Prince Interactive – The obscure and Nearly Forgotten Video Game About the Prolific Artist

He wrote, composed, mixed, and recorded his first album all by himself. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, seven Grammys, and in 1984, Prince accomplished something only the Beatles had done before him: He was topping charts simultaneously with an album, a film, and a single. The man is a legitimate powerhouse and one of the greatest musicians who ever lived.

Prince’s music had an immediate and lasting influence on songwriters, producers, musicians, and stage performers. I know he had a huge impact on me growing up but what I didn’t know until recently is that Prince also made a really weird video game in the ’90s.

As it turns out, in addition to being a talented singer, musician, and actor, Prince was also a game developer and released Prince Interactive for PCs in 1994. Prince Interactive arrived right around the time Myst came out and at a time when CD-ROM games developed by pop stars were sweeping the nation. Similar to Myst, the -point-and-click graphic adventure required the player to explore the many different rooms in Paisley Park Studios and solve puzzles to collect the five pieces of Prince’s symbol. The CD-ROM also features six complete songs, including several which were previously unreleased, 52 song clips, four full-length music videos, 31 video clips, and several cameos by other artists such as Eric Clapton, Little Richard, George Clinton, and Miles Davis.

Prince Interactive is somewhat of a rare gem and hard to find anywhere online, but I did stumble upon a review published over at EW. Here’s an expert from that article:

“In its favor, (Prince) Interactive is imbued with the goofball carnality that the artist formerly known as Prince has made his turf. In short, it’s dopey but fun. The disc breaks no new ground with its haunted-mansion structure; you wander through corridors and rooms, trying to discover pieces of that darn [Prince] glyph so you can get a look at an as-yet-unreleased music video. I know: big whoop. But the graphics are luscious, the six music videos are an unexpected plus, and there are laughs to be had if you click on everything. (See if you can find where [Prince] hides the [Prince] whips in the [Prince] bedroom.) Will you play it more than twice? Doubtful. Will you have a blast showing it to your friends? Definitely.”

I’ve never had the pleasure of playing the game but perhaps now that he is gone, someone will release it somewhere online, because anything created by Prince is well worth seeking.