least I've never been able to find a copy.

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  6. Hey ! This is a great game, and an awesome conversion for the C64!. Also it's great to see here his original coder, Mr. Mechner... hello Jordan!

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  7. Unbelievable faithful gameplay and control feel. I can't wait to see what happened behind the scenes. :)

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  8. Yes, this is all based on a memory capture of the Apple II and good old reverse-engineering skills. Just probably the biggest crossword puzzle I've ever worked on... :)
    It's definitely not perfect, some grey areas left, but it's the next best thing to having the original source code.

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  9. Great achievement! I am jealuos about your skills.
    I installed the Frodo Emulator on my Android Phone, but I can't seem to get POP64 working.
    Also, I have no C64 skills at all. Back in the old day I was in the ZX Spectrum faction ;-).
    Regards

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  10. Kudos to you Sir! I don't want to play it until I can with my real C128 though, which means waiting until the 1541Ultimate can deal with the cart type. Hopefully not too long! :)

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  11. That is really awesome and brings back tons of memory of my childhood!!! Great job!!!

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  12. Stunning work mrsid. It is testimony to Jordan's brilliant design that this game would work so well on a limited platform. I was a programmer on the Sega Genesis conversion at Domark some time around 1994. We worked from sight and by playing the original, but I do recall we had some of Jordan's original source to use as reference. It helped out from time to time.

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  13. I never knew that POP was originally an Apple II game. I played it only on the PC back in the early 90s. The C64 port looks quite true to the "original" (the PC version that I remember). Incredible work!

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  14. Congratulations. This is a wonderful piece of work.

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  15. I salute You. Amazing work. Wonder if it will work on my commodore 116 ;-)

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  16. When passing through the various columns, the player sprite appears to move behind the foreground column while being in front of the background column. How is this accomplished technically? Are the foreground columns also implemented as sprites?

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  17. This is just an astounding achievement! I found out about this project on armchairarcade.com, and I had to come here and express my extreme awe at your genius-level programming/hacking prowess! In some ways, this version looks even better than the Amiga version I fell in love with many a year ago, and it plays incredibly well! Megaprops to you, mrsid!

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  18. It is truly amazing! Creating your own code is one thing but digging through, understanding and converting a complete game is a different ball game.

    Utmost respect to you for your hard work and your devotion to the C64.

    Dude, you rule!

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  19. The C64 is immortal. It will never die and it will never be too old. Never!

    Great work!

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  20. Wow this is an amazing achievement, and it's so cool (and sweet!) that Jordan himself has seen and commented here!

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  21. Can someone tell me how can I beat the guardian on last screenshot? He don't make a move.... very, very difficult.
    Anyone finished it yet?

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  22. mrsid - Any interest in doing a voice interview for RetroGaming Radio? It would be our FIRST interview since the show came back! Should get a lot of listeners!

    Let me know!

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  23. @Darkuni: yes, I would love to. Can I contact you on Skype?

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  24. @mrsid - of course! I don't have it running constantly ... drop me a line at darkuni @ gmail.com .. we'll work it out!

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  25. You might enjoy seeing this version side by side against the Amiga version:

    https://plus.google.com/u/0/116992953847984037990/posts/gtxaKkf7p9T

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  26. Great job, would this work on Jim Brain's u-IEC that will work with image files?
    Looks to be very colorful.
    Hey, I always played Karateka on the Apple II and also on the C64,perhaps as a future project could you possible improve on the C64 version of Karateka, it needed more sound effects etc, but a fun game.
    Nice work.

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  27. Wow ! That's just EPIC. My RSS reader is tuned. Just keep posting !

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  28. Hey that is some nice work, you might want to also look at another 8Bit version that was done in 1990

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg9YR8qnQWk

    That was on a Sam Coupe

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  29. The only way you can top this is by Commodorizing "The Last Express".

    :-D

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  30. Epic win or epic win, I can't decide! :)

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  31. Really, really nice conversion of a classic game on a classic system - well done!! :)

    @mrsid: Are you interessted in giving a short text-interview for german gaming-blog "Press A Button" (www.pressabutton.de)? If yes, just drop us quick line at info@pressabutton.de so that we can send you our questions.

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  32. I'm writing a pop64.de blog since years but I didn't know that my blogname also means "prince of persia C64". I like that.
    Congrats for your work.

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  33. @MrSid : Thank you for allowing me to play this AMAZING MASTERPIECE on my all-time favorite computer !

    @Jordan : Thank you for making one the greatest game of all time ! I sold my C64 to buy a PC only to play Prince Of Persia in VGA. I still play it regularly on DosBox.

    Prince Of Persia will remain a Legend in the "hall of fame" of video games thanks to the work of passionnate people like Mr Sid and Jordan ...

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  34. Hi MrSid:

    Great work with this C64 Prince version :) :)

    I have added your RSS to Retroinvaders, a old-retro games/computer planet.

    Your posts: http://retroinvaders.com/en/blog/304/prince-of-persia-c64-development-blog

    Tell me if there is any problem with this (josezanni@gmail.com)

    By the way, the generic message: You can promote your website writing an article for self presentation, and if you want you can put a banner RetroInvaders (http://retroinvaders.com/es/p:4 now in spanish)

    Best regards!!

    José Zanni (Josepzin)

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  35. This is great! You should do a port of Monkey Island too!

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  36. I have played this game when i was in 8h standard, But now there are amount of games which are available in high resolution graphics. I have seen 8bit version which was created in 1990.
    Sky Octo LNB

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  37. You are a genius!
    I want to try this on my real commodore64. Is easyflash necessary? The d64 file seem not working

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  38. Amazing. It's sad that original PoP source code is lost though. Jordan, how could you?! ;)

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  39. For those that didn't know, Jordan located his original source code and posted it today here:

    https://github.com/jmechner/Prince-of-Persia-Apple-II

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  40. And Jordan's blog post about finding and archiving the source :) http://jordanmechner.com/blog/2012/04/source/

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  41. It looks like my keyboard keys and joystick are ignored by the game once launched? Am I the only one with this issue?

    I am using Vice 3.1.

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  42. Thank you for this. It shouldn't exist, but it does, thanks to somebody special and his love of C64!

    I wish I could afford EasyFlash to play this on real hardware. Maybe one day.

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