[Hardcore] Prince of Persia 2 - the Shadow and the Flame

zethholyblade
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[Hardcore] Prince of Persia 2 - the Shadow and the Flame

Post by zethholyblade »

I wanted to share this mod I finished a couple of weeks ago and tested it several times using DosBox.
(This is my first mod actually)

I was partially motivated by the awful remake Ubisoft released some time ago and wanted to make my own version by modifying almost every level to prove that the prince isn't 'weak', 'frail', and 'non-athletic' as the developers of said remake claimed.
==================================================================================
The mod contains these changes:

- New level layouts for cavern, ruins and temple levels.
--- The Caves are filled with many lava hazards and traps. The skellies are glad to have you back as well.
--- The Ruins are in a much more decayed state while the Goblin Heads... may scare you once again (like they probably did when you were little).
--- The Temple is huge and much more action packed now. The Cultists are more fanatical than ever and will chase you as soon as you enter into their sacred halls.
--- Certain levels are larger than others and will reward those who decide to explore them (mostly on early levels of the game).
--- Players will need to make use of special navigation tricks such as dropjump, duckclimbing, running and then climbing on loose tiles, and even switching to shadow mode; in order to unlock secrets or even clear the level itself.

- Combat has become more challenging as players progress through the game
--- Higher ammount of enemies with medium to high combat skills from start.
--- Certain duels will require the prince to master his enviroment (traps, edges, chasms) as well as his opponents (blocking, dodging, switching places, etc).

- The princess' life is now in real danger
--- Many obstacles await on every level, therefore time is more precious than ever... Will 75 mins be enough for you?
==================================================================================
LEVELS DESCRIPTION

(01) Palace Rooftops: Unlike the original, you'll be facing seasoned guards this time. But you can still toy with them and sometimes push them off the edges if you know how to.
(02) Beach: You start by the remains of the sunken merchant ship.
(03) Caves 01 There are 2 life potions. One is down a skeleton pit and the other one can only be accessed by running and then climbing up from loosing tiles (timing is essential).
(04) Caves 02 There are 3 life potions. Two of them are below the main path towards the exit.
(05) Caves 03 There is 1 life potion. Although I... accidentally deleted the epic skeleton bridge, many of his warrior pals are filling the corridors
(06) Ruins 01 The Heads will welcome you in a kind of 'Indiana Jones' style. There's 1 Life potion, but requires that you find a way to dodge the blades protecting it. Like the original, this level contains 2 exits
(07) Ruins 02 Depending on the entrance you picked up earlier, you will have to either climb and fight a lot, or jump through chasms and dodge many traps. The door switch which opens the gate leading to the exit of this level is located somewhere at the highest spot in this level. There are 4 life potions
(08) Ruins 03 By now, You'd best have learned to run across loose floor tiles and use them to climb up or you won't get passed the first room. There's 1 life potion beneath the throne room, can you reach it?
(09) Ruins 04 You'd better hurry, the Temple is near and will be the biggest challenge yet. There's 1 life potion at the begining of this area somewhere, careful when you approach to pick it up
(10) Temple 01 Prepare yourself, for the zealous eagles will engage you in mortal kombat. If you don't find yourself fighting them, then you're probably inside a room filled wtih lots of nasty traps in it. There are 2 life potions.
(11) Temple 02 The shadow level. Be careful with traps and specially those sneaky gate closing buttons. There are 5 life potions inside this level.
(12) Temple 03 The tower. Prepare to climb... for real this time. There are 2 life potions.
(13) Temple 04 Stealing the flame demands a sacrifice. There is 1 life potion. Also, there maybe sneaky spike traps
(14) Jaffar 01 Minor changes in here, but the end comes as always

==================================================================================
INSTALATION
Just make a copy of your PoP2 folder, you could rename it to 'HRDCPOP2', and replace PRINCE.DAT with the file available in this topic.

=================================================================================
KNOWN BUGS
- Level checkpoints are established on every level, however, saving the game after reaching them may restart the game if you select the option 'Resume Game'. Therefore I would recommend saving at the beginning of every level only.

- If the player ever dies and restarts from the last checkpoint, there's a chance that any game cinematics (Flying carpet and both Horse of the King of Basra riding sequences) won't show up at all.

- At final level, if you release the Shadow infused with the Flame before the very last part (hide and seek with Jaffar), there's a chance that it'll crash the game. Therefore I recommend playing normally until then.
==================================================================================
VIDEO WALKTHROUGH
viewtopic.php?f=118&t=3541
==================================================================================
MAP LAYOUT

THE CAVES
Image

THE RUINS
Image

THE TEMPLE
Image
==================================================================================
SCREENSHOTS

THE CAVES
ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

THE RUINS
ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

THE TEMPLE
ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

==================================================================================
Other notes:

- I recommend listening to the Prince of Persia 3D OST while playing this game xD.
- This mod isn't that parkour friendly as some may like, but future mods could be for sure >D
- If you have suggestions I'd like to read them.
Attachments
PRINCE.DAT
LEVELS FILE
(379.07 KiB) Downloaded 290 times
Last edited by zethholyblade on September 9th, 2014, 8:28 am, edited 5 times in total.
David
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Re: [Hardcore] Prince of Persia 2 - the Shadow and the Flame

Post by David »

Interesting. I will try it.
zethholyblade wrote:right now I can't record DosBox using FRAPs (don't know why)
DOSBox itself can record the screen. (Start/stop with CTRL-ALT-F5.)
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Re: [Hardcore] Prince of Persia 2 - the Shadow and the Flame

Post by zethholyblade »

David wrote:DOSBox itself can record the screen. (Start/stop with CTRL-ALT-F5.)
Hey there, thanks a ton! I had no idea xD.
I've tried this and I noticed that the recording resolution is a very small one :( (320x200 pixels), is there any way to make it bigger? Also, I've tried editing these videos using Sony Vegas Pro but it says it can't read those avi files which is a pitty since I'd like to make a walkthrough but also add a few nice things to it.
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Re: [Hardcore] Prince of Persia 2 - the Shadow and the Flame

Post by Khushal64n6 »

Hello,
Use Fraps Software to record walkthrough in HD

Fraps is a universal Windows application that can be used with games using DirectX or OpenGL graphic technology. In its current form Fraps performs many tasks and can best be described as:

Benchmarking Software - Show how many Frames Per Second (FPS) you are getting in a corner of your screen. Perform custom benchmarks and measure the frame rate between any two points. Save the statistics out to disk and use them for your own reviews and applications.

Screen Capture Software - Take a screenshot with the press of a key! There's no need to paste into a paint program every time you want a new shot. Your screen captures are automatically named and timestamped.

Realtime Video Capture Software - Have you ever wanted to record video while playing your favourite game? Come join the Machinima revolution! Throw away the VCR, forget about using a DV cam, game recording has never been this easy! Fraps can capture audio and video up to 7680x4800 with custom frame rates from 1 to 120 frames per second!

All movies are recorded in outstanding quality. If you have Windows Media Player please sample some of the movies captured with Fraps
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Re: [Hardcore] Prince of Persia 2 - the Shadow and the Flame

Post by zethholyblade »

Hey there Khushal64n6, I do have FRAPS installed and use it when I can to record games among other things. The problem is that, even though the program itself is running, when I enter DosBox and play games (like PoP) it simply won't record anything, I dont even see the FPS on any of the corners.

I do maximize dosbox before attempting this but it doesn't simply record anything at all, which is a shame.

Any idea how could I fix this?
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Re: [Hardcore] Prince of Persia 2 - the Shadow and the Flame

Post by Norbert »

Does your mod have a name?
I would like to add it to popot.org and announce it here and there, and it would be convenient if I could refer to it by name.
If you don't want it to have a name or can't come up with something, I could use either "Zethholyblade's Levels" or "Zethholyblade's Mod".
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Re: [Hardcore] Prince of Persia 2 - the Shadow and the Flame

Post by zethholyblade »

Hey there, I couldn't come up with any special name for it xD, but you can call it "ZethHolyblade's [Hardcore] PoP2" Mod. Will you need any screenshots?
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Re: [Hardcore] Prince of Persia 2 - the Shadow and the Flame

Post by Norbert »

zethholyblade wrote:Hey there, I couldn't come up with any special name for it xD, but you can call it "ZethHolyblade's [Hardcore] PoP2" Mod. Will you need any screenshots?
If you make screenshots, that would make things easier for me, plus you get to pick what is being shown. :)
If you do, please use DOSBox. It'll give you the exact 320x200 images.
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Re: [Hardcore] Prince of Persia 2 - the Shadow and the Flame

Post by zethholyblade »

I have added several screenshots to this topic's description, feel free to select the ones you think are best xD
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Re: [Hardcore] Prince of Persia 2 - the Shadow and the Flame

Post by David »

zethholyblade wrote: I've tried this and I noticed that the recording resolution is a very small one :( (320x200 pixels), is there any way to make it bigger?
You could stretch it out with a video editor.
zethholyblade wrote: Also, I've tried editing these videos using Sony Vegas Pro but it says it can't read those avi files which is a pitty since I'd like to make a walkthrough but also add a few nice things to it.
Videos recorded by DOSBox use the ZMBV codec.
Can other programs play them? (Especially Windows Media Player.)
If they can't, then you don't have ZMBV installed.
If they can, then Sony Vegas can't use it. Weird...
Maybe you need to use a different video editor, or convert them to some other format.

I found these about ZMBV and Sony Vegas:
http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=21089 (about installing ZMBV)
http://forum.doom9.org/archive/index.php/t-157361.html (has problems using FFdshow)
zethholyblade wrote: The problem is that, even though the program itself is running, when I enter DosBox and play games (like PoP) it simply won't record anything, I dont even see the FPS on any of the corners.
I installed Fraps to see what is happening.
As their site says, Fraps "can be used with games using DirectX or OpenGL".
What they forgot to say is "only". That is, Fraps works *only* with games that use DirectX or OpenGL.

Open dosbox.conf and find the "output=..." line.
For me it was originally "output=surface", but Fraps didn't work then.
You need to set it to something else.
"output=opengl" and "output=openglnb" works for me.
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Re: [Hardcore] Prince of Persia 2 - the Shadow and the Flame

Post by zethholyblade »

THANK YOU!
Image
This prooved to be the ultimate solution xD Now i can start on that waklthrough thing.
And this time, I can put these videos on Sonny Vegas Pro, like you said :D
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Re: [Hardcore] Prince of Persia 2 - the Shadow and the Flame

Post by David »

I'm glad I could help you!
zethholyblade wrote: - Level checkpoints are established on every level, however, saving the game after reaching them may restart the game if you select the option 'Resume Game'.
Yes, this happened to me on level 3. (I could not get any further yet... :) )
It seems to me that the saved game (in PRINCE.SAV) claims that it's for level 0 (offset 0x104 for the first slot).
I wonder why...
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Re: [Hardcore] Prince of Persia 2 - the Shadow and the Flame

Post by Norbert »

zethholyblade, can you take a look at your levels with apoplexy and tell me if everything is as you expect it to be?
Simply copy your levels file into the prince2/ directory before starting the application.
If you see anything anywhere that you think might be incorrect, please let me know.
Thanks.
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Re: [Hardcore] Prince of Persia 2 - the Shadow and the Flame

Post by zethholyblade »

Dude this software seems very cool too, it's quite different than roomshaker... is it me or it has way more options?
I saw stuff like, guards can be set to skill level 50 and so (does that particular thing work? If so then I might update this and make it harder xD)

Hmmm did a quick look on every level, for the most part everything was fine. At the 13th floor, by the bridges I got a message saying something about textures.. odd.

EDIT:
I've been experimenting with this map making application you sent me, it's really really nice, I can increase combat difficulty BY A TON IN HERE, plus I can also add different creatures, its really epic xD. If I get to patch this mod, I''ll definately add features using this tool, thanks! :D
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Re: [Hardcore] Prince of Persia 2 - the Shadow and the Flame

Post by Norbert »

zethholyblade wrote:is it me or it has way more options?
Overall probably about the same; some things only one can do, other things only the other.
zethholyblade wrote:At the 13th floor, by the bridges I got a message saying something about textures.. odd.
This appears to happen when you use 10 incoming guards, because the application only has/properly shows icons up to 9 incoming guards.
I'm not sure if more than 9 incoming guards is possible, whether those 10 guards in a row actually enter. (I haven't tested this yet.)
zethholyblade wrote:I can increase combat difficulty BY A TON IN HERE
This may not be necessary though, maybe it's already quite challenging. :)
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