Various

Prince of Persia related subjects that do not have their own boards.
David
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Re: Various

Post by David »

Norbert wrote:Found a bit of info about an old PoP fan website.
[...]
The website was hosted by GameSpy, accessible via Poplegacy.com, and the last version that was online is at Archive.org.
That site has some fun oddities:

The poll on the left (on every page) is the same as one of the past polls of PoPUW: http://popuw.com/poll.html

It claims there was a PoP1 port for Unix: https://web.archive.org/web/20090412090 ... 0/PoP1.php
And it even claims to have cheats for that version: https://web.archive.org/web/20060909064 ... Cheats.php
The Unix link leads to GameFAQs (also note the "mainframe" in the URL) and the codes are a mixture of PoP1 DOS, PoP2 DOS and PoP2 Mac cheats.
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R3
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Re: Various

Post by R3 »

re: did you ever wonder why sometimes you end up on a dungeon level then palace level then dungeon again?

i just rationalize this aspect of the game as part of the magic cast by Jaffar.
otherwise, the structure of the game should be something like the Prince starts at, say, 6 levels of dungeon, followed by 6 levels of palace.

would appreciate if someone could enlighten me on the nuances of these levels. how much flexibility does a designer have?

thanks! :)
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Norbert
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Re: Various

Post by Norbert »

R3 wrote:i just rationalize this aspect of the game as part of the magic cast by Jaffar.
otherwise, the structure of the game should be something like the Prince starts at, say, 6 levels of dungeon, followed by 6 levels of palace.
The shadow at the end of level 6 makes the prince fall down back into the dungeons.

And levels 12a and 12b (13) are a transitional area, where the prince is climbing the tower (and fights Jaffar) to reach the princess.
I can imagine the tower isn't a living quarters and isn't accessed as much, so it doesn't have carpets and such.

Somewhat related is the thread about the Sultan's Palace Layout.
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R3
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Re: Various

Post by R3 »

aha!

as always, thank you, Norbert, for your wonderful insights. :)
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Norbert
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Re: Various

Post by Norbert »

I wonder if it'd be possible to create a mod that's supposed to be played with your eyes closed. Probably with SDLPoP or MININIM, that the executable is modified to play specific sound effects that indicate the prince leaves a room or enters a different row. I'm not sure if this would work. Too much work to find out too, so I'm just writing about that this is something I was wondering. :)

[Edit: Hm. Or maybe only the prince could be visible and nothing else. Or perhaps just the prince and the potions? Or only the potions, and that one of the potions makes everything visible for half a minute or so?]
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Re: Various

Post by Falcury »

Interesting idea, maybe using directional sound somehow?
David
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Re: Various

Post by David »

Norbert wrote:I wonder if it'd be possible to create a mod that's supposed to be played with your eyes closed.
FYI, there is a type of game that does exactly that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_game
Norbert wrote:Hm. Or maybe only the prince could be visible and nothing else. Or perhaps just the prince and the potions? Or only the potions, and that one of the potions makes everything visible for half a minute or so?
That sounds somewhat like blind mode (Shift+B).

BTW, ZZT has dark rooms and torches that light up a small area around the player for a limited time.
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Norbert
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Re: Various

Post by Norbert »

I wonder if a chomper dancing record could be a thing.
The challenge being to move the prince to the other side after each chomp, as many times in a row as you can.
There's no easy sequence of key presses/releases that can be repeated to survive this endlessly.

(In theory, if we'd find out the number of frames between each chomp, and the number of frames it takes to turn/run/etc., it might be possible to figure out smart running and turning combos (e.g. turn, take 2 steps, turn, take 3 steps, turn, take 2 steps, and repeat that), but in practice to err is human.)
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Norbert
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Re: Various

Post by Norbert »

Looks like Mechner recently participated in the TGS 2017 event:
http://www.toulouse-game-show.fr/content/jordan-mechner
(Maybe a recording will be available on their YouTube channel in the future.)
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Norbert
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Re: Various

Post by Norbert »

Theoretically, a program could be created that takes the standing prince image normal.bmp (from the PR output) and then generates all other prince images from that. Because roughly speaking each pixel either moves to another location, in some cases 'stretches' to multiple pixels, or disappears. This would not allow modders to modify normal.bmp outside the regular dimensions of the prince, for instance to give him a top hat, but all other changes, such as giving him red cheeks, could be applied to all prince images automatically. Just some thoughts.
David
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Re: Various

Post by David »

Norbert wrote: December 16th, 2017, 11:56 pm Theoretically, a program could be created that takes the standing prince image normal.bmp (from the PR output) and then generates all other prince images from that. Because roughly speaking each pixel either moves to another location, in some cases 'stretches' to multiple pixels, or disappears.
That
Something similar was actually used in at least one game, and possibly others:
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/180520/postmortem_humble_hearts_dust_.php?page=2 wrote: I would separate the portrait art into segments and then map/rig them onto orthographic geometry in my 3D suite. Some artwork would be mapped onto deformable geometry so that ears, cloth, and belts could sway as the character idled.
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Norbert
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Re: Various

Post by Norbert »

David wrote: December 18th, 2017, 10:34 pmThat
That? ...that reminds me of this. :P
David
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Re: Various

Post by David »

Norbert wrote: December 19th, 2017, 7:28 pm
David wrote: December 18th, 2017, 10:34 pmThat
That? ...that reminds me of this. :P
Oh great, another sentence that I forgot to finish. What's with me recently?
Maybe it's just because I posted quite late in the night. It was after 21:30 in this case and after 22:30 in the other case.
That's quite late, especially in the winter.

Anyway, I think I wanted to link to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeletal_animation or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morph_target_animation, because your idea is kind of similar, except it's in 2D.
But, as usual, I got lost in Wikipedia's network of related topics. :)
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Norbert
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Re: Various

Post by Norbert »

I never really realized that guards' hit points regenerate if you re-encounter them after previously taking some health from them. For example, if you hit the first guard on level 2, then run away from him, then return to his room, he has 3 HP again. They must carry infinite supplies of red potions with them... Or maybe Jaffar gave them magic health regeneration that activates if the prince isn't nearby.
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Re: Various

Post by Falcury »

Norbert wrote: February 5th, 2018, 3:28 pm I never really realized that guards' hit points regenerate if you re-encounter them after previously taking some health from them. For example, if you hit the first guard on level 2, then run away from him, then return to his room, he has 3 HP again. They must carry infinite supplies of red potions with them... Or maybe Jaffar gave them magic health regeneration that activates if the prince isn't nearby.
Yeah! :)
Or, maybe they are secretly playing with cheats enabled, but are too proud to admit that in front of the prince...
SDLPoP has an optional fix for this, by the way.
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