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[Chris Remo]

I don't know how huge this news is, since Karateka was released in 1984, after which Jordan Mechner released the hugely more successful Prince of Persia, but for those who are interested, Mechner has revealed that he's working on a new Karateka game. Unlike the post-Sands of Time POP games, he's actually heavily involved, which makes the announcement interesting to me regardless of franchise.

Very brief details here:
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19585

Also, there's this, which is hilarious:

"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," he explained. "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," he continued. "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 live that's how software works."

As it turned out, brass at publisher Broderbund was receptive to the idea: "We went do the president of Broderbnd to propose this, and we didn't think they'd go for it, because it would require an assembly line change to actually burn the game onto both sides of the disk, which adds however many cents. So we went in, and he said, 'Sure. Do it.'"

ALSO--who remembers The Last Express? I sure as hell do, and I asked Mechner about it. He said "Who here has played The Last Express," and literally one other dude besides me raised his hand. Anyway, Mechner directed me to the producer and lead programmer on the game, who were in the room, and I ended up interviewing them for about an hour. So at some point in the future on Gamasutra, we'll run that. It was a super fun interview to conduct, and incredibly interesting. Can't wait to publish it.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

Remo...I love you.

srsly...

 

[xir]

Sounds good. Anyone have those animated gifs of Jordan's brother climbing things like the prince that were used for the rotoscope?

 

[wolfmat]

A fighting game in the spirit of Karateka is huge news for me, you can be sure of that. I just hope the number of attacks and the enemy variety has been slightly increased :lol

 

[arne]

color me E-X-C-I-T-E-D.

FOR REAL.

 

[boutrosinit]

He is heavily involved. Dave Taylor, one half of the 'Abuse' team and an ex id coder from Doom and Quake is also heavily involved on the design side.

It WILL be good.

Now I must shut up.

 

[rdaneel72]

Wow!

I only pirated the first side of the Karateka disk, so that was news to me.

That damn eagle!!!

 

[McBradders]

Remo delivers. Again.

 

[Prime crotch]

Ohhh this will be good, could this be in a retro 2D style? I never tried Last Express but I keep hearing good stuff about it.

 

[Space Runaway]

Awesome. You better still get kicked in the balls for approaching the girl in your attack stance.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Remo...I love you.

srsly...

Remo delivers. Again.

Uh oh, is neo2046 finally gaining competition in the upper holy echelons?

 

[No6]

I played Last Express but at the time was put off by the lack of animation. They rotoscoped all the characters and previews implied that it would be heavily animated as a result, but the times when things were actually animated were rare. That and the fairly harsh failure system. I'd probably appreciate it a lot more these days.

And here's hoping that the new Karateka gives me a gun to shoot that stupid eagle.

 

[beat]

He is heavily involved. Dave Taylor, one half of the 'Abuse' team and an ex id coder from Doom and Quake is also heavily involved on the design side.

It WILL be good.

Now I must shut up.

Wow, I thought Dave Taylor had left the industry after Abuse.

 

[EMBee99]

insert karateka mc hammer dance.gif HERE.

i remember playing this as a real young kid and feeling just awful when the girl had to walk bac to her cell, that sad music playing while the Shogun dude just pointed.

i never wanted to kick a game bosses' ass so hard.

 

[boutrosinit]

edit

 

[beelzebozo]

this is huge fucking news. thanks remo. you made my day.

mechner is one of my few but prestigious personal gaming jesuses.

 

[boutrosinit]

Wow, I thought Dave Taylor had left the industry after Abuse.

Nah. He was just trying out some other stuff
No one ever really leaves games.

No one.

 

[Exclamation-One]

Wow. Karateka was heavily inspired by Kurosawa films. If Mechner is really getting involved, I hope we see a LOT more of that influence.

 

[ghostmind]

A new Karateka? Am i dreaming?

 

[dorikyasu]

Yes! Karateka is one of my all time favorites. Can't wait for more info.

Awesome. You better still get kicked in the balls for approaching the girl in your attack stance.

One who dares to approach the Princess (Mariko) in such way deserves to be kicked in the balls .

 

[Haunted]

oooooh.

 

[ghibli99]

Weird... I mentioned Karateka in some other thread yesterday, new Karateka news today. Awesome.

 

[Troidal]

That cliff at the beginning needs to be in the remake.

 

[agrajag]

Shit, that game was awesome! The original beat 'em up.

 

[Mamesj]

Chris Remo is saving games journalism.

That cliff at the beginning needs to be in the remake.

Yes! Backing off the cliff after the intro was the funniest thing ever back when I was 5 or so :lol

I should go back and try and play this game. I never did beat it. I could never make it under the gate in time (and would always get crushed.) The bird would also fuck me up big time.

 

[mattiewheels]

thanks for bringing up the last express, chris!

it's his greatest achievement, i think. the acting and art were way ahead of the curve for something released in 96 or whenever. were the team working on anything similar from what you heard from them?

 

[Dr_Cogent]

Karateka was the shit back in the day. Fuck yeah!

 

[thetrin]

"We figured of all the people who buy the game, a couple of them would accidentally put the floppy in upside down," he continued. "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 live that's how software works."

THAT. IS. FUCKING. AWESOME. :lol

 

[Chris Remo]

thanks for bringing up the last express, chris!

it's his greatest achievement, i think. the acting and art were way ahead of the curve for something released in 96 or whenever. were the team working on anything similar from what you heard from them?

Unfortunately no. In fact one of the guys has actually been a film producer for the last eight years.

Still, they have a lot of love for The Last Express and they have a certain level of confidence it will return in some form or another. They pointed out how Mechner's own Karateka is coming back over twenty years later, for example.

And I agree The Last Express is Mechner's finest moment!

 

[Phife Dawg]

That's pretty cool. I hope it's 2D gameplay at least - 2D gfx would be even better .

 

[DOA]

new interview with Mechner on Kotaku:

http://kotaku.com/5885242/apple-classic-karateka-gets-reboot-bird-punching-makes-a-comeback




i've got only one question:

Spoiler

if the girl can kick your ass in one hit, why the $@#% didn't she brake out herself

 

[Rygar 8 Bit]

that goddamn hawk got me every time

 

[jett]

Man this thread is FOUR years old. Nice to know it's still in development and due for release this year, at least.

 

[beelzebozo]

wow, look, me from four years ago!

 

[Para bailar La Bomba]

Fuck me, there's an unexpected blast from the past.

Now somebody remake IK+

 

[DOA]

Fuck me, there's an unexpected blast from the past.

Now somebody remake IK+

i remember a similar game with a bull, which you need to jump over it. does anyone remember the name?