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Cheat: PRINCE.EXE megahitReleased in: unknown year
PoP version: Prince of Persia 1
Description: "(missing)"
Starting time: 60 minutes
By: hanswurst (Author)
Has altered: checkbox graphics checkbox audio
Custom levels: 13
Download: 0000027.zip
Use DOSBox to start its executable "PRINCE.EXE".
screenshotscreenshotscreenshot

DOSSDLPoPMININIM

enjoyment: stars
rated 4.33 by 3 people
difficulty: bar
rated 2.67 by 3 people
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comments: I'm almost certain I had played a level or two of this mod before, most likely many years ago while dabbling in some ancient version of Total Pack. I could vaguely remember some details.

This was fun, I liked its 'classic adventure' style with slightly advanced difficulty. A little nerve-wracking to play in one go I must admit, courtesy of the very strict time frame. You're frequently tested to reach several gates in time. There's a lot of that, as well as loose tiles over buttons, with some levels almost entirely devoted to the two things as the core tasks to progress. You can explore and find hidden life potions, but usually with the cost of wasting precious minutes backtracking. Time would be the main issue imo, it's severely strict. A win is (almost) not guaranteed in a first full playthrough. Mine ended in level 12a when all I had left was 6 minutes. Then I restarted and finnished roughly with 5 minutes remaining, because I kind of rushed, reloaded after a fail, and ignored a couple 1UPs. Your mileage may vary.

I said earlier that this had slightly advanced difficulty. On top of gates and loose tiles, it's useful (read: mandatory) to know a couple tricks - classic ones though, like two-tile jumps, with spikes in the way, swinging to fall forwards, delaying when to press shift to hold after jumping, skipping past certain guards, that kinda stuff. Fortunately it becomes immediately evident when these are needed.required.

Other particular observations:

- Clean visuals for the most part. The author added a lot of background detailing, which honestly reminded me of Pirates of Persia (I wonder if hanswurst was the main level designer of that mod).
- Almost none of the special events take part, saving the final boss in a kinda cinematic fight. All levels have exit doors, none start or end by entering rooms. Some people would critique these choices. I personally wasn't bothered at all.
- The LPs would be theoretically more fun to hunt if time wasn't so tight. I liked all of them, particularly in levels 1, 3, 7, and 9. Right after I won I used the cheat to look around and noticed one I missed in level 11. Oh well.
- Level 5 was exhilarating - not that hard but one wrong step and it's over. The feather fall potion is for strategic use (tip: make sure you aren't holding shift when you land next to it).
- Level 9 was slightly similar, less intimidating. Looking for loose tiles was made in a fun way.
- Level 10 was my least favorite only because of all the back and forth to get around a particular guard. But then again, if I had more time, I probably would have had no issues with it. Actually, level 4 was perhaps the least interesting to me...

Overall, I would replay someday. The limited time didn't necessarily detract from being an enjoyable and cleverly designed, classic mod... well, it did at times, but it's good stuff nonetheless. Recommended for any skills.

Important tip: Run "prince_no_wda.exe" (PRINCE~1) instead of PRINCE.exe in order to get the palace walls properly displayed. If you see no walls or just floating yellow pixels, well that's why.
Robert (2025-08-28 04:09:31 UTC)

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