It was back in the early 90's, when both G and I were teenagers (actually I was barely a teenager and G was 9 or 10) that a handsome young prince entered our lives. This prince was strong and brave. He was fearless, had blonde hair and rippling muscles. He was as athletic as ever and immensely intelligent to boot. He was the Prince of Persia. And he would go to absolutely any lengths to save his damsel in distress from the evil Sultan.
The only catch was that all the prince's actions were to be initiated and controlled by G and I, via 6 keys on the computer keyboard.
Think back to a time when there was no "Windows" (I know, its unthinkable!!). Really, that was a time when people did not even have PC's at home. And the only reason G and I had made such good friends with the Prince was thanks to our cousin, who taught Computers and had a spare PC at home, with the super-fantastic Prince of Persia loaded on it. So, whenever we would go visiting, G and I made an immediate beeline for the now archaic box, turned it on, and typed "Prince" at the command prompt. Yes, it was all DOS back then, think black screen...
What a game. What absolute fun it was, to get the Prince to cross barriers, fight prison guards, run through and dodge spiky prison bars, identify potions, poisons, etc etc...A set of obstacles would get him through to the subsequent higher level, where the challenges would be tougher. We had to learn along with the Prince. Each new level had absolutely new dangers that we initially had no idea how to solve. How many trials and errors there were...how many frustrations when Prince would be killed and we had to start all over...how many cheers and celebrations when Prince made it to higher and higher levels...each level taking him closer to that final level where he would have to fight the Sultan himself to save his fair maiden!!
What I remember with amazement is the precision graphics, animations and sound quality of the game. Given that it was entirely DOS based, and it was all in black and white (we didnt have the luxury of a colour monitor), it was really so incredibly well made. There was not a boring moment, as there were so many variables through each step that the Prince had to take.
Years later, we chanced upon a windows version of the classic game, and saw the usual zings and zangs of modern animation. Prince the game was all colourful and jazzed up with the latest in special effects. Somehow, the classic DOS version still pulled at our heart strings.
Just the other day, G and I were remembering the handsome Prince and all the little features of the game. We remembered how much fun we had, the evils the prince fought at each stage, the triumphs. We were both so glad that Prince in all his DOS version glory was a part of our childhood. We both wondered if we could get a chance to download that same black and white classic version once more.
Prince of Persia - a true blue classic.
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