Task: Play Prince of Persia on an Atari 8-Bit Computer
Needed: Altirra emulator or Atari 8-bit computer with 128K of RAM
Time: 30-60 mins
Introduction
Prince of Persia is a platformer game developed and released for the Apple II in 1989. It was soon after ported to MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, and a bunch of other platforms including the NES. However, it was never ported to the Atari 8-bit computers because 16-bit computers were the norm when it was released. Fortunately for us, a talented team of coders ported the game to the Atari 8-bit computers. The credits for the port can be found in this article on the Vintage is the New Old website. The source code along with lots of information about the game can be found on the Bitshifters Github site.
This is an amazing game and hard to believe it is running on an Atari 8-bit. Kudos to the Bitshifters! Definitely give it a try.
Instructions
The ATR files for the game can be found in this Atari Age post along with some other file types and formats. You can burn the ATR files to a floppy disk and boot them on original hardware which is what I did. I used the ProSystem software from Atarimax running on my PC and an SIO2PC to burn the ATR files floppies using a 1050 disk drive. Note there is a double-density ATR if you have a DD drive such as the Indus GT.
You can also play the game in Altirra or any of the other emulators. I was able to get the .CAR file to boot in Altirra.
Note that you need an Atari 8-bit or emulator configuration with at least 128K of RAM. I was able to play it on my 800XL with the U1MB upgrade. You should be able to play it on a stock 130XE.
Here is a YouTube video if you don’t want to give it a try.
Comments
Special thanks to the Bitshifters for all their hard work to make this port possible. It is so much fun to play PoP on an Atari 8-bit. The graphics and sound are stunning.
Note that the controls are summarized on their Github page.
Here is the source code to the original Apple II version.
Note that the first thing you will see when you boot the game is a nice demo with a spinning fuji and some animated text. Impressive!