SANDSmagazine

The History of Prince of PersiaBack in the sand’s history!

Special!

Check out Profiles, Fan Art, Reviews and more on your weekly digest of Prince of Persia Magazine!

2011 BEST IN FAN ART

Just things about the movie

COSPLAY

PoP: The Fallen King

SANDS i n d e x November 7 2011

Meet the PrinceEverything about all it’s profile from the Sands of Time & 2008 series.

Tracking the evolution of a series.

Facts from PoP first productionFun and interesting facts while Mecner was developing PoP for Apple II

THE HISTORY OF PRINCE OF PERSIA

CODES & TRICKS

ElikaThe beautiful companion

The VizierBeyond an arquetype, there lies a classic villain.

Prince of Persia Sands of Time Movie Review

PoP for the DS plataform

Dear readers,

Sands is proud to announce this is-sue that we’ve reached an interesting amount of fallowers of The Prince and his adventures, we are so happy to hear this news and it gives us fresh ideas to start next year with the best of our team!This project started recently as an idea for spreading our love to the Prince of Persia games, from the classic series, Sands of Time trilogy to the newest game that started on 2008, and we are sharing it in a new way with a fresh and creative look to the taste of all Prince of Persia fans.We are celebrating in the house and that’s why this issue we are focusing on the “back-in-time”, the development of Prince and the story through the ages, so you can get to meet the roots of your favorite game.

Sincerely,

Gabriela Carrera MontañezDIRECTOR & EDITOR IN CHIEF

SANDS publications for November 7th to 16th EDITION number 4.

DIRECTOR & EDITOR IN CHIEFGABRIELA CARRERA MONTAÑEZ

ARTICLE CREDITSIGN & WIKI PRINCE OF PERSIA

GENERAL ADVISORMARTHA RODRIGUEZ

SANDSEDITORIAL

“Most people think time is like a river, that flows swift and sure in one direction. But I have seen the face of time, and I can tell you, they are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm. You may wonder who I am and why I say this. Sit down, and I will tell you a tale like none that you have ever heard...” Prince of Persia

The Prince (he is given no other name in the series - ex-cept perhaps Kakolookiyam, which is, in any case, fake) is the main protagonist in the Sand of Time series, is the son of King Sharaman; he is also the younger brother of Ma-lik. Growing up in the palace of Babylon, the Prince was trained as a warrior and ac-robat, but was also known for his kindness and good heart, often going out to speak with his people. This is also where the Prince learned his parkour-like skills, his years of playing amongst the street

and rooftops, pretending to be “all manner of creatures”.

The Prince’s First BattleOne year, the Prince traveled with his father to India where the Maharajah’s Vizier prom-ised the king to betray his master in exchange for his pick of the Maharajah’s treas-ures. Sharaman accepted, and the Persians managed to conquer the Indians. Seeking his father’s favour, the Prince snuck into the treasure vaults and stole the Dagger of Time which he was allowed to keep as a souvenir, angering the Vi-zier.

Desperately trying to stop the infestation, the Prince took the Dagger of Time and met up with the now free Princess Fa-rah, with whom he formed an uneasy alliance. The Prince and Farah passed through many dangers but finally they reached

Meet The Prince of Persia of the Trilogy! pt1Sands of time is one of our all time favorites, so let us present you the story of this grand hero!

4

the Tower of Dawn where the Vi-zier kept the Hourglass with the Sands of Time. The Prince suc-ceeded in returning the Dagger of Time back into the Hourglass, thus returning the Sands. This was followed by a momentous Grand Rewind and the Prince found himself back in the war camp of his father’s army at the gates of India. However, this time the Prince went to Fa-rah’s room and told her of the events that happened before the rewind. Upon the conclu-sion of this tale, the Vizier entered the room, intending to kill the Prince, who had now exposed the Vizier’s true nature as a traitor. After the Vizier’s repetoire of spellcast-ing was at last exhausted, the young hero defeated the traitor

by delivering a final death-blow. Furthermore, the Prince returned the Dagger of Time to Farah whilst retaining her medallion, leaving her won-dering whether his unbeliev-able tale was true after all.What the Prince is unaware of, however, is that by changing the timeline and defying his own death, he has brought upon himself the wrath of the guardian of time, who is now after him in order to maintain

chronological continuity in the Timeline.

Malik’s KingdomDirectly after the events in Azad the Prince travels to his brother’s kingdom to learn from Malik due to the fact that his peers believe he still has not been in a battle be-cause of the Grand Rewind. When he arrives an army is attacking and the Prince gets caught in the middle of it.

Malik eventually releases King Solomon’s Army to get rid of the attacking army and the Prince has to reimprison it, as they turn everyone they touch into sand statues.Malik becomes infected by Ratash and is eventually killed by the Prince much to his re-gret. The Prince had to jour-ney back to Babylon and tell his father, King Sharaman.

What the Prince is unaware of, however, is that by changing the timeline and defying his own death, he has brought upon himself the wrath of the guardian of time.

To be continued Pt2 on next issue!

6

A nameless travelerclimbs the palace walls of Persia merely to glimpse the Sultan’s daughter, more beautiful than the new moon. A jealous Vizier imprisons them both, one in the highest tower, the other in the lowest dungeon. The traveler is undaunted. The path to save his Princess is treacherous, and there is no time to waste.

Most people think time is like a river that flows swift and sure in one direction, but this dashing young adventurer has a very special relation-ship with time. He sees the face of it, struggles against it, uses it as a weapon on his enemies. This man, who fights the corruption of gods, re-arranges the threads of history to his liking on a whim, only to find history changing him as well.

8

The History of Prince of Persia

Always there are consequences for the unwary traveler, and traps take on many forms. Time, this hero - this Prince - will tell you, is an ocean in a storm, and he sails those dangerous waters with the grace of a dancer, the potency of a sword. The Prince waits for no man.

His is a tale like none we’ve ever seen.

by Rus McLaughlin, Scott Collura, and Levi Buchanan

Turning back in time to the History of it’s videogame!

Most people think time is like a river that flows swift and sure in one direction, but this dashing young adven-turer has a very special relationship with time. He sees the face of it, struggles against it, uses it as a weapon on his enemies. This man, who fights the corruption of gods, re-arranges the threads of history to his liking on a whim, only to find history chang-ing him as well. Always, there are consequences for the unwary traveler, and traps take on many forms. Time, this hero - this Prince - will tell you, is an ocean in a storm, and he sails those dan-gerous waters with the grace of a dancer, the potency of a sword. The Prince waits for no man.Once Upon a Time...

When Doug Carlson finished writing his first computer game in 1979, he and brother Gary founded a com-pany solely to market it. Brøderbund was a made-up word roughly translating as “band of brothers” from mashed-up German, Swedish and Danish, and Ga-lactic Empire, the first game in the Galactic Saga, gave players 999 years to conquer the

known universe. It only took ten for Brøderbund to con-quer their share of the indus-try with powerhouse franchis-es Choplifter and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. A few half-hearted attempts to expand the company fell through, but the Carlsons kept looking for new properties to boost their profile.They found one in Karateka, a surprisingly advanced under-grad project put together by Yale student Jordan Mechner.

Mechner was a psychology major who grew up in love with animation, but couldn’t draw well enough to make cartoons of his own. He turned to computers instead. His big idea was to put equal focus on graphics and game-play, and give some prior-ity to animating the human avatar’s moves. Most other game designers stuck to us-ing spaceships or oddly stat-ic creatures, and didn’t put much effort into animating

the human avatar’s moves. Most other game designers stuck to using spaceships or oddly static creatures, and didn’t put much effort into animat-ing either... they weren’t making cartoons, after all. Mechner was.Half a million in sales made Karateka a big win for Brøderbund. They wanted another games. He eventually settled on the fantastic Middle East-

Jordan MechnerThe History of Prince of Persia10

-ern world of One Thousand and One Nights. To that frame-work, Mechner added gameplay structure from the two games he’d recently been enjoying: Brøderbund’s own Lode Runner and The Castles of Dr. Creep. The Prince, his new protagonist, would navigate a puzzle and trap-filled laby-rinth, and he’d do it with the energy of Dr. Henry Jones, Jr. The opening sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where ar-cheologist and fortune hunter Indiana Jones stayed half a step ahead of instantly lethal booby traps and slowly closing gates, became another huge influence.

The Prince relied heavily on acrobatics for his survival, requiring a far more extensive set of moves than the karateka’s one-on-one throwdowns. That game proved stellar graphics could grab attention in a crowded gam-ing market and keep it, so the question became how to upgrade Karateka’s look. Rotoscoping became the an-swer. Mechner cast his brother David (largely based on David’s willingness to work for free), filmed him running and jumping around in baggy white pants, then traced and scanned the frames into the computer. Their father, Frances, wrote the Persian-themed music.

Mechner cast his brother David (largely based on David’s will-ingness to work for free), filmed him running and jumping around in baggy white pants, then traced and scanned the frames into the computer.

SNES PoP

“

“

The History of Prince of Persia

“At first, it didn’t seem so complicated. Mixing carnal lust with politi-cal ambi-tion, the evil Vizier Jaffar im-prisoned a beautiful Princess in a high tower and gave her an hour to marry him or die”

The History of Prince of Persia

At first, it didn’t seem so complicated. Mixing carnal lust with political ambition, the evil Vizier Jaffar im-prisoned a beautiful Prin-cess in a high tower and gave her an hour to marry him or die. Rather than go for an annulment, the Prin-cess leaned towards Option B. Her only hope was her commoner-lover, the Prince (no relation), who Jaffar left to rot in a dungeon. One swift escape later, the Prince was running up the tower to beat the deadline.

And running was the only way to do it. Players had just sixty minutes to reach the top and defeat Jaffar, and a ton of pressure-plates to hit on the way. Guards were actually dueled in a patient series of retreats, advances, strikes and parries. If spike traps skewered you, or a skeleton warrior chopped you, or a section of floor collapsed under you, the game whisked you back to the start of the level while the clock kept ticking. Lost time compounded issues like loosing your soul, which

cut the Prince’s health to al-most nothing. Worse, that “Shadow Prince” played for the other team, harass-ing you at every turn. A real sense of danger permeated every moment, helped by seamless animations and rudimentary physics that gave the Prince real weight. It just felt like he was always about to be killed. Often enough, he was. That made his escapes all the more thrilling.

Prince of Persia started with players under the gun, and let the pressure build from there. Then Mechner added twists nobody expected; killing the Shadow in a duel killed the Prince, but sim-ply walking into it merged them back together. Reach-ing Jaffar required a “leap of faith” over a bottomless chasm. Gamers were chal-lenged to think about what they were doing in ways few other games did, but taking the time to simply stop and think ate into the precious few minutes you had left. It was wonderfully tense.

Mechner and Brøderbund took home armfuls of awards and accolades, hailed for set-ting new standards in game-play and graphics, and more than a few of their ideas and images ended up in Disney’s 1993 blockbuster Aladdin, intentionally or otherwise. Speedrunning “POP” soon took over as the big obses-sion in gaming. Others spent years figuring out its riddles.

Prince of Persia stood out in a year that also introduced Arkanoid, MechWarrior, Sim-City and Super Mario Land. A game that good, that origi-nal, that successful, seemed predestined for a sequel. First PoP for NES

12

Royal Pain

Instead, Mechner enrolled in NYU’s film school. While Brøderbund ported POP to every platform known to man, he traveled to Havana and filmed the award-winning documen-tary short Waiting for Dark, about everyday life in Castro’s Cuba. By the time they came together again for a Persian sequel, four years went past.

For the Prince, it’d been less than two weeks. He’d married the Princess and become heir to the Sultan’s kingdom, and Jaffar was back. Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and The Flame opened with the ex-Vizier employing dark sorcery to disguise himself as the Prince - achieving all his goals from the first game in one fell swoop - and cloaking the real Prince’s iden-tity under an illusion. Unrecognizable to the Princess, the Prince fought his way out of the palace and leapt aboard a ship just as it left dock. Magically assisted by Jaffar, he soon ended up shipwrecked on a deserted isle. Deserted, except for trap-heavy caverns, sword-wielding skeletons and one very convenient magic carpet.

Naturally, once the Princess figured out Jaffar’s deception at the top of Level Four, players got a whole seventy-five min-utes to complete the remaining eleven levels and save her.

Mechner served primarily as the creative advisor for POP 2, while Brian Eheler (producer on POP 1) and Sherman Dickman took over as project leads. Prince of Persia was so ahead of its time that, despite the four year gap, severe graphical updates weren’t really necessary. Other develop-ers had only just caught up. Instead, they added storytell-ing cutscenes and an audio narration while keeping the basic premise intact and devising a new and entirely evil set of puzzles. One devious example, towards the end, re-quired players to ignore every instinct and let the Prince die. Mechner, Eheler and Dickman did the franchise proud, and sales for The Shadow and The Flame reflected it.

Using his Shadow self to gain control of the blue Flame, the Prince reduced Jaffar to ashes this time, leaving no room for doubt. But the final moments relieved that the witch helping Jaffar from the start also had deadly ties to the Prince’s mysterious past, setting up the story for a third Prince of Persia game.

“Prince of Persia was so ahead of its time that, despite the four year gap, severe graphical updates weren’t really neces-sary.”

The History of Prince of Persia13

It never happened. Mechner put his energy into complet-ing The Last Express, a critically acclaimed murder-mys-tery set on the Orient Express, complete with branching gameplay and unique art nouveau cell shaded graphics. Unfortunately, the Brøderbund marketing push collapsed due to internal problems, and when partner companies pulled out, a vital port to the PlayStation fell through. It didn’t help that Express was a point-and-click mystery go-ing against the tide; the entire industry was rapidly shift-ing all their major franchises to exciting, interactive 3D. Brøderbund lost six million dollars in the crossfire.

After that mess, Mechner decided he was done with games. Then he took a call from Andrew Pederson at Red Orb Entertainment, the Brøderbund subsidiary behind Riven. Pedersen asked Mechner how he’d feel about a 3D Prince of Persia.

Pretty good, as it turned out. While Pedersen put together a team of POP-loving 3D developers, Mechner came in to work on design and co-write a story that put the Prince right back in the dungeon. Dangling plotlines surround-ing the Prince’s true lineage and the witch’s plans for him were discarded. Instead, Prince of Persia 3D began with a family reunion between the Sultan and his brother, As-san, with the Prince tagging along. Assan showed his true colors by assassinating the Prince’s bodyguards and locking the Prince up; the Sultan apparently promised the Princess’s hand to Assan’s son, Rugnor, long before the Prince came along, and now Assan was calling in the debt. Ignoring their rather close blood relation, Rugnor had oth-er faults. For one, he was a half man/half tiger beast. For another, his behavior and violent tendencies leaned to-wards the tiger half. The Prince set off to save his beloved wife from her ruthless cousin.

PoP in 3D

“While Pedersen put together a team

of POP-loving 3D developers, Mech-

ner came in to work on design and co-

write a story that put the Prince right back in the dungeon.”

The History of Prince of Persia14

Pedersen and Mechner planned out fifteen levels played out across seven environments, mixing familiar spike traps with new stealth elements. Rotoscoping was out. Motion capture was in. Invisibility potions joined the old health potions. No-body pretended POP 3D would be anything other than a ma-jor production, benefiting a major franchise. “Team POP” com-mitted themselves to faithfully translating Prince of Persia into a 3D world, and they nearly succeeded. Brøderbund ran out of time first.

Three years previous, Doug Carlson had tried to buy educa-tional game publisher The Learning Company. By 1998, the ta-bles turned. The Learning Company bought out Brøderbund, and started cherry-picking what to keep and what to dump. Five hundred Brøderbund employees, nearly half the compa-ny, were laid off in the first month.

Luckily, Mechner was known inside Mindscape, the gaming division of TLC; he’d helped former Brøderbund programmer and POP rotoscope model Robert Cook on D/Generation, a well-received isometric horror-shooter published by Mind-scape back in 1991. As a franchise, POP practically made its own case for survival. Prince of Persia 3D was still a go under the original dev team, but now the production was on a dead-line as strict as any the Prince ever faced. The game went gold in 1999, six years after The Shadow and The Flame, without proper QA scrutiny.

Not surprisingly, POP 3D became known for carrying more than its fair share of game-defeating bugs and glitches. Top of the list: poor camera controls that plagued gamers trying to make basic moves in trap-lined caves, sometimes with a brick wall blocking their view of the Prince. That fixed camera, positioned directly behind the Prince, also looked uncomfort-ably close to Tomb Raider design, made worse by a chunk of push/pull block puzzles set to a grid-based map. Tight con-trols, a hallmark of the series, now felt sluggish. Critics praised the level design, the graphics, the story, the atmosphere. They could tell a very good game was hiding somewhere in Prince of Persia 3D, but the laundry list of problems hid it too well. The game tanked, and TLC took a disastrous financial hit.

That same year, Mattel purchased The Learning Company, and angry investors forced Mattel CEO Jill Barad out over it. Her successor passed ownership of TLC to an acquisitions firm in 2001 for nothing more than a promised cut of whatever could be gotten for selling the albatross off.

French publisher Ubisoft took an immediate interest.

15

In May, 2001, Mallat invited Mechner up to show him their AVIs. They were crude, hasty, unpolished things, showing the Prince running along a wall and leaping off to catch hold of a ladder.

That struck Mechner as a brilliant expansion on POP’s con-ceits, opening up a whole new realm of gameplay possibili-ties. A deal was made to license POP out, Mallat’s team got the green light from above, and Mechner agreed to con-sult. Then he was hired to write the story and screenplay. Then he directed voice actors in the studio. By the summer of 2003, Mechner stopped fighting the inevitable, moved his family up to Montreal and came aboard full-time as a designer. That November, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time released on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and PC.

Sands through the Hourglass

Ubisoft held the POP catalog, but the Prince of Persia IP belonged to its creator: Jordan Mechner. After two disas-trous experiences in a row, Mechner didn’t fancy a third.

A producer working at Ubisoft’s tiny Montreal subsidi-ary noticed Prince of Persia out in the open, and nobody seemed to be doing anything with it. A good chunk of the Montreal team was a year into coding Splinter Cell, their first high-profile project after years of low-grade Playmo-bil and Donald Duck games, but Yannis Mallat wasn’t on that team. His team had just delivered a Rayman port for the GBA, and now they started throwing ideas around for what they’d do if they had a crack at the Prince. The con-versation got so interesting, Mallat secured a few resourc-es, did a little motion capture, and put together a few test animations.

A spiteful Vizier still stirred up trouble, a Princess still needed saving, but otherwise Sands of Time wiped the slate clean. An entirely new Prince, finishing off a suc-cessful war in India with his father-king, looted a few neat souvenirs: a nifty-looking Dagger of Time and a gigantic glowing hourglass. When the treacherous Vizier tricked the Prince into unlocking the hourglass with the Dagger, it unleashed the Sands of Time, instantly annihilating a kingdom and turning nearly everyone in it - including the Prince’s father - into sand monsters. The Prince cheerfully teamed with the beautiful Princess Farah, daughter of the powerful Maharajah his armies just defeated, to undo the damage he’d caused and stop the Vizier from becoming a god.

“A spiteful Vizier still stirred up trou-

ble, a Princess still needed saving, but

otherwise Sands of Time wiped the

slate clean.”

The History of Prince of Persia16

This was the 3D Prince everybody wanted. Fast, ki-netic, full of acrobatic combat, ingenious puzzles, high adventure, swashbuckling romance... Sands of Time floored everybody. It looked great, played even better. Classic elements were dropped, replaced by better features. One enemy per screen limitations gave way to balletic multi-enemy brawls. Health potions vanished -- Mechner figured thirsty guards would drink them all, anyway -- but any water source healed the Prince. Instead of racing against time, the Prince used it to his advantage; powered by retriev-ing the Sand, the Dagger of Time could reverse the clock ten seconds, freeze time, speed it up or slow it down for some monster-bashing shenanigans. That one brilliant mechanic changed how the entire game played, and the level design complemented it perfectly.

The Sands of Time took Game of the Year honors from more than a few sources, and earned eight DICE awards. Sales were solid, though not the block-buster figures Ubisoft expected from one of the PS2’s best-reviewed titles. It was enough, however, to warrant a sequel.

PoP: Sands of Time

“It was enough, however, to warrant a sequel.”

The History of Prince of Persia17

The Dark Side

Mallat had one in mind. His big complaint with Sands was how using the Dagger to undo past events essentially let the Prince off the hook for all the harm he’d done. Even Farah’s death (a consequence of the Prince’s misguided suspicions) was neatly reversed, though it also erased their affair from the timelines. No way would the Prince get off so lightly again.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within released one year later, the shortest wait ever between POPs, on the same optimized Jade engine as Sands of Time. Set seven years later, the Prince was on the run from the Dahaka, temporal guardians out to kill him and restore all the timelines he distorted. Desperate to escape that fate, the Prince hatched a plan to prevent the Sands of Time from ever existing by confronting the Empress of Time, and innocent casualties littered every step of his violent, self-serving quest. Years on the run from the Dahaka had eroded his charming, adventurous spirit, leaving him single-minded, harsh, aggressive, haunted. The whole game reflected that attitude.

“Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

released one year later, the shortest

wait ever between POPs, on the

same optimized Jade engine as

Sands of Time.”Platforming stayed largely the same. Focus shifted to com-bat with a host of new moves and abilities, plus buckets of Ninja Gaiden-like bloodshed and decapitations. Time ma-nipulation happened through Farah’s medallion -- a keep-sake from a lover who didn’t remember him - streamlining the clunky time-sand retrieval from Sands. Heavy metal gui-tar wailed over the soundtrack. Romance was replaced by sexed-up vixens in g-strings. It all added up to the series’ first M-rating.

Not everybody agreed with the dark turn. Mechner, who bowed out to work on his own projects, publicly admitted the meaner edge didn’t appeal to him. He didn’t recognize a Prince who occasionally claimed “You should be honored to die by my sword!” Hardly a smooth pick-up line, but it apparently worked on Kaileena, the Empress of Time, whom the Prince killed, resurrected, and sailed home with in the “true” ending. Ubisoft insisted the changes reflected both story and market demands, and ultimately the numbers bore them out. Warrior Within didn’t rake in Sands of Time’s level of acclaim, but sales went up. Mallat turned his atten-tion to closing the circle. Prince of Persia: Kindred Blade went right into crunch without a break in production.

PoP: Warriors Within

The History of Prince of Persia18

A playable demo and trailer debuted at E3 2005, sending off mixed signals. The game looked lighter. The trailer showed a story that kept Warrior’s grim tone intact, with doomed fates all around and Kaileena’s suicide prominent.

Mallat’s plan for his finale to the Sands of Time trilogy called for blending the first two games, starting with the Prince himself. They jettisoned Warrior’s much-derided vocals and music, going straight back to Sands’ audio set. Dizzying ac-robatics flowed into brutal one-hit stealth kills. The dark-ness in the E3 trailer was scaled way, way back. Tonally, they aimed for the middle while resolving to settle all accounts. The Prince would finally stop cheating fate, and instead face it and beat it head-on. A name change later, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones made its December 2005 release date.

Well rested and looking much better, the Prince and Kaileena arrived home in the city of Babylon, only to find it on fire. Too late, the Prince realized he’d undone the events of Sands of Time, leaving the evil Vizier very much alive and still hungry to achieve immortality. The Vizier quickly murdered Kaileena, merging with her soul and again releasing the Sands to devastate the city.

Once again, the Dagger of Time saved the Prince, but not before the Sands infected him with their corruption, splitting him into two personalities; the noble hero from Sands, and the vicious Dark Prince from Warrior, in a nod to the original game’s Shadow Prince. The dark side of the Prince’s personality reveled in violence, wield-ing a Daggertail razor-whip imbedded in his skin. Play-ers couldn’t control their transformations into the Dark Prince, and if they didn’t find a water source to change back in time, the corruption would kill him. Minus any real overpower benefits, the Dark Prince sections of the game tended to be less than popular.

On the other hand, Farah and her bow were back in the picture, and stunning graphics made her more beautiful than ever. Chariot racing sequences were a nice addition, and boss battles required more strategy than button-mashing.

Dispatching the Vizier -- transformed into a grotesque winged creature -- freed Kaileena’s soul, but didn’t end the game. The Prince’s final match was against himself, the Dark Prince, and all the anger, fear, greed and pride that led to his seven-year ordeal. Farah helped the Prince leave those aspects of himself behind before they con-sumed him utterly, destroying the Dark Prince for good. Free at last, the Prince and Farah started rekindling their romance as he reached back to the beginning to tell his tale.

Thrones didn’t surpass Sands, but it did deliver a solid, satisfying ending to an epic trilogy. And with that, in true storybook fashion, Mallat closed the book on the Prince.

PoP: The Two Thrones

“Once again, the Dag-ger of Time saved the Prince, but not before

the Sands infected him with their corruption, splitting him into two

personalities; the noble hero from Sands, and

the vicious Dark Prince from Warrior...”

The History of Prince of Persia19

Now and Again The Prince has stayed in “happily ever after” ever since. Mostly.

Battles of Prince of Persia, a turn-based strategy game covering events between Sands and Warrior, released on the DS the same month as Thrones, and quickly fell off the radar. Few believed the Prince would ever wait his turn. Rival Swords, an April 2007 expanded port of Two Thrones for the PSP, faired a little better. Bet-ter still, Gameloft S.A. remastered the original Prince of Persia using Sands of Time character models, released on Xbox Live the following June and on mobile not too long thereafter. Prince of Persia Classic got the Jor-dan Mechner seal of approval. It played just differently enough, he claimed, that all his old reflexes hampered him badly.

But as far back as 2006, leaked documents indicated Ubisoft planned to bring the Prince out of retirement. Then word surfaced that Mechner had bought the prin-ceofpersiaprodigy.com domain, hinting at a new game. Yannis Mallat -- now CEO of Ubisoft Montreal -- also oversaw their 2007 actioner Assassin’s Creed, and as-tute gamers detected more than a little Prince in pro-fessional assassin Altair’s wild acrobatics. By the start of 2008, screenshots and concept art found its way to the internet, whipping the POP culture up into a froth. Their Prince was returning.

Running on the Scimitar engine used by Assassin’s Creed, the simply-titled Prince of Persia landed on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in time for the holiday season.

Ubisoft started over with a new Prince, a new story, and a new attitude. No countdowns, no spike traps, no mucking around with the space-time continuum. Instead, a name-less wanderer will journey an open environment hubbed by a beautiful garden... in fact, the prison of the psychotic god Ahriman, whose corruption is slowly seeping out into the world.

The Prince’s job is to stop the spread, but beating the Cor-ruption back concentrates it in other areas, so whatever or-der players tackle the levels in, it’s only going to get tough-er the further in they go. This Prince might not have time powers to fall back on, but he does come fully equipped with a clawed gauntlet, adding a whole new list of moves to his repertoire and added dimension to the revamped combat system. As the Corruption takes many different forms, from traps to horrific soldiers, he’ll need them all. One-on-one fights hark back to the original game, too, al-lowing Ubisoft Montreal to pack heavy-duty AI into the opposition.

“Ubisoft started over with a new

Prince, a new story, and a new attitude.”

Prince of Persia (2008)

20

The Prince Goes Hollywood

Fans of the Prince of Persia series have been anticipating a movie adaptation for many, many years. But Hollywood’s hit-and-miss (mostly miss) track record with game franchises has surely tempered those expectations. Can the filmmakers pull this one off?

The movie version of the game was first announced back in 2004. The prospective film’s development was spurred by a meeting between Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Mechner. Mechner pulled choice footage from the Sands of Time game and meticulously pieced together a video pitch intended to convey his vision for the tone of the movie. It worked. The project was given the green light and began coming together in earnest in May 2008 when Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arteron were cast in the lead roles of Dastan and Tamina.

Bruckheimer and the studio landed a charismatic director with blockbuster chops in the form of Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). The cast worked on the 100-plus day production on loca-tion in Morocco and at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, UK.

IGN Movies visited the set on day 57 of the shoot, and what we witnessed was impressive. The sets filled Pinewood’s fabled 007 sound-stage and pretty much every stage surrounding it -- PoP was one of the largest productions ever undertaken in the UK. The ancient fictional city of Alamut was created there in meticulous detail, each stage filled with tons of sand, hundreds of extras, scores of horses and even a donkey for good measure. And yet production wasn’t just limited to Britain, with the shoot also hitting the Moroccan cities of Marrakech, Ouarzazate and Erfoud, in raging heat and at altitudes of up to 9,000 feet.

Newell worked from a script by Doug Miro & Carlo Bernard, Boaz Yakin, and game creator Mechner. Mechner, to his credit, seems to know where to draw the line when it comes to faithfulness to the source material. Addressing the differences between the game and film, he told us, “There are no sand mon-sters in the movie. For the game, turning everybody in the world into sand monsters was really useful because it created an inexhaustible supply of enemies. But that’s a story that’s meant to be played with a controller in your hand, and a movie is meant to be shared by an audience. So we didn’t want to make a movie about fighting monsters.

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Facts from PoP first production

The original Prince of Persia for the Apple II is considered one of the most influential PC games of all time, but the game actually had a rollercoaster development process. The game was sup-pose to take a year to develop, but ended up taking more than three, and almost wasn’t a com-mercial success. Here are a few other tidbits that you probably don’t know, from creator Jordan Mechner’s GDC discussion.

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>>Before working on the game, creator Jor-dan Mechner tried to write a How To book for solving Rubik Cubes.

>>Mechner filmed his 16-year-old brother for reference video for the animations.

>>The game was briefly called Thief of Bag-dad, but Mechner changed it to the working title Prince of Persia, which stuck.

>>The original plans for the game included a level editor, which would let players create their own in game levels.

>>Development got stalled for a week when Jordan Mechner got addicted to a leaked hack of Tetris.

>>Mechner captured images from the 1930 Robin Hood movie to produce the combat in the game.

>>Jordan Mechner used to have a mullet (but it’s okay, it was the ‘80s).

>>The game didn’t sell well when it first released, because the Apple II market was declining. It wasn’t until years later, when the Mac version released, that Prince of Persia became a financial success.

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Prince of Persia: The Fallen KingExpanding the saga with an independent storyline, Prince of Persia: the Fallen King utilizes the unique stylus controls of the Nintendo DS system to deliver the extraordinary acrobatic and combat action that fans have come to expect from the Prince of Persia (2008) franchise.

Facing imminent dan-ger, the Prince flees to a deserted kingdom that seemingly offers sanctu-ary. Already touched by the evil Corruption, a dark substance that physically contaminates the land and the skies, the king-dom is filled with ad-venture, challenge and intrigue. As the Prince

seeks a way to fight the spreading Corruption destroying the land, he encounters a partially infected creature that promises salvation. But is the creature truly an ally or merely an enemy in disguise? It seems this perilous alliance may be the only way for the Prince to face the forces

of darkness and save the Persian kingdom from the Corrup-tion once and for all.

“But is the crea-ture truly an

ally or merely an enemy in

disguise? “

25Following the events of Prince of Persia and Prince of Persia Epilogue, the story begins with the split of the Prince and Elika. While Elika stays with the Ahura, lead-ing the resistance against Ahriman, the Prince departs in search of the king of The City of New Dawn, in the hope that he can summon Ormazd, due to his affin-ity for the remnants of Ormazd’s power. But here, the Prince finds a new ally, Zal, who introduces himself as one of the king’s Magi and teams up with Prince to save the City of New Dawn from corruption and ulti-mately stop Ahriman

Later on, Zal reveals that the King was split in two by the Corruption: into a corrupted beast and into himself. The Ancestor, a character that had occasionaly helped the Prince and Zal, guides them to find a special power to save the city. This power then fuses the Prince and Zal into one being that preserves both Zal’s powers and the Prince’s acrobatics. Together they face and defeat the king’s monstrous half. The defeat of the beast frees Zal from the Corruption, but also causes him to perish. The Prince then frees the land from the Corruption by reaching the city’s seal. In the end, the Ancestor leaves a message of hope for the Prince, promising that, in time, an inner power would be revealed and new ally would be found...

Game FuturesThe award-winning Prince of Persia franchise, built exclusively for Nintendo DS: Use the DS stylus to master the acrobatics, strategy and fighting tactics of the most agile warrior of all time.The epic journey continues in an all-new adventure: Immerse yourself in the captivating Prince of Persia universe with an original and independent story that closely coincides with the action of the console & PC editions of the game.

The VizierThe story of a classic villain

Full Name: UnknownOrigin: IndiaOccupation: Vizier to the Maja-rajahRelatives: Nizam (game coun-terpart), Zurvan (alter-ego), Ma-harajah (Master), Prince (Nephew & Enemy), Farah (Master), Shara-man (Brother), Malik (Nephew)Items/Weapons: Staff of TimeAppearence: The Sands of Time, The Two Thrones

Enemy Facts

“I...could have been...Immortal”―The VizierThe Vizier was a traitorous adviser of the Indian Maharajah. He is the main antagonist in The Sands of Time and the co-main antago-nist in The Two Thrones , the main antagonist being the Dark Prince.

Traveling to the Island of Time

The Vizier was the Maharajah’s chief adviser, Sharamans brother and The Prince’s uncle, who was known to have succumbed to a consump-tion. While searching for a cure to his illness, the Vi-zier found information about the Island of Time, which supposedly contained marvelous secrets. The Vizier persuaded his master to go, and they found the Dagger of Time, as well as the Hour-glass containing the Sands of Time. The Vizier also found a staff that gave him great magical poten

The Vizier’s Love

At some point, the Vizier fell in love with Sindra, Saurva’s sister. He became so infatuated with her that he forced Saurva to steal the Box of One Thousand Restraints, for then unknown reasons. He threatened to kill Saurva’s wife if he failed to do so. When Saurva returned with the Box, after killing many Indian soldiers in doing so, The Vizier killed his wife and imprisoned Saurva, along with all the Daevas, in the Box when Sindra refused him.Years later, when the Prince seeks the Box of One Thousand Restraints to attempt to seal away the Dahaka, he unleashes Saurva and his army.

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The First Betrayal & Second Betrayal

However, the Hourglass and Dagger were both locked away in the Maharajah’s treasure vaults, and the Vizier plotted to steal it by making a secret alli-ance with his brother, King Sharaman of Persia. The Vizier betrayed his master in return for his pick of treasure from the vaults. “Trust not a man who has betrayed his master, nor take him into your own service... lest he betray you too.”―The Prince[src]Once again, the Vizier was disappointed, as the Dag-ger was taken by Sharaman’s young son the Prince, and the Hourglass was to be given as a gift to the Sultan of Azad.Biding his time, The Vizier waited until the victorious Persians arrived in Azad, before claiming of a ‘mar-vel’ that lurked within the Hourglass. The Prince used the Dagger to open the Hourglass, and the Sands of Time were unleashed, infecting all but the Vizier, The Prince, and the captive Princess Farah.

The First DeathEdit

But once again the Vizier failed. The wily Prince and Farah fled with the Dagger and fought through the legions of sand monsters in the hope of returning the Sands to the Hourglass, which the Vizier moved to the Tower of Dawn.The two succeeded, yet Farah fell to her death from the tower, and the Prince refused his uncle’s offer of eternal life, instead choosing to perform a Grand Rewind, and eliminate all the events that had hap-pened prior to the Vizier’s betrayal of the Maharajah.

“This is not what the dagger has promised!!!”

―The Vizier

Concept Art

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ElikaElika (voiced by Kari Wahlgren) is the young barefoot princess of the Ahura, servants of Ormazd, the god of light, and guardians of the Tree of Life. She accom-panies and protects the new Prince in their quest to rid the land from Ahriman’s corruption. Her magic powers replace the Sands of Time from the previ-ous trilogy and even surpass them, saving the prince from death and helping him navigate the world. The Prince is going to collaborate with Elika in order to bring down his enemies and re-move the land’s corruption. Also, while the Prince cannot get new weapons or health upgrades, the player can upgrade Elika’s pow-ers by collecting light seeds after an area has been healed. These powers allow the Prince to ac-cess new areas. There are a total of 1001 light seeds.

The young barefoot princess of the Ahura

29Elika has magical powers after her father resurrect-ed her by releasing Ahriman inexplicably as she is unsure of how though it’s possible Ormazd gifted her with them. Elika is able to purify corrupted fer-tile grounds, use her magic to save the Prince in dangerous situations such as a lethal attack from a boss or enemy or a fall from a great height, aid in his reaching of locations such as jumps between distant ledges and pillars. She is also able to use the four types of plates located throughout the game. After collecting enough light seeds she needs to return to the temple to gain new abili-ties and use plates. Elika is apparently dependent on light seeds after each purification of a fertile ground explaining she doesn’t know why but she needs them.She is also capable of destroying the black gates guarding the way to the fortresses of the Corrupt-ed after all four fertile ground in their area have been healed. She is also able to destroy/free the corrupted from Ahriman’s influence.

Elika looked quite different in the early stages of the development of Prince of Persia. She had long white hair, thin strap sandals as opposed to bare feet, and wore a red top. Elika also had a pair of daggers. The early Elika is seen in the first leaked screenshots of the game. In Prince of Persia Epilogue after finishing the game, the prototype appearances of the Prince and Elika are unlocked.

Prince of Persia Movie Review

A young fugitive prince and princess must stop a villain who unknow-ingly threatens to destroy the world with a special dagger that enables the magic sand inside to reverse time.

StorylineSet in the mystical lands of Persia, a rogue prince and a mysterious princess race against dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger capable of releasing the Sands of Time -- a gift from the gods that can re-verse time and allow its possessor to rule the world. Written by Walt Disney Pictures

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action

CAST

Jake Gyllenhaal Gemma Arterton Ben Kingsley

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I was looking forward to this film because of the hype, and I was afraid to be disappointed. But as the film un-folded, I most definitely enjoyed this adventure from beginning to end. ake Gyllenhaal plays the titular Prince of Persia, Dastan, who was an urchin picked by the King from the marketplace to be his third son. He and his brothers get caught in a web of political high jinx that cross their paths with Princess Tamina of Alamut (played by Gemma Arterton), and the fabled powers of the Sands of Time. This is Jake Gyllenhaal’s most accessible film so far, and he goes to town with it. OK, granted he does not look the least bit Persian, or of that particular time period, but somehow his charisma was able to carry us on this fantastic ride. I also enjoyed his interac-tion with the beautiful Arterton, which sparks with humor and romance. She was my favorite part of “Clash of the Titans (2010),” and same here.I highly recommend this film for a good old-fashioned, action-adventure film set in ancient times. The park-our sequences are definitely of the highest order and very well-edited and photographed. The sets and visual effects are excellent. Best of all, the story is intelligent and well-constructed. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer has again delivered a very entertaining summer blockbuster. A very well-executed film of its genre. A must watch!

Monkey Majik Said: 8 stars!

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Unlock Altair from Assassin’s Creed!

Codes & Tricks!Your weekly digest for Prince of Persia 2008!

Play as Classic Prince and Princess

At the main menu, select the “Extras” option. Choose the “Skin Man-ager” selection, then enter “525858542” as a code to unlock the Classic Prince and Princess from Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time.Play as Prince AltairAt the main menu, select the “Extras” option, and register the game to link your online profile to your existing ubi.com account to unlock Altair from Assassin’s Creed at the “Skin Manager” menu.Play as Princess JadeSuccessfully complete Story mode to unlock Jade from Beyond Good And Evil at the “Skin Manager” menu.Play as Prototype Prince and ElikaCollect all 1001 Light Seeds to unlock the Prototype Prince and Elika at the “Skin Manager” menu. Note: The final Light Seed is only collectible after completing the game. Alternately, successfully complete “The Epi-logue” bonus downloadable content.

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Easy “Combo Specialist” trophyPerform the following combos during Boss fights during the early part of the game. Note: The combo will not count if you kill the Boss with it, if the Boss blocks part of it, or if the Boss is hit into a wall or off a ledge.Normal combosSquare(4)TriangleSquare, TriangleSquare(2), TriangleSquare(3), Triangle, CircleSquare, CircleSquare(2), CircleSquare(3), CircleXSquare, XSquare(2), XSquare(3), X

Magic combosTriangle, Square(2)Triangle(2), SquareTriangle, Square, Triangle, SquareTriangle(3)Triangle, Square, Triangle(2)Triangle, CircleTriangle(2), CircleTriangle, Square, CircleTriangle, Square, Triangle, CircleTriangle, XTriangle(2), XTriangle, Square, XTriangle, Square, Triangle, X

Your weekly digest for Prince of Persia 2008!

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Prince of Persia Fan Art Section

Le Parkour Prince of Persia by ktlady

Prince of Persia by Wieldthekey

Prince of persia by frankhong

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In his steps by speakyst

Prince of persia by Nema-fronspain

Time to Die by kimiko

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Prince of Persia Cosplay Section36

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