Prince of Persia was created for the
Apple II in
1989 by
Jordan Mechner, who had previously written the popular early fighting game
Karateka.
Prince utilised
rotoscoping to animate the main character (created by filming Mechner's brother performing the dashes, rolls and leaps that the hero could perform). As Mechner worked on the game practically
single-handed, it took nearly four years to complete.
The game gives you an hour to traverse the dungeons of the palace, in a bid to rescue the princess from the evil Grand Vizier Jaffar. Along the way you would get into sword fights with skeletons, and fall victim to many spiked pits and guillotine blades. The PC version of the game will run on practically any PC in existance (I remember playing it for long hours on our old IBM 8086).
PoP was ported to nearly as many formats as Tetris, gaining more features (for better or worse) with each new incarnation. Mechner created a sequel for the PC, and went on to create the rotoscoped adventure game The Last Express. There was recently a new version of Prince of Persia called Prince of Persia 3D, but unfortunately it sucked.