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Tags: c64, commodore 64, gamer banter, jordan mechner, karateka

The first notable thing about Karateka was that I owned it. Legally, I mean. I had a lot of games for my Commodore 64, but most of them were cracked. Various people would give me stacks of 5-1/4” floppy disks and I’d pop them into the drive, type LOAD “$”,8 then LIST to see what was on them.

It was usually a grab bag of user-made games along with cracked professional games and half of them wouldn’t work. Of course, back then, even store bought games were iffy. I had a copy of Gauntlet which worked about 25% of the time and a math game which worked once and then never again.

So that’s two notable things about Karateka: I owned it legally and it worked.

Karateka was released in 1986 for the C-64. I was 10. Even at 10, some things stood out. First, the game was gorgeous. Second, there was smooth animation. Third, there seemed to be a real story attached.

Games at this point, save for text adventures, really didn’t have narrative arcs. Especially action games. Typically they were arcade-style, repetitive exercises which challenged the player by increasing the difficulty each playthrough. But Karateka stood out, opening with a cutscene showing that the evil Akuma had captured the Princess Mariko. I, the brave Karateka, had ascended to Akuma’s mountain fortress to rescue her.

In terms of gameplay, Kareteka started out as a typical run-to-the-right karate game. Instead of waves of enemies, single combatants would challenge the Karateka and the battles were more like thoughtful duels than button-mashing exercises. There were high, medium and low punch and kick attacks (a more than respectable arsenal in the 1980s) and they took time to execute – resulting in a surprising level of strategy.

Between enemies, you could resume running to the right, but you had to be careful. First, if you weren’t ready for combat, an opponent could kill you with single blow. Also, Akuma’s fortress contained a few insta-kill death traps.

Now I played Karateka a lot, and even though I understood it was something different, I still treated it like a typical action game. I’d play it until I died and move on to something else. Sometimes, it was poor planning on my part – running into a trapped door or an enemy’s fist. Other times I was slain by Akuma’s damn bird or one of his minions, but one day I was playing the game and getting far into it. Really far.

Saving a game wasn’t a major feature in the mid-1980s. Most games were designed to be played in one session. Karateka had a pause function, so I slammed it, ran downstairs and told my mom, “I’m going to beat Karateka!” I don’t know what her response was, but didn’t fit the magnitude of my potential accomplishment. “Kareteka – it’s this super hard game and I’m going to beat it!” Nothing.

So I ran back upstairs and – well, now I’m getting nervous. Now I have to beat it. My hands are sweating. If I don’t beat it, then this is probably the last time I’m playing it. Okay, I can do this.

And I do.

The final fight against Akuma is an epic duel. It’s a brutal back and forth session, but finally I prevail. And then there’s Princess Mariko. And I feel accomplished. I feel satisfied in my accomplishment. And it’s a feeling I like.

Karateka isn’t the first game I obsessed over (that would be Jumpman), but it is the first game which made me feel like I was doing something more than just playing a game – that my virtual accomplishment achieved on a small black and white television connected to a Commodore 64 had relevance to my real world.

Karateka is the game which made me a gamer.

This post was part of Gamer Banter, a monthly video game discussion coordinated by Terry at Game Couch. If you’re interested in being part of this, please email him for details.

Other takes:

Aim for the Head: The Gamer I Am Today

carocat.co.uk: A Trip Down Memory Lane

Yuki-Pedia: A Tale of Two Games

gunthera1_gamer: Early Gaming Experience

Extra Guy: Ah yes, I remember it well

The Average Gamer: What Made Me a Gamer

Silvercublogger: Uncovering Lost Treasures

Master Kitty’s World: Gaming Through the Years

Gamer Unit: What was the game that made you a gamer?

Next Jen: What Made Me into a Gamer

Comments (6)

1. June 17th, 2010 • 7:41 am
   Silvercube:

   Yeah! The C64 is what my older siblings grew up with. They were born in the early 70′s – the golden era of games. I think there’s quite a few C64 games available to download on the Wii actually. *Checks Wii*

   There’s 9 games available as of this writing, $5 each:

   Boulder Dash
   California Games
   Cybernoid
   International Karate
   Last Ninja 2
   Pitstop II
   Summer Games II
   The Last Ninja
   Tower Toppler

   Have you played any of them? I don’t think I ever did.

2. June 17th, 2010 • 1:04 pm
   Terry:

   I’ve played most of those. It’s too bad the Wii won’t let you demo games, but from that I’d recommend International Karate, Pitstop II, and Boulder Dash — also gunthera1_gamer said Jumpman is available and that game rocks!

3. June 17th, 2010 • 1:52 pm
   Jason:

   I never had a C64. My first computer was an IBM clone, an 8088. But I too played Karateka. I never beat it. :)

4. June 17th, 2010 • 1:55 pm
   Silvercube:

   Thanks! Yeah unfortunately no demos, but maybe in the future, could be a possibility :)

5. June 17th, 2010 • 5:44 pm
   Weefz:

   Yeah, parents and non-gamers just don’t get it. A big reason why I started my games blog was that I really needed somewhere to TALK about how awesome this game was, or how annoying that interface is.

   Well done beating your nemesis way back then! ;)

6. September 4th, 2011 • 3:57 am
   Bobbie29Pierce:

   I opine that to receive the loans from banks you should present a firm motivation. However, one time I have received a short term loan, because I wanted to buy a bike.

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