European UnionAs is common with point'n'click runs, the main timesave comes from optimizing what things to do in what order. This game is no exception, and to my knowledge there are also no useful glitches. However, there is still some tech to this run, and the purpose of this thread is to document all of it. In case anything else is found in the future it can simply be added to this thread.
- Fast screen transition
This is a classic that is present in most point'n'click games: changing scenes by double-clicking makes the transition happen instantly, thus skipping the walking animation.
- Frame-perfectly skip all dialogue
There are three known ways to skip dialogue and cutscenes in this game: left-click, right-click, and spacebar. What is special about space is that holding it skips all dialogue as soon as it comes up. An example of this can be seen in this run (with input viewer).
Notably, this seems to be an "accelerating feature" similar to writing text where holding a key takes a split-second before the key is entered continuously. As such, holding space to skip dialogue should happen ~1 second before the actual dialogues would show up for it to skip all dialogue frame-perfectly. Holding space can be buffered throughout some, but not all screen transitions; moreover, clicking on things while holding space does not always work. Thus it is recommended to only hold space when needed.
- Language differences
Because of frame-perfect dialogue skipping, even if there were dialogue differences between different languages they would likely not matter. However, there is a more interesting version difference, specifically between the German version and all other versions that I tested: only in the German version can you talk to Victoria after realizing that the door to William's chamber is locked (Chapter 1, ~6-7 minutes into the run). In the other language versions, trying to talk to her gives the "I should leave her alone for now" dialogue, but in the German version checking the door gives an additional dialogue which roughly says "I should ask Victoria about the key" (Samuel does not say that in other versions) which unlocks going to Victoria early. This is a big timesave as well as an argument for the German version being the fastest one for speedrunning. However, beyond that I am not aware of any testing that has been done in terms of different languages so this is by no means a definitive statement.
PoP1 SNES Romhacks can be found over at popot.org—click here & scroll down to the bottom of the page—or on romhacking.net. Some ROMs may also be found in this leaderboard's "Resources" section.
We'll gladly add any hack to the leaderboard that has a speedrun already.
...by @vo1dm1nd; for the sake of completeness, because it's currently not on the board:
In August 2024, this game was finally released on Steam (as version 1.4.0). In particular, this means that we finally have the ability to downpatch to 1.4.0 and above through Steam, so runs done on these versions are safe to play on in the future. As a result, however, we had to do a final clean-up of runs and archive old versions that cannot be downloaded or accessed anymore. Given this is the last time we had to do this, we were able got rid of the temporary "Old Patch" misc category and, instead, archive all pre-1.4.0 runs (including all detail) in this spreadsheet! And with this, the patch wars come to an end. ☮️
Some people from the PoP community already got the chance to play the full game a week early, and hereby all strats and glitches that have been found are being shared. All findings are compiled in this document and are being updated with new tech as it's found. Also contains a table of all amulets & their impact on damage values, a list of all Athra surges (and their location), as well as all puzzle solutions.
I don't know why I never posted this vipeazone video here so let's rectify that:
After some discussion among the PoP leaderboard moderators we have decided to rename "No Major Glitches" to "No Exit Glitch" in order to more reflect the true nature of the category. Moreover what was "Any% (Warpless)" previously has now been bumped from a subcategory to the new main category "All Levels"; again, in order to clarify to new runners or viewers what the category is about.
For the sake of completeness here is a list of all fonts used in this game:
- Game logo font: Prince of Persia Font
- Menu font: Atlantis MF
- PS3 "HD remaster" font: Constantine
Prince of Persia Speedrun World Record Progression DOS Any% by The Otter's Pocket!
To document what the currently "optimal" time would be for all categories: Link
If anyone is interested in doing speedruns of ROM hacks of this game (to be found, e.g., here) there now is a leaderboard dedicated to them: click here or click on "ROM Hacks" in the navigation bar on the left. Have fun everyone!
Hey! Because we had a handful of new PoP1 runners lately who are sadly not in the Prince of Persia Discord server - I thought I'd additionally announce here that submissions for the Prince of Persia Marathon 2018 are open for another week! So if you're interesting in showing off one of the ports for this game, feel free to submit a run to the marathon here and also join the PoP discord for easier communication!
This is a community project which started in January and was finished in July of 2018. Segment contributors were: @7eraser7 @Asco @epicdudeguy @GrizzzzBear @tocaloni1 @Vynneve
This project was first revealed live at ESA Summer 2018. Watch the VOD (with chat) here:
