The original Prince of Persia, first released for the Apple II back in 1989, is now coming to the iPhone according to Ubisoft’s website.
Called Prince of Persia Retro, there’s not many details available about the port, except that it will be a universary binary for the iPad and (obviously) support touch controls.
The plot is the same as it ever was:
A wicked Vizier has given the Sultan’s daughter a horrible ultimatum: accept to marry him in 60 minutes, or die. You have been imprisoned in the lowest dungeons beneath the palace, and must now race against the sands of the hourglass in an effort to save your true love. Negotiate fiendish traps, engage in trilling swordplay and use death-defying acrobatics to make your way through one of the most celebrated and influential video games of all time.
Curiously, the release date of Prince of Persia Retro is listed for April 29th, 2010. Since it’s not on the App Store yet, either Ubisoft intends on using the Sands of Time to retroactively release it, or you can expect it to be released on the weekend of the 28th, simultaneously with the upcoming Disney film.
I can’t wait. I’ve rarely spent as much time on a video game as I spent leaping the Prince across chasms and slashing scimitars on the old Mac OS port. Let’s hope this is a port Ubisoft does right.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
