But The Sands of Time, developed by Ubisoft for the then-new consoles (Xbox, PS2, and GameCube), took the visuals and acrobatic combat to new heights. Architects with a passion for Persian construction helped design some of the environments.

Indeed, Prince of Persia 3D for the PC was a giant leap forward for the property, accurately simulating the Prince’s world in 3D as opposed to a flat 2D plane-a move that required extensive research into the period’s history, myths, paintings, and buildings. In 1999, the Prince and his band of characters slashed their way into 3D in a title aptly named Prince of Persia 3D, followed by a second and more successful attack in 2003 with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which stormed the marketplace yet again with its realistic, fluid character animation in a graphics-rich environment.

(Mechner had used videos and photos of his brother running and jumping in white clothes as a guide for the Prince’s actions.) Four years later, Mechner followed up with Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame, which introduced as many as four enemies on the screen at a time, as opposed to just one in the original game-a big accomplishment at that time. It popularized many of the computer gaming features that eventually became commonplace, such as rotoscoped animation, for lifelike human motion. At a time when video games consisted of basic pixels jumping around on the screen (think Mario rescuing Princess Toadstool in Super Mario Bros.), Prince of Persia presented a giant leap forward in terms of its look and style-in particular, its fluid animation. A big hit, the game eventually was ported to every conceivable platform. Several years before the archaeologist/adventurer Lara Croft began making game character history, Mechner introduced the world to the nameless Prince, who waged his first battle against ancient baddies in Prince of Persia, for the Apple II platform. The title, lauded at the time for its fluid animation, was published by Broderbund, which would also publish another of his hits and one that would make him the early king of video-game character creation.

His first foray in the world of video-game creation occurred while he was still a student, with Karateka, which he created on and for the Apple II. A Yale graduate with a degree in psychology, Mechner found success delving into the minds of virtual humans, as opposed to real ones. What does psychology and game development have in common? Not much, unless you are Jordan Mechner.

Prince of persia 3d jordan mechner