version). The main objective of the player is to lead the unnamed protagonist out of dungeons and into a fortress tower within 60 minutes (or 120 in the SNES version as it features 10 extra levels). This cannot be done without bypassing traps and fighting hostile swordsmen. The game consists of twelve levels (though some console versions have more). After a player reaches level 2, a game session may be
saved and resumed at a later time. The player has a health indicator that consists of a series of small red triangles at the bottom of the screen. The player starts with three. Each time the protagonist is damaged (cut by sword, falls from two floors of heights, or gets hit by a falling rock), the player loses one of these indicators. There are small jars containing potions of several colors and sizes. The red potions scattered throughout the game restore one health indicator. The blue potions are poisonous, and they take one life indicator as damage. There are also large jars of red potion that increase the maximum number of health indicators by one, and large jars of green potion that grant a temporary ability to hover. In level 9, there are also two large green potions, one which turns the game display upside-down, and another to restore the display back to normal. If the player's health is reduced to zero, the protagonist dies. Subsequently, the game is restarted from the beginning of the level in which the protagonist died but the timer will not reset to that point, effectively constituting a time penalty. There is no counter for the number of
lives, but if time runs out, the princess will be gone and the game will be over, with exceptions below. There are three types of traps that the player must bypass: spike traps, deep pits (three or more stories deep) and guillotines. Getting caught or falling into each results in the instant death of the protagonist. In addition, there are gates that can be raised for a short period of time by having the protagonist stand on the activation trigger. The player must pass through the gates while they are still open, avoiding locking triggers. Sometimes, there are various traps between an unlock trigger and a gate. Hostile swordsmen (Jaffar and his guards) are yet another obstacle. The player obtains a sword in level 1, which they can use to fight these adversaries. The protagonist's sword maneuvers are as follows: advance, back off, slash, parry, or a combined parry-then-slash attack. Enemy swordsmen also have a health indicator similar to that of the protagonist. Killing them involves slashing them until their health indicator is depleted or by pushing them into traps while fighting. In level 3 a skeletal swordsman comes to life and does battle with the protagonist. The skeleton cannot be killed with the sword, but it can be defeated by being dropped into one of the pits. A unique trap encountered in level 4, which serves as a plot device, is a magic mirror, whose appearance is followed by an ominous
leitmotif. The protagonist is forced to jump through this mirror upon which his
doppelganger emerges from the other side, draining the protagonist's health to one. This apparition later hinders the protagonist by stealing a potion in level 5 and throwing him from level 6 into a dungeon in level 7. In level 8, the protagonist becomes trapped behind a gate before he can reach the exit. In this level the Princess sends a white mouse to trigger the gate open again, allowing him to proceed to level 9. In level 12 the protagonist faces his shadow doppelgänger. The protagonist cannot kill this apparition as they share lives; any damage inflicted upon one also hurts the other. Therefore, the protagonist must merge with his doppelganger. Once they have merged, the player can run across an invisible bridge to a new area, where they battle Jaffar. Once the final checkpoint is reached, the player will no longer get a game over screen even if time runs out. (See below.) Once Jaffar is defeated, his spell is broken and the Princess can be saved. In addition, the in-game timer is stopped at the moment of Jaffar's death, and the time remaining will appear on the high scores. • The DOS and Macintosh ports will not give the player a game over once they reach the final area of level 12 (stored in data as level 13), provided they make it there on time. The player must cross the magic bridge and make a screen-transition to a room with falling tiles to be 'safe'. Running out of time at any point before the screen-transition, including the bridge, will result in game over as usual in both ports. • Once there in the Macintosh port, they will always be allowed to continue, regardless of deaths or time expiration. • The "overtime" in the DOS version has no extra life, so: • Pressing Control A to restart level 13 is no death, thus not failing the game yet. • Any player's death fails the game so the Princess is also gone even if Jaffar is already killed. • Only defeating Jaffar and exiting level 13 alive will save the Princess, with a negative time on the high scores. • The Super NES remake allows the players to save themselves after time is out, to get the "
game over" at the end without the princess saved, as opposed to "the end" announced for good ending. ==Plot==