Prince of Persia Hints, Tips and Tricks.
Hints
- When you start the game and the Prince jumps out of the window and he lands press shift-k or k then you will see suicide.
- Take your sword on hand and then put it back. Now you have passed the next level!
- 1 major Potion in level with the Horse:
To get this major potion you must run left from the horse screen, the potion is in the screen next to the one where a snake appears it is hidden behind the rock. Keep press to grab the potion and walk until you find it.
Version revisions of Prince Of Persia 2
Special thanks to Eric Bloom for the following info.
Differences between IR and 1.1 versions
Level 3
First LE potion, pressure plate is closer to door as opposed to the lava pit to the left (see screenshot)
Level 5
Skeleton before lava (room 2) does not fall into lava when Prince jumps to over to the right, have to fight on way back to LE, e.g., subtle game dynamic changes
Skeleton bridge (room 22): positioning is much harder and in a more narrow window where you an can swap places without skeleton ignoring and walking right to close gate, e.g., even if striking skeleton after swapping places, the logic in IR release is tighter and the skeleton will ignore and walk to the right. Positioning and defeating this puzzle is easier in v1.1
Level 7
As you indicated in your notes, from alternate route (exit left door in level 6), getting first LE is super hard as goblin head is right at the climb up point, and you can't get past him, sword strikes don't work either. I ended up climbing up, and immediately back down a few times to get the goblin to move further left so you can climb up and turn around to fight
Level 8
Room 9 leading to the tunnel LE is different, e.g., has different upper level floor boards and plates (see screenshot)
After attempting to p/u sword and cutscene, you have to press esc or spacebar to resume (unlike v1 and 1.1)
Level 9
The first part of the upper level timing is different (Rooms 3 & 4), not able to do two running jumps in a row, have to run a jump to 2nd platform, then pause, and start running jump.
Running jump differences comes up in Level 11
Level 11
Timing on running jump across first large chasm (room 11) is much stricter on timing and positioning, a long continuous run with a single jump at the end did not work for me - I ended up running with 2 jumps to get across!
Running jump to left (room 13) is much tighter with respect to timing and requires exact positioning if you drop down from upper ledge on right side
Last chasm (room 27) the timing for the jump is very different than 1.1. I used this technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytYyz1TXIGY ~3:22 in the video or, you can careful-step to last "loose" tile, then step back 2 careful- steps to perform running jump. I was not able to perform a log run with single jump at the end as can be done in v1.1, I used the above two techniques to cross the chasm
Door opening/exit sound is present in room 26, not the case in v1.0 & v1.1
Level 12
Subtle diffs in the way gates close, and minor level changes
First bird guard does not fall off edge (room 5) onto plate (to keep gate open), you have to fight and push off right edge
After crossing 4 gates and jumping over too room 9, no LE, only regular potion (incentive in v1.0+ to get another LE going long way)
Jumping across chasm to sword area is timed more slowly to get through
Guard (room 15) approaches first slicer but does not walk through as in later versions
Guard (room 18) between slicers is hard to kill, have to back him up while still crawling a few times
Room to the far right where genie potion resides (see screenshot):
- Pressure plate in different location, gate remains open
- No spikes below gate
- Only two potions in far right room red and genie (green)
- Genie opens local door, not gate, i.e., different exit, do not have to backtrack to get out!
Level 13
Bird guards will not fall into gap after slicer (room3), e.g., better game logic. V1.1, the guards will keep coming and falling into the gap if you stand on other side w sword drawn
Final
No potions in Esher room to recover with
General
Prince end-level door exit animation clipping issue is not present in IR or 1.0, only in v1.1
Timing for continuous running and single jump was fixed in v1.0 & 1.1
IMO, the IR release is harder with it's running/jumping timing differences. They definitely made changes after IR version to timing and positioning for jumping that makes it easier - especially making successful continuous running jumps.
Thanks to peter_k for the following picture that shows the differences between the fourth versions of Prince of Persia 2 (IR, 1.0, 1.1, DEMO). (Click to enlarge).
IR version, also knows as PoP2 beta version, was leaked into the internet 2 months before the game was released (a leaked pre-1.0 release).
Some other differences:
In the tree scene:
In PoP2 IR, in the tree scene, you can hear (and read) this:
"Prince,
your bride is dying.
"When the last leaf
falls, all will be lost.
"Waste no more time.
"Come to me!"
In PoP2 1.0 and 1.1, you can hear (and read) this:
"Prince,
your bride is dying.
"Waste no more time.
"Come to me!"
On the father's sword level:
In PoP2 IR, if you want to pick the sword up, the prince picks it up, and then you'll see the father's sword scene.
In PoP2 1.0 and 1.1, if you want to pick up the sword, the prince can't pick it up, so it stays on the ground, and you'll see it during the scene, and you need to pick it up again.
Goblin head on room number 5 level 7:
On IR, the goblin head guarding a power potion on room number 5 level 7 is rather close to the entrance, making it VERY hard to kill the head and get the potion. On 1.0 and 1.1 the goblin head is further away and makes it easier to kill it.
Prince of Persia 2 demo versions
Three demo versions for PoP2 are available. First one is version 1.0 (1993 first official demo by Broderbund Software). Second one is version 1.1 (1998 the one released within Prince of Persia Collection Limited Edition by Red Orb Entertainment - It has sound setup...). Third one is the Macintosh version's demo. Downloads.
Tricks
Major Potion in Level 5
Go to level 5 (the one with the flying carpet) At the start there is a closed door to the left, to open it go 3 screens to the right, drop the loose tiles, it will activate the cannon-like traps and the door switches, now go back all the way through the beginning and TA-DAA! the stone door will be opened with another mayor potion inside. (Room 22). And watch out; there's a loosing floor on the top of the major potion.
EXTRA DETAILS:* To climb the spikey-wall (when going back) SHIFT-WALK into it, then climb.
* To save time I suggest to push the skeleton into the lava pit.
* For the cannon-switch in the screen with the two stone doors and a spike-wall between them, crouch-walk the cannon-switch so you'll dodge the hits from the trap.
Major Potion in Level 9
There's also another hidden major potion in level 9. It's located behind the
center rock in this picture (room 13):
How to pass the Skeleton
The timing isn't everything, but it
is a lot of it. However, the positioning on the bridge is the key.
It's already been stated (in the walkthru) that you have to swap
places with the skeleton, but be careful in where/how you do this;
if you advance too far (towards the left end of the bridge), you
won't be able to detain the skeleton, no matter what you try. Slip
past the skeleton (while still exchanging slashes with him, of
course) right about the fourth or fifth plank from the left end of
the bridge; if he turns toward the right end of the bridge, slash or
step towards him to draw his attention back to you.
Now that you have his attention, the only thing left to do is push
him backward just slightly right of the center of the bridge. You'll
need to time your actions precisely, or you'll advance too far right
to grab the bridge when it collapses. The best formula I've
discovered is: block/slash/step back; step forward/block/slash/step
back. This rhythm will drive the skeleton towards the weak part of
the bridge, yet keep you close enough to turn and grab the bridge
when it begins to collapse.
Keep in mind that once you get this positioning and pattern down
correctly, it won't take long for the bridge to fall! I fought the
skeleton for ages without the bridge ever collapsing, but once I
discovered the correct position and timing, the bridge fell after
only two or three blows to the skeleton.
You may have to work on this pattern a few times to get the timing
down, especially turning and grabbing the bridge when it begins to
collapse. But again, if you pay attention to the positioning on the
bridge, you'll see the pattern and this will get fairly easy.
The easiest/quickest way to pass the skeleton
The following video (animated gif) shows you how to pass the skeleton quickly. And the best thing: you still have the sword after this, but after you land at the ruins, you won't!
If the GIFs don't load, watch the video from here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8862164618065523953.
Listen carefully. It is very tricky. Start running and then hold the up key when you are near the forth block of the bridge. Hold the 2 keys simultaneously (the prince will run and jump and jump and jump and so on). Result: the prince will jump over the skel and get away through the open door and the door will slam shut behind him.
Note: DO NOT stop in the middle of this procedure or the door will close before you reach. Note: Many reported that this trick doesn't work in the Macintosh version.
Pass level 10 via a shortcut (less than 35 seconds)
Some people know this trick, but some others don't even know the location of the extra screen on the extreme right side of the top row (where you fall down to the door). Kill the first 2 birdheads and continue right and jump across to knock the slab on top of the third birdhead. Now pull yourself up and move to the right edge of the platform and shift jump right again. Now just run right, a slab will fall opening the final door and if you keep running right you will fall through a trap door then just take a stroll to the finnish and your done. This a major time saver!
This is a very cool trick, and requires a complete leap of faith. Of course, it helps if you see the tiles above the exit and start getting suspicious... Note that some of the maps need to be updated because they miss some screens. I've also recorded it. As you will see, the second bird guard has disappeared because the first one has been killed on the edge of the screen. Click here: walk2.html
Level 3: two shortcuts
FIRST shortcut (fastest):
Click here to download the video: prince_003-1.flv.
In this video, the player would be through even faster, if he wouldn't bother with the skeleton so much and even more, if he wouldn't have stopped for ages! AND he could even have saved more than 10 seconds at the beginning; there's no need to climb the 4 tiles platform - just jump. Note that there are two exit gates right in level 3.
A good hint in sword-fighting: Be aggressive, but not too much. Move forward and don't strike, if the opponent is not moving, as he won't come near you. Move forward, parry and strike. Or parry, wait half a second and then strike. The hit quote is 99,9%, then.
SECOND shortcut:
It's in the PoP 2 speedrun videos: CLICK HERE: walk2.html (Level 3).
Level 9 shortcut
It is possible to solve level 9 without going the lower way to clear the heads in advance. You can follow the upper way from the beginning, bypassing the heads, and sparing lots of time.
Sounds easy? Well, it isn't quite. Perhaps the beginning is, which is only a matter of practice:
However, the last screen is definitely a challenge. You can lure those two heads to the screen to the right and jump back, but it's quite tough:
It's a typical speedrun-solution, that is, it's unstable for regular playing. But it works :). Also note that you don't get the potion.
Level 6 to Level 7
For those who don't know:
Right one is a bit easier because you can kill one head with a single hit. Here is a little trick for the first of two heads before the extra life potion! See the video:
How to kill that first head, guarding the life potion, without fighting it and losing life: http://www.mediafire.com/?cwyujyoh9jm
Pass level 13 (flame level) quickly
There is a way to pass level 13 (the flame level) quickly. You will save a great deal of time by avoiding fighting all the guards, dieing and waiting to turn into the shadow automatically and getting the flame...
Turn into the shadow (you need to have enough potions to do so) on the double-doors screen (save check-point), go to the flame screen and jump on the platform (first tile of it is actually a raising floor that opens the three doors -
Map) and go back, return to the prince and enter the door).
You still have the flame on the last level. However, you will have to fight some guards downstairs to gain enough potions).
Here's the video (gif animation): note that you can avoid killing the first birdman (shadow and prince modes) by several ways...
Pass level 1 quickly
Here's how to pass first level quickly without killing first, second, third, fourth and fifth guards.
Download video: walk2.html
Note that this time-saving technique doesn't shave any time off of your score, since time only starts on level 4-5. However, it works on almost all guards (bird men/skeletons/etc.) in the game.
Note: Not only (in this version 1.1) birdmen are strained, but guards and skeltons too. ;) The guards couldn't get you, so they committed suicide. :D
Pass level 6 quickly
You can call this a bug-trick. Pass level 6 directly to level 7 - Only works on Prince of Persia 2 IR (Initial Release) version.
PRINCE.EXE GAMEPLAY
The "gameplay" option starts the game with a different levelset, which is 95% the same (at least), but there are both some subtle and some important differences.
Start the game like PRINCE.EXE GAMEPLAY. You will begin in some places in the game and press alt+n to skip levels in a new place. You can also start the game like PRINCE.EXE YIPPEEYAHOO GAMEPLAY
The prince.dat file contains 28 level resources, the first 14 is for playing normally whereas the next 14 is used for the "gameplay" command line option. It's a different built-in levelset, probably they've used it for testing.
An example for subtle changes: Load level 3 and try to get to the room where you start in the normal game. In the "original" version, there is a room above that. In this version, there isn't.
Note that you can start the game using the "prince yippeeyahoo gameplay" command and you can skip to later levels as well. Levels 12 and 13 are also completely rewritten, though, they aren't too challenging ;)
Here are some screenshots of those levels (gameplay rooms). Check out the Prince of Persia 2 - GAMEPLAY maps at the ends too.
You'll also see that on level 14 (the last) there is no checkpoint after the tower, so you'll restart at the real beginning. This may convince those who think that there are 15 levels :D.
There's a funny "bug" in the last level, if you start with gameplay. Go to the crystal room. No Jaffar. Go to the upper screen. No Jaffar. But if you got the screen with the spider, you can see two Jaffars you can slash as much you want :D Another bug is in the small island level (the prince gets up in the wrong screen): You can't complete that level. If you go into the cave door, the Prince will reappear on the right edge of the screen, but it's not the same room (Press Shift+R), but a room with no background. If you press Shift+B twice, the background will turn into pink.
PRINCE.EXE GAMEPLAY MAPS
For prince.exe gameplay maps, click here: maps2.html
Prince of Persia 2 v1.1 Guards/Birdmen/Skeletons preview
Here are some gif animations and pictures from POP2 v1.1
Level 11, where you have to fight with few birdmen is the hardest for many... because other birdmen don't wait until you will kill first birdman, there are crouching to you, and you have to fight with few birdmans one time! Prince Of Persia 2 V1.1 from Collection Limited Edition - this is the newest version and only here you can fight with few enemies at one time (as it is showed on the animation...). In older versions of pop2 fighting here is much easier (you are fighting only with one enemy at one time). And one interesting thing for fans: Only in pop2 IR (First full version) you can met in this place 5 birdmen... In other versions, such as 1.1 there are 4 birdmen...
IMPORTANT: It is level 11, room 23: If you're tricky enough, you only need to fight one guard (only tested in v1.0 but does not work in v1.1). Enter the screen and wait a few seconds until that guard comes close and then retreat to the previous screen (before the second guard jumps down). You can kill the first guard on the screen to the right (room 13). After that, you go back and climb up before the second guard reaches you, and you've just avoided four of them :).
Here is how stupid are birdmen in this version :)
Another movie: Note that the one with Jaffar exists in PoP2 1.0 too. It happens when you go to chase him while not in shadow mode.
Here's a cool screenshot: You can also turn to shadow and enjoy slicing them one by one!
This is from level 1:
When and where can I turn into the shadow or the flame?
You will need to have 11 or 12 potions, then press keys: left-right-left-right-... (or right-left-right-left-...) until you turn into the shadow or the flame.
PoP2 versions 1.0 and 1.1
Shadow: Levels 10, 11, 12 and 13.
Flame: Level 14 (B).
PoP2 version IR
Shadow: Levels 10, 11, 12 and 13.
Flame: Levels 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 (B). And this is the explanation for this:
This is another bug in the IR version (only in this version) in which you can turn into the flame in all the temple levels.
How to do it: Gain enough potions ; turn into your shadow (or press Shift-S) ; press Shift-K to decrease your health till one potion ; press Shift-T to increase your health till the maximum (12 potions) ; and voila, you will turn into the flame ... enjoy the great scene ;).
Timing running jumps
QUESTION: In the POP2 manual, it says that for a running jump "don't worry about pressing (up) to early, because the prince will wait until the last possible moment to jump". This is most definitely not the case, as I'm finding out on the last ruins level where you need to execute a few well-timed running jumps to get onto the horse. It's vitally important to press up (or jump left/right) at the correct time. Are there any hints on how to time running jumps? It all seems a bit hit and miss to me.
ANSWER: Start exactly 2 tiles away from the edge you want to running jump from. Press and hold the run key. When the prince starts running, press the up key. Success. There are a few places where you don't have the luxury of taking your time to do a running jump. In these cases, there's a couple of different ways of getting the right distancing on the jump. It's best to experiment with it. If you find that the jump doesn't work when you just run at the ledge, you might start running, stop for a second, and then keep running so that you adjust your distance without losing much time. If it's anything like the PC version, the edge-of-platform detection is rather... sporadic. It seems to usually be best to pace two platform-widths away from the edge, then press Up about half a second after starting to run.
Killing the goblin heads
The goblin heads are quite tough, you need precise timing to fight them. Before they bite you, they stop right before you for about a second or so. That's when you have to hit them. If you have a dagger (which you have, because you get the father's sword two levels later), you have to strike a moment later (just few miliseconds) or use the block-strike, which takes more time to make (Press up then press hit before the prince stops moving his arm. This is called uphit (or block-strike) technique.). Also, the dagger makes less damage than the sword. You need two hits to take one "bottle" of life. This makes fights disgustingly difficult and long. But there's another trick - if you manage to throw the head against the wall, it will smash. It's lot quicker, but you can't do it everywhere. You should usually time it by swinging the sword when you hear the first scream, or a little before... it's easy if you get a pattern going.
A trick to kill a head quickly is to do this: the head was two stories lower and there were two lose tiles and you make one of them fall on it: dies instantly.
From a walkthrough guide book: The key to beating the heads (with any weapon) is mainly positioning and timing. First off, there are specific spots you should stand so the heads are within striking distance. This is very crucial so the heads hesitate for a moment close enough for you to hit them. That way, you don't just swing at air, and then they charge at and bite you.
Trick to kill Jaffar
A trick to kill Jaffar without giving him a single chase. The video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9110786224622351218
It looks hard to perform... but is practically easy. Try it. Just climb up, make a standing jump, tap right button and take out the sword. He will drop down, frozen. Kill him. Easy...
Or do it the straight way: You need to have 12 potions to become the flame man. Under the chess board screen, there's a screen with a giant spider and guards. When you will kill one of those guards another will appear. They will also randomly change to a small or a big potion. Kill them and drink until you got 12 potions. Then become the flameman and go to the crystal screen, kill the images and go to the upper screen. Hunt Jaffar down, when you think you're close enough to him, press CTRL to launch fireball. Timing this can be tough, so you may have to try it several times. And when you finally succeed in crisping Jaffar, congratulations, you've finished the game!
Final Level: Getting Potions
Getting the extra potions on level 14 is possible, but not recommended. You can get some of the ones in earlier levels without much extra effort. By the time you finish level 8 you can have 11 health points. This way, if you restart the last level, you don't have to re-get those potions since the number of hp's is saved at every checkpoint.
The only reason for those potion-dropping guards at the end is that if they weren't there, you could lose the game by passing certain level boundaries without having the sufficient number of potions. You still make your life harder if you don't take them in time. You may get 1 potion after killing like 10 consecutive guards in a row at the giant spider room.
Levels Tips, Tricks, Bugs, ...
Level 1
On the first level if you jump right as soon as u jump out of the window, there is a guard in black with 3 health bars - none of which are on the level anywhere else except here. I tried to find a way to get to him years ago but couldn't figure it out.
On level 1 in the room where you have to climb down: If you are in cheat mode and do a running jump to the left, and press Shift-W (float) while falling, you can climb up on nothing! Similar to POP2 "first release" bug2 (And that's because it is an existing floor):
Funny way to kill the first guard:
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL6mJHYlJy8
Some of you might know it already, but it's useful! Like this you can pass the rooftops level even faster, because the guards have so less HP. Just when you're about to set the final strike, do the following:
- Press Crtl. to hit the guard
- In the time, the guard gets hit and dies, his last bottle is still there - but only for a split second.
- In this split second, press down RIGHT AWAY to let Prince sheath his sword fast.
Level 5
You can pass the skeleton without collapsing the bridge and losing the sword. First take a look at the skeleton without opening the door, then climb the ledge of the room to the left and up to the cleft where the two potions are then drink both of them. Climb down onto ledge of the room before the bridge then jump down without making another move, when you land on the platform level with the bridge, do several running jumps taking care to press that button and jumping through the door which will close behind the moment you're through.
Did you know that there are 2 life bottles (major potions) in this level? This room is to the right of the start and you open it with one of the raise button in the room before the carpet.
There is also a strange part near the skeleton bridge where if you leave that screen to the right, hang down over that ledge and then climb back up, the skeleton has gone, but the bridge will not break!
Another bug I've recorded: After I had died in the iron edge, I pressed R to return from dead.
A skeleton walks thru a wall: Another bug which works only in the oldest version of PoP2: You can fight with the skeleton through the wall:
Now here, climb up and jump to the skeleton, you don't lose a life whenever it attacks you ...
This is how the Prince sees the skeleton (from the strategy guide):
On a rickety wooden bridge stood a fiendish skeleton when he saw me, he began to cross in my direction I ran toward him to prevent him from gaining the advantage. As I ran, I stepped on a pressure plate and heard the sound of a gate opening ahead.
The monster pressured me and kept coming forward, but I would not give ground. We exchanged places, and then I saw what its intentions were. The fiend was going to run to the pressure plate to the east and close the gate I had opened.
I quickly slashed at it as it began to turn around, and it abandoned its plan, crossing swords with me again. I could not seem to kill this creature (as if you could hope to kill something that should not be alive in the first place). And it was fast. I could hardly block its blows. I found a good offense was my best defense, and I kept pushing it backward, part of me still considering running for the gate. I was standing near the western edge of the bridge. The skeleton was just east of the middle.
Then the whole thing collapsed. I mean, the bridge broke and I just had time to whirl around and catch myself on some rungs that had not broken. My sword, Hamza - my sword fell from my hand as I clutched desperately for the rungs. Hanging there, I heard it clatter onto the rocks below, moments after the dry, brittle sound of the skeleton as it, too, clattered to the floor below.
Level 6
In one version in Level 6, the door whence you start at remains open and you can quickly go through it and you will automatically have the broken sword when you arrive in Level 7. The part of Level 7 you will arrive in is the upper left entrance.
In the sword level of the ruins, there is a closed gate in the sword room. You can get in the room through the gate. You can draw your sword in the previous screen and then walk through the gate with it. I also wonder who that witch is... some walkthrough said that he's the one that killed Prince's parents. Note: you can do it on the same screen too...
Level 7
In level 7, when you get into the room with the head (big pillars on either side of the room) drop down and it hits you from behind. Then hit it once and it just disappears into the big pillar on the left! The music played as if he had died, yet he had around 2 health bars left! Then when you get to the major potion, another head comes at you but this time, after you strikes it once with your sword, it gets all sad and moved to the corner of the room and stays there till you approach and then it attacks again... this happened a few times...
Level 7 has two big (major) potions: one in the left part (left Level 6 exit) and another one in the right part (right Level 6 exit). It is impossible to catch the two big potions at the same time (you can take only 1 potion not the second one).
Level 9
In the desert (last level of ruins) there is one big potion covered by big rock!
On level 9, when you jump on the marble horse, as soon as it starts sparkling, hit ESC. you will jump to level 10, you will then obviously notice the level is black. Oddly enough, the sprites remain to be seen (prince, enemies, dead enemies, health bar, animated objects: potions, etc.) Try it. It is fun to try and beat it, although it's simple if you take the shortcut. Note that when you complete the level, level 11 is normal again. By the way,after ending level 8 (the one where the Prince gets his father's sword), the cut-scene before level 9 is all messed up as the text that comes on top doesn't get erased when more text is shown, and the colors are not normal as well. And the "makinit levelN" cheat allows you to completely skip the copy protection! Running the game with "prince makinit level10" takes us directly to level 10, but the level's colors are all messed up this time. Still, it's better than the black level you get in in 2). Level 11 and above colors are fine as noted above... ALL THESE STRANGE BEHAVIOR happen in the IR version...
Level 10
There is a way to finish this level soon: in the room on the left from the exit one, you don't have to go down and fight the guard: just jump right and push shift.
Level 11
Level 11, if you mistakenly drop from the ledge and the wall crushes you, press R to "resurrect from where you last died". You'll resurrect, alright, but still stuck (?) behind that crushing block wall! The funny thing is, all your life potions will re-appear, but you'll still be stuck behind the block wall. Until, that is, you decide to take a step to the right. Voila! You have earned the ability to walk thru walls! The prince will reappear, and step straight thru the crushing block and you can continue the game.
Level 12
Mysterious sword in level 12: Near the exit on level 12 is a sword. What's this sword all about?
Answer: It's the fire sword. You cannot pick it up, because it gets up itself, as soon, as you move to stand up. The only way to "kill" it, is parrying, till the flames go out. But it's best to switch sides and run away.
See the red rectangle (red rectangles = opponents) in the room right beside the start? That's the flame sword. If you reach that Sword, then it will rise and fight you like an invisible Guard. It also doesn't die. You can't kill it. But you can parry it to death. Only downside: It will just rise again. You need to draw your sword as soon as you stand up and switch sides. Then put it away and run! If you like you can parry its slashes. After six times, it'll fall down, but rises fast again.
Some people claim that Jordan Mechner wanted to put a sword in this level as a remember for the same level in PoP1.
Have you seen this small guy (jinnee = Karnov) in the temple?
Level 13
On the flame level, kill ALL the guards including the last one. jump the pit/doom and go to the very edge. make a standing jump to the platform with the flame. turn around and make a standing jump back to the floor. now you are on the very edge again. NOW go to the right and jump the pit and hang down .drop down. trust me you will not fall. you will come on an invisible platform just below the real platform. now go through the the invisible platform and you will see that all the level gates are open. after seeing all the level gates go back to the very edge of the invisible platform taking the above platform as the reference and climb up. some guards will come. KILL them. go through a level gate and the level is over. another procedure to pass this level.
VIDEO link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7372049676261246307
The reason for it is, that the floor tile before the flame is a raise button, linked to all the exits. The only downside for the shortcut is, that you have to regain big potions in the room with the spiders from the guards in the last level. And THIS is really annoying, since they seldom give a big potion... More small ones.
You can open the doors in Level 13 without getting the flame by first killing the guard then jumping on the platform with eagle's nest and the flame and then head back to find the doors open. Whether it hinders your ability to use the flame or not, I do not know.
In the room with the flame, after the shadow came out, press "R", go to right, then go back.
Another way to beat the level with the flame: Instead of letting the birdman kill you, just kill him and jump to the platform with the flame. Then go back again and the exit door is open. You still have the flame on the last level. The three doors will open as well. And that is because when you jump on the platform, you will jump on its first tile (to the right to the flame), which is actually an opening switch (raising floor) (that opens the three doors / exit door). You don't need to die and get the flame. In fact, the shadow triggers it if you die. Also,you can change into shadow (left-right-...), jump over, then back. The only problem is that the prince may have too few energy. See:
You can also turn into the shadow and jump on the platform (first tile) and go back again (the doors will open but you can't enter; here just return onto the prince). Also, you can turn into the shadow on the double-doors screen and jump on the platform and go back -- this will save a huge amount of time, however in the last level you will still have to fight some guards downstairs to gain enough potions).
On the same level, two rooms to the right, there is a big chasm. If you stand on the left edge, the birdmen are trying to jump over, but they can't:
In the last level of the temple, near the flame there is a chasm (a large pit) you must jump over. So after you won all the bird men guards, in the 4 screen, (left to right direction) in the jump place you can go down a little bit more in the right side and you can walk to right. Just hang on the right ledge and drop, you will land on an invisible floor, but without profit or gain... This invisible floor continues long to the right.
There is also a small bug in shadow mode, when you turn into the shadow next to a bird man, your skin will be changed to the black (shadow skin) but you're still the prince (you will fight the bird man). Put down your sword and you will turn into the normal. Also another bug is that if you die after getting the flame, then return from death [press R to resurrect where you last died], the bird men will kill you - they won't kneel you. And also another thing is that the guard must kill you on the flame screen in order to let your shadow get out and take the flame.
At the beginning of the last Temple level, you'll enter a hall and a guard will appear quickly. If you stand on the right edge of the chasm, the swordsman will try to approach you walking (instead of running and jumping over the chasm), then he will fall without you having to fight him. You can do the same with all the 5 guards appearing in that same hall. If any guard manages to jump over the chasm, you can jump to the other part quickly and let him fall in the pit as he turns to reach you.
NOTE: Reason for the invisible platforms - These are no huge pillars!
(Cutout of Level 13 - Part of the holy flame; RoomShaker II) You can modify the pillars in the temple level via Modifier 3. But you need RoomShaker II or David's PoP2 Level Editor.
Here's how taking the flame is depicted in the PoP1&2 story (Official strategy guide):
This is somehow strange. The prince lies on the back in the game. And how did his clothes fix on the journey? You know, before the throne he got the shape of a beggar and his clothes were ripped a bit.
Level 14
On the final level, drop down to the room with the spider. After getting 12 bottles of heath, try this out. Manipulate the two guards into the bottom left corner. Drop down from the right side of the second floor. Kill the one closest to you. Once he is dead, turn into the flaming shadow as close as you can get to the other guard without him stabbing you. step close enough to the second guard so he starts stabbing. Get into the position where when you stab him, he doesn't take damage, your sword just goes through him. "Stab" him 8 times. Switch places with him and kill him so he lands on your dead body. Put your sword away and your body will come to life. It will take out his sword and attempt to kill you. Hit him with your sword 4 times to kill him again. This glitch requires no cheats/codes.
Prince of Persia 2 has lot of bugs like this (especially the last level). In the same level, in the crystal room if you got the lowest platform in the middle (which right of is a mirror image) if you got to the edge of that platform and turn around, the mirror image will try to slash you but falls...! I mean if you are the normal Prince.
In the last level when fighting Jaffar, if you climb down and immediately back up, Jaffar will fall dead in the room below. Now you can defeat Jaffar anymore and you you have to play the level again.
In the last level, in the room with the projections of Jaffar. You can let fall one of that projection to a lower platform, when an other projection is standing already. Now if you make the right jump one projection will stab you and another will miss you. You will die and both projections will laugh.
There once was a time when I defeated Jaffar using the blue flame but upon killing him, the ending sequence did not come up. Instead I stood stuck in Level 14.
In order to turn into the flame-shadow 
, you need to have 12 lives. If you start the level with less than 12 levels, go down and fight the guards (they will often turn into potions when you kill them).
You won't be killed if you miss the flame. Just drink one of the bottles that stand there and you'll have the flame back.
Also, you can try turning into the shadow 
(9, 10 or 11 lives) and go upstairs, but Jaffar will kill you. And if you throw the flame without it hits Jaffar, you will turn into shadow and therefore you will be killed by him.
Temple levels
In the temple levels, the prince can pass all gates. By turning into a shadow at the right place, your body falls through the gate. Reunite the shadow and the body, and you have passed the gate! The only problem is that: it takes a lot of your lives.
In the temple you will be able to come behind the crusher by holding (left and down) key when the crusher hits you with the wall . After doing this you will see that the prince is behind the crusher.
This is another bug: You can turn into the flame in all the temple levels.
Screenshots:
How to do it:
Gain enough potions --> turn into your shadow (or press Shift-S) --> press Shift-K to decrease your health till one potion --> press Shift-T to increase your health till the maximum (12 potions) --> and voila, you will turn into the flame ... enjoy the great scene ;).
Note:
This bug only happens on PoP2 IR version.
Here's an interesting bug too:
The third potion is empty. max_life=3, cur_life=2, but once you had 12 lives.
When you turned into shadow, the area with the lost lives did not get repainted.
Cave levels
You can actually climb a wall with spikes. To do so, Shift-Walk. Screenshot:
Press 'R' after falling to lava, the prince will look funny - it's kind of like a *no clip mode*. It also happens in chompers, spikes, etc. (R stands for 'return from dead' in cheats mode).
If you go up on a level door and press left-right-left-right, the Prince will reappear and float in the air. GIF Animation:
Ruin levels
You can jump through a horizontal cutting knife. This is only possible when you jump from the right to the left.
Misc
In cheat mode kill a snake with "K", and see what happens :)
Have you ever noticed that the prince has slightly different colors on different kinds of levels? (caverns, ruins, temple, etc.)
In the story/cutscenes/NIS the turban of the prince is white, but in the game, it's blue. And in the start the prince has royal suit on him, then it changes to some rags...
In one version try this. Walk close to a right directional wall until your feet are just about touching it, then turn round and quickly draw out your sword immediately followed by sheathing it and you will go through the wall into the rightmost room that the wall ends. I found a strange room in Level 4 with that glitch that does not appear at first sight and only brings you to your death. The only natural time and place you can do this method is by going back through the metal gate in the great hall in Level 8, but if you want to go through it by going left, you must stand very adjacent to it, draw out your sword then walk left until you're through. Note: It works in PoP2 1.0 and 1.1 but not in IR. Another example of when the new version has more bugs than the old!
Did you know that you can un-pause the game by clicking with the mouse?
Interesting is also cheat "F3 - Player on/off.". I still don't know what it is doing.
I'm very curious who is this witch... Maybe she will be useful when coding new engine of pop2?
There's also the old man witch with his crystal in PoP1 Genesis platform - Jaffar)
Once when I was fighting a lot of guards, there was one guard that remain standing in the air. This guard jumped jumped from a higher platform, but the place where he would land was full of other guard. Really strange!
In game there are two kinds of swords which you can use, but this probably everyone know. This worse is shorter and take only 0.5 damage to your appointment.
Another interesting life-saving hint: In many levels, when a swordsman appears running to you from another room, if you run against him and fight him in the farthest part of the room (close to where he came from), no more guards will appear. If you wait for him to reach you and you let him cross the whole room, instead, more guards will appear after you killed the first one.
When you enter a door to go to the next level, wait for a second or two then press Esc and immediately press left or right and you will see the prince sort of floating in midair. If you do it often enough, you can reach places you can't at first.
In "shadow mode" you can visit some non-available places (for example closed by gates).
POP2 "first release" bug1:
POP2 "first release" bug2:
POP2 bug:
More interesting adventures are in Prince Of Persia 2 from Collection Limited Edition: Very aggressive enemies. They come to you even if between you and enemy is trap, vulcan etc. But this allows to fight with few enemies one time! There is one "death" place in temple levels when you are fighting with 4-5 birdmen in one screen! (That's also interesting that in some version you are fighting with 4 birdmen, and in another with 5! Currently I don't know in what version there are five, but I have the proof in screenshot. Click here: tips2.html. And when you are taking out sword before Jaffar (in last level) expect of "flying" sword, Jaffar kills you!
On the last level when you are the flaming shadow and chasing Jaffar you will see him dropping dead if you shoot a couple of fireballs and miss him every time.Once that happens you will have to restart the level 'cause you can't kill him with a fireball and nothing happens.(You can run around forever!).This only happens in PoP 2 v 1.1.
In one of the PoP2 versions (IR I guess) when you just sit on the flying carpet without opening the "air gate", it kills you (flew into the air gate), but the game crashes and closes itself! It also crashes if you press Alt+A (restart level) in the carpet room. Also, when you try to pick up your father's sword, the in-game cinematics played but at the end, the game also crashes and closes itself. Also, after you cross the bridge and get onto the rug, the prince flies up to the sky and it never continues to the next level from there (besides the rug freezed the intro movie too). POP2 Initial Release (IR) contains many bugs. 1.1 also. Many consider that version 1.0 is the best. After you kill the first guard in the beginning, the game gets stuck. Some versions had this bug if you turned the SB sounds on. Maybe because of crack. Try setting PC Speaker as sound device and launch the game again. There are many workarounds in this website for such and similar problems. You could have that problem on windows 98 and ME! It's your sound device. If you have POP Collection, go to SETUP (usually found in C:\Program Files\Red Orb Entertainment\Prince of Persia CLE\Prince2), and choose PC Internal Speaker for sound device. It's not the best sound, but at least you can play. Choose Roland MT-32/LAPC/CM-32L for your music synthesizer to have music, but Roland is a little bit overly musical and dramatic! Anyway, with DOSBox, you can run the game with no problems, almost like real DOS.
If you press Alt-V (version number) in V1.1, you'll see a strange glitch at the bottom of the screen! The version message will be shown it two lines, and the first line is written into the room instead of the status line, and it stays there. Screenshot:
There are a lot of bugs like this one in IR version... It has some more bugs - black level if you don't watch that animation with horse. You can only see prince and birdmen...
The time starts counting from level 4-5 and does not stop till the last level.
QUESTION: In the last level, I have the max number of potions. When I press left-right-left-right-left to turn into the blue shadow the shadow only appears for a moment then disappears (Prince returns to normal state) and taking a lot of the life vials with it. What should be done? I've only managed to finish the last level with cheats because of this.
ANSWER: It seemed to be related to the amount of time (time lag) before you press the next key of left or right arrow key and if there was some additional delay before you press the next key, the prince used to lose the life but remain normal. It started working when the time lag was uniform i.e. was the same when the prince is turning this way and the other way.
QUESTION: There is this old lady (the witch) at the end of the game: Who the hell is she and how come they never addressed that after the second game? Did these new games just start a new storyline?
ANSWER: The fact is, that it is not told anywhere in the game. Some walkthroughs said she's the one who killed prince's parents. See the snake logo. Apparently she was created there for an upcoming sequel, which never came. Anyway, those ruins were once the palace where Prince lived with his parents. Then, "enemies" came. Prince's mother is in the cutscene when you take the father's sword. He tells to avenge "us". I also wonder what those floating heads really are, or were, and did they have something to do with that witch.
Here is magic sword:
You have to be in cheat mode. And you have to be able to turn into the shadow. Let the shadow die somewhere (the only ways for a shadow to die are falling down an endless pit or burn from the flame) and press "R", if the camera is switching back to the "dead" prince. Then, another oe stands here. You can now slash the "dead" body once to "revive" it. It's fun! And you can also make more than just two!!
Playing the 1.1 version and there was an interesting difference. The guards in the temple levels throw themselves off the platforms, they walk right into the blade traps, and when you're fighting with more than one of them they no longer wait for the one-on-one fight to end, they attack at the same time. It makes the battles harder but a lot more interesting and cool.
In the castle part with the birdguys you can change into the shadow man. take shadow man, let him get killed (not by the normal traps such as blades, but by the walls or bottomless pits). then the screen should go to the prince's dead body. hit the revive button, and voila! the reserve-prince pops up! I've did this succesfully 20 times. I had 20 dead princes!
In level 12, I killed the shadow and then revived myself. Usually the game repeats the "dying act" with white blinking three times, but then it did something else. The kid fell through the hole down to the first screen, then revived, ran to the left and fell again through the wall. Just let him revive 3 times, then revive again and try running to left or something like that.
The most complicated levels is no doubt the third Temple level. The easiest path (that I think is the easiest) is to go to the right corner (where are the potions) and return. I don't know what use is to free the small guy in the bottle.
In PoP2 IR, he opens the exit door on the same room by stepping onto the raise button behind the gate (like the mouse in PoP1).
Changing the names of DATs
Rename GUARD and BIRD DAT files in the main directory of PoP2 and run the game. (rename GUARD file as BIRD, rename BIRD file as GUARD). And don't forget to backup your DAT files!
Before renaming the files:
After renaming the files:
Short video from level 1 with these modifications (1.86 MB): changedguardian.avi
Rename ROOFTOPS as TEMPLE, rename TEMPLE as ROOFTOPS
The game works and captures are like below from the game (Temple on level 1):
Short video from level 1 with these modifications (2.54 MB): templeonlevel1.avi
Enjoy! And fiddle around with the renaming process! Note that when some unsuitable modifications are made, the game won't work.
Important: This trick works for POP1 DAT files. Rename the fat.dat to guard.dat and vice-versa. It's funny to meet red fatties in Level 1!
SOT-T2T: Classic Referance
If you pay attention, you may notice stuff and places from the classic POP 1 and 2.
The mountains you see at the docks in POP2 are the same Mountain sides where the Prince and Kaileena arrived at Babylon.
The Swords that the enemies have at the very beginning of the game actually refers to the swords in POP2.
The Prince's father sword refers to the father sword in the ruins at POP2. That explains that the prince in the classic and the prince in Sands of Time Trilogy are actually related and the sword is a family weapon past to the next king.
Might be the eagle sword or the last sword you find in Sands of Time is the weapon the prince starts with in POP2.
The Scene where the Vizier captured Farah and destroyed the bridge which sends the prince to the bottom of the castle refers to the scene where the prince's shadow locks the gate and the prince falls into the next level in POP1.
The top tower spot where you face Super Sand Vizier in Two Thrones is the same dual tower spot where you fight Jaffar in the classic POP1 SNES version.
In the Sands of Time, when the prince falls into the dugeon and the stone lands on him, this is anouther reference to level 7 of the classic Prince of Persia.
Prince of Persia Magazine Scans
Check out the magazines.html page. This page contains hundreds of magazines scans concerning Prince of Persia 1 and 2. You can find many maps, cheats, walkthroughs, hints, etc. for the games.