For all of you ASM coder out there, you might be happy to hear the the original Apple II source code for Prince of Persia was released a few days ago. The author believed the source to be lost for decades before catching a lucky break and finding some 3.5'' floppy in an old box. You can read about this interesting story at
http://jordanmechner.com/blog/2012/04/source/ and download the source from github. There's also documentation available explaining some part of it. I am no programmer but I am sure this would be something fun to check out if I knew any ASM. Now I'm hoping someone will get cracking on a Vectrex port
This game is a true gem. I played alot the DOS version. It's always fun to beat that game (heck, it's less than one hour!) and I'm always fascinated by the quality of the characters' motion.
EDIT: Just installed DOSBox and downloaded POP. Works very well on Ubuntu. Fun to go!
Re: fluidity of motion in original PoP: I forget where I read this (probably an Apple II magazine like BYTE or similar), but I believe the fluidity stems from Jordan Mechner's desire to provide very smooth animations for his bitmaps (e.g. single-pixel changes, thus lots of frames).
This stems from an earlier game Justin worked on/wrote, called Karateka, where to get the animations looking accurate and smooth -- and this is what I remember reading specifically -- he travelled and actually watched martial artists practise/spar. I'm certain he took that same knowledge and applied it to PoP.
He rotoscoped the animations based on videos of his brother doing things. To get everything fluid, he traced reality.