Prince of Persia animation reference videos

The animation of the characters in Prince of Persia (1989) was unique at the time, and was done by using a technique called rotoscoping - a live actor is filmed with a camera, and the animator then traces over the footage, frame by frame, to achieve a more life-like animation. This technique was also used in games like Another World and Flashback, inspired by Prince of Persia.

Here are some of the reference videos used for the rotoscoping in Prince of Persia. These videos were taken from Jordan Mechner's own YouTube channel, found here. The Prince in the videos was played by Mechner's younger brother David, who did the running and jumping in his high school parking lot!



And here are some of the early results:

Behind the scenes of The Last Express

Following up on my previous post on Jordan Mechner, here's a short behind-the-scenes look at his 1997 adventure game The Last Express. Unfortunately, the game was not a commercial success, despite receiving positive reviews. Still, Mechner considers The Last Express to be his greatest title.

"From Bedroom to Attic: Making Prince of Persia" by Jordan Mechner

Jordan Mechner (Karateka, Prince of Persia, The Last Express) was a special guest at the onGameStart conference in Warsaw, Poland, in September 2012. There, he told a fascinating and inspiring story about his life and career, going from programming games in his bedroom, to writing scripts for movies in Hollywood. His most famous work is the Prince of Persia franchise, which began in 1989 with the release of Prince of Persia on the Apple II. Mechner spent three years creating the game almost entirely on his own, drawing inspiration from silent movies, and using a technique called rotoscoping to produce the game's fluid animation, which at the time was unique in video games.

He also talked about how technical limitations can inspire creativity, why being burned out can be a good thing, and how the "dumbest mistakes" sometimes lead to the biggest successes. A truely inspirational talk, and also a must-see for fans of Prince of Persia.

Update

John Romero plays the first episode of Doom has been updated with a bonus part. Check it out!

Populous post-mortem with Peter Molyneux

Another fascinating post-mortem from GDC 2011.

(description TBA)

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem

A visit to id Software

Ever wondered what it was like at the office of id Software (Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake) back in the days? Ever wished you could go back in time and see what the guys were up to? Well, you can! In this video uploaded to Vimeo by John Romero himself, we get an exclusive behind-the-scenes peak at their office in Mesquite, Dallas, Texas, one day in November 1993. At the time, id Software were busy finishing up Doom, which shipped just a month later.

Romero writes:

In 1993, Dan Linton, owner of a hugely successful BBS called Software Creations, visited Texas and made his way to id Software. This is the footage he recorded one night in November 1993. Shown are several of id's employees at the time: Jay Wilbur, Shawn Green, John Romero, Dave Taylor, Sandy Petersen and Adrian Carmack. Bobby Prince was visiting to finish the music and create the sound effects. This video has 21 minutes of me playing DOOM before the sound effects were put in as well as some early deathmatching with Shawn Green.

You can also watch this video on YouTube, here.

We Play Doom With John Romero

Here's some more John Romero goodness. In this one hour and thirty minutes long video, Ryan McCaffrey from IGN sits down with Romero for a co-op playthrough of Doom's original episode, "Knee-Deep in the Dead". Romero shares some interesting stories and secrets about its levels, and we get to learn some fun trivia about the game (for example, how to properly announce "gib"). This is a great video both for fans of the game, and for people interested in level design.

If you enjoy watching this video, make sure you also check out John Romero plays the first episode of Doom.