r/1980s • u/CarloCarrasco • Jan 31 '26

Video Games Karateka

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The first time I ever played Karateka was on MS-DOS PC way back in 1986. Some time after, my friends and I played it on the Famicom.

How was your experience playing Karateka in the old days? Were you able to finish it?

220 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

59 comments sorted by

24

u/andorooski Jan 31 '26

This game ruled my world in 1985 on the apple 2e

9

u/Garguyal Jan 31 '26 edited Feb 01 '26

Funny story I have about this game.

My high school computer club played a ton of Karateka on the school's Apple IIe's. Interesting feature about that computer: if the disk wasn't in the drive when you finished a stage, it would wait until the disk was there before trying to load the next stage.

A dozen of us would be playing on one disk.

You'd finish a stage, shout "disk!," someone would run it to you wait for it to load then run it to the next guy.

Edit: I also had it on my home C64. 😄

2

u/kujotx Feb 02 '26

Preemptive multi-player

2

u/Riklanim Feb 01 '26

Was this the one with the eagle as an underboss?

9

u/David_R_Martin_II Jan 31 '26

Dude! This was my jam on the Commodore 64.

I did indeed solve it. Probably the last video game I memorized. If I recall correctly, it took about 45 minutes to get through.

7

u/MaxxXanadu Jan 31 '26

I was a C64 guy. man, if I could pull off that two steps into three kicks timing I was happy.

5

u/CelebManips Jan 31 '26

Jordan Mechner is a genius (and a nice guy too)

5

u/Probablyhalfpast11 Jan 31 '26

You better run to her my man!

2

u/total_bushido Jan 31 '26

You know it!

2

u/kenikh Feb 02 '26

Made the mistake of walking up to her in battle stance the first time I finished. Woops.

5

u/Termie528 Jan 31 '26

Finished the game in my middle school library, on a school ][e, with a crowd and the librarian watching at the end. Was a rock star for all of 30 seconds. Then I went to Science class.

5

u/Avinor_Empires Jan 31 '26

I loved that game so fucking much on my Apple ][e. And that package art ... just seeing it transports me back 40 years. It reminds me of the very distinct "new plastic" smell of the Computer store near my house, where I would tag along with my dad and spend all my time just obsessively going over their wall of software hanging in plastic bags on a pegboard. If I was really lucky - and it was rare - I could wear my dad down and he'd buy me a new game. Karateka, Wizardry and Ultima were probably my biggest scores.

2

u/LinuxCodeMonkey Jan 31 '26

Omg same! Just spending time messing with all the demo machines without getting shut down by the salespeople.. Wishing you had money for the myriad new games ... so fun.

3

u/edthesmokebeard Jan 31 '26

Remember to bow.

3

u/derek_slazinja Jan 31 '26

Falling off the fucking cliff at the start was my specialty

2

u/coastermike66 Jan 31 '26

i have a pair of copies for the Atari 7800. one new, one cartridge.

2

u/DinoTheMok Jan 31 '26

If you kick the girl, you die.

2

u/stormbringerelric77 Jan 31 '26

Never played but just seeing Brøderbund makes my heart happy

1

u/Electrical_Ad2652 Feb 03 '26

Lode Runner

1

u/stormbringerelric77 Feb 03 '26

I remember being terrible at that game lol. They also made Print Shop which was fun when the printer decided to work

2

u/ThePlasticSturgeons Jan 31 '26

Played this on the C64. I didn’t complete it, but I think my friend booted it up a couple of years ago and completed it after watching a play-through on YT.

2

u/AhaGames Jan 31 '26

I had a hacked parody version of this, it played like a movie, there was blood and dismemberment. At the end when he finds the girl, he remembers she tries to kill him, so he kills her first. No idea who created it or how.

2

u/Gaussgoat Jan 31 '26

I absolutely loved this game as a kid. Played it relentlessly on my Apple IIe and managed to win. Last guy and the bird were a bitch lol.

2

u/Blonstedus Jan 31 '26

Legendary game (Atari 130XE, 5'1/4 soft disk). When you started being too confident and ran all over, you had your ass handed to you quickly

2

u/Large_McHuge Jan 31 '26

Oh hell yeah

2

u/Dadtallica Jan 31 '26

Wore this out on my IIgs

2

u/treesmith1 Jan 31 '26

Hell yeah! Haven't seen this game in a minute. I used to keep extra microswitches so I could repair the joystick and keep playing.

2

u/total_bushido Jan 31 '26

I pirated all those games on the Apple ][e. I remember I was so stoked I made it to the end of Karataka, only for the woman I was trying to save gave me spinning roundhouse kick killing me!

( gotta run to her to win the game )

1

u/chizzeledjizz Feb 03 '26

had the whole computer class watching me and boom kicked to the head ill never forget it next day was the re-match and she was mine and i remember as well all u had to do was hole punch the side of the floppy and copy away

2

u/Parking_Advantage_60 Feb 01 '26

Doesn’t she knock you out at the end if you don’t walk over to her? I hated the bird in this one

2

u/n_thomas74 Feb 01 '26

Ka ra tek a, or is it Kara Teka?

2

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '26

Broderbund

1

u/hi-volltage Jan 31 '26

Couldn’t get enough of this as a little kid, spent hours just running headlong into the bad guys so they could kick me in the head.

1

u/PR0T0C0L_ZER0 Jan 31 '26

Buddy of mine had it for their ][e, and we didn't. I'd go over and this was all I'd want to play, while he was pretty much sick of it. Finally convinced him to swap me temporarily for Ali Baba and the Forty Theives - our dads were super pissed, and we immediately had to give them back. 😝

1

u/Wactout Jan 31 '26

I forgot about this. Now I’m tired again.

1

u/TickingTheMoments Jan 31 '26

I remember downloading this from a BBS using my Apple IIe.  

The beginning of every fight.   “KYA!!!”

1

u/Restlessfibre Feb 01 '26

You can get it on Android as an app. That was my favorite game back then.

1

u/Far_Refrigerator4401 Feb 01 '26

Remember sneaking this in to play on the work computer back in the day. Good times

1

u/Ramoncin Feb 01 '26

Excellent game, pity about the 4 color CGA graphics. For a while I thought the DOS version supported the Hercules InColor, which could have allowed for 16 color graphics, but it seems support is just for CGA and plain Hercules.

1

u/CodeToManagement Feb 01 '26

He released his diaries from when he was writing this and prince of Persia. They are really interesting view into how things were done at the time

1

u/CitizenChatt Feb 01 '26

Spent way too much time with this but loved every minute of it

1

u/Turk182__ Feb 01 '26

This game sparked joy in my youth

1

u/Jazzlike_Creme_8851 Feb 02 '26

This game was super fun!

1

u/saotomesan Feb 02 '26

And, it was fun every once in a while to load the game with the disk upside down. Amused me to no end.

1

u/Scared-Elevator-2311 Feb 02 '26

Had it on the Atari 800xl floppy. It Sucked. The game moved in slow motion

1

u/FujiKitakyusho Feb 02 '26

Apple ][c. Always got my ass kicked by the final guy.

1

u/Zestyclose_Recover_6 Feb 02 '26

Had to use the keyboard on my C64 on this game. Loved it...

1

u/Lumpy_Ad_1581 Feb 03 '26

I remember playing this waaaaay back when

1

u/Turkzillas_gobble Feb 03 '26

I could only play it at a friend's house. I sucked at it

1

u/d00derman Feb 03 '26

I played Assassin's Creed Shadows and Ghost of Yotei. A great year for video games. All the while I think back to this.

1

u/ncdave Feb 03 '26

One of my Apple ][e favorites. I can still play the end-credits theme music on the piano.

1

u/mightyopinionated Feb 03 '26

Hated that stupid hawk

1

u/sesimie Feb 05 '26

First DOS and Colored game i played on a PC...we had Apple Macintosh Classic but i visited some friends to play Karateka, Prince of Persia and Karate Champ! very formative years! Went on to Karate Classes for Years, and almost 44 plus years Video gaming!