The Making of Prince of Persia

This book chronicles Jordan Mechner's life, through the time he made and helped market his game Prince of Persia. Jordan had made a game for the Apple called Karateka. His follow up was Prince of Persia. Surprisingly, he made the game for Broderbund, but his compensation was a percentage of sale. He was not an employee.

Prince of Persia was something special because Jordan used a video camera to capture how a real life person looks while running, jumping, and doing other Prince of Persia acrobatics. He developed the game near the end of the era for any demand for Apple II computer games. Of course there were ports to other systems like Nintendo and the PC.

The book goes on to follow Jordan after he finishes the game, as he pursues learning how to shoot movies, and also his consulting on Prince of Persia 2. By the end we find out that he forms his own game development company. Quite a thrilling read. Makes you want to run out and develop some video games.