Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia is a cinematic platform game developed and published by Broderbund for the Apple II in 1989. It was designed and implemented by Jordan Mechner. Taking place in medieval Persia, players control an unnamed protagonist who must venture through a series of dungeons to defeat the evil Grand Vizier Jaffar and save an imprisoned princess. Much like Karateka, Mechner's first video game, Prince of Persia used rotoscoping for its fluid and realistic animation. For this process, Mechner used as reference for the characters' movements videos of his brother doing acrobatic stunts in white clothes, and swashbuckler films such as The Adventures of Robin Hood. The game was critically acclaimed but was not an immediate commercial success, as it was released at the tail end of the Apple II's relevance. It sold many copies as it was ported to a wide range of platforms. It is believed to have been the first cinematic platformer and inspired many games in this subgenre, such as Another World.