emulator: sdlpop
type: standalone
core_classification: game_engine
source: "https://github.com/NagyD/SDLPoP"
upstream: ~
profiled_date: "2026-10-04"
source_commit: "3c5add5fb7f83d4ceb542823ab66d00146c4271b"
core_version: "1.24 RC"
display_name: "Prince of Persia (SDLPoP)"
cores: [sdlpop]
systems: [prince-of-persia]
verification: existence

notes: |
  SDLPoP is NagyD's open-source port of the DOS Prince of Persia (1989),
  rebuilt from the leaked Jordan Mechner source and refined through
  years of community reverse engineering. Unlike the other engines in
  this directory, SDLPoP ships with ALL game data in-tree; no retail
  data file is required or useful.

  open_dat() (src/seg009.c:438) reads an archive named FOO.DAT if
  present, otherwise falls back to a loose folder data/FOO/ containing
  the extracted resources (lines 440-456 and 488-500). The repository
  ships both forms:

    data/*.DAT files committed:
      DIGISND1.DAT, DIGISND2.DAT, DIGISND3.DAT  (digitized SFX)
      MIDISND1.DAT, MIDISND2.DAT                (MIDI SFX)
      GUARD.DAT, GUARD1.DAT, GUARD2.DAT         (guard graphics variants)

    data/<name>/ folders committed (extracted resources):
      PRINCE, KID, SHADOW, SKEL, GUARD, GUARD1, GUARD2,
      VIZIER, VPALACE, VDUNGEON, PV, FAT, TITLE,
      IBM_SND1, IBM_SND2, LEVELS, font, music

  The named folders are the fall-back for the DAT files the loader
  actually requests: PRINCE.DAT (seg000.c:123, 1030-1037, 1067-1072),
  LEVELS.DAT (seg000.c:1153), TITLE.DAT (seg000.c:2298), KID / GUARD /
  SHADOW / SKEL / FAT / VPALACE / VDUNGEON / VIZIER / PV at level
  switch (seg000.c:1656, 1690). The data/music folder holds the
  OGG/MP3 soundtrack files added by the port.

  Consequence: retrobios does not supply any file to run the base game.
  Users can drop MOD folders under mods/<MODNAME>/ to layer custom
  level packs on top (open_dat lines 448-452); those are user content,
  not shared BIOS data, and are not tracked here.

exclusion_note: "all required game data ships inside the source repository (data/ and data/<folder>/ trees)"
files: []