Prince 2D - My first impressive Game

The Prince 2D or the Prince of Persia in DOS was the first ‘game’ that impressed me, (I emphasise on the word ‘game’ because I felt that a game had to have a set of features to be called a game, it had to involve you deeply and give you excitement or an adrenaline rush) and the first game which I spent hours or rather ages playing. The whole Prince of Persia concept, since its introduction in 1989, a year after my birth, had one striking story. A Prince who landed himself in prison, a Prince who breaks through his bondage, eventually conquering his own city, a Prince who bases his entire struggle on his impending union with the love of his life, obviously a beautiful Princess. In the beginning, it is unclear what he did when he enjoyed his position as a prince or why he was imprisoned in the first place (a dispute within the royal family probably). Obviously the game was to enable the Prince to break out of prison and fight his evil uncle Jaffer and for a classic finale, unite with the Princess.

The first stage of the game was a pain, as there was no weapon, pretty obvious as a prisoner would be unarmed before his imprisonment. After a couple of ghastly deaths in pitiable and one sided encounters, it dawned on me that the first goal was to get a weapon, most probably a sword. This sword has a long history in the odyssey of the Prince of Persia games and I am pretty sure that if Microsoft & Ubisoft make another Prince of Persia game staged in the modern world with guns and advanced weaponry, the sword would still be the main weapon of the notable protagonist. Running, jumping, climbing and switch – door puzzles became the core of the game. After covering a considerable amount of ground in the game I came across the sword. The sword came as a relief as I had to perform my first kill to proceed to the next level. The next levels proved more of a challenge as they introduced the trademark feature of these awesome games, ‘Traps’. There were never ending pits plunging into the depths of the abyss, the classic spikes which would make a pincushion of the Prince, Sawblades sticking out of the walls and the scary Guillotine which always had its share of gore. Whenever I got stuck in the initial stages, I used to turn to Satish anna or Leena and Sujanya akkas to enlighten me. After passing some obstacles I realized that there was no thrill in working my way into the game with help from others. Evading the traps was tough enough, but the final levels involved a combination of overwhelming fights, traps and automatic doors which would almost always slam shut before the Prince could get to it. When you fail to cross a door which is shut, you had two choices, one was to tediously retrace your steps to where the switch was or two, kill yourself and start the level all over again.

The initial levels of the game, mostly the first 8 levels I managed to play in the College whenever I managed to reach there (I think the game was made up of 14 levels). I had no problem going to the college as I had started playing tennis and I could always reach early play a bit of the game and move on to the tennis court, and an added bonus was that everybody treated me like a celebrity, as I was the sweetest professor’s sweetest son. I started to develop a paranoia that I was hindering the peace of the office dwellers and I had a new computer in my house which made me think “Why can’t I play this game to my heart’s content, whenever I can, in my own computer”. Eventually I managed to transport the game to my computer with the help of the floppy. I remember that my mother used to observe me occasionally and whenever she did, she would exclaim “Yenda avana kola pannare? (Why are you killing/torturing him, the Prince)”. Following that I used to take pleasure in showing her different ways to kill the Prince, I never gave a thought whether she approved of the gore, but she did let me play alright. I did beat the game but it had taken two years as I played it on and off, mostly because I would get stuck for weeks in the same level and give up and after a passive period, try again.

I made my return to the Prince of Persia world in all its sequels Prince of Persia 3D by Red Orb, The Prince of Persia – The Sands of Time, The Prince of Persia – The Warrior Within and The Prince of Persia – Two Thrones, and I enjoyed all of them.

PS: I must agree that you must be thinking that I may not know much about computers and I that know too much about games, but hey, I am trying my level best to recall my interactions with this wonderful invention of a computer and I have to agree that the initial encounters were neither enlightening nor productive.