Unlikely wrote:

ROTOSCOPING or something.  

That’s exactly what it’s called. Filming people and then tracing over the footage frame by frame. First used by Disney for Snow White.

Heh. That was a real bugbear at the time. Released for the Amiga but not the ST.

No no no, that's not the way it happened.

It probably does, I didn't doubt you in the first place (was just quoting the prince).

Coincidentally enough I've just (sort of) finished Prince of Persia on the Snes. I've reached the second to last level which is a boss rush and I've got about two minutes left on the clock. I think there's 5 of them and then the main guy in the next level. So there's no chance of me doing it in that time. I either have to start again or become a speed run expert. 

The DOS one is considered the definitive version of the original one hour version I think. The Snes one has more graphical bells and whistles, very decent soundtrack, loads more levels and you've got two hours to complete it. Bloody tricky though. Combing later levels to find the right sequence of out of place tiles you need to press and gates to go through and stuff, all against the clock. If I'd tried a bit more to optimise the time taken in the easier first half then I'd have made it. Some classic level design though. The controls are a bit stiff - probably one of the problems of getting smooth rotoscoping is that you lose a bit of responsiveness. But the game is built around that so you don't notice it too much. I'd say Flashback, despite making some improvements on the basics, suffers a bit more.

Aye - SNES PoP soundtrack is very nice.

One of the few games I stayed the distance with back then.

poprock wrote:

I think the Mac version is the original. It was ported to DOS, wasn’t it?

Yeah but more colours or something on DOS. The original was on everything and ported by all sorts of teams. I had the MS version originally but I didn't get very far with it. When I decided I was going to replay it, I was looking for the best format to play it on and found this vid. Worth a watch if you're interested. 

There was an XBLA version that was quite well received early on.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

There was an XBLA version that was quite well received early on.

that's the one, was more or less the OG game with 3d graphics on top if i recall.

Smang wrote:

Moot_Geeza wrote:

There was an XBLA version that was quite well received early on.

that's the one, was more or less the OG game with 3d graphics on top if i recall.

XBLA version had an odd mix of framerates as well, some played at 60fps, some 30fps.

Maybe that was it - think I'd have remembered that though. I can remember mashing parry and attack with two fingers alternately which seemed to work with most bosses once you got the timing right. I bought this game when SNES was contemporary.  Still have it boxed and with the manual.

It was £50 back then in the Belfast Virgin Megastore , say '93 - that's about £100 today. I had just started my full time perm job in IT at the time. So I had money and the SNES was my console of choice. So that console has a real warm giggly feel for me. I don't think I could stand parting with those games even though I know they are rarely played and are worth a packet. PoP is probably close to holding its value at today's rates.

I paid £14.99 for a second hand US version on 04.06.1994 - just checked the receipt.

davyK wrote:

Is Dreamcast retro? I'm guessing it is.

I didn't know there were hidden characters in Cosmic Smash..

http://www.ribbonblack.com/2017/06/cosmic-smash-undiscovered-secret.html

An absolute gem of a game. Sega at its stylistic best.

cosmic smash was a game i could never find when i was dreamcasting. a quick google tells me it might still be pretty rare

It never did get a UK release so was always restricted to enthusiasts here.