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61 Frames Per Second

Karateka Remake in the Works

Posted by Cole Stryker

File this one under "unexpected". Gamasutra reports that Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner is planning to bring back the lesser known 1984 proto-brawler Karateka, though "not in the way we'd expect." During the interview, Mechner related this amazing easter egg from the original Apple II version of the game:

The programmer doing copy protection for the game figured out that by messing with the bit table, the whole game could be played upside down, which is really hard to do. We thought it would be hilarious if we burned the flipped version of the game to the other side of the disk.

We figured of all the people who buy the game, a couple of them would accidentally put the floppy in upside down. That way, when that person calls tech support, that tech support rep would once in blue moon have the sublime joy of saying, 'Well sir, you put the disk in upside down,' and that person would think for the rest of their life that's how software works.

WIN. Check out the gripping final boss fight:

I remember playing Karateka on floppy disc at a friend's house, but only for a few minutes. We used it, and scores of other floppy discs my rich neighbor (didn't we all have one of these?) owned, when we got stuck in King's Quest. I don't understand why anyone would be interested in reviving the game. It doesn't have much brand equity and the story, environment and characters were not memorable. I had totally forgotten about this game until now.

Related Links:

The Ten Greatest Opening Levels in Gaming History, Part 1

For Love of the Game: Street Fighter One
Character Case Study: When Good Characters Get Bad Attitudes
+ DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT

Comments

Peter Smith said:

Shit, dude, Karateka was awesome. That's reason enough.

In fourth grade my friend Tadge and I were at school fooling around in the computer room, and we couldn't get Karateka to work. Playfully, we put the disk in upside down and were astonished to see the game upside down. As big computer nerds, we were well aware that software didn't work that way, and we felt like we'd stepped into some cheesy "hacker" thriller.

July 28, 2008 12:08 PM

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about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia's prized possession is a certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


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