Prince of Persia - disappointing

[spenoza]

I've watched a longplay of the PCE version of PoP on YouTube, and I have to say I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed on a number of levels. Color use is pretty poor for one. Also, for all the different frames of animation, it still looks more jerky and stilted than it should. Other than a few interesting musical tracks, does this game have any redeeming qualities? How does it compare to other console ports of this title? Most of my experience is with the B&W Mac port, which I think was fantastic.

And just reviewed some more YouTube footage. Even the original Apple II version somehow seems more smoothly animated and coherent than the PCE version. WTF, PCE? The Genny version seems pretty good. They preserved the Mac and PC sound effects, which were perfect, and though the backgrounds are a little busy at times, the animation seems to hold up well. The SNES version is just wonky and I don't like it. The animation looks weird, the sound effects were needlessly changed, and the music is annoying and takes away too much focus from the game. The PCE version should have looked more like the Genny version. There's nothing the Genny version does that the PCE couldn't.

[soop]

I think the original was basically rotoscoped.  props to the Amiga version.  I nearly picked up the PCE version recently, but now you@ve given me pause for thought

[Bernie]

I had it..  I hated it..  I got rid of it... 

[Tatsujin]

LOL

I own it, but I probably had never popped it in ever before

[Black Tiger]

The gameplay is great and alone justifies the game. The Sega-CD version is also mediocre visually. The Genesis version looks amazing, but I don't see how the PCE version could have used its visuals since it's from two years in the future.

I bought PoP for Turbo-CD bitd and was happy with it.

[vestcoat]

Prince of Persia was one of my first games and I played it quite a bit.  I've never played any other ports, but compared to the SCD titles, it's a solid platform/puzzler and holds its own in the Duo library.  The controls take some getting used to, they're very fluid and somewhat laggy, but they never became frustrating. In fact, I'd say the gameplay falls just short of addictive. There are a lot of speed settings available, making it easy to blaze through familiar areas and drop to slow motion when a fight occurs.  I generally had a good time exploring, finding secret areas, and mucking about, but the game is very hard, especially with the time limit. The ten save slots are very useful - one slot can be used for the fastest stage clears in an attempt to meet the 1hr deadline while the other nine can save the game at each new level, providing the equivalent to an unlockable "stage select" feature.  If you get stuck on one level, you can still do something productive by going back and trying to shave a few minutes off of earlier stages.  This adds to the replay value and eases the difficulty somewhat. The music is good if you don't mind listening to the harmonic minor scale for several hours.  

But don't take my word for it! Here's what VG&CE had to say:

[kazekirifx]

My bro got the Sega CD version at the same time I got the Turbo version and we played them along side each other. Other than the added cut scenes in the Sega CD version the Turbo seemed to have a slight edge. The color is definitely nicer (as you would expect), and we both preferred the music arrangements in the Turbo version. Maybe there are better versions than these two, but at least the Turbo holds its own against Sega's similar hardware in this case.

[Tatsujin]

this should have been the PCE port:



short, but intense.

[Bernie]

this should have been the PCE port:



short, but intense.

HEELLLLL YEAHHHH!!!!

[Keith Courage]

I like Prince of Persia. Either you like it or you don't. I hardly find anyone who is in the middle ground. I just think it's fun game. I never really thought too much about the colors or graphics. The SNES version looks much better and has extra levels. Then again, all the original levels are only about %50 the same in it so I'd probably qualify it as a different version of POP all together.

[jperryss]

If the PCE version is the same as the US SCD version, then the game is awesome and I loved it as a kid. I don't remember how the graphics compare to SNES, etc. but the SNES version has extra stages compared to I think every other version.

[shubibiman]

When I first playd Pop on the PCE, I was not disappointed at all as the only version of the game I had played to that time was the Amstrad CPC 6128 one. It could only be better.

[spenoza]

My complaint is not about PoP the game. I like the game. The Apple and Mac versions were both great, smooth playing and well animated. From the YT videos it appears the later Sega MD/Genny version is both as well. The video footage of the TG/PCE version, the SNES version, and to an extent the Mega CD version have a weird lack of smoothness that the others don't. There are enough frames of animation, but they don't flow together as well, and the motion appears jerky and inconsistent in places. I'll need to play the PCE version first-hand to confirm as it could be are result of the videos, but it seems consistent across the various posters of video to YT.

[Black Tiger]

My complaint is not about PoP the game. I like the game. The Apple and Mac versions were both great, smooth playing and well animated. From the YT videos it appears the later Sega MD/Genny version is both as well. The video footage of the TG/PCE version, the SNES version, and to an extent the Mega CD version have a weird lack of smoothness that the others don't. There are enough frames of animation, but they don't flow together as well, and the motion appears jerky and inconsistent in places. I'll need to play the PCE version first-hand to confirm as it could be are result of the videos, but it seems consistent across the various posters of video to YT.

They likely all use the original game's frames as a base and update from there. It's much easier to have smooth and fluid looking animation without definition. Once future ports attempted to add 3rd dimensions at such a low resolution, it introduced so many more variables to line up. They all do a good job under the circumstances. The Genesis version clearly received much more care and attention overall for the visuals and it probably has the exact same frames for each sprite, only more successfully balanced.

But in the end we're not talking about a single poor port so much as a single great one. Which is a big difference.

[spenoza]

Once future ports attempted to add 3rd dimensions at such a low resolution, it introduced so many more variables to line up.

I'm not sure what this sentence means. What 3rd dimension? The original Apple version was likely running at a similar resolution. Apple II hi-res was 280×192, which isn't too different from the PCE's most-used resolution. The lower color counts (7, including black and white) simply make it look blockier. The Apple II original looks really smooth. Sure, the PC and Amiga ports were higher resolution but they were also still pretty simple. The later Mac port was 512x342 was thus higher resolution than the PC and Amiga ports and looked incredible in both color and black and white, so changing resolution wasn't a problem for a good developer. In fact, the C64 port looks like it used the lower resolution color mode and the animation is pretty smooth there, too.

But in the end we're not talking about a single poor port so much as a single great one. Which is a big difference.

Looks kinda like I'm talking about 3 lesser ports from where I'm sitting. But again, I'm going to take some time to check out the PCE version in person just to make sure. POP is a game that really needs that smooth animation, for some reason. It just doesn't work without it.