The Making of Karateka

These Interactive Museum Pieces mean so so much to me, they may not be entirely just games which sort of puts some off but the stories that especially these first two entries before the 3 enormous big big ones to follow are just so valuable and important i hope and pray that Digital Eclipse will continue to do individual spotlights aswell as companies

The Making of Karateka is one of the coolest and most meaningful retro releases out there. As someone who first saw Karateka on an Apple IIe as a kid, this was a nostalgic trip - but it’s much more than that. This isn’t just a re-release; it’s a full interactive documentary that lets you explore the game’s history in a genuinely engaging way. You can play multiple versions of Karateka, including early prototypes, while browsing a brilliantly organized timeline of videos, documents, and images that bring the development process to life. If you’ve seen Digital Eclipse’s other interactive documentaries, it follows that same fantastic format - and arguably perfects it. It’s insightful, playable history, and easily worth the price for anyone interested in games, their evolution, or just a really unique experience. This experience was truly a joy!

Not as interesting to me personally as Digital Eclipse's later work with Tetris, but it's still easy to see why this codified their modern Digital Museum project format. Karateka is also in its own right pretty interesting for a game I'd never heard of before the documentary game hit. It's really fascinating to see Karateka take some extremely early baby steps into the world of narrative and cinematic framing in video games at a time when the sheer limitations of the hardware available made such things extremely difficult to even approximate. The Karateka Remastered production is also really cool, strikes a strong balance between honoring the original rotoscoping and minimalist framing and adding in just enough quality of life performance improvements and visual flourishes to better convey the original vision. 4/5 stars

An amasing insight in one of the most consequential games of all time. Being the first in so many things and also having the developers direct commentary and notes makes this a must-have for anyone even remotely intrested in older games and their preservation.

Awesome experience, very well produced. Great content, amazing stories, and an emotionally satisfying notsalgic journey to early 80s vide games. Also spent more time then I want to admint playing Deathbounce Rebounded.

There's tons of great content even if sometimes you see the same information here & there, but that's okay. ;) As a game developer myself, it's absolutely fantastic to see where it all started! It really shows how we shouldn't hesitate to experiment and try to expand on things we already know. It's incredibly motivating and being able to replay the old games is a real bonus!

"The Making of Karateka" is another great docu-game from Digital Eclipse. "Karateka" is not a game I enjoy that much but it is amazing how much has been documented and shown here, everything from drawings to prototypes. "MoK" is very thorough and while I do love that, as someone who saw everything here some of the information can feel repetitive. I did also feel that Jordan's segments could have been filmed better as they are somewhat shaky and poorly framed (you can only see half of his face). Overall "The Making of Karateka", with all the added context, is probably the best way to experience "Karateka". 3/5

A masterpiece presentation of a masterpiece presentation. The Making of Karateka is a must play and a must watch for anyone who is interested in game development and its history.

Karateka es un juego tan bien hecho, que aún cuando le cayeron 40 años encima sigue sosteniéndose bien gracias a que su dificultad y su sistema de combate son tan desafiantes como el primer día, además de su historia atemporal y su cinemática que sigue siendo impresionante para lo que fué su época. Se nota que los de Digital Eclipse eligieron este título porque los influenció a seguir el camino de los videojuegos, pero también aprovecharon la ocasión para crear todo un documental alrededor explicando cómo Jordan Mechner se resolvió con lo que tenía a mano en ese entonces. Y que incluso te expliquen las cosas que tuvo que hacer para a sus 14 años poder costearse la Apple II, cómo usó su conocimiento en Basic para poder reproducir en su computador los juegos de arcade de una manera fidedigna y así poder ahorrarse el gastar monedas, el cómo lo contactaron compañías de videojuegos y los problemas legales que tuvo al adaptar asteroids. Este título recopila todas las versiones de Karateca que salieron en diferentes computadores, en su momento jugué la de Atari y ahora que la comparo con las otras me dí cuenta que salí perdiendo porque me tocó la peor de todas, nunca supe cómo se tiraban las patadas y salía todo de chiripa, cómo tuve que equivocarme varias veces hasta aprender a correr y cómo de ir corriendo me recibieron de una patada en locico y me bajaron toda la energía de una. Pero la sorpresa mayor es que también incluye una versión remasterizada adaptada a los nuevos tiempos y aunque usa mas cuadros de animación, mejora gráfica y musical, el juego básicamente se juega igual que toda la vida. Por cierto, como es un juego/documental también tiene varios segmentos de video donde te explican la línea de tiempo de Jordan Mechner, y todos los clones de Asteroids que programó hasta evolucionarlo en Deathbounce (que también presenta sus varias versiones y por supuesto la remasterizada adaptada a nuestros tiempos). Entre otras cosas también se muestran varios documentos de diseño inéditos que Mechner usó para programar sus juegos. Pero como una forma de finalizar mi análisis, no le recomiendo este título a las generaciones mas jóvenes ya que probablemente no sabrán apreciar su valor histórico y salgan corriendo apenas vean los píxeles que de seguro les parecerán anticuados.

Sehr gelungene Doku auf eines der grossartigsten Spiele der damaligen Zeit plus die hervorragende Remaster-Version