ORIGINALLY AIRED: 9/30/2004

Prince of Persia

Episode #314

When Jordan Mechner started work on his second game after the success of his debut title, Karateka, little did he know that the original Prince of Persia for the Apple II would change the world of gaming forever.

Born in New York, Mechner was fascinated with animated movies and comics from an early age, but turned to computers because he felt it was beyond his means to create an animated film by himself. Though he ends up studying psychology at Yale University, he spends much of his time developing games, which leads to the sale of his first game, Karateka, by Broderbund in his senior year. Karateka, a combat/action game set in feudal Japan, sells over half a million copies.

Following the success of Karateka, Mechner wanted to create his next game based on another rich time period, finding inspiration from the 1001 Nights tales and Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Aiming to incorporate real storytelling into a simple 2-D interface, Mechner works with his father to create the music for the title, and watches his brother's movements to realistically animate the characters. The game is finally completed in 1989, over three years since the start of production.

Though Prince of Persia for the Apple II is a critical success, the Macintosh has already been released and the market for Apple II games is dwindling. Broderbund decides to port the game to consoles and sales take off, selling 2 million copies. Deciding he needs some time off away from games, Mechner goes back to NYU for film school and films Waiting for Dark, a short film that wins awards at several international film festivals. Broderbund puts together a team to work on Prince of Persia 2; though Mechner does not lead the team, he provides creative guidance for the title, and it goes on to further critical and commercial success when it is released in 1994.

In 1997, Mechner releases another game, the fairly obscure The Last Express, which results in dismal sales. Mechner decides he's done with games.

In 1999, Red Orb Entertainment releases Prince of Persia 3D for the PC, which receives embarrassing reviews and is passed off as a Tomb Raider clone. A French company, Ubi Soft, decides to purchase the rights to the franchise and works on reviving the series from their studios in Montreal. They invite Mechner to their studio in 2001 after making some motion-capture samples and show him the early stages of what will become Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, effectively renewing his interest in making games.

The following year, Ubi Soft hired Mechner as a script writer for the game, and the team works on updating the series to create a truly impressive 3D adventure game. Released in November 2003, the game receives immense critical success though not the measure of sales that Ubi Soft had expected. After winning a whopping eight DICE awards that year, the team heads back to work on Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.