Prince of Persia

How to play Prince of Persia

1. Choose New game. The prison begins with three health points and a sixty-minute clock.
2. Explore the first level for the sword. Use Up to climb a ledge and Action or Down to pick up an item.
3. Use running jumps for wider gaps, careful steps for spikes, and Action to catch a ledge.
4. Parry a guard with Up, then press X or Strike during recovery.
5. Cross pale pressure plates to open gates. Backtrack when a distant plate opens an earlier stairway.
6. Stand at the open stairway and press Up. Complete the palace route, confront Jaffar and reach the princess.

Controls

About Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia is a browser recreation that takes the 1990 IBM DOS VGA release as its reference. A prisoner has one hour to cross the dungeons and palace, defeat the grand vizier Jaffar and reach the princess. This version uses newly written code, original pixel artwork and composed sound cues. It does not run a DOS executable or load extracted sprites, level files or music. It is an independent recreation, not an official release or a frame-exact reproduction of the original.

The campaign contains twelve levels followed by the final approach, Jaffar duel and rescue. Each level contains several connected rooms with three stories. The authored layouts include sword detours, upper galleries, distant opening plates, return journeys, guarded passages and falling floors. These are reconstructed puzzles that preserve the main adventure events, rather than a claim that every room matches the original map coordinates. Dungeon masonry gives way to the warmer arches and columns of the palace before the route returns below ground and climbs the final tower.

Movement is deliberately committed. Running builds momentum for a longer leap, while a standing jump covers a shorter distance. You cannot reverse direction in the air. Holding Shift or the touch Action button makes careful steps that stop at an open edge and cross spike plates safely. Keep Action held during a jump or fall to catch a nearby exposed lip, then press Up to climb. At an edge, Action with Down lowers the prince into a hanging position. Letting go drops him, so check the floor below first.

The sword must be recovered in the first level before the guarded exit can be approached safely. Once an armed opponent is close, the prince draws his weapon. X or Strike attacks; Up parries. A guard who has just struck or had an attack parried is vulnerable during recovery. Stronger guards defend against impatient swings. The skeleton cannot be killed by repeated damage, but it can be driven toward a gap. When the shadow finally confronts you, sharing its wounds makes ordinary combat a poor solution.

Pale pressure plates open portcullises or level stairways. Some gates close again, which makes the route back as important as the route to the switch. Thin cracked slabs shake before dropping away. Steel blades follow a visible cycle, and the prince must pass through their opening at the right moment. Red potions restore a health point, large red flasks increase maximum health, blue liquid is poison, green temporarily softens long falls, and purple turns the picture upside down. Drink or collect with Action or Down while standing beside an item.

The hour is a campaign resource. Reach the final approach before it expires. In that area you can continue into overtime, but a death in overtime ends the attempt. Defeating Jaffar stops the timer. Dying returns you to the beginning of the current level with its entry health capacity, but spent time stays spent. Pausing stops the simulation and the clock. From level three onward, a local checkpoint lets Continue resume at the saved level entrance. Reaching a level unlocks it in Practice, which keeps practice attempts separate from the campaign checkpoint. Sound and progress are stored only in this browser; unavailable storage does not prevent play.

Keyboard and touch use the same movement rules. Phones have a directional pad and separate Jump, Action and Strike controls, so two fingers can hold a direction and an action together. Portrait places controls below the playfield; landscape moves them to the sides. The compact 320 by 200 artwork is shown at a four-to-three display ratio. Rotation, changing apps and pausing clear held inputs so returning to the game does not leave the prince running toward a trap.

A few useful tricks

• Find a safe place for two running strides before attempting a wide gap.
• A careful step stops at an edge. Use it to line up a jump without falling.
• A guard recovering from your parry is the best moment to strike.
• Watch for cracked floors on your return route; a slab you crossed may already be gone.
• Your shadow is part of you. Put away the sword when fighting only harms you.

Good questions