jordan-mechner posts

A few days ago we reported that the classic adventure game The Last Express was available to download and purchase on the DotEmu.com web site. We wondered to ourselves why the DRM-free PC game site GoG.com didn't get to this game first. Well, today GoG.com has indeed added the game to its library, along with some extras like a "making of" video and more.

More importantly the price of The Last Express on GoG.com is just $5.99, nearly half off the price of what DotEmu.com offered when it first released the game last week. In addition GoG.com promises that "we're going to add more cool extras very soon".

A classic PC adventure game has now been made available for (legal) purchase and download. The DotEmu.com web site has apparently gotten the exclusive rights to sell a downloadable version of The Last Express. This 1997 game was created by Jordan Mechner, best known as the creator of the Prince of Persia series.

The adventure mystery game takes place in 1914 on board the train The Orient Express train. It was previously made available in 2006 on the GameTap download service but has since been made unavailable until now. This is a Collector's Edition of the game that includes a game sountrack, a walk through and more. It's priced at $9.99.

[Via Shacknews]

Disney continues to ramp up the promotion for their Prince of Persia movie adaptation this week. In advance of this week's San Diego Comic Con, the company announced that they will release a 128 page graphic novel that will serve as a prequel to the movie.

The graphic novel will have six stories with all of them written by Jordan Mechner, the creator of the Prince of Persia game series and co-writer of the movie version. Artists like Bernard Chang, Tommy Lee Edwards, and Cameron Stewart have been named to handle some of the stories and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane will handle the graphic novel's cover art duties. It's due to be released in April 2010, one month ahead of the movie's release date. Mechner and the above mentioned artists will discuss the Prince of Persia graphic novel at a Comic-Con panel on Friday.

Jordan Mechner is well known to the game industry as the creator of the Prince of Persia game franchise but Mechner is apparently branching out and doing more outside movie scripting work. Variety reports that Mechner has been signed to write a movie adaptation of Fathom, the Aspen comic book created and drawn by the late Michael Turner.

Fox Atomic is the studio behind the adaptation which will start current hottie-of-the-moment Megan Fox as the title character. Mechner also co-wrote the screenplay to the forthcoming Prince of Persia movie adaptation for Disney. That film is now slated for a Memorial Day 2010 release.

Prince of Persia fans are in for what could be a great treat, or a total disaster. In addition to the new Prince game due this fall, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has stated that another PoP game, one not tied in with this fall's title, will be released alongside 2009's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time film from Disney.

"The Hollywood directors are very interested in games," Guillemot said. "There's a lot that they can learn from us and a lot that we can learn from them."

Is it possible that a new Sands of Time game will be made that loosely follows the Sands of Time movie, which loosely follows the original Sands of Time game? Or will it be some sort of parallel Sands of Time story? Whoa. Time is like an ocean, indeed, Prince.

Jordan Mechner is the creator of the wall climbing, sword wielding Prince of Persia and owns all things related to the franchise. He's so involved with his product that he wrote the script for the upcoming Hollywood blockbuster directed by Mike Newell and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

On April 15 Mechner filed to protect the trademark Prince of Persia Prodigy. This particular trademark covers a myriad of things, including "game software and electronic game programs; electronic game software for mobile phones, personal digital assistants, and handheld computers." And on April 1 Ubisoft registered the domain princeofpersiaprodigy.com, which has nothing but odd black water swirling around on the screen. The same kind of odd black water that can be seen at the bottom of the above movie poster.

Trademork thinks PoP Prodigy may be the long rumored next-gen sequel to the Sands of Time trilogy, but only time will tell.