Prince of Persia Level 3 Bug - "Secret Level"

[@jamsea389]

When I discovered these "secret levels" as a kid, It terrified me. I'd use the cheat to come back to life, fall through a wall, and walk around these weird looking places. I didn't understand and it scared me that I'd run away from the computer a few times.

[@ArunKumar-12-i8w]

Pls tell me cheat codes

[@AsimSiddiqui007]

@@ArunKumar-12-i8w Send Bob and Vagene

[@jerin-e-gulshan822]

What was that! It freaks me out

[@AsimSiddiqui007]

@@jerin-e-gulshan822 it is the after life.

[@DheerajYadav-sn8yt]

How to enter into it. I'm dying immediately after long fall

[@kicchan1662]

That scream used to scare the hell out of me

[@AsimSiddiqui007]

Wat scream

[@rebeccaisabella9721]

exactly! sounds like it could be a scream that you can hear in cartel videos or something

[@Saver310]

​@@rebeccaisabella9721what

[@TechCrazy]

What a legendary game! My friend used to load the files (not sure if it was the exe or dat files) in a hex editor and then change the levels to create new challenging levels. He figured out the hex codes for the bricks, the ledge etc...

[@TRG_real]

So this is how it looks after you die

[@EuropeanGeisha]

:D

[@AlexeiVoronin]

I think the "secret level" is a chunk of memory that the game engine is trying to interpret as a level. Other old DOS games could exhibit this behavior too, under certain circumstances.

[@marty7442]

Super Mario Bros has a glitch in the code which generates 'negative levels' based around approximations of existing levels. It tries to generate a level for all possible level slots the binary code will permit. There are thousands of potential levels with only a few able to be reached with normal game play.

[@Dosgamert]

Alexei, marry me, my old prince;)

[@Dondlo46]

Holy crap what a coincidence hello!

[@AlexeiVoronin]

@@Dondlo46 Awww, it's a mini-reunion in here :P

[@tigrehermano]

you know, before blue screen of death was invented this was pretty regular even for Excel

[@RiverDraconia]

I just googled this because I got there by chance 18 years ago and wondered if someone else did. Great video!

[@alanrotoi]

Thank you! I'll try to upload tricks from 1987-1995 games :)

[@LeonardoViale]

Yeah, same here, I spent hrs trying to find patterns or figure out if there was something in that crazy level, I remember finding some weird stuff in there, like a twilight zone :P

[@trucid2]

I once did the guard skip on the first level as a kid. Kept trying but couldn't repro it until recently.

[@PCLUSTERS]

The same …. Maybe only in amstrad version ???

[@lucas5nov]

Me too.

[@justice83]

The Backrooms have exisited for decades..

[@kamovmil5843]

Memories... 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994 I was playing it, on 1994 I played PoP 2. I was only 11 years old when I finished it. Now I'm 38. But still using DOSBox, PCem, or my vintage builds to run all my collection.

[@tarz1439]

You just messed with my childhood

[@vanderslagmulders]

Loved this game and still brings back fond gaming memories. But this level, whoa, never found it back in the day. Weird and creepy (love it).

[@ale2025-y8d]

mi primer juego favorito, me la pasaba toda la noche tratando de pasar los niveles. que buenos tiempos! todavía me gusta ! ♥

[@alanrotoi]

A full! Además buscar secretos y errores!

[@coonylegends6812]

Nedie descubrió como evitar que el príncipe malo te tome la poción del nivel 5?

[@alanrotoi]

@@coonylegends6812 buena pregunta. No creo que sea evitable, a menos que se pueda llegar a esa pantalla sin ejecutar la animacion. Quiza se pueda. Ahora quiero probarlo jaja, no me piedo quedar con estas dudas.

[@ale2025-y8d]

@@coonylegends6812 esa si que es buena pregunta. pero me parece que no e podía evitar. si alguno sabe que lo diga. lo que yo hacía ( que ahora no me acuerdo) era poner un comando y después con control + shift pasaba los niveles. todos ls niveles sin luchar con nadie.

[@eskumaable]

Used to play this game at free time in office 22 years ago. Crossed all levels once with the help of a expert friend

[@AzureSC2]

S kuma sounds like a good memory

[@edwinshelly993]

You must be really rich!

[@daviddimalanta259]

That intro of the "secret level" bug is very creepy.

[@sirgobbledygook]

OMG i remember this so vividly... Why, I have no idea!! Holy shit. So many memories. I can almost smell the summer days of childhood. Thank you my friend. Didn't expect this to be so powerful

[@alanrotoi]

Wow! Mission accomplished then! Thank you so much. That's the spirit I had too back in those times 😊😊

[@volcanoarrima]

It was haunting even without that weird music, when I was a kid

[@MasterStroke.]

I remember that the sketelton was swallowed by the floor.

[@engitect]

I guess they couldn't figure out how to kill this skeleton, so they created this bug >.< 😂

[@Homemade-Blurb]

i used have such fun back in those days. i ❤️ Prince Of Persia

[@samuelgoity6458]

Alan sos un genio, jugue horas y horas a este juego hace 25 años en los viejos diskette de 3 cuartos. Me tomo mucho tiempo el nivel que habia que simplemente "caminar por el aire" pero jamas de los jamases habia visto o imaginado esto y te juro que me asusto. Es creepy. Saludos desde Argentina.

[@wamenslot]

I managed only once to fall with that "low gravity" thing... that was scary.

[@LeonardoViale]

This triggered a memory on my head, R and SHIFT+W... Almost instantly

[@augusto5663]

It`s not fake! It happened to me also at another level which I cant remember. It led me to another weird "level"

[@kiljupullo]

When he went "AAARGH" I felt that.

[@shaun8062]

I've never seen this game before. I'm more of an SNES and N64 generation, but I am just taken back by how many anatomy physics are involved in the running and momentous stop and jumps and so forth. There's just way more running physics in this than I would ever expect from a game from this time period or even most 2d games now.

[@CZpersi]

These are just glitched levels, usually appearing when using the no-clip cheat. We used to "explore" these as kids. It was fun, because the game physics went completely bongus and things did not interact the way, they were supposed to. But there are true hidden rooms in Prince of Persia - usually in levels, where door are supposed automatically, there is a room with a door switch.

[@ruslansmirnov9006]

There is a novel by Russian modern writer Victor Pelevin, called 'Prince of Government's Plan', and in the very end it says that if you press Up+Enter, the prince character will sprung upwards and dissolve into the air. Still a legend, though.

[@hgjf3]

Answer: those secret rooms has : -128; -1; 255 etc. Those rooms can be random generated, and has random links.

[@hgjf3]

you can visit the random dungeon also at the mod "Harwurst HWLev08 (with blue crypt tilesets) " level 11, and at mod "Kid of Persia" level 1, and at mod "4Dpr2" level 3 if using cheat (R)evive when prince fall out of map, because there the room -128 having random links whick can lead to room 32 or room 33 or room 34 or room 66. The mod "David levelset" having link to room 26 from room 2 at level 3 but not random, the room 26 can change event button destination.

[@hgjf3]

At the mod "Harwurst HWLev08" at level 11, if the prince visiting one of the secret rooms like the room 33 or room 39 , those can modify the links and at starting dungeon of level 11, until you press "Shift" at deaths, The room -1 can hidding the levelup doors whick if the prince click exit door button, can reach at level 12 from the room -1 I forget to say that rooms 32;33; 34 can't be read by ROOMSHAKER or by APOPLEXY that read rooms (1 to 24), issue for that level 3 at mod "David levelset" is considered corrupt by ROOMSHAKER as soon as would been irregular links (4D).

[@CatzlovichCatnipAndCabbages]

I wonder how many broken ankles this game inspired?

[@martinrh76]

I remember when my younger brother got into this level.It was breathtaking.

[@ayushlikhar7398]

Those fucking spikes raised my anxiety to the rooftop!

[@alanrotoi]

Me too! Somehow the PC speaker sound made it more scary!

[@carlofox1230]

lol that's creepy XD

[@krm3345]

Carlo Fox true XD

[@Raison_d-etre]

It's a horror movie. You think you cheated Death, but He'll get you nevertheless.

[@Danlovar]

There is also a secret level in Lv 12 if you manage to not kill your shadow under the screen where the steps appear.

[@StarrDust0]

My best friend got me into this game whenever it came out...it was addictive, also cause it was 'animated.' We competed on trying to get the best time, I think I got it to the lowest possible, around 10 or 15 mins.

[@Scott-vv9it]

I had the NES version as a kid, I used to know a password that would take you directly to one of these junk levels. I found it by entering random passwords. I think it had a lot of ones and zeroes. I remember the 'level' was just one garbled screen with a skeleton that would kill you if you went right up to it.

[@alanrotoi]

I wonder if in NES version you can go the "secret level" too. Is there cheats like in pc version?

[@Xavier_Everwhere]

Secret level begin at 2:05

[@CarbuncleMotha9]

The SNES version handled these out-of-bounds rooms far better. Any boundary that doesn't lead to a valid room, or a normally visible pit, instantly kills the prince, the game doesn't even bother rendering him. For example the balcony at stage 20, and the pit above the precarious floor tiles in the end of one of the first 7 stages has a small entrance in the bottom, that leads... nowhere and so kills the prince instead and he even visibly blinks out of existence. I remember playing a DOS port of this that was so poorly coded that you could sometimes survive the very first spike pit in level 1, so they put an invisible corridor leading to the room before so that players aren't stuck there, and there's one more in a deeper pit further in the level.

[@shakesbeerzz2367]

I forgot what I used Thousand years ago but there was a cheating tool that you can force the Computer memory to roll back wherever you are and you can always go back to The moment before you die

[@Insom-nium]

Maravilloso juego. Un viaje a la infancia y al mundo persa.

[@Darknyte00]

CUAL??? como va a ser el mundo de persia??, si no salimos a los exteriores. AH!!, ya te entendi. Es cierto, el mundo de persia

[@abrarjunejo]

Prince.exe megahit, shift w

[@namco003]

I remember doing a similar glitch with Metroid on the NES back when the game was still new. If you don't know about it, if you open a door on any stage and get as close as you can without going in it, and the door closes on you, tap up and down quickly will cause you to go up and through the walls and will come up from the bottom, the stage will shift downwards and, if there is a stage below you, you can get in that area. Sometimes you get stuck and have to reset the game, or hit up and a on controller 2 to quit the game(to this day, a lot of people are unaware of this). After doing it a bunch of times, I got lost in the stage and random items and enemies would appear on un-built stages. When I did it, I was on Norfair, and a combination of glitchy graphics and the music playing in the background just made the whole experience creepy AF. 35 years ago and it still creeps me out. Later found out they were called garbage tiles and the rooms were just throw away areas, or maybe some test stages you aren't supposed to see.

[@alanrotoi]

Oh that must be awesome! I'll seach if there is any video about it in youtube. Thanks!

[@namco003]

@@alanrotoi I watched one after I saw your video, and it was pretty good coverage, and explained why it happened. Honeslty, when I would tell people about it, they thought I made it up, and I honestly started thinking that, because I was home from school with the flu that day and played Metroid all day. Btw, SUBBED :-) I loved PoP. I used to sneak play it on my Uncles x286 back in the day when I babysat his kids.

[@alanrotoi]

@@namco003 I'm glad to read it! Let them know it really happens even if the proof comes 35 years later 🤣

[@Snek40]

I used to think poor prince has to work so hard...jumping and climbing....my muscles ached for him...😂😂😂uske pair me joota bhi nahi tha...and the falls..suicidal...aise gir ke kaunn,arta hai😂😂

[@ZethHolyblade]

This sort of bug rarely happened in PoP2, going to a phantom zone that is. If you went through the wall you're sent to the next room to the right. If there's nothing there you fall to the limbo, alive, but the screen remains in place.

[@vassa1972]

God I'm old I can remember playing prince of pursia on the apple 2 computer during a break from learning how to program the computer back in the early 80's at the library in Unionville Ontario Canada. Good stuff

[@alanrotoi]

Old but you lived the best age of videogames :)

[@Kapt_Klaw]

The last scene would be like a nightmare fuel for kids. Damn, my first game and I played it in black&white. Best days as a kid that will never come back.

[@trucid2]

Looks a lot like those super hard custom maps where you exploit a bunch of glitches to beat.

[@alanrotoi]

Yep, but it's the original PoP. :) Try it. Kinda fun. It has different "places" every time I went there in my old At-286 but when I made this video it was always the same. It's the same PoP copy but seems it's something with the memory and a bug code.

[@gameboyadvance45]

Esa música da un poco de miedo jajajaja cuando no sabíamos de bugs en los juegos

[@monikatom1565]

I was playing this game as a child and now I am playing this with my 8 years old. He loves it also!

[@sequelance]

year '91 or '92 sub-dos enviroment we used to play...such lovely days....

[@godblessbharat708]

Its sad that the good feeling , horror feelings are not there anymore. I used to play alot of nes games and 2d it was good time

[@lurkerrekrul]

What's happening is that the game program was never designed for the player to be alive at the bottom of that pit, so it doesn't know exactly how to handle it. The pointers that tell the program where the player is located are outside the range the program normally accepts and when it tries to interpret them, they send the program into a random area of memory, which the game tries to display as level data. I discovered the same thing in the game Mountain King for the Atari 2600. The game had a bug where if you jumped and kept the stick pressed diagonally, when your man landed, he would take off on a super-jump that was about 10 times longer than a normal jump. If you did this from the highest point in the level, you would go up so high that it would start trying to interpret random data as parts of the level. It was a weird, glitchy area that you could sort of explore.

[@SmoothOperator2013]

I remember finding that level. I thought I messed up the game.

[@Garadares]

there needs to be a shooting star meme with this when he floats in the air like he doesnt give a fuk xd

[@TheBeardedGamerReviews]

I had nightmares about this game when I was a kid. I remember there was a hotkey where you could check the next or previous room (I think it was g and j or smth). You got these option when launching with the command prince megahit or some shit like that. ANYHOW, I think level 4 if you were facing and touching a specific wall, then looked at the next room using the hotkey and then moved towards the wall while STILL looking at the next room, it would teleport you to another weird-ass level with a skeleton that was holding its sword behind its back and fighting you like that. I haven't found any videos of this yet so I'm still not sure if this actually exists in the game or if it was just in my dream.... Anyone? =/

[@johnythepirate]

can't tell differences in memory and dreams at age of 6-8 are impossible to grasp now, also remember strange things behind the walls in this game, but can't recall or reproduce, old machine is also lost :(

[@patrickryan1821]

How odd, level 3 on my old computer original floppy install this level was green

[@meziembamara4004]

1:30 Cameo appearance of *Spinal* from Killer Instinct?

[@trondsi]

I once walked up on stage with the band in Space Quest I, by walking on the wall. It clearly was not supposed to happen.

[@puppiesarepower3682]

My fear is that any possible afterlife will turn out to be something like this. I've had actual nightmares of being trapped in such a reality; and it ain't pretty.

[@alanrotoi]

I also had dreams with this game when I was a little boy. 😀

[@puppiesarepower3682]

@@alanrotoi LOL! Another nightmare I occasionally have is of being one of the four heroes in Final Fantasy 1. I can tell you, Chaos is more frightful than Satan himself. Hopeless and fear cannot begin to convey my feelings in those nightmares.

[@alanrotoi]

@@puppiesarepower3682 I wonder what really represents in your subconscious.

[@mlodzin90]

In childhood I was scared of this skeleton ;)

[@illegaloli]

So that's how your scream sounds when falling into eternal void.

[@alanrotoi]

Yes it's a 90's nightmare 😂

[@Freedom-iv8bk]

Did these glitched rooms appear in the versions of the game for the Apple ii systems? I was fairly expert at the game (able to beat it in a single go without any deaths) as a kid and I never found any such “back rooms”.

[@alanrotoi]

@@Freedom-iv8bk probably! Somebody should check. I remember there are few glitches in other levels too but this is the largest by far!

[@novawaregamestudios]

I think this was used on a 1988 Prototype. This might be a test room where they tested the movements, potions, everything.

[@23jfk]

Tiles alignment error.

[@АлександрТолстов-л6т]

Вот это я понимаю игры создавали, больше 30ти лет прошло, а до сих пор что-то новое для меня открываешь...

[@canesvenatici9588]

Those movements are fluid. I'm impressed.

[@alanrotoi]

That's why it was a great game. Years of research. There is a video somewhere of the original filmed moves of the little brother's designer.

[@mindrover777]

@@alanrotoi yes, Jordan animated these moves after filming his younger brother running and doing other movements.

[@lefteriseleftheriades7381]

I don't think this is a glitched level, it's either some junk memory that gets rendered as a level, or the game's assets that are stored off screen in video memory

[@mehere3013]

its a glitch not a secret level , you entered the twilight zone

[@HCamel12]

Those animations are awesome for the time the game was born

[@goatcommando854]

That skeleton gave him DMT

[@mlodzin90]

Wow, I've never seen it before, even I've played, and finished this game many times

[@mustafasenturk4851]

I need to go back my childhood

[@JohnPaulBuce]

never played this game, but that glitch looks so creepy

[@gloweye]

I remember this. Wasn't there a way to fight the skeleton again in the "secret" level?

[@alanrotoi]

I have a remember finding the skeleton there but not always. It was using an AT 286 with dos 3.30. Now with windows and dosbox it looks like it is different.

[@gloweye]

Yeah, now you mention it... the colors were also fucked in the one I remember.

[@jothain]

Lol. For very long I was like "that's how I always did" then after second fight with skeleton I was immediately like "what the heck, that's suicide". Little did I knew 🙂

[@inspirationalman1752]

This is not a secret level It's a drunk programmer outspring

[@АльбинаЛудикова-у3ф]

Классная игра! Почему сейчас на новых компах оев не играет? Я в саое время дошла до конца и сейчас скучаю по этой игре

[@mzaidshaikh]

This game had such a smooth moment

[@alanrotoi]

Indeed!

[@astromancer]

It's just reading some random memory.

[@Maisonier]

I always have dreams with this game ... like this bug.

[@Maisonier]

I just was dreaming about this game and somebody put like on this comment, what the hell?

[@StrangeHosta]

This is my first “Dark Souls”.

[@vareklast5518]

great finding!

[@usptact]

Interesting! Didn’t know this “level” existed!

[@alanrotoi]

You can find this kind of "level" in other levels but this is the biggest in Level 3.

[@ArttuTheCat]

I wonder, if this could work also on the Amiga version 😹. In fact, i still have this game on my Amiga 500 as The Hit Squad release 😺👍🕹️. A legendary classic!

[@alanrotoi]

Good question! I would like to know if it is possible in other ports.

[@_yukulele]

I just tested and... no

[@silvermig]

This is only in the DOS version right?

[@alanrotoi]

Yes, DOS version emulated with dosbox. I think it was under win7.

[@danielcerdas2592]

Where can i download this game? This version.

[@rafalyp73]

there's more on level 3... there's a part full of pillars

[@galahgl]

Wow. I never knew about the cheats.

[@plalondecai]

Doesnt exist in amiga version

[@abraruralam3534]

Reminded me of The Backrooms, just shared a post on reddit about this.

[@Ethereal18]

Honestly i never even get pass the first level with the enemy fight...dunno why im here

[@SatyabratSwain1]

Dave was my childhood nostalgic

[@dj-ux1jr]

One of my uncle reached and cleared final level by keeping pc upside down cause everything on screen will be upside down

[@mihx86]

Sega mega drive/Genesis version?

[@DheerajYadav-sn8yt]

How to enter that bug level. I'm dying immediately

[@alanrotoi]

When you launch the game with "prince megahit" you can use some cheats. One of them is you can revive by pressing "R". In level 3, if you fall down into the well near the doorway to next level you press "R" and revive traspassing the wall

[@chunkybeats79]

Did this happen on Amiga version as well?

[@stjerneskruetraekker]

Hello from 1989 i'm still trying to win this game

[@ashokjadhav9904]

Me too ,😂😂😂

[@MrGiuanin]

I've been stuck on level one my whole life

[@EulianDax]

How many muscle ups can this guy do dafuq.

[@G_Confalonieri]

This happens any time I go to outside. Somwntihing gots weird

[@kitana84]

in my version doesn´t works jordan mechner 1990.... win10

[@NyghtStrix]

I was about to dislike and then...

[@khaledmahmoud78]

That is can be done in any level, not only in level 3!

[@alanrotoi]

Right! But I found in this level the larger number of "secret rooms". I mean the larger "other side".

[@t.oguzunluerler4804]

Geniunely terrifying