Hi folks. Had Prince of Persia, Sands of time for a long time and finally installed it. Ugh. The controls are horrendous for the PC. I rebound them so they are a bit more like the original Tomb Raider but this guy is tough to control. He's all over the place.

Two questions. Is there a way to make him drop when he's hanging? He will not let go of the ledge and if he flips then he dies.

2nd, where are the save points???? I get past a zillion ledges, past rotating, spiky posts, up high walls, past cut scenes and then can't make him drop a ledge, he dies and I go back to some spot way, way in the beginning.

This game looks so cool that I want to play but it seems it is definitely made for PS. The save issue is a pain. Perhaps there's a trainer cheat for saving? That would be so nice.

Thanks for any help. I'm in the beginning of the game. Of course, I keep getting thrown back there, lol.

Hi burpee!

I'm sorry, I haven't played this one. I'm sure someone who has played it will be along soon to help you out.

Rusty

Hi Rusty! I see your avatar is still smoking those bananas, lol
Hopefully someone else has had some experience with this one.

I haven't played it either, but naw! you're not getting old!
This wasn't written for the PC version, but maybe it will be of some help until a veteran of the game comes along.

Thanks Nickie, will check that out

I played the game to about the 85% mark and couldn't go any further. It is a difficult game with all the moves the Prince makes, but when you master them, they are neat to use. The wall rebound is especially useful. It has been a while, so I don't remember the key assignments. The manual is not a lot of help. I checked my strategy guide and it says to drop from a ledge use the cancel action button. Maybe you can locate it in the options menu.

There are save points at sand vortexes. They are usually not too far apart. It is a beautiful game and I wish I could have finished it. I ended at a point I had to throw two levers and then wall jump between two moving walls.

There are a couple of trainers and a saved game file here:

http://www.gamewinners.com/DOSWIN/blprincepersiasandstime.htm

You can also find some help at the POP forum:

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/ubb.x?a=frm&s=400102&f=893104132

Wow, that sounds like a completely different game from what I'm playing. It's for Gameboy and I'm PC. They are talking about flares and bats flying and climbing a cloth...I haven't seen anything like that so far. I'm jumping ledges and trying to run past tall, spiky, rotating pillars. I have to leave but will more later. Thanks

Oops...just noticed Pokey's comment. Thanks hon!

The key to drop down is the C key, courtesy of the POP forum. I got a lot of help there.

Here is an excellent site with a walkthrough and screenshots. It is very comprehensive on HOW to do things, but doesn't list the keys to use (lots of these guides try to cover the game without this, I figure, because of the various platforms the game might be played in, such as consoles or pc).

http://guides.ign.com/guides/535908/

Like Pokey, I recommend looking at the key assignments in options. And also like Pokey, I could not finish it. There are scenes where the enemies come at you in such large numbers in small rooms, I just could not handle the twitch-and-spaz to get through it. I used Google to find some save games and then hopscotched through the rest of the game.

I had a hard enough time playing it on my PS2 let alone trying to figure out the keys to play it on my laptop. Kudos to you for trying!!!

Thanks everybody! Appreciate the suggestions and links. I'll let you know how it goes. I bet I use a save or two myself

I love this game. Personally, I found the controls very easy, and have completed the whole game on PC and PS2, although some of the later fights (like the rising room fight!) got pretty difficult. I found the save points to be just far apart enough that it was a relief whenever I reached one - which I find is an excellent way to keep the tension going.

But my favourite features are the Prince's acrobatic moves (try running up and over an enemy and striking whilst above them!), and Rewind Time - soooo useful when you've got half a dozen complex acrobatic manoeuvres to get in a chain.

I hope the suggested links resurrect POP: SoT for you, Burpee, it's a real classic, IMHO!

Gremlin

p.s. my review

Unfortunately, the PC port of this game had fairly lousy controls.

They improved significantly in the ports of the two sequels, but there was something very wrong with the controls in Sands of Time. The prince would be standing off a ledge from which you want to jump, you'd press right and he'd run left, fall off and die. Then you'd rewind time, do the jump again, and this time the same thing would happen.

One time I was standing on the edge of a cliff, wanting to walk left. Every time I pressed left, the prince would run right off the edge of the cliff and die. The same thing happened if I pressed up: I think I had to press down to get him to move left. Or something.

Needless to say, after the first 20 or 30 times you die to such stupidity, you'll start getting pretty frustrated...

Now, in theory a dual analog gamepad could fix things (maybe). However, Ubisoft entered into some sort of weird marketing deal with Thrustmaster, and the result is that only one gamepad is officially supported by this game: the Thrustmaster Firestorm Dual Analog 3.

The functionality of pretty much any other gamepad appears to have been artificially broken: generally speaking, the second analog stick doesn't work, and the control problems mentioned above are still present.

In other words, what otherwise was an excellent port was severely marred by lousy control implementation. They fixed things in the sequels, but never even issued a patch for Sands of Time.

I must say I never saw anything like this happen. Warrior Within (the 'first' sequel) was much, much buggier in my experience, even on PS2, where games are supposed to be relatively bug-free due to the consistent hardwar. However, Two Thrones (which I've only played on PS2) is rock solid.

YMMV, it appears,
Gremlin

I had very few problems with the PC controls once I learned them. Sometimes the wall rebound didn't work because I didn't hit the keys exactly right and place the Prince in the right postion, but that was an intricate maneuver. Sometimes he wouldn't jump off a swinging rope. The biggest problem was in getting past obstacles in time, mainly that moving wall.

I got all the way to the long cut scene where the sands of time are released and then I go directly to a fight to learn to collect the sands while fighting. I died over and over again using Retry but had to go to bed. I never got to save so I'm right back at the beginning of the game. In my opinion, the game could use more saves.

I started reading one of the walkthroughs in the links provided but I only found one save spot so far and that's the one I'm stuck at. This is very strange to me. How hard is it to add save points in a game?

There are save points in several locations long before you release the sands of time!

Try section 3.1 of this walkthrough for more detail.

Gremlin

Ok, it looks like if I had been able to defeat them, that I could have saved. The other walkthrough does not say that. That is a big help. I do not have much luck with fighting and will have to rebind my Use Dagger key as I think it's my middle mouse button and I'm not using the mouse to play. Perhaps J or H will work for me.

The puzzles and jumping are what I like to do so this is a very interesting game to me. I do not like to fight though. I'll check out the trainers if I have to but I'll keep trying as is for awhile. We always get better the more we play, right?

Ok cool...beat them all and saved again..2nd time. I think it's going to be fun but tough doing this one. Thanks again.

This game gets better the more I play it. Not easier but I'm really enjoying it.

Good for you Burpee, I have watched my grandsons play this game on console and it looks really hard. I have it for PC but as yet have not tackled it. Not sure it is something I can handle either.

i agree, the controls can be quite finnicky

How are you doing, Burpee? Past the reception hall yet?

Hi everyone! Wow, beautiful game! It IS hard, though, and the controls for our hero really are semi-awful (as opposed to really awful, lol). At certain screen changes, the POV changes and you must stop and change your view or else run ahead blind and change the arrow key you're using. I like the way Tomb Raider plays the game by always staying behind Lara....I'd like that here.

Nevertheless, I have gotten to Level 5. I loaded up a trainer but only use it when I'm really stuck...like boss fights. I'm getting carpal tunnel from banging on the keyboard, lol.

I'm here and I'm stuck:
http://guides.ign.com/guides/535908/page_10.html
At 'meet you in the baths'. I kill the birds and scarabs and pull the lever out to raise the gate. You then have to retraverse the narrow ledges and run across the raised gate to get to the other side. The gate is always too low by the time I get back up. I'm tired of trying this over and over.

Is there a saved game somewhere or does someone here have a few? I'd love to bypass this section. I've spent two days trying to get past it

Edit: I should mention that I've tried running on the gate like a wall and I've tried walking on the gate too.

Ok, I just watched a little video showing this level. The person makes it look easy. I do everything this person does and I swear I took the same amount of time but my gate is much farther down than than theirs. I'll try it one-last-time, rotfl.

Edit: Woohoo!! The video gave me the confidence I needed to get past that part. I followed what the author did and it worked for me. I'm now in the waterfall. What a fantastic area of the game. I love this kind of scenery...awesome!