How Prince of Persia Defeated Apple II's Memory Limitations | War Stories | Ars Technica

Ars Technica · 1.5M views · 2020-03-17 · 20:49

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Overview

In an Ars Technica War Stories episode, Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner describes how he made the game on the Apple II, fighting hardware memory limits and the platform's decline. It covers the rotoscoped animation and the engineering tricks involved.

On Hacker News

Repeatedly called essential viewing for game development history and clever work under memory constraints.

Recommended by 5 HN people across 4 months · HN mentions 2020–2026

Topics

Game history & retro gaming Demoscene & retrocomputing Animation & visual effects

What people said

mscdex · 2026-06 · Strong recommendation
If you haven't already seen it, I highly recommend watching the "War Stories" video on the making of Prince of Persia: [VIDEO] On a related note, I also highly recommend the "War Stories" video for the making of Crash Bandicoot: [LINK]
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stefanos82 · 2026-06 · Strong recommendation
I have watched the creator explaining to us in great detail how he came up with so many tiny details that made it a perfect game for its time! Just watch it yourself, you will be in awe! [VIDEO]
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barishnamazov · 2025-09 · Strong recommendation
> "For the first time I felt what it's really like to play Prince of Persia when you're not the author and don't already know by rote what's lurking around every corner." This perfectly captures why code reviews by someone who didn't write the original are so valuable. You can't unsee your own assumptions. I remember seeing the following short but extremely interesting documentary about makings of the game as well: [VIDEO] - Essential viewing for anyone interested in game development history.
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