I cut my gaming teeth on a C64 and a Vetrex in the early 80's and have fond memories of playing this game on the C64. Back then the color, animation, sound, cinematics and game mechanics were sweet, though I never did get around to completing the game back then.
Fast forward to 2013 and I find this game in it's full classic form (complete with faux 5&1/4 floppy disk load sounds) as well as a new version in the app store.
$.99 for a classic piece of history, sure what the heck. When I finally beat the game, all these years later, it really brought back some great old-timey gaming memories. As a player of B3, Civ5, L4D2, Shogun 2, etc, I'm constantly amazed at how far video gaming has come as I started at just about the beginning of the video game history time line. It is really refreshing to be able to revisit the classics from time to time, to remember video games' revolutionary yet comparatively humble beginnings.
Whats more, while my 4 year old son loves all the Angry Birds games (a little early for Battlefield but he'll get there) it was fun to see his eyes light up equally for Karateka, to see him get excited and anxious as his orange life-triangles appear and disappear, to hear him yell "head kick, head kick, head kick" in the middle of Buffalo Wild Wings (don't worry, we talked about this:), and to get to glimpse part of my childhood literally reflected in eyes staring intently at the screen and metaphorically in his determined gamer-poker-face.
Fast forward to 2013 and I find this game in it's full classic form (complete with faux 5&1/4 floppy disk load sounds) as well as a new version in the app store.
$.99 for a classic piece of history, sure what the heck. When I finally beat the game, all these years later, it really brought back some great old-timey gaming memories. As a player of B3, Civ5, L4D2, Shogun 2, etc, I'm constantly amazed at how far video gaming has come as I started at just about the beginning of the video game history time line. It is really refreshing to be able to revisit the classics from time to time, to remember video games' revolutionary yet comparatively humble beginnings.
Whats more, while my 4 year old son loves all the Angry Birds games (a little early for Battlefield but he'll get there) it was fun to see his eyes light up equally for Karateka, to see him get excited and anxious as his orange life-triangles appear and disappear, to hear him yell "head kick, head kick, head kick" in the middle of Buffalo Wild Wings (don't worry, we talked about this:), and to get to glimpse part of my childhood literally reflected in eyes staring intently at the screen and metaphorically in his determined gamer-poker-face.