[Apple II] Karateka (1984) (Broderbund)

[Henbot]

ahaha same story tbh about rescue a damsel in distress but looks great for the time and I love how top notch the animation is, mercher was really good animator. But anyone else come from the eurogamer article where a dude from ID sent a fan letter to this guy when he was a teenager :P

[TheREALforeverone]

I totally forgot about this game... I have to play it again.....

[KOP4EBATELb]

говно старого мамонта

[fightforyourrights9]

Ahhh... the good old days. When floppy disks were actually floppy.

[TheNewEmphinix]

I played this on the NES. MODERN GAME DEVELOPERS! WHAT HAPPENED TO MASTERPIECES?! All we see today is MMORPG and FPS games.

[TheWeegeeToast]

@TheNewEmphinix You're a retard.

[TheNewEmphinix]

@TheWeegeeToast Thanks for the crybaby rant of a lifetime you got. Blocked!

[TheWeegeeToast]

@TheNewEmphinix lol three words =/= rant. It's cute that you blocked me, though. Too scared of tangling with someone smarter than you? I don't care if you aren't reading this because everyone else will; Anyone who thinks all modern games are MMOs and FPS or think that masterpieces stopped being made after the 80's and 90's suffers from mental issues. Like you.

[MrOcelot9]

I had this game on NES...

[nickantibarney]

I didn't think the apple could have enough nerv to play digitised grunts!

[chrisheff]

Haha, loved this one as a kid!

[BernhardHofmann]

And this ran on a 1MHz processor. Kudos to the devs of the day; they knew their op codes.

[dillonmb]

I remember playing this when I was like 8 years old, FUCK THAT EAGLE/HAWK! Always owned me.

[BluTrilobite]

Pretty good for something that came out in 1984, I wonder if Hollywood will turn it into a movie.

[chewie211171]

One of the little known features of this game was how you could bow to your opponent; really only worked for the first and last opponents though.

[chewie211171]

thanks for posting this. I loved this game as a kid. It still holds up quite well

[hipuru2]

Clik clik fart clik clik agh!

[PreschoolHumor]

This is so cool now I'm 13 and never got to. See all this I grew up with compuers that a first grader didn't make but I'm getting on of these compters from my math teacher!

[LordKarnov42]

@PreschoolHumor Try to find a Super Serial Card for the Apple II --- that way you can hook it up to a PC that has a serial port and copy games onto floppy disks.

Google ADTPro.

[TeamRocketReviews]

@PreschoolHumor Yeah, I'm 14, and I think I really missed out on the golden age of computers and computer games. That's why I'm building a collection of retro computers.

[ottohon]

I played this when i was four, fond memories.

[ALC96]

2:10 sweep the leg, johny!! yeah :D

[sepdet13]

I almost never finished this game properly because I so loved watching the princess KO her "hero" if you walked into her room to free her while still in fighting stance.

She ruled. I don't know why she couldn't just break herself out, with a left hook like that. :D

[freeculture]

@sepdet13 She can kill you by simply not running straight to her: Enter the room running, stop (by pointing the joystick up) then resume (up-right)... KO ^^

[0blackjackdavie0]

the sound was better on the atari.

[iamstarfox]

Epic memories of 'back in the day'. Thanks for posting this.

[taki255]

REMAKE NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

[greytale]

Thumbs up if you enjoyed kickin' 'em right in the nutz. Yeah, right in the nutz. :)

[1xWertzui]

The PC version has the exact same sound effects!

And would have more similar graphics if the programmers, who ported it to PC, could exploit the features of the CGA, and not only using those ugly cian and rose colors (yech!), but all the possible CGA colors like in Leisure Larry

[robbielex]

WTF why didn't you upload a video with the ending! I used to finish this game when I was a kid! AND GET OFF MY LAWN!

[LordKarnov42]

@robbielex But it's so harrrd

[AlphaFirefly]

@LordKarnov42 Awww... easy there pal, dont let him toss you around...

*BITCHSLAP*

Now, get the fuck up and GTFO of my intarwebs Nancy-ass-soldier! There is no space for people that cannot save their princess`s!

*gets on a F-15 and flies away*

[concord327]

@LordKarnov42 i used to be able to do it in 15 mins or less. i knew when i saw the 10 min vid lenght it wasn't the whole game. 3rd guy in the first level(cliff) I used kill with only punches. at one point I could hit the bird nearly every time and Akuma was my bitch. the ones with the horns were the hardest. this game also inspired me to create my own martial arts based hero and an army of aliens that were also skilled at combat. i miss this game- i wish they'd remaster and release it

[atlanticl]

@LordKarnov42

no it's not!! You just dunno how ta play!

[robbielex]

The princess has THE PERFECT BODY. Just look at that banging profile!

[randy0987]

Fun times. Looked even better on a black and green monochrome monitor. ;)

[miraeja]

i just had an emotion flashback of my grandmother who died when i played this game as a kid. woah

[1983parrothead]

Many consider Prince of Persia to be the inventor of the rotoscoping technique. If so, then how do you explain this, released 5 years before the first version of Prince of Persia? Karateka has rotoscoping animations, right?

[LordKarnov42]

@1983parrothead It does, but not to the extent of Prince of Persia. They were both made by Jordan Mechner though.

[1983parrothead]

@LordKarnov42 Sounds like Karateka is to Sega's Virtua Fighter (as founders), while Prince of Persia is to either Sega's CyberTroopers Virtual-On: Operation Moongate or Square's Tobal No. 1 (in boosting Karateka's and Virtua Fighter's main features to their fullest extent).

[1983parrothead]

@LordKarnov42 Okay. Is this more of a scrolling beat 'em up (e.g. Irem's Kung-Fu Master, Technos Japan's Double Dragon, etc.), or a versus fighting game (e.g. Data East's Karate Champ, Capcom's Street Fighter series, etc.)?

If it's a versus fighting game, then Irem's Kung-Fu Master (also released sometime in 1984) confirms as the first beat 'em up, while Karateka is confirmed to not only be the first rotoscoped game, but also first rotoscoped fighting game. Art of Fighting 3 is a later e.g..

[LordKarnov42]

@1983parrothead Hard to call.. it's really both. You always fight one enemy at a time [ala Karate Champ] but after the combat, you head to the right through the level and occasionally avoid obstacles [ala Kung-Fu Master] [the bird]..

[crescentcomics1]

This game used to ROCK back in the day. I used to play it for hours. Thanks for the throwback!

[aaartnaz]

love that bootup sound

[TheSovietSteel]

Mother of god, does this take me back to computer lab in 1985. AWESOME! Thanks for the upload.

[Jonhny2]

The graphics are very simple.

[dreamscaper2008]

you should upload a sherwood forest playthrough. I've been wanting to play that game for weeks now. Can't find a playthrough and cant find a rom that works *sigh*.

[theemceemurdah]

I had this for apple II, awesome game!

[bormisha]

I used to play this game on a Soviet Apple II clone named "Agat" in Moscow. The graphics in Karateka, as well as gameplay, is better on Apple 2 than on Atari XL, apparently. Great video! You were killed by the first serious opponent! I used to die a lot here as well, until I learned a trick that works for this opponent and all the rest in the game. Tip#1: Always use only middle kicks. Tip #2: always approach when the opponent's kick is in the middle of its progress.

[aquelescaraaaaaaaaaa]

lol its similar to PoP, even the health bar

[mikeusat]

This was probably the worst video game I ever got. I got it Christmas morning and had won the game by the evening. What a waste!

[kilroyfx]

In those days I was only allowed 1 hour on the computer....so it took me weeks !! This game consumed me though....and I had to share with my brother !!

[DJTEVAdotCOM]

omg ANOTHER OF MY CLASSIC GAME.....THIS GAME GOT great music.

[danilloshin]

Thank you! What a good old days!

[redMotif]

Awesome. I missed this so much

[MegaManXRockMan]

He shhould have bowed first they bow back, unless you pull that shit with the princess.

[HorrorFigureFan]

Wow this brings back the days i had this game loved it where are all the cool games like this?

[jzorns]

Wonderful. I'd not heard that music for 25 years!

[SabertoothTiger1989]

The sprites look similar to those of the original Prince of Persia. I can understand that since both were made by Jordan Mechner.