The Best Thing You'll See Today: The Prince of Persia mo-cap tapes

by Justin McElroy { Oct 29th 2008 at 9:00AM }

Though it may seem crude these days, Jordan Mechner's original Prince of Persia animation was state-of-the-art in 1989. But the method by which he got it is even more impressive. Mechner shot his kid brother, performing the moves he needed, on a video camera and then, using rotoscoping, plopped them directly into his game.

Now, you can watch the actual home movies and it's positively shocking how closely they resemble the final moves the prince was performing way back in the late '80s. Watch it just below the break and just try not to get a little emotional. Try!

[Via Giant Bomb]

Tags: best-thing-today, jordan-mechner, prince-of-persia

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Noshino @ Oct 29th 2008 9:15AM

Sad thing is that if someone today does the same thing, they are labeled a pedophile...

Ihavepants @ Oct 29th 2008 9:20AM

What? So all Game devs are pedophiles now? Is that what you're saying?

Seriously though what are you referring to... it better not be just the fact that the person running around in the video is under 18. Your view on pornography is fail.

Another paragraph of confuzzles at your comment.

The last paragraph.

bm @ Oct 29th 2008 9:48AM

Dude WTF.

Noshino @ Oct 29th 2008 9:53AM

Ihavepants

what? to begin with, you comment doesn't make much sense, this isn't the same as today's mo-cap technology...apparently I was misunderstood as Im not trying to call any game developer or anyone for that matter a pedophile.

I'm just mentioning it because a friend was recording a bunch of kids at the playground as reference for a college project, and you could hear people passing by calling him a pedophile...

j.howlett @ Oct 29th 2008 9:56AM

did he have a pedo look? the guy who shot this was young at the time and his kid brother isn't a little kid.

Noshino @ Oct 29th 2008 10:09AM

lol no, seriously, now there is even a "pedo" look? -_-;

dark_inchworm @ Oct 29th 2008 10:17AM

Yes, pedophilia accusations are borderline ridiculous these days - I fell into that boat once with the cops for seeing someone 3 years younger during my freshman year at college (???) - but I don't understand what on Earth sparked your comment...

ihateemo @ Oct 29th 2008 10:28AM

What a dumb comment. Filming your younger brother do some running and jumping so that you can mo-cap it is hardly the same as hanging around a pre-school with a video camera and then fondling yourself to it later.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Savok @ Oct 29th 2008 1:50PM

You're all completely missing what he said.

Try taking pictures of your own damn kids at the beach and see what happens.

Reading comprehension people, they're supposed to teach you this at school, further proof that system is rotten too.

WindPower @ Oct 29th 2008 3:35PM

You've watched that "Prince of Persia retrospective" video from Zero Punctuation, right? Cause that's exactly what Yahtzee says xP

FSK405K @ Oct 29th 2008 9:19AM

No parallel game footage to compare this to? Kind of a waste without.

Jack of All Trades @ Oct 29th 2008 9:23AM

What, you can't see the game in your mind's eye? I certainly could.

Dante G @ Oct 29th 2008 11:03AM

@Jack

Indeed. Seen those moves so many times you don't need a side by side video. it would have been nice though.

arrrgh @ Oct 29th 2008 11:04AM

seriously.

i dont think i'll ever forget how prince of persia looked and played.

you can totally see the game in his movements. Animators did a bang up job!!

FSK405K @ Oct 30th 2008 9:27AM

You mean for an obscure and crappy PC game? Na, I was playing Populous, Gunship, and SMB3 when it came out.

Madster @ Oct 31st 2008 7:31PM

The original Prince of Persia, obscure?
Right. No one ever heard about it.

Riiight. Crappy. Right. You were playing those remembered by everybody like... gunship.
And you DO realise Populous was made for PC first then PORTED to every single system under the sun (just like Prince of Persia).

sigh.