Before Prince of Persia was a best-selling video game franchise and a Jerry Bruckheimer movie, it was an Apple II computer game created and programmed by one person, Jordan Mechner.

Mechner's candid and revealing journals from the time capture his journey from his parents' basement to the forefront of the fast-growing 1980s video game industry... and the creative, technical and personal struggles that brought the prince into being and ultimately into the homes of millions of people worldwide.

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### Review

"Jordan's journals are remarkable. I so wish I had kept a similarrecord. Reading them transports me back to that place and time. We allknew this was an exciting new industry, but I don't think we had anyclue what it was going to turn into during our careers. There were noschools, no books, no theories covering what we were doing. Everyone was just figuring it out on their own. Following Jordan's creative path is a great example of how to go with your own gut instinct. It's also agreat inspiration, showing how persistence and determination can lead to unexpected and wonderful results."
-- Will Wright, game designer, creator of The Sims

"Mechner's journals are a time machine that takes us back to a weirdly familiarera, when ambitious young creators were making strange new video gamesall by themselves and making up the rules as they went. It is not aretrospective; instead, it is a present-tense diary written by thecreator throughout the creation of his most influential work. It is ahumbling and inspiring record of what it was like to make one of thebest video games of all time. I love these journals."
-- Adam "Atomic" Saltsman, game designer, creator of Canabalt

"When an industry is brand-new, its innovators are generally so busy creating the future that they rarely have time to document the present. Luckily, Jordan Mechner did. With these journals, we can track the developmentof Prince of Persia from a few penciled squiggles to a global franchise. For anyone aspiring to create a game -- or any endeavor that takesmonths and man-hours -- Jordan's journal is sobering and inspiring."
-- John August, screenwriter of Go, Big Fish and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

### About the Author

Jordan Mechner is a game designer, screenwriter, filmmaker, and graphicnovelist. He created Prince of Persia, Karateka, and The Last Express.

His graphic novel Solomon's Thieves is also featured on Amazon.