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Prince of Persia: time limit panic

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For Christmas I was given the new Prince of Persia game, the Lost Crown, and (despite this diary’s protestations) I have played a fair bit of it. It’s a very stylish exploratory platformer, similar to Metroid Fusion in many ways including themed areas and dynamic paths, but with much more flair over the combat and traversal. The systems and collectables are a little overwhelming at times, and the need to find save positions doesn’t work from the way I want to play it. Still, a good game which I will write about and play more in the future.

It has reminded me, however, that I have never really put much time into the original game. I believe I had it for an old PC that my dad brough home from work, but that also came with Lemmings and that’s where most of my time went. Prince of Persia seemed to be a bit too difficult for young me.

Young me had better reflexes but less experience. Let’s see what matters here.

I tried a number of ways to play the game, including via GOG, Ubisoft, Steam – it’s seemingly not for sale anywhere – and then onto emulators for the SNES, Mega Drive, Master System, and even the Game Boy Colour. None were particularly satisfying, with updated graphics taking away the feel of the original, or some slight input lag impacting on the way it played. In the end I found the website https://princejs.com/ which allows the entire original game to be played via Javascript, with an added bonus of an easy way to adjust the time.

Prince of Persia was designed around a deadline; you have 60 minutes to complete all levels and rescue the princess. You have unlimited lives, but you have to complete a full level each time and the timer doesn’t reset if you die, so eventually you would just run out of time. This makes the game very stressful, and was obviously put in place to add replayability value; you need to explore the levels to know which route to take, but it’s impossible to do so while also meeting the overall time limit. Some sections of platforming require a sequence or timing which isn’t immediately evident and require trial and error; some parts have a number of switches to be activated in a certain order; there are some false floors which will drop you to your death with not enough warning the first time you walk over them. You would need to learn each level at a time and then add them to your repertoire as you progressed, in order to complete the game.

Ain’t got no time for that now.

The PC’s graphics, as shown via Javascript, are clear, bright, and solid. The animation is top-notch.

So, instead, I am using the URL of the website to reset my time up a bit each time I complete a level. That way I can explore at my leisure, and not be tempted to rush through sections just to build up a time buffer. I’ve also increased the Prince’s health a bit, just so I don’t get frustrated with the sword fights. In most cases I am only ever losing one or two bits of health (off the four I would usually have at this point) before finding potions, but the buffer removes a great deal of stress. The game is now something I will play a level of from time to time, not getting anxious about needing to progress.

I’ve just completed the fifth level, which was very convoluted in structure. I’ve met the shadow prince as well, who stole one of my potions (not that I actually needed it), so I’m out for revenge.

Mars After Midnight (Playdate): COMPLETED!

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Lucas Pope, the developer of this game, has a reputation for making weird experimental games. But they’re also good. I’ll admit, however, that apart from some time on Papers, Please (I lost my save I think, following a reinstall or something) and the demo of Return of the Obra Dinn (which I fully intended to get the full version of but for some reason never did), I’ve not really experienced them. Until now!

Hyped as a possible killer-app for the silly little cranking handheld, Mars After Midnight sets you up as an alien guidance counsellor on Mars, who, along with their robot sidekick/slave/helper runs night classes for various other aliens with issues. Issues such as, they have cracked skulls, or are cyclopseses with anger issues, or they flinch or something. All Serious Issues.

So you organise these sessions, by advertising in the right areas of town, and make them successful by providing the best refreshments. Then, aliens turn up at the door and you have to screen them to ensure they’re suitable for the session you have running. For example, you can use an x-ray machine to see if they have a cracked skull, or can surprise them to see if they flinch. If they match, in they come, help themselves to food or drink (which you then usually have to tidy up because aliens are messy, it seems), and if you’ve done everything right, they’ll leave you a tip.

Eventually, you need use this money to buy a ticket to leave Mars, but you also need to spend it on equipment (like the x-ray machine) and refreshments, so it’s a long process.

It isn’t especially hard, and although it is superficially similar to Papers, Please it has a very different vibe. The crank controls are mostly just for opening and closing the door hatch and cleaning the food table, so nothing too tricky. There’s a surprising variety in the different counselling sessions and “detection” requirements, with one of my favourites being the one where you have to translate what the aliens are saying using a phrasebook.

Definitely worth a play, and was worth dusting off my sadly neglected Playdate for.

Block Droppin (Evercade): COMPLETED!

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A simple Game Boy puzzle game where you match three or more shapes to get points. Matching more than three triggers special blocks that erase a whole column, row, or shape from the grid. If you’ve played a match three game, ever, then you know the deal.

Arcade mode is, it seems, endless, but there is a Puzzle Mode where you have to get rid of so many of each type of block in a maximum number of moves, and it’s this mode that I completed.

It isn’t tricky, and I’d have liked a lot more levels, but it’s fine.

Half-Life: completed!

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I turned god mode on.

I lasted for quite a while without it, making my way through Lambda Core and restarting the reactor, but as I died for the 452nd time making my way up through teleporters, and eventually being transported to the alien world of Xen, it wasn’t fun any more. I was saving almost every five seconds, and dying as regularly. I have no idea how I would have completed the game without cheating; I feel that the more toxic side of the Internet would be shouting at this point that I shouldn’t have the enjoyment of completing it unless I GOT GUD. That wasn’t going to happen.

Enjoyment of completing it? Yes, especially since once I’d turned on God mode I abandoned my overly cautious approach and ran at enemies with abandon. Big hunter-type aliens? Shotgun! Smaller green electricity aliens? Shotgun! Very big spider with obvious glowing suspended stomach? Shotgun!

The game still wasn’t easy. The platforming was still not precise enough to do what I wanted every time, so I found myself falling into pits or off the side of a cliff; this time I didn’t die, though, I just sat there choking in the acid fumes, or landing on an invisible platform way beyond the game’s usual physics box, until I reloaded the last save. One particular section had me very confused for a long time until I realised that you had to jump on top of (what I presumed were deadly) alien aircraft that were traversing the level. The move to Xen meant that I was no longer playing through a coherent whole level bound by geography, but rather a number of small arenas connected by teleporters. The wonder of the game was significantly diminished.

And then the final boss, who threw out teleporters to get rid of me, which took me to places where I had to undertake more annoying platforming to get back; I didn’t cheat to get more ammo but I cam close a few times because of my ineptitude in aiming while jumping and moving. Having to jump up high, and then shoot downwards into the boss’s head, was very difficult indeed, until I realised that I could open the head then jump over on top of it, then just unload the gamma ray type gun at my feet over and over again. It was even easier when the head closed and trapped me inside, where I could continue to fire.

The move to Xen also loses some of the colour of the facility, which is a shame.

So, the big evil alien in Xen died, and the shady government man met me and offered me a job. Either I took the job, or he would send me off to die. Obviously I decided to take the job, but on the way to the door I managed to get stuck in the edge of the scenery and timed out, so I was teleported to many many enemies, all of whom failed to kill me because I had god mode on.

Does Half-Life hold up today? Mostly, yes; it tells its story well without the need for immersion-breaking cut-scenes and dialogue. The combat is difficult but can be overcome with some good strategy, even if the first time you enter a room it takes a bit of trial and error. Issues with controls are very much on my side rather than the fault of the game. The difficulty gets too high for me towards the end, particularly with soldiers with rocket launchers and big aliens firing bullets that can go around corners. Xen is a bit of a disappointment, moving away from a contiguous geographic location to a series of disparate rooms. I’m glad I finally got around to finishing it, even though I had to cheat to do so without getting completely bored of doing the same thing over and over.

He is unimpressed that I can’t get to the door.

Grand Theft Auto Vice City: the second island

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I’ve never completed Vice City, and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because some of the later missions have a huge difficulty spike, or maybe it’s because the mission structures aren’t quite as well defined as in GTA3. More than once I’ve found myself at a bit of a loss as to what to do next, with a main story missions appearing at first as a side quest. Maybe it’s because Vice City is such a fun place to drive around, watching people interacting with each other and the gangs, chasing people who are being pursued by the police and getting a “good citizen bonus” for knocking them down (and then more and more bonuses for kicking them again and again). There’s more to do here than in Liberty City, with businesses to buy and shops to rob and a golf course to tear around in a buggy.

But, similar to when I played GTA3, over the past couple of years I’ve been picking at missions from time to time, and I’m not at a position where I think the end of the game is nigh. Tommy Vercetti owns the mansion in the middle of the map, many of the gangs have been beaten down, and I am left with a single mission marker.

Yet when I go there, there is nothing to start.

I’ve been enjoying the variety of missions, but the instant death in water means I am overly anxious on a boat

I last did a mission in which I had to steal some police uniforms and a car, then go and plant a bomb in the shopping centre. I did that, then ran away very fast, with a five-star wanted level (which I knocked down to two-star by planning an escape route through some police bribe markers). That was all fine, but nothing else opened up. I did get a phone call, but it seemed unrelated to the story.

I am hoping that the game hasn’t bugged out. In the meantime I’m travelling around finishing some of the side missions I hadn’t done before – buying a couple of the properties (not the Malibu Club though, it’s far too expensive), carrying out an assassination contract, and racing around in a fire engine. It’s very pretty.