Not all that impressive for a game today, but this was basically unheard of in the 1980s and it explains how the movements were so smooth.
If you’ve played it a decent amount of times, you will recognize every movement in the live action video as it looks in the game.
Also, for those who don’t know what rotoscoping is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping
“Actual person” was the developer’s brother.
I was 17 or 18 when I first learned that.
It inspired me to buy a copy of Muybridge’s “Figure In Motion” (still on my shelf!) and scan it and use it as a base for animations for my earliest game prototypes.
Muybridge’s motion studies are amazing! I didn’t even make the connection, but I can see it now.
Some of the original footage is on Youtube, and you can tell which of the takes of the ending princess hug scene made it into the game because of how she swings a foot back.
Good to see people still discovering things from old games. This was all general knowledge, at least in my circles. But it’s always nice to see people discovering it! The video is a great showcase.
I honestly always thought it was just really good animation.
IMHO it was the two things, rotoscoping and good animation, there’s other games that used rotoscoping and they don’t have the same smooth movements.
Other game where they got awesome results is Another World.
I forgot all about that game! It was incredible! Just nothing like it at the time.
Great mini doc from ars technica https://youtu.be/sw0VfmXKq54
There were also:
Wait till You hear about Mortal Kombat.
Mortal Kombat came later. In 1992. Prince of Persia came out in 1989 and, as it showed, was in development starting in 1985.
This just did not happen in the 80s.
We need more characters just colour swap the same stunt man in a ninja suit
The spike trap death animation always cracked me up when I was a kiddo.
They went through a lot of actors for that.
Thanks for sharing. I didn’t know that.
