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Prince of Persia Source Code Released On Github

Posted by Soulskill on from the going-back-in-time dept.

rbarreira writes "The source code for the original Prince of Persia game has been released on github by its author, Jordan Mechner. This release comes three weeks after Jordan announced the find of a box containing old floppy disks that had been forgotten in the back of a closet for 20+ years. A 'digital archeology' effort was launched to recover the contents of the floppy disks, with the help of Jason Scott from textfiles.com. Some photos from the 'copy party' have also been posted."

101 comments

  1. Praise the lord by rtega · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Or should one say: Insha'Allah

    1. Re:Praise the lord by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      You want to say, "AlhumdilAllah," for "Praise the lord." "Insha'Allah" means "If God wills (it)."

    2. Re:Praise the lord by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 5, Funny

      Obviously not a programmer. "if god wills it" sounds like me in college negotiating with my compiler.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    3. Re:Praise the lord by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's too much effort. I just put a screwdriver on the case when I was typing. Occasionally you pick it up and give it a twirl.

      My programs always compiled.

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    4. Re:Praise the lord by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I wish the characters in this game could be depicted as Zoroastrian, so that one doesn't have to automatically tie the fair name of Persia with islam. After all, Persia WAS a Zoroastrian country before it Islamized, and what's more, Zoroastrianism is a native Persian religion, whereas Islam (both Shia and Sunni). It wasn't ALWAYS an Islamic country.

    5. Re:Praise the lord by dave420 · · Score: 0

      Why does it matter so much? Is Islam really that dirty a word to you? Are you that much of a dick?

    6. Re:Praise the lord by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Interesting idea, does that mean I should object when someone portrays Brits as being Christian, as it's clearly not from around here? That's the thing about religions, they spread. Pretty much the defining feature in some ways.

  2. browsing the source by hackula · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is terrific. It is awesome looking through the source; kind of like a time capsule.

    1. Re:browsing the source by hackula · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Also-- just an aside-- the code is exceptionally clean.

    2. Re:browsing the source by bfandreas · · Score: 4, Informative

      Prince of Persia was a very novel and highly frustrating game. I remember getting all the way on PC just to fail near the end boss. I vividly remember a mirror...
      The motion of the player character was so fluid it simply fascinated me back in the day. It did fit onto on floppy.

      Now, a couple of sequels later(mostly pompous irrelevant wasteful and shallow money grabbing console games and as I've been told a movie on top of that) the original still stands out. It had a certain elegant charme. And very grizzly deaths. After a while I got sick of being sliced up, spiked, smashed, mauled and grieviously injured to be honest. It was very raphic.
      And it did fit onto one floppy. It's nice to see one of the ol masterpieces revealed. Did he include the artwork?

      --
      20 minutes into the future
    3. Re:browsing the source by RaySnake · · Score: 5, Informative

      At that time Jordan kept a bunch of journals of the development process, they're all online. He even has video of the motion captures he did of his brother, these were used to animate the Prince and it's really uncanny to see how much of that came through in the game. Warning, if you click the link be prepared to waste a LOT of time reading, it's addictive. http://jordanmechner.com/old-journals/1985/10/october-20-1985/

    4. Re:browsing the source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Just to make this clear:
      - Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time was another masterpiece
      - Warrior Within was a bit meh, but still a good game
      - Two Thrones was better, but still not as good as SoT (mostly because the characters where shallower)
      - The new series had a promising start, though it had neither good gameplay nor a story that had anything that could even resemble a good ending
      - I didn't play Forgotten Sands, but mostly because I don't like publishers milking finished story lines
      - The movie was a generic action movie that had nothing to do with SoT apart from some prince and some dagger

    5. Re:browsing the source by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Actually, years ago in the 90s when I first played it on a PC, I found the final level - fighting Jaffar - to be easier than some of the earlier ones, like walking through the saws, taking the long jump to cross a major gap, and so on. Recently, I had this game on my Mot Razr (not the Android phone, the original Razr) and I found that at a certain level, I was unable to defeat one of the guards.

      I agree that in most cases, the games didn't improve. Civilization was a notable exception. I always wished that Prince could be similarly ported. Now, with the original Prince of 20 years ago being released, we could have it ported to all platforms and run on phones, tablets, PCs, as well as on varied OSs, like Linux, BSD, in addition to MacOS and Windows.

    6. Re:browsing the source by Whorhay · · Score: 2

      I think I was in middle school when I got this game. It took a bit of effort once I recognized the time limit. It became not just a matter of defeating a level but being able to beat it quickly. That principle was particularly important early in the game other wise you would leave yourself very little time for experimentation in later levels.

      The two things I remember most are the mirror image "fight" and the display inversion potion. Both of which to me were really neat twists. I don't know how inovative they really were but I hadn't seen them before.

    7. Re:browsing the source by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Sands of Time was very good. Very much about exploration and puzzle solving, similar to the original games. Even the combat was okay.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    8. Re:browsing the source by unixisc · · Score: 1

      The coolest was one time when I forced the enemy to retreat into the shifting saws, which really chopped him up. Then, it was just a case of crossing them.

  3. What about the legal implications? by lostmagik · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Can he do that? Wont he get sued over?

    1. Re:What about the legal implications? by Desler · · Score: 5, Informative

      Why wouldn't he be able to do so when he's the copyright holder?

      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.

      And, no, I doubt he'll sue himself.

    2. Re:What about the legal implications? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LICENSE file says that this file below contains licensing information, but it doesn't

      https://github.com/jmechner/Prince-of-Persia-Apple-II/blob/master/README.mkd

      however, file has been edited two hours ago.

    3. Re:What about the legal implications? by Shoe+Puppet · · Score: 5, Informative

      We did this for fun, not profit. 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.

      --
      (+1, Disagree)
    4. Re:What about the legal implications? by Thuktun · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Depends on how specifically Brøderbund acquired the original rights to the game back in 1989, and how subsequent holders acquired their rights. I'm not a lawyer, but I would expect that if the agreements included source code, they might have expected transfer of copyright ownership.

    5. Re:What about the legal implications? by godrik · · Score: 4, Funny

      Lawyers are really good these days. You never know what they will come up with!

    6. Re:What about the legal implications? by busyqth · · Score: 5, Informative

      Broderbund was just a publisher, at least for the Apple II version. They marketed and sold the game, and paid royalties to Jordan, who retained the rights.

    7. Re:What about the legal implications? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      I could see him running back and fourth from the plaintif chair to the defendant chair as the lawyers argue....made me lol.

    8. Re:What about the legal implications? by schroedingers_hat · · Score: 4, Funny

      Clearly he's stealing revenue from the big publishers. Every game someone acquires or plays is a potential $80 for them, and by allowing someone to play a game without giving the publishers $80, he is TAKING THEIR MONEY.

    9. Re:What about the legal implications? by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Publishers, being the ones that do the duplication, must have at least *some* rights transferred to them. Many essentially require *all* rights signed over, after all, what would have happened if the game took off and he decided to increase profit by self-publishing?

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    10. Re:What about the legal implications? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Publishers, being the ones that do the duplication, must have at least *some* rights transferred to them. Many essentially require *all* rights signed over, after all, what would have happened if the game took off and he decided to increase profit by self-publishing?

      Self-publishing a big game in 89? Haha, sure. If he needed more money he could always hop in his time machine, create a project on Kickstarter and go back to the past.
      Publishers do not require the rights of the game, that'd be nuts. All they need is an agreement, publisher handles marketing, sales and profits, developers handle the work.

    11. Re:What about the legal implications? by Gr8Apes · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, publishers don't need rights transferred to them, nor do they need ownership of any sort. All the need is to be granted the rights required to publish and that can be for a limited timeframe and/or number of copies even. This is how copyright was originally envisioned to work. Creators retained their copyright, and granted generally via contract to a second party, if necessary, the right to copy the work. Just take a look at how things worked even as recently as the late 1800s. Authors did a lot of self-publishing.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    12. Re:What about the legal implications? by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      No, publishers don't need rights transferred to them, [...]All the need is to be granted the rights[...]

      So they don't need rights, other than the rights they need. You are agreeing with me in the most disagreeable way possible, but I don't see the distinction.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    13. Re:What about the legal implications? by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      simple - they don't need to own the copyright. A contractual permission is sufficient.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    14. Re:What about the legal implications? by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      I never said they must "own" the copyright. Not only are you contradicting yourself in that they need nothing, other than what they need, you are also lying about what I said.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    15. Re:What about the legal implications? by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      Many essentially require *all* rights signed over, after all, what would have happened if the game took off and he decided to increase profit by self-publishing?

      Essentially - all publishers "require" effective ownership be transferred unless you have enough pull to become your own publisher (aka Rowling, and maybe someone like Stephen King) My statement is that this entire concept is a sham that completely undermines the original intent of copyright. (same issues in the music industry, movies not as much since movies are generally no longer made by individuals or small groups of principals)

      I'm not sure what your issue is. I certainly didn't contradict myself or lie about anything you said, merely stating that the current situation is a travesty, and that all that's required is a contractual limited grant to copy, despite what the publishers desire,

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
  4. I love some of the pics.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The times where you see a ton of really old tech, taking up a whole table, crunching away, and a blackberry sitting on top of one of the computers, which probably has more processing power than all those computers put together, make a really cool pic :)

    1. Re:I love some of the pics.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If only I didn't have to look at the played out trollface...

    2. Re:I love some of the pics.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Isn't Blackberry really old technology too?

  5. Geeze by Hatta · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This would have helped the guy who ported it to the C64. Although, that might have spoiled some of the fun.

    --
    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    1. Re:Geeze by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      To quote the blog you link to: "The C64 conversion of Prince of Persia, based on the original Apple II code by Jordan Mechner has been released today." That was on "Sunday, October 16, 2011", So were did these sources come from and why was the data salvage operation we're reading about now required, is the port based on incomplete sources?

    2. Re:Geeze by rbarreira · · Score: 1

      Perhaps they ported from disassembled binaries and not the original, cleaner and commented source.

      --

      The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
    3. Re:Geeze by Hatta · · Score: 1

      Yes, the port was based on a disassembly of the original Apple II PoP binary. Since the Apple II, C64, Atari 800, etc. share the same CPU porting software between the platforms is a common hobby project for retrocomputing enthusiasts.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    4. Re:Geeze by abldvlpr · · Score: 1
      If you look at the comments from the same page, below the blog post you can answer the question.

      MrSid: ...Thanks for creating an awesome game. I've spent most of the last 2.5 years digging through your work, dissecting it and putting it back together in different form. It was a huge pleasure working on making the kid run and jump again...

      Jordan: I'm amazed and humbled by the amount of work this must have taken. Did you actually work from the disassembled Apple II 6502 object code? Because the Apple II source code is lost, as far as I know... at least I've never been able to find a copy.

  6. Awesome by deblau · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is unbelievably cool, and everyone involved deserves a beer. If you're in the Boston area, send me a tweet @DavidEBlau and I'll buy you drinks for the night!

    --
    This post expresses my opinion, not that of my employer. And yes, IAAL.
  7. New terminology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    'digital archeology': the act of trying to find a functioning drive to read whatever old storage format was in use.

    Easy dig: 3.5" floppy
    Hard dig: 5.25" floppy
    Very hard dig: proprietary tape backup (any)
    Extremely hard dig: LS120 (I can joke about this because I had one, and 5 discs for it)

    1. Re:New terminology by Pentium100 · · Score: 1

      3.5", 5.25" floppies, LS120, 3.5" MO - easy (I have the drives). 8" floppy - really hard.

      I like old tech and keep it around. Mainly audio stuff though, as I don't come across old computer stuff often... I have a working 286 and a CGA card for really old games (and an ISA VGA card for a bit newer games).

    2. Re:New terminology by ledow · · Score: 1

      Think an LS120 is hard?

      I had a parallel port Syquest Sparq drive, used MO disks and stored 1Gb - a sort of expensive contemporary of the ZIP disk at the time.

      I defy you to find a working model because a) drivers don't exist for anything much past Windows 95 (even had DOS drivers, which is where I used it), b) they were inherently flaky and failed over time (my personal one went back twice in the first year).

      I still have three disks for these - God knows what's on them, because the only drive I still have is a parallel port model and I have no machines with parallel ports any more (I doubt USB ones would work because it used to play all sorts of tricks and drivers to get reasonable speeds).

    3. Re:New terminology by 0123456 · · Score: 1

      I had a 2GB tape backup system that recorded to VHS tapes. So at a minimum you'd need the ISA card, a Win 95/98 box you could plug the card into and a VHS tape player.

      I removed my LS-120 drive a few years ago for reasons I can't remember. Probably either the drive died or they stopped selling LS-120 disks.

    4. Re:New terminology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I hollowed out my LS120 and taped the drive door to the back of the front faceplate. That way I could put a small tray inside the hollow box, pop the front off, and slide it in or out concealing the goods.

      I hid my pot in there from my dad. I'd just pop the front plate off, slide out my plastic tray, smoke, and put it all back. It sat right on my desk in my room and due to said uselessness it was the only device my parents or siblings would never touch or even bother to slide a disk in. Good thing they didn't because mine was hollow and somehow far more useful than the ones you guys all had.

      Cliffnotes: My LS120 was hollowed out and made a weed stash box. It was more useful than yours :)
      Captcha: Unopened

    5. Re:New terminology by mmcxii · · Score: 1

      You can still get the disks and you can still get the drives if you really wanted to. The OP was incorrect... this isn't a hard dig at all. I could have a drive and the media for it before the weekend if I really wanted it.

    6. Re:New terminology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a Betamax of Ghostbusters. Apparently better than the original, cause its old.

    7. Re:New terminology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice! That's even portable if need be!
      The way I did it was I moved my CD-ROM to the 2nd bay, and loosened the bay cover's clips so it could (with a small screwdriver) be popped off the front and my stash&pipe sat on top of my CD-ROM. Going to a LAN party meant I'd have to relocate my stash(usually to my pocket...this is a party right?)

    8. Re:New terminology by Tastecicles · · Score: 1

      hmmm...

      Easy dig: 3.5" floppy
      Easy dig: 5.25" floppy (though the controller might be a problem since I have an ISA card for it and no motherboard with an ISA slot - that said I do have a Commodore CP/M external drive as well)
      Easy dig: 3" floppy (take your pick: I have a Sinclair +3, access to a still functioning Amstrad CPW6128, and a custom wired bare drive to RS232 serial interface)
      Easy dig: DC300 tape
      Easy dig: HP Colorado 8 DAT (one internal with PCI controller card and one external SCSI)
      Easy dig: LS120 (have a drive in my old but still used file server)
      Easy dig: Zip250 (ditto), also an external Zip100

      What I would really love to get my hands on is a pristine Mark I Plusdeck IDE cassette drive - it has to be the IDE one because you couldn't stream both sides of a 90-minute tape at once in 90 seconds with the USB version - and I have a LOT of tapes which would take literally years to rip at 1x.

      --
      Operation Guillotine is in effect.
    9. Re:New terminology by Hamsterdan · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't you lose high frequencies by running the tape at much higher speeds than it was recorded at (unless the heads are very, very, very sensitive)?

      --
      I've got better things to do tonight than die.
    10. Re:New terminology by symbolset · · Score: 1

      I understand the electronic heads are more sensitive to high frequencies than your ears are.

      --
      Help stamp out iliturcy.
    11. Re:New terminology by Tastecicles · · Score: 1

      apparently not, the IDE model can always stream data faster than it can run the tape. That said, I've always been a fan of the XDR Soundburst - where a climbing tone at the beginning of each side is used to gauge the quality of the tape. If any part of the XDR tone drops... let's just say, I don't have many IEC Type I tapes. They're all Type II (CrO2) or Type IV (Metal). And yes, the heads are designed to be very responsive and very sensitive for the tape to stream that fast. My only real concern is the number of times I'd have to clean the heads of oxide buildup...

      --
      Operation Guillotine is in effect.
    12. Re:New terminology by Miamicanes · · Score: 1

      Impossible dig: QicEXtra tapes from sometime around 1995. For those who don't remember them, they were tapes that were supposedly compatible with Qic40/80 drives, but were roughly 3X as deep (with 2/3 the tape cartridge hanging out of the drive).

      Seriously. Those damn tapes were "write-only roach-motel media" -- bits got in, and never got out. :-(

    13. Re:New terminology by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      As a parent, keep the stories coming. I'm sure that someday I'll need them to find the stash.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    14. Re:New terminology by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      I had an RLL HD from my XT long after the XT was discarded, and if I still had it, I'd have no idea how to get it spun up in a modern computer. My 5+ year old computer doesn't even have an ISA expansion slot for a controller.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    15. Re:New terminology by operagost · · Score: 1

      You might have better luck finding an IDE Sparq and using that. Even if you don't have IDE ports in your PC, a working PC that does can be found anywhere, probably for free.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    16. Re:New terminology by mikael_j · · Score: 2

      Our computer club in HS had a PDP-11/04 with a couple of 8" floppy drives. Wasn't very useful though, the most that thing seemed to be able to do was boot up and make clunking sounds with the floppy drives. We also occasionally used it to test how sturdy other hardware was (it was mounted in a full-height 19" rack on wheels). IBM workstation hardware was no match for the mighty PDP (although we did almost topple it over a friend of mine when crushing what I think was a DAT unit for an RS/6000).

      We considered throwing it from the 4th floor but it wouldn't fit through the window that led out to the fire escape...

      --
      Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
    17. Re:New terminology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Youngsters. Try reading LINCtape.

      I got to meet the last the last working LINC a long, long time ago. That lab never decommissioned *anything* if they could avoid it, because repeating an experiment with different equipment is *not the same thing* as verifying the original experiment.

    18. Re:New terminology by Malvineous · · Score: 1

      FWIW I have three 8" floppy drives and am happy to help anyone try to recover their old 8" disks with a low-level read from a Kryoflux. Just ask on their forums.

    19. Re:New terminology by NJRoadfan · · Score: 1

      Could be worse, how about 1.6MB GCR formatted 3.5" HD floppies? Applied Engineering made such a drive for the Apple IIgs. It didn't require any controllers since it used the onboard IWM chip. Instead of the 800k DSDD disks it normally uses, the AE drive also wrote 1600k DSHD disks using GCR. Neat trick, but a nightmare for data recovery, although Tony Diaz (in the linked pictures and who provided a lot of Apple II hardware for this task) should have a few of the drives and the GS/OS driver.

    20. Re:New terminology by Chris+Brewer · · Score: 1

      You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o'clock this afternoon... with nail polish.

      Sorry. Had to. :)

      --
      Consultancy: If you're not part of the solution, there's money to be made in prolonging the problem
  8. I sense a connection... by Fned · · Score: 5, Funny

    Prince of Persia

    Source Code ... but I can't quite put my finger on it.

    1. Re:I sense a connection... by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 1

      That's very very good!

      --
      Summation 2
    2. Re:I sense a connection... by BlueLightning · · Score: 1

      Yep, both movies involved time travel.

      Wait... that wasn't what you meant?

    3. Re:I sense a connection... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Both main actors have their first name starting with Jake

  9. I wish this would happen for Daggerfall by mark-t · · Score: 1

    [NT]

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  10. Can't run it by Xtifr · · Score: 2

    Damn, my brother just finally got rid of his Apple ][+ last year, or we could have given this a try. :)

    1. Re:Can't run it by Thuktun · · Score: 2, Informative

      hint

    2. Re:Can't run it by Xtifr · · Score: 1

      Sorry, nowhere near as much fun! :p ;)

      (Plus, he actually had things like the high-quality professional assembler you'd need to build this. I seriously doubt that the built-in ROM assembler is up to the task.)

  11. Game programing for DOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Back in the '90s Coriolis Books published some nice books about 2D and 3D game programming for DOS, including a big heavy one by Michael Abrash. A woman named Diane Gruber wrote a nice text about developing a side-scroller game that re-used tiles as much as possible to conserve RAM.

    Some of these are still available used on amazon.com, or as free e-book downloads on google (don't know about whether the latter were cleared with the publisher though).

  12. Props to Slashdot Coders by oldhack · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't do this often, but massive props to the slashdot web monkeys - that story icon is just awesome. Actually, your whole last site overhaul is pretty neat.

    --
    Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
    1. Re:Props to Slashdot Coders by oldhack · · Score: 1

      While I'm at it, I also like how this "lamer" dude is selecting/summarizing stories, unlike that troll clown samzenpus. :-)

      --
      Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
  13. Question for Author by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 1

    jsr setback ;draw on bg plane

    Were there snakes on this plane?

    1. Re:Question for Author by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      that is a differnt type of plane

  14. We've come a long way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Never thought I'd see an actual game programmed in assembly.

    1. Re:We've come a long way by jones_supa · · Score: 2

      What has also amazed me that something as modern as the original Rollercoaster Tycoon is programmed using assembly (with some higher level DirectX glue). Would be interesting to see the source.

  15. Excellent news by flimflammer · · Score: 2

    His journal is certainly an interesting read as well as the source. Shame it costs money for the whole thing, but I'm interested enough that I think I'll pick it up.

    1. Re:Excellent news by Jmc23 · · Score: 1

      Or you could read it for free here http://jordanmechner.com/old-journals/

      --
      Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
  16. idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hope this inactivate more source code from famous yet somehow forgotten games to show up *coff* wasteland *coff*

  17. Copy party? by Sarten-X · · Score: 1

    Wait... a copy party? So they did copy that floppy? Oh dear...

    --
    You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
  18. Time Limit by Machtyn · · Score: 2

    Hmm, if I can figure out how to compile the thing for a modern x86, I'd take that darn 60 minute time limit off... or at least increase it to 90 minutes and finally finish the darn game. Twice I got to the second to last level, once looking at the doorway, when time ran out.

    1. Re:Time Limit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      try... "prince megahit" and increase the time with I think it was the + key, or was that for the life ?....

    2. Re:Time Limit by jones_supa · · Score: 1

      You can modify your savegame in a hex editor and increase the time.

    3. Re:Time Limit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you could save? that might habe been helpful to know..

    4. Re:Time Limit by jones_supa · · Score: 1

      Yes, at least in the PC version there is indeed a load/save function. They are a bit hidden but I think they were CTRL+something. You always begin from the start of a level.

    5. Re:Time Limit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm, if I can figure out how to compile the thing for a modern x86, I'd take that darn 60 minute time limit off... or at least increase it to 90 minutes and finally finish the darn game. Twice I got to the second to last level, once looking at the doorway, when time ran out.

      I had a cracked copy for the Amiga - infinite lives and no f'ing timer. Still was ridiculously hard to beat.

  19. Can anyone explain the color files? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't understand, they sound like part of the copy protection.

  20. Ouch by countach · · Score: 1

    Took a glance at the code. Boy am I glad the days of assembler are over. Probably was fun to hand craft this super fast code, but I'd be surprised if anyone can be bothered figuring it out now.

    1. Re:Ouch by Desler · · Score: 1

      It's days aren't over. It's still used for SIMD optimization in game engnes, video/audio/image codecs, embedded work, etc. just because your janky LOB or bloated Java 'enterprise' apps don't use it doesn't mean it's over.

    2. Re:Ouch by rbarreira · · Score: 1

      Indeed. And it's definitely not true that compilers always do a better job of optimizing than humans. Compilers are much better than they used to be, but for certain specific routines they still can't beat an expert Assembly programmer who can try out several strategies in a flexible optimize-benchmark-optimize feedback loop that compilers aren't able to do.

      --

      The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
  21. Fucked up license by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Too bad, makes all this useless.

  22. FAST CAR! by TechnoCore · · Score: 1

    Awesome read! At the JANUARY 29, 1987, entry,

    "Roland is a hacker of the old school. He’s polite and unprepossessing in his dress and demeanor, careful about money and contracts. He drives a Saab with license plate SNABBIL."

    That plate text translates to FAST CAR in Swedish... doubt if he knew... since he didn't comment on it ;)

  23. 5-1/4" USB Floppy Drive? by whitefox · · Score: 1

    I have a collection of 5-1/4" floppies that I've partially archived using an old PC. But I would rally love to use a 5-1/4" USB floppy drive to complete the process. So far I haven't come across anything - not even hints on converting a USB 3-1/2" if it's possible. Any suggestions?