Original Prince of Persia source-code discovered, posted as free software

Jordan Mechner, creator of the classic bestselling video-game Prince of Persia recently discovered the floppies with the game's original sourcecode in a closet, where they'd sat for more than 20 years. He'd long believed the discs to be lost. Jubilant at their rediscovery, he's released the game as free/open code, with the source available on GitHub. The source awaits your download and remixing!

Prince of Persia Source Code Released On Github

(Images: Prince of Persia Source Code — Found!, jordanmechner.com; Original Prince of Persia game (screenshot), Softpedia)

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Ripcord2

I’ve seen this on 10 or so different sites now, and it’s funny to me that the screenshots are always from the MS-DOS port, and not the original Apple II version (which this code is for).
- http://aqfl.net Ant
  
  And the only PoP source available out there at this time. FYI, you can play Apple 2 port on http://www.virtualapple.org/princeofpersiadisk.html …
  - Cowicide
    
    Oh, the irony…
Ripcord2

Though it is the better (and much prettier) version.
- SoItBegins
  
  The old Macintosh (not Apple II, System ~6 Mac) version is even prettier. Better MIDI, too.
- http://aqfl.net Ant
  
  Is that Xbox 360 version based on the original? It looks very pretty! Too bad no Windows version since I haven’t had a video game console since Atari 2600.
http://www.facebook.com/frank.farmer Frank Farmer

Apparently the source is incomplete, and as such not executable in its current form. https://github.com/jmechner/Prince-of-Persia-Apple-II/issues/1
- morcheeba
  
  I don’t see the graphics included, so you can’t build it.
  
  But there is the source code to their copy-protection – it is obfuscated and you can see both the original source and the de-obfuscator.
  
  Most interesting is their proprietary 18-sector disc format (instead of the usual 16 sector). I researched this more last night – apparently, if you slow your drive down, you can record 18 sectors that will still be readable by normal-speed drives. Not only does this get you more data on a disc, but it also means that a normal drive can’t make a copy of it.
Westfakia

Amazing in two ways: first, that the floppies were still readable, and secondly, that he could find a system with a working floppy drive to read them with. Bravo on both counts!
- http://www.mrericsir.com MrEricSir
  
  Have you seen the photos? This looks like it was a rather involved project.
regeya

Haven’t looked at it yet, but I’m sure it’ll make me wish I knew assembly for the Apple II. Coders from that era wrote code that was virtually indistinguishable from magic.
- http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith
  
  6502 assembly is the easiest in the world to work on. I did a lot of that on Apple ][s at high school.
morcheeba

The source code isn’t well commented, but be sure to check out this awesome technical document mentioned in the README: http://jordanmechner.com/wp-content/uploads/1989/10/popsource009.pdf
BarBarSeven

Hey, Atari 800xL here. RESPECT!
http://hackertarget.com/ i_hack_sites

1. Jump
2. Catch the ledge
3. Repeat

A great game. :)
http://www.mrericsir.com MrEricSir

Wonder how many lines of code a similar game in say PyGame or Love2D would come out to.
http://skewed.de/tiago/ Tiago Peixoto

This is not free software. From the readme file:

“As the author and copyright holder of this source code, I personally have no problem with anyone studying it, modifying it, attempting to run it, etc. Please understand that this does NOT constitute a grant of rights of any kind in Prince of Persia, which is an ongoing Ubisoft game franchise. Ubisoft alone has the right to make and distribute Prince of Persia games.”
- http://shadowfirebird.tumblr.com shadowfirebird
  
  But, you could in theory use the code to write, say, “Prints of Atlanta” (a platform game about a US photographer).
  
  That ran on an Apple II.
  - http://skewed.de/tiago/ Tiago Peixoto
    
    It is hard to tell. The code does not come with an actual, clearly-written license. Only the above statement. Notice he does not at all mention_distributing_ any modifications you make.
    
    Strictly speaking, this is not free software (nor even open source) by a long shot.
digi_owl

Ah Brøderbund.
- http://aqfl.net Ant
  
  They’re still around too!
  - digi_owl
    
    In the same way as Atari is?
    - http://aqfl.net Ant
      
      True.