Karateka
A little bit of history... The original Karateka was written by Jordan Mechner for the Apple II. It was published by Broderbund in 1984. Karateka was an excellent game with elements never seen in any game before it. It started a new genre in the industry and inspired Jordan Mechner to create one of the most popular games of all time: Prince of Persia. The story behind Karateka is simple: The kingdom is in danger, princess Mariko was captured by the evil warlord Akuma. You are the only one who can save princess Mariko, but before achieving victory, you must fight Akuma's army of martial art fighters.
The Original Version
The Remake...
The main reason I decided to remake Karateka was nostalgia. I believe the old games had character. Karateka was very well constructed with elements that immediately turned the game into a classic. It had excellent animation, very realistic cut scenes and ideas that truly revolutionized the game industry. Karateka in itself is a very simple game compared to the complexity of today's games. Today's gamers aren't used to 4-color games where the highest resolution is limited by the amount of data you can fit on your 5-1/4 diskette. It's also a very quick game, which can be played from beginning to end in about one hour. For this reason, I believe that if Karateka is ever remade by a game company, it will have to be a totally different game which uses the Karateka name. My idea for remaking Karateka was to keep the same gameplay and improve on the game's graphics and realism by using today's technology like 3D models and higher resolution. I've received many emails from people around the world who share the same nostalgia about old games as me, which made it all worthy it! If you have worked on game remakes or emulators, feel free to send me an email and let me know about your projects... Below you can see some how it all turned out in the end...
The Intro Screen
Gameplay Cut Scenes
I hope you have enjoyed reading about the game. I've enjoyed a lot writing it! Be sure to grab a copy of it here. |
