Original Prince of Persia source code discovered, released for free

Now you too can tinker with one of video game's most beloved platformers, with the free release of the original source code for 1989's Prince of Persia. This week, series creator Jordan Mechner updated his blog (spotted by Edge) to announce that the code was rediscovered in a box of 3.5” floppies earlier this week and, thanks to the efforts him and his team, subsequently freed from its archaic prison to explore the mysteries of the internet.

“Why would I spend a whole day trying to recover data from some ancient floppy disks?” wrote Mechnar in his latest blog post, adding, “Because if we didn’t, it might have disappeared forever.”

Mechnar admitted not everyone will be keen on playing with the ages-old code, but said it might be of interest to those who have fond memories of the game and an appreciation for the old days, noting, “One might reasonably ask: If you have the recording, what do you need the sheet music for? You don’t, if all you want is to listen and enjoy the music. But to a pianist performing the piece, or a composer who wants to study it or arrange it for different instruments, the original score is valuable.”

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“This is why I was so sorry to have lost the Prince of Persia source code, and happy to find it again,” he added.

The source code can be downloaded at github for no charge (assuming you know what to do with it).