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First post, by cvgl

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I found Prince of Persia on the web for Macintosh in the form of emulation:

LINK REMOVED

The graphics are nice, but in the browser the game works very slowly and the keys do not work. How to download this game and emulator from this site? Or maybe you can download it somewhere else?

The game, I see, consists of three elements:

1. DOS Box program
2. Executor 2.0 program to run the game
3. Game files.

Last edited by DosFreak on 2020-04-25, 12:19. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 17, by Jorpho

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You should buy the original disks, or possibly extract it from one of the more recent console releases (XBox, Wii, Gamecube, or PS2, as per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prince_of_Persia_media ), since downloading from anywhere or indeed playing it on that website would be illegal.

But if you must download it, there are almost certainly much easier places to download it from; have you not tried Google? I see it is at archive.org.

In any case, Executor is not a very good Macintosh emulator and it makes no sense to run it in DOSBox. Basilisk II for Windows works much better.

Reply 2 of 17, by cvgl

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I think console versions will not be the same.

So how is this game on this site and no one is punished? On ebay the prices of this game are horrible. Besides, how to rip these floppy disks to the emulator I have no idea. If it goes wrong, the money is lost and the floppy disks are only suitable as collectors item.

I have already launched in Basilisk.

Reply 3 of 17, by Jorpho

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cvgl wrote on 2020-04-23, 16:27:

I think console versions will not be the same.

Did you check the link? The version included with some of the console versions is literally the Mac OS version. (If there are more subtle differences, then I am sure they have been documented somewhere.)

So how is this game on this site and no one is punished?

The people who are in a position to enforce the copyright evidently do not care enough to pursue everyone who might be infringing. See for instance https://trixter.oldskool.org/2016/01/11/beyon … nomic-recovery/ .

Besides, how to rip these floppy disks to the emulator I have no idea. If it goes wrong, the money is lost and the floppy disks are only suitable as collectors item.

Well, if you want to be completely legal, that's what you would have to do.

High density Macintosh floppies can be read directly with any PC equipped with the right software. Low density Macintosh floppies (which this game probably uses, considering how old it is) generally have to be read with a genuine Macintosh and then transferred to another computer. (There are ways around it, but they're more complicated.)

I have already launched in Basilisk.

So, problem solved?

Reply 4 of 17, by cvgl

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As for these links, I wonder what exactly version of Prince Of Persia on e.g. XBOX should I buy to have a version with Apple?

I don't have an Apple computer. So here would be a problem with copying. It is probably better to buy on XBox and run under the XBox emulator.

Reply 5 of 17, by Jorpho

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cvgl wrote on 2020-04-23, 17:21:

As for these links, I wonder what exactly version of Prince Of Persia on e.g. XBOX should I buy to have a version with Apple?

You did read the link, didn't you?

The Mac OS version of Prince of Persia is included as an unlockable bonus in the GameCube version of The Sands of Time. Mac OS v […]
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The Mac OS version of Prince of Persia is included as an unlockable bonus in the GameCube version of The Sands of Time.
Mac OS version included as extra in the Wii game The Forgotten Sands, with a remapped control scheme.
The PS2 version of The Sands of Time includes the Mac OS version of Prince of Persia classic game as an unlockable bonus.
The NTSC Xbox version of The Sands of Time include the Mac OS versions of both Prince of Persia and Prince of Persia 2 classic games as unlockable bonuses

I'm not sure how exactly you would extract the program data for use in something like Basilisk II if you wanted to do that, but these are extremely popular games and I'm sure someone out there has worked on the problem by now.

I don't have an Apple computer. So here would be a problem with copying. It is probably better to buy on XBox and run under the XBox emulator.

Just about any old Macintosh would do. They probably wouldn't be much harder to find than an original XBox these days.

Reply 7 of 17, by Jorpho

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cvgl wrote on 2020-04-23, 18:52:

I could buy and run under a PS2 emulator but I don't know if I won't need bios from the console for the emulator because then it will be illegal.

Extracting the game from the PS2 disc and then running it in Basilisk II (assuming that's possible) will probably work much better than trying to run the game in a PS2 emulator.

If you have a PS2, then I think you could dump the BIOS from your PS2 without too much difficulty. I haven't really looked into it.

In any case, you're probably the only one who will ever care about whether you are legally using the PS2 BIOS. There is a greater concern about discussing illegal activities on a board such as this, lest such discussions be used as a pretext for shutting the board down or something. (But even that isn't really a massive concern.)

Reply 8 of 17, by cvgl

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Jorpho wrote on 2020-04-23, 19:41:

Extracting the game from the PS2 disc and then running it in Basilisk II (assuming that's possible) will probably work much better than trying to run the game in a PS2 emulator.

It will probably work just as well as games extracted from the GOG installers and running on an old DOS computer 😀

Reply 9 of 17, by xjas

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Jorpho wrote on 2020-04-23, 19:41:

Extracting the game from the PS2 disc and then running it in Basilisk II (assuming that's possible) will probably work much better than trying to run the game in a PS2 emulator.

The PS2/Xbox/Wii versions are source ports built from the Mac codebase, not the original Mac binaries running under emulation. Still a great way to play the game though.

If you have a modded Xbox you can copy the POP1 & 2 binaries to your HDD off the Sands of Time disc, and launch them standalone without even needing to run Sands of Time.

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Reply 10 of 17, by DosFreak

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Removed the abandonware link in the OP post. You can discuss it but if the thread goes stupid it will be locked.
Support of so called "abandonware" isn't allowed here. Ask from where you played/downloaded the game.

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Reply 11 of 17, by MrFlibble

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cvgl wrote on 2020-04-20, 14:52:
The graphics are nice, but in the browser the game works very slowly and the keys do not work. How to download this game and emu […]
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The graphics are nice, but in the browser the game works very slowly and the keys do not work. How to download this game and emulator from this site? Or maybe you can download it somewhere else?

The game, I see, consists of three elements:

1. DOS Box program
2. Executor 2.0 program to run the game
3. Game files.

Executor is now officially free software. You can still grab the latest DOS version (it works fine in DOSBox) from the developer's FTP mirror (ftp.ardi.com) at archive.org. You'll need the registration code to activate it, get it here -- it was provided by the devs when Executor went freeware.

Jorpho wrote on 2020-04-20, 16:20:

In any case, Executor is not a very good Macintosh emulator and it makes no sense to run it in DOSBox. Basilisk II for Windows works much better.

Executor is the only one I know of that does not require a Mac BIOS ROM and a copy of MacOS to run. But I agree, there is probably no need to run the DOS version of Executor when you install it on your PC (the DOSBox thing was probably used by the site for the online play capability).

I believe that there is a Macintosh demo of Prince of Persia somewhere, and of PoP2 too. Those would be completely legal to distribute and play, except there's just a couple of levels though.

BTW, don't forget that there was a promotional Flash game that uses Mac PoP graphics, which was available from UbiSoft as promotion for the Sands of Time. I believe it is still accessible via the Wayback Machine MobyGames has the link).

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Reply 12 of 17, by Jorpho

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xjas wrote on 2020-04-25, 05:02:

The PS2/Xbox/Wii versions are source ports built from the Mac codebase, not the original Mac binaries running under emulation.

Oh. I wouldn't have expected that they'd have kept the source code for such an old game. Is there some reason they never bothered with a proper PC port?

MrFlibble wrote on 2020-04-25, 15:16:

Executor is the only one I know of that does not require a Mac BIOS ROM and a copy of MacOS to run.

True enough, but you run the risk of smacking into some unexpected compatibility issue.

Reply 13 of 17, by xjas

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Jorpho wrote on 2020-04-25, 17:48:

Oh. I wouldn't have expected that they'd have kept the source code for such an old game. Is there some reason they never bothered with a proper PC port?

The DOS version is another port done by a 3rd party, just like the Mac - the original game was for the Apple II. I'd say the Mac version is a better fit for 6th gen consoles, which typically ran at 480i/480p and could use the higher res graphics natively without scaling.

The SoT ports were done before Mechner found and recovered the Apple II source code; IIRC the Mac sources were all they could track down. I still have source code (simple C64 BASIC programs) *I* wrote in the '80s, so no surprise someone still had a copy of one of the most groundbreaking games of its time kicking around!

It's also worth mentioning SDLPoP, which (as you might expect) is a reimplimentation in SDL that runs on modern PCs. IIRC it was made from disassembling(!) the DOS version & carries on its look. I wish they would support the Mac graphics, but it's still a good port.

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Reply 14 of 17, by MrFlibble

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xjas wrote on 2020-04-25, 19:34:

It's also worth mentioning SDLPoP, which (as you might expect) is a reimplimentation in SDL that runs on modern PCs. IIRC it was made from disassembling(!) the DOS version & carries on its look. I wish they would support the Mac graphics, but it's still a good port.

I also wanted to mention SDLPoP. I believe it should be able to support Mac graphics, at least in theory. It was also a bit surprising that this version was made based on reverse-engineering the DOS version, even though the original Apple II source had been available at the time.

Nevertheless, recently there has been some real good progress made in recreating engines of DOS games based on disassembling/reverse-engineering of the respective binaries. Alongside SDLPoP, this includes Dune Dynasty and OpenFodder.

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Reply 15 of 17, by Srandista

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Regarding SDLPoP, I would like to mention, that later versions are SDL2, so they're not working on Win9x. Last version using SDL1 and working there is SDLPoP 1.14.

Also, regarding Dune 2 recreations, I like Dune Legacy more. Last version working on Win9x is 0.96.2.

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Reply 16 of 17, by MrFlibble

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Srandista wrote on 2020-04-29, 15:42:

Also, regarding Dune 2 recreations, I like Dune Legacy more. Last version working on Win9x is 0.96.2.

I had been involved with Dune Legacy for some time in the mid-2000s, and I think later on (project management changed several times) they started to gradually incorporate results of reverse-engineering done by the OpenDUNE team (which is what Dune Dynasty is based on). However initially, Dune Legacy had been a pure from-scratch engine recreation that really did not provide a 100% accurate implementation of the original mechanics, while Dune Dynasty from the start is "source port"-accurate to the original game.

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Reply 17 of 17, by gaffa2002

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The one I got was a CD named Prince Of Persia Collector's Edition that was released around 1998. The disc has Prince Of Persia 1 and 2 for both PC and MAC. Maybe its cheaper and easier than getting the PS2 game just to extract the Mac version.
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