Prince of Persia 2 is one of the most challenging games ever made. Maybe this is because of the terribly imprecise control, the nonsensical puzzles, and the character's amazing inability to survive falling any distance. There are no pits with spikes this time around, apparently there were enough complaints about the ones in the original Prince of Persia, but unfortunately, non-spiky pits are just as deadly as spiky ones, and the new traps are far more sinister.
Anyway, this is a run of Prince of Persia 2 for SNES, played as it was definitely not intended to be played. I abuse the quirkiness of the hit detection as much as I can, and manipulate enemies to not attack me like they normally do when you try going past them. I skip getting the sword, both times, and also manage to not lose the one that I'm supposed to drop. Partway through the run, I'm granted some rather incredible new abilities through what is apparently a huge bug in the game. I won't spoil what this bug is exactly, but you'll definitely know it when you see it. It saves a whole bunch of minutes. The many differences from the PC version of the game save a good amount of time, too.
Also, I die 3 times:
  • In a fall onto the magic carpet at the end of a level, which apparently resurrects me (the "sit" command still works works when you're dead).
  • After performing a certain show-stopping glitch, I fall out of the level to reset to the start door, to save time.
  • Just before the end of the game, required in order to steal the flame.
If you notice me doing any seemingly unnecessary extra movements, it's because a lot of things require precise positioning, and normal movement is very imprecise, so sometimes I have to do things like ducking to move forward just the right amount or slide-ducking to stop at the exact right location.
(The hardest part of making this movie, and the main reason the re-record count is as high as it is, is that one of the glitches I tried to abuse decided to abuse me back later. Specifically, on the bridge that falls that you're supposed to catch onto and drop your sword at, I found you can sheathe the sword and run to save time, but because I exited the screen before the bridge had fallen, it corrupted some memory in the game, causing a series of platforms 2 levels later to be impossible to catch onto. After a few thousand tries to climb down one ledge in all sorts of different ways, I realized it had to be glitched somehow and eventually tracked it back to the bridge incident, which I redid to be slow enough to not cause the glitch. I also had desync problems until I realized that this game requires the "fake mute" fix just like Out of this World (this causes the music in level 1 to play in slow-motion - oh well).)
This run:
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Abuses programming errors (a LOT)
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Uses death as a shortcut
Emulator used is the v4 available at: Forum/Topics/1816
(If you view it with that version you won't have to worry about this, but the options set are: WIP1 timing ON, Left+Right OFF, Volume Envelope Reading OFF, Fake Mute workaround ON, Sync samples with sound CPU ON.)

TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14776
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #569: nitsuja's SNES Prince of Persia 2 in 11:00.42
Joined: 2/5/2005
Posts: 44
Location: Germany
Nice glitch, great run. Didn't see anything that cost time. Good job *claps*
Joined: 2/25/2005
Posts: 68
Location: Germany
After your first encounter with a medusa head you turn twice on a platform, although all you needed to do was climb up. Was that on purpose? The glitch is a killer. Looks like you have total freedom. Good run. YES vote.
Erklärung der Relativität: "Wenn du deine Nase in meinen Po steckst, haben wir beide eine Nase im Po. Nur ich bin relativ besser dran."
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 185
Location: Denmark
Right around the time agopo mentioned, you also paused on a ledge for a spilt second, letting the medusa almost attack you. is this intentional? Getting a yes vote from me, even if this isn't intentional.
"We observe the behaviour of simple folk, and derive pleasure from their defects." -Aristotle - Book of Humour
Emulator Coder, Skilled player (1299)
Joined: 12/21/2004
Posts: 2687
The turning-around animation sometimes causes attacks to miss me, so that was intentional. There were several places that pauses were necessary to manipulate them, also. It might seem like just taking it a hit would be faster, but that knocks me away from the edges, causes me to draw the sword if I have one, and often instant-kills me (by hitting 3 times in rapid succession). EDIT: agopo, I think I misunderstood your question and was thinking about something else. I turned around in order to walk closer to the edge so I could keep climbing up, because a bug in the game causes you to pull up too far to the left there to keep climbing straight up. The only way I found to avoid that was to climb back down a level and then back up, which was slower.
Ambassador, Experienced player (695)
Joined: 7/17/2004
Posts: 985
Location: The FLOATING CASTLE
Very well done, that glitch is sweet. I also love the turning in midair trick, reminds me of Looney Toons. Unfortunately, this is half the game the PC version was. "With the flame the Prince was able to restore the Princess"??? Come on, any Persian tale has to end on a fight with Jaffar. Did you skip the last level with some trick or is it just not in this game? For those who haven't seen it, the last level (in the PC version) took place in a whacked-out dream world, who knows what Mechner was on. You had to fight a whole lot of guard-type dudes on a giant tarantula until you got enough life to use the flame (apparently not a problem in this version). Then you had to chase the fake prince (obviously Jaffar) until you got in a situation where you had enough time to pull off the slow-moving fireball. My fondest memories of this game are fighting the bird costume dudes until backing them into a scythe trap. Schoomp! Then every time the trap activates you can see the blade is all bloody.
Emulator Coder, Skilled player (1299)
Joined: 12/21/2004
Posts: 2687
TheAxeMan wrote:
Come on, any Persian tale has to end on a fight with Jaffar. Did you skip the last level with some trick or is it just not in this game?
That guy standing by the door is actually Jaffar. For some reason he just stands there and looks at me until I blast him with a fireball. (If I run into him I instantly die, but he never moves even then.) I've never gotten this far in the SNES version before, so I was very surprised when I suddenly won the game then. I don't think this version has the final level, and it seems like there's no way to turn into a shadow using left-right-left-right. But it looked like Jaffar was supposed to run away instead of just standing there - maybe it's because of the glitch, but it's a little odd if so because none of the other enemies had any trouble reacting to me when the glitch was active (in fact they gain the glitch's powers too). I'd still like to see a run of PoP1 for SNES though -- apparently that version actually has much more than the PC (or any other) version of it, such as extra minibosses, bosses, and levels. In case anyone's wondering about the glitch, here are some more details about it and its effects that may not be obvious from watching the movie: - It can be activated either by taking a hit (and surviving) while crawling, or by hanging from a ledge while a crusher wall slides by overhead. Snakes are lethal. - I cannot go through closed gates even when the glitch is active. - Enemies can still attack and hit me, and they can walk on air and through walls (but are unable to fall / jump down). - Wall spikes still impale me (unless I time it just right). - I'm invincible to those slicer things from the horizontal slits in the wall. (Note that they can just barely be jumped through even without the glitched being active, but only when moving rightward.) - I can climb down from thin air, but cannot catch onto it when jumping or falling, and can still easily die from falling too far. - Leaving a room in a direction not programmed as possible (i.e. going out of the level) instantly kills me, except in a few cases where it leads to either a pitch-black or a totally glitched-out room (which don't seem to be useful at all). - The effect of the glitch is permanent until restart or soft-reset (which is done by pausing the game with start, then pressing select to go to the title screen).
Joined: 5/3/2004
Posts: 1203
I voted no because I couldn't stand to watch the game itself being played. It has the crappiest and jerkiest graphics of any SNES game I've ever seen.
Editor, Experienced player, Reviewer (967)
Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 3107
Location: Sweden
I voted yes, mostly because of the super glitch. Like xebra said, this game is rather bad, but I won't let that stop me.
Joined: 11/21/2004
Posts: 15
Location: Argentina
I liked them, nice job ;)
Belive in yourself.
Joined: 3/15/2005
Posts: 30
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Interesting. This is the kind of bug-enhanced gameplay that makes watching these videos so interesting. It's seeing something completely different, or done in a strange way. Doing the semi-impossible. Yes vote.
I ought not to tie the knot too taught.
Player (65)
Joined: 3/29/2005
Posts: 229
Location: The boonies.
Voted yes, mostly for the uber glitch. Not as good as the first Prince game, but still a nice watch. Enough action going on that I don't feel like I'm just watching someone mashing the B button, and the glitch is highly entertaining/interesting.
If life were an RPG, I'd be an NPC.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14776
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [332] SNES Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame by nitsuja in 11:00.42
Joined: 2/16/2005
Posts: 462
Im having issues with the frames of the avi not being interleaved correctly. Am I the only one.
This signature is much better than its previous version.
Joined: 12/13/2004
Posts: 103
asteron wrote:
Im having issues with the frames of the avi not being interleaved correctly. Am I the only one.
Nope...
Joined: 4/6/2004
Posts: 74
Location: California
I see I'm not the only one having problems with it.. mine flickers grey every other frame. There was some other movie awhile ago that was like that, but I can't remember which. Also, the other video published at near the same time as this one (Mickey Mouse) has the same problem.
Post subject: AVI problems
Joined: 7/6/2004
Posts: 155
I am also having problems playing the file. I was using MPlayer 1.0pre6. It worked fine on Sonic 3 and Knuckles, which was using the same codec. However, this movie still does not play. I upgraded to MPlayer 1.0pre7, as recommended in the codec help section. It still gives me an error. Any advice? >mplayer princeofpersia2-timeattack-nitsuja.avi MPlayer 1.0pre7-3.3.5-20050130 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team CPU: Intel (Family: 8, Stepping: 10) Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes MMX supported but disabled MMX2 supported but disabled CPUflags: MMX: 0 MMX2: 0 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1 Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: SSE SSE2 85 audio & 196 video codecs /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/Vera.ttf doesn't look like a font description, ignoring. Cannot load font: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/Vera.ttf Playing princeofpersia2-timeattack-nitsuja.avi. Cache fill: 0.00% (0 bytes) AVI file format detected. VIDEO: [H264] 256x224 24bpp 60.000 fps 127.1 kbps (15.5 kbyte/s) Clip info: Software: Nandub v1.0rc2 Name: SNES Prince of Persia 2 Subject: SNES Prince of Persia 2 Artist: Nitsuja Copyright: Comments: Tool-assisted speedrun. ========================================================================== Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3 AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 128.0 kbit/9.07% (ratio: 16000->176400) Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm:mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3) ========================================================================== vo: X11 running at 1280x1024 with depth 24 and 32 bpp (":0.0" => local display) ========================================================================== Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm:ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264) ========================================================================== Checking audio filter chain for 44100Hz/2ch/s16le -> 44100Hz/2ch/s16le... AF_pre: 44100Hz/2ch/s16le AO: [oss] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bps) Building audio filter chain for 44100Hz/2ch/s16le -> 44100Hz/2ch/s16le... Starting playback... VDec: vo config request - 256 x 224 (preferred csp: Planar YV12) 0 51% VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0) Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied. VO: [xv] 256x224 => 256x224 Planar YV12 [h264 @ 0x8622528]illegal short term buffer state detected?,?% 1 0 99% [h264 @ 0x8622528]illegal short term buffer state detected?,?% 2 0 99% mplayer: h264.c:2306: mc_dir_part: Assertion `pic->data[0]' failed.99% MPlayer interrupted by signal 6 in module: decode_video - MPlayer crashed. This shouldn't happen. It can be a bug in the MPlayer code _or_ in your drivers _or_ in your gcc version. If you think it's MPlayer's fault, please read DOCS/HTML/en/bugreports.html and follow the instructions there. We can't and won't help unless you provide this information when reporting a possible bug.
Post subject: Re: AVI problems
Active player, Editor (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7468
Location: Arzareth
scubed wrote:
I upgraded to MPlayer 1.0pre7, as recommended in the codec help section. It still gives me an error.
Works for me, at least on the second try. Try not to seek around immediately after the beginning.
Post subject: Trying again
Joined: 7/6/2004
Posts: 155
Hmm... you're right! After a few more attempts, it runs. Bizarre. I hope that they fix this bug soon. Random program crashing on start not good.
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
I use mplayer from CVS and update weekly or so. Never had any problems here.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Joined: 10/29/2005
Posts: 31
Weird... after the prince lets the guard kill him and gets the flame, he's supposed to automatically go to his dead body and lie down on it and re-merge with it. o_O
CrazyTerabyte
He/Him
Joined: 5/7/2005
Posts: 74
xebra wrote:
I voted no because I couldn't stand to watch the game itself being played. It has the crappiest and jerkiest graphics of any SNES game I've ever seen.
I agree with xebra about the quality of this game. I never played it, but from movie I can see high-detailed but not very good graphics. I can also see one "outside room" where the background is just a gradient. Overall, I feel the graphics look like an amateur game, a fan-game. Looks like someone pasted lots of graphics and photos together. The movement of falling platforms is really bad. It has constant velocity. Where did the gravity acceleration go? That small horizontal scrolling (which is present in PoP for NES, but absent in PoP for SNES) is also very annoying. The first game did not have this, why would the second have? About the movie... Very good. Better than the game itself. :) Since you activated that glitch, the only thing I thought was "WTF?". :)