Karateka
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Karateka is a Japanese word for a practitioner of karate. In the English language this term is used largely within the karate community itself.
| Karateka | |
| Developer(s) | Jordan Mechner |
| Publisher(s) | Brøderbund |
| Release date(s) | 1984 |
| Genre | Action game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | N/A |
| Platform(s) | Apple II, Atari 800XL, Atari 7800, Commodore 64, DOS, Famicom, ZX Spectrum |
Karateka is a 1984 computer game by Jordan Mechner, the creator of Prince of Persia. Mechner designed it as his first hit game in his college room at Yale University five years before Prince of Persia was released. The game was renowned at the time for its 'realistic' animations. In the United States, Karateka was published by Brøderbund.
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Description
The game begins with an impressive (for the era) graphic of the fortress of the evil Akuma. Akuma is holding the lovely Princess Mariko. The player must defeat the guards of his castle and must eventually face Akuma himself.
Mechner adeptly used character gestures and musical cues to evoke the game's immersive atmosphere. The animations nearly match the quality of the ones seen in Mechner's Prince of Persia many years later.
Combat consists of side views of the two combatants, very much like as with a platform game. The hero and the foe fight it out, trading various punches and kicks. Both the hero and enemy can throw three punches and kicks, each at a different height. In the original Apple II version, the height of the blows are controlled with the joystick and the type of blow, punch or kick, is specified with one of the two joystick buttons.
The player only has one life, but in lieu of "lives," the player has health points. Receiving blows from the enemy lowers these points, but they can be recovered by resting (not attacking). The enemy's health points are also visible to the player. When all health points are exausted, the hero or foe is defeated (it is never made clear whether the vanquished adversary is killed or merely knocked unconscious).
As was typical with games of this era, and because the game was so short, Karateka did not have a "save game" feature.
At one point, the hero must fight Akuma's trained eagle before facing Akuma himself.
At the successful conclusion of the game, the hero is reunited with Mariko as he frees her from her prison cell. The game concludes with a musical tribute and description of the player's success.
Versions
The game was originally developed for the Apple II. It was later ported to several other systems, including Atari 800, Commodore 64, DOS and ZX Spectrum in 1986. It was released for the Atari 7800 in 1987. The game was released in Japan for the Famicom in 1984, ported by Soft Pro.
The Apple II version came on one apparently single-sided disk. As an easter egg, a second version of the game was placed on the flip side of the disk. If you put the disk into the drive upside-down, the game played identically to the first side, except it was upside-down.
See also
External links
- The MobyGames' entry on Karateka (http://www.mobygames.com/game/sheet/gameId,1268/)
- The Underdogs entry on Karateka (http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=2419)
- The game in the gameinfo wikija:カラテカ