Integer overflow bug
Posted: October 2nd, 2010, 5:50 am
My brother and I used to do some crazy things with this game, playing it hours on end. I can't even begin to recall all the bugs and tricks we discovered, but here's some I do remember, in case anyone doesn't know about them. They're mostly vague, but it's been a long time. These all apply to the DOS version.
Level 12 hang-on bug
Not sure if anyone's encountered this before. It was a bug I found back in the day some may find interesting. It can be duplicated in all versions of Prince of Persia 1, though the behavior seems to be different now, possibly due to emulation or CPU cycles.
At the top of level 12, on the screen to the right of where you fight yourself, if you stand on the 2 block platform at the very bottom and use the 2 block running trick to do a running jump left off the screen while holding shift to hang on to a ledge, the screen will change several times in a matter of a second, and you'll fall from the ceiling to the ground on the screen where you fight yourself.
Thing is, this was far more interesting when I originally used to reproduce it. These days, you fall to the ground, lose a triangle of health, and not much else happens, but when I used to exploit this bug back on my old 286, you would fall to the ground, lose a triangle of health, but would be "misaligned" with the ground tiles. You would not be standing in the center of them, but right up against the back wall. If you bumped into anything which caused the Prince to make the "uh" sound, it would realign you. You could still interact with the environment, so climbing up, making tiles fall, etc, but the amusing thing was that because you weren't standing properly on the floor tiles, your nemesis would not be on the screen, and the sword would still be lying there, which you could pick up. This would effectively bug level 12 and make it impossible to complete.
Has anyone ever discovered this before, or am I the first?
Level 8
Ahh, level 8, home to the toughest swordsman in the game. My brother and I used to force this guard into the spikes each time we played through. It's tough, since he doesn't want to be pushed back. If you can survive switching places with him, you can lure him over, but then you have to make it back!
Also, if you're quick enough, you can make it back through the gate near the end before it closes and the mouse has to save you. Then, you can watch with amusement as he saves nobody. To do so, you have to time things properly so you can run and jump non-stop and not be hit by the blade traps.
Dead, but not dead
I recall several instances where we would manipulate guard death. One was the blade trap. If you knock a guard into a blade trap, and then hit him with your sword just as the blade closes, he'll survive (given he has health left), and the blade will have blood on it. Another trick had to do with freefalling, though I don't remember exactly what we did. I believe we knocked a guard off a high ledge and used the screen flipping trick (detailed below) to time when we'd change screens. If changed as he was 1 ledge length or less from the floor, you could stop him from dying, as it would somehow see it as a 1 ledge length fall.
Moving guards
When in combat, you can back up and get guards to follow you many places. This can be amusing since you can take guards to areas where they otherwise would not be and this can create amusing (and sometimes helpful) results.
Backing up off the screen
When in combat, you can use guards to help you bypass otherwise impassable obstacles. While backing up off the current screen, if you time your keypresses just right, you can keep the screen from switching over to the new one for a lengthy period of time. In some cases, this is long (and buggy) enough to back you through closed gates and sometimes solid walls. This also allows you to control when the screen switches over. At any point while using this trick, simply stop all movement and the screen will change. A specific place where you can use this bug to your advantage is at the beginning of level 5. Go right, hit the purple guard down to the bottom level. Jump back down and use him to back onto the screen to the left of the screen where you entered the level. If everything goes well, you'll find yourself on the other side of the gate on the bottom level.
Hit from behind
In employing the above two tricks, we discovered that you can actually back up through other live guards. What happens is that once the screen changes (and it's one where there's another guard), you'll find yourself behind the undisturbed guard, out of combat. This is because the game won't allow you to fight more than one guard at a time, so the guard you were fighting is blocked from following you on screen. If I recall, you can bring him back if you return to the previous screen and let him come after you while you can't see him. Anyway, the undisturbed guard. Making any noise will obviously wake this guard up, but if you time things just so, you can get the screen to flip so you're within striking distance of the out of combat guard while he's facing the other way. Striking any guard who's not in combat will kill him in a single blow.
Block + swing sword trick
This is much more useful in Prince 2, but does have limited effectiveness in Prince 1. If you press up to block and while in the middle of the move press the attack button, it will create a very well-rounded maneuver that will keep you almost completely safe while allowing you to also be offensive. It allows you to block and quickly follow up with a swing. In Prince 1, this has limited effectiveness because it can really only be used defensively. You have to wait for guards to advance and then use the move. However, in Prince 2, doing this maneuver will advance the Prince. Each time moves him forward by a couple pixels. As such, this makes you almost completely untouchable against all guards in the game, but unfortunately does not work on other enemies, including the infamous heads. This is because guards generally attack when you're advancing and hold their position when you're attacking. Using this move causes you to do both simultaneously.
This is all I can think of for now. Hope you guys find some or all of these amusing. I know I did when I first discovered them.
Duke
[Edit: This thread was called "Prince of Persia bugs and tricks" but there was already a thread like that from 2009. --Norbert]
Level 12 hang-on bug
Not sure if anyone's encountered this before. It was a bug I found back in the day some may find interesting. It can be duplicated in all versions of Prince of Persia 1, though the behavior seems to be different now, possibly due to emulation or CPU cycles.
At the top of level 12, on the screen to the right of where you fight yourself, if you stand on the 2 block platform at the very bottom and use the 2 block running trick to do a running jump left off the screen while holding shift to hang on to a ledge, the screen will change several times in a matter of a second, and you'll fall from the ceiling to the ground on the screen where you fight yourself.
Thing is, this was far more interesting when I originally used to reproduce it. These days, you fall to the ground, lose a triangle of health, and not much else happens, but when I used to exploit this bug back on my old 286, you would fall to the ground, lose a triangle of health, but would be "misaligned" with the ground tiles. You would not be standing in the center of them, but right up against the back wall. If you bumped into anything which caused the Prince to make the "uh" sound, it would realign you. You could still interact with the environment, so climbing up, making tiles fall, etc, but the amusing thing was that because you weren't standing properly on the floor tiles, your nemesis would not be on the screen, and the sword would still be lying there, which you could pick up. This would effectively bug level 12 and make it impossible to complete.
Has anyone ever discovered this before, or am I the first?
Level 8
Ahh, level 8, home to the toughest swordsman in the game. My brother and I used to force this guard into the spikes each time we played through. It's tough, since he doesn't want to be pushed back. If you can survive switching places with him, you can lure him over, but then you have to make it back!
Also, if you're quick enough, you can make it back through the gate near the end before it closes and the mouse has to save you. Then, you can watch with amusement as he saves nobody. To do so, you have to time things properly so you can run and jump non-stop and not be hit by the blade traps.
Dead, but not dead
I recall several instances where we would manipulate guard death. One was the blade trap. If you knock a guard into a blade trap, and then hit him with your sword just as the blade closes, he'll survive (given he has health left), and the blade will have blood on it. Another trick had to do with freefalling, though I don't remember exactly what we did. I believe we knocked a guard off a high ledge and used the screen flipping trick (detailed below) to time when we'd change screens. If changed as he was 1 ledge length or less from the floor, you could stop him from dying, as it would somehow see it as a 1 ledge length fall.
Moving guards
When in combat, you can back up and get guards to follow you many places. This can be amusing since you can take guards to areas where they otherwise would not be and this can create amusing (and sometimes helpful) results.
Backing up off the screen
When in combat, you can use guards to help you bypass otherwise impassable obstacles. While backing up off the current screen, if you time your keypresses just right, you can keep the screen from switching over to the new one for a lengthy period of time. In some cases, this is long (and buggy) enough to back you through closed gates and sometimes solid walls. This also allows you to control when the screen switches over. At any point while using this trick, simply stop all movement and the screen will change. A specific place where you can use this bug to your advantage is at the beginning of level 5. Go right, hit the purple guard down to the bottom level. Jump back down and use him to back onto the screen to the left of the screen where you entered the level. If everything goes well, you'll find yourself on the other side of the gate on the bottom level.
Hit from behind
In employing the above two tricks, we discovered that you can actually back up through other live guards. What happens is that once the screen changes (and it's one where there's another guard), you'll find yourself behind the undisturbed guard, out of combat. This is because the game won't allow you to fight more than one guard at a time, so the guard you were fighting is blocked from following you on screen. If I recall, you can bring him back if you return to the previous screen and let him come after you while you can't see him. Anyway, the undisturbed guard. Making any noise will obviously wake this guard up, but if you time things just so, you can get the screen to flip so you're within striking distance of the out of combat guard while he's facing the other way. Striking any guard who's not in combat will kill him in a single blow.
Block + swing sword trick
This is much more useful in Prince 2, but does have limited effectiveness in Prince 1. If you press up to block and while in the middle of the move press the attack button, it will create a very well-rounded maneuver that will keep you almost completely safe while allowing you to also be offensive. It allows you to block and quickly follow up with a swing. In Prince 1, this has limited effectiveness because it can really only be used defensively. You have to wait for guards to advance and then use the move. However, in Prince 2, doing this maneuver will advance the Prince. Each time moves him forward by a couple pixels. As such, this makes you almost completely untouchable against all guards in the game, but unfortunately does not work on other enemies, including the infamous heads. This is because guards generally attack when you're advancing and hold their position when you're attacking. Using this move causes you to do both simultaneously.
This is all I can think of for now. Hope you guys find some or all of these amusing. I know I did when I first discovered them.
Duke
[Edit: This thread was called "Prince of Persia bugs and tricks" but there was already a thread like that from 2009. --Norbert]