PRINCE OF PERSIA

 Some games boast powerful graphics, some brag about their great sound. Well,
PRINCE OF PERSIA from Broderbund may not have the best graphics or the best
sound, but the animation is _awesome_! It'd be hard to find a game anywhere that
is animated so perfectly. The characters on screen seem to come alive with
realistic movement. PRINCE OF PERSIA is sure to be a classic. (This review is
based on the Apple II version; IBM-PC version notes follow.)

 PRINCE OF PERSIA is set during a time when there are Sultans and princesses. It
seems that while the Sultan is off fighting a foreign war, his Grand Vizier
Jaffer has seized power in the land. You (of course) are the only obstacle in
his way. Your character is an adventurer from a foreign land, innocent of the
events that have been occurring in the palace. Naturally, you have won the heart
of the Sultan's lovely daughter, and made a powerful enemy in the process.
Jaffar orders you to be arrested, and gives the princess a choice: She can marry
him in one hour, or die. The Princess is locked in her room; you are her only
hope of salvation.

 PRINCE OF PERSIA plays wonderfully. You start out in a dungeon in which you
must find a sword to fight your way out. Fighting is simply executed with your
joystick. The only problem is that you don't have many fighting techniques to
use: You can only thrust or block. You also have to watch out for the various
traps that lie along your path, or you'll never reach the Princess. Remember,
you're working against the clock: If you don't rescue her within 60 minutes,
she'll either die or be married.

 The screen is two-dimensional. You see your character moving down corridors and
jumping over traps. While you're travelling through the dungeon, you run across
various items that'll help or harm you. Throughout the game, you hear different
music
al scores. The sound is good; you won't need to silence your speaker. The
program also allows you to save a game, but you have to reach level three before
you can do so. The controls are very simple and easy to learn. I recommend a
joystick, which works much better than the keyboard.

 The Apple II version of PRINCE OF PERSIA is supplied on one 5-1/4" disk; the
package includes a user's guide and a pretty box. You'll need 128K of RAM to run
the game. The user's guide contains everything you need to know to begin your
search. I didn't find anything in the manual that referred to copy protection,
but I was not able to copy the diskette. If you're playing on an Apple IIgs, you
might want to slow the speed down to 1 MHz for easier game play.

 PRINCE OF PERSIA is an absolute must-have, if only to see the fluid movements
of the characters on screen. As an added bonus, the game is entertaining and
plays wonderfully.

 IBM-PC VERSION NOTES

 The IBM-PC version of PRINCE OF PERSIA comes packed with both 5-1/4" and 3-1/2"
diskettes. The game can be installed on your hard disk, after which there is
(hurrah!) no further copy protection. You'll need DOS 2.11 or higher, and
Broderbund recommends playing on at least an 8MHz machine.

 Graphics support is provided for VGA, MCGA, EGA, Tandy, CGA, and Hercules. VGA
mode requires 640K RAM; the other modes require only 512K. Audio support is
provided for AdLib and Sound Blaster boards, and for once, Tandy folks aren't
left out here: Tandy 1000SL and TL owners will get special digitized sound
effects (only when playing the game from the keyboard, however).

 PRINCE OF PERSIA can be played from either the keyboard or with a joystick. I
found adjusting to my character's movements with the joystick a bit frustrating.
The game's docs keep making mention of stepping to the end of a ledge, but the
slightest yank on the stick seemed to have him off and running, almost always
leading to a gruesome death. It took a bit of practice for me to get my little
unnamed adventurer right where I wanted him.

 I found the VGA graphics to be quite nice, and character movement was smooth.
Playing on a 20MHz 386, gamespeed seemed just about right, although sometimes
response seemed slow or delayed.

 There is a game-save feature, with certain limitations. You have to reach Level
3 before you can save the game, and only one game-in-progress can be saved at a
time. There is also a practice mode, in which you start out at Level 2, but with
only 15 minutes left to play. As the docs put it, "it is not possible to win the
game" in this mode, but it does get you to a point where you can practice skills
more varied than just landing on a bed of spikes.

 PRINCE OF PERSIA is published and distributed by Broderbund.

*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253