I hacked the save file using DOS DEBUG. Only a few pieces of information were stored: starting level, time left in minutes, number of wedges of life, and I think something else? I could give myself 65,535 minutes (shown in game as "TIME HAS EXPIRED!" because signed integers) and life wedges going across the screen. Made the game a cakewalk.

And yes, Prince of Persia (film) was woefully underrated. Jordan Mechner himself wrote the story, and deliberately remade The Sands of Time as an entertaining movie rather than a beat-for-beat recreation of the game. Lot of old-school swashbuckling adventure, Errol Flynn type influence. One of those tributes like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow where audiences are like "huh? I don't get it."