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.
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