Prince of Persia is, from every point of view, an inexhaustible classic. Its creator Jordan Mechner revolutionized the industry with the use of rotoscoping for its animations, giving birth to an entire franchise that includes graphic novels and a film adaptation. It was in May 2012 that Mechner shared the source code of the original version, and since then several conversions have emerged, among which the SDLPoP project stands out. If you want to play Prince of Persia in open source version without creating virtual machines or special environments, this is exactly what you're looking for.
In some cases, the best way to rescue a classic video game is through an open source conversion, whether partial or total. We have examples like OpenTTD, a free and open variant of Transport Tycoon, Freeciv with its default mode aligned with Civilization II, and titles that require the original files, such as OpenXcom and Chocolate Doom. However, today we are going to go a little further back, 1989 to be precise.
That year, Prince of Persia debuted on the market for the Apple II computer. Its creator Jordan Mechner explained the technical difficulties he had to face during its development, but the most important thing is that in 2012 he recovered its source code and published it on the Internet. Mods and adaptations did not take long to appear, but if there is one that stands out above the rest, it is SDLPoP, maintained by Dávid Nagy on GitHub.
SDLPoP: Prince of Persia open source, now and forever
SDLPoP is not limited to reproducing the levels with their sounds and cutscenes. It also includes multiple functions that did not exist in the original game, such as recording and replay, screenshot capture, improved save/load support, fast forward, and shortcuts to switch from keyboard to gamepad and vice versa. However, even more important is the execution of mods, and the possibility of modifying both the resolution and the aspect ratio, either by editing its .ini file or using its configuration menu.
As if that were not enough, SDLPoP fixes several bugs present in the game, but we must activate them manually by placing the Enhancements section of the .ini file to "True". To that we add the change of colors in the palette, and modifications that allow you to make the game easier or harder (cheats, fewer available minutes, hitpoints, level jumps, etc.).
SDLPoP is compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac, but its compiled versions are not available on the GitHub profile. To find them you must visit the Prince of Persia: Original Trilogy portal. The latest version is 1.22, published in early July 2021. My only personal recommendation is to deactivate "Special keys" under Windows, because it conflicts with the use of Shift when fighting. Prince of Persia open source, free and without conflicts on modern operating systems. What are you waiting for...?
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