I tried the game. Lots of things to write about...
General:
The game is quite slow-paced (especially when climbing), so in DOSBox, you should configure a single key to the fast-forward function.
The default Alt+F12 is quite hard to press while playing, and if you press Alt while running, the "prince" will stop.
Climbing up or down requires too precise alignment.
Crouching pushes the kid back a bit, so if you repeat it, you will eventually be able to climb down.
You can drink potions with the down arrow. (Kinda like in some versions of PoP.)
The potions are quite big, bigger than the kid's head. I wonder how can he drink it all.
A difference from PoP is that they are corked (you can hear when the kid unplugs the cork), and they are in transparent glass.
And when he finished drinking, he throws the empty glass offscreen.
Norbert wrote:It has plenty of checkpoints throughout the level, so you don't have to restart the level over and over.
These checkpoints are invisible, like in PoP2.
Somehow the kid (re)starts the level a bit above the floor...
There are some signs in the game. You can read them with the up arrow (and some German knowledge
).
The game is full of climbing rods, both horizontal and vertical.
PoP did not have these, but for example Aladdin (DOS) has similar things.
Have you seen the run-jump? It looks like
the somersault you wanted to put into PoP once.
Level 1:
The top-left room has a tiny flying bird (or bat?) in the background.
The green potions give you one extra HP.
For some reason, you start with only one HP. In every other game I know, the player starts with a full HP meter. So why not here?
The heads of the guards on this level were copied from PoP2 skeletons.
There are some grates. They look somewhat like PoP gates, but they don't have horizontal bars, and you can't open them.
Somehow the opponents can walk through them...
Norbert wrote:Purple potions allow you to pass gates.
The manual (ANLEIT.TXT) says they're blue, and that they turn the kid into water.
Ein blauer Zaubertrunk soll Sie bei Bedarf in Wasser verwandeln (?)
~~~
A blue magic drink should transform you into water when needed.
And here is the sign about the potions:
Das grüne ELIXIER erfrischt den Reisenden und lecket seine Wunden.
Das blaue gibt die Kraft eines alten Elementes, nutze es am Gitter und gegen das Feuer.
~~~
The green elixir refreshes the traveler and licks [heals] his wounds.
The blue gives the power of an old element, use it at grates and against the fire.
Note that you lose the blueness after going through grates.
Norbert wrote:Has some PoP2 elements too, like the crushing wall.
The crusher wall is also on this level. It's near a sign that you can't even read because of this trap... But at least a checkpoint is near.
(In fact, if the crusher wasn't there, then you would be stuck there. There is no Ctrl+A in this game.)
This crusher is bloodier than the PoP2 version, you can see the kid being crushed. Eww...
And be careful, when blue, you can fall down there through a horizontal grate.
It's not always a good thing to be able to go through things...
Level 2:
This level has no enemies... instead it has some mind-boggling puzzles.
Norbert wrote:
In level 2 - yeah, I actually made it there - it has a trap with an Indiana Jones-like rolling boulder too.
You need to grab the ledge and wait for the ball to roll by, drink the potion, exit the screen, return to the screen with the boulder and have a second boulder push away the first.
Oh yeah. I found this out the hard way.
The second boulder will still be there, but you can at least climb over it.
Fun stuff: Go to the top-left room. You'll see the boulder sitting on the ledge, ready to fall when needed.
The single hint on this level is also about the boulders. And it rhymes:
Der erste Stein ...
..der sperrt Dich ein !
Muß etwa noch ein zweiter sein ???
~~~
The first stone blocks you!
There must also be a second one?
Norbert wrote:And if gates have nothing above them, he can climb over them.
I found that out accidentally...
There are two adjacent grates in one room.
You need to use the blue potion for the first one, but climb the second.
If you climb the first, you fall down and die...
And you can't use the potion for the second, because you already used it for the first.
Somehow you can't *jump* through gates, even when blue.
There are some fires on this level.
They will burn you, unless you have drunk the blue potion before. (No, you can't pick the flame up even then. You're already blue anyway.
)
This fire-walking won't use up your blue power, unlike the grates.
The first fire is constant.
The other two are timed. If you run straight from the left room, then they will go out exactly when you reach them. How convenient!
It seems that some blue potions come back when you come back to their room, but only if you're not blue.
There are some blue floors on this level. But they don't seem to do anything, or do they?
And just when you'd reach the end, there is that lightning that fries you if you touch it.
I was stumped at this part. I tried to jump to the magenta potion, but the kid either fell *by* the small platform and died, or he fell *onto* it and died.
I accidentally found a hint about what to do in the slideshow...
Level 3:
You can get four green potions before the first enemy, but that's not enough...
Norbert wrote:In that level, after killing an enemy its head floats away, then later you fight that head.
And this one was copied from the PoP2 flying heads.
Oddly enough, the head has *more* HPs than the "original" enemy!
Is this because "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger"?
Norbert wrote:Very difficult fight, didn't win yet...
I couldn't complete level 3 yet.
Other:
Norbert wrote:
You can see in the slideshow (SHOW.EXE) that the player even gets a gun.
Another picture shows something oddly similar to PoP2 temple levels...
Looks like there will be "naked" skeletons (also copied from PoP2)... with a ray gun!?
And two doors labeled "G" and "L". Is that a teleport puzzle?
Norbert wrote:Maybe some of the files in share/ need to be moved into the root (main) directory.
They are just the shareware versions of those files that differ from the full version.
)