International Karate
International Karate ( IK ) is a beat ' em up computer game that was developed by System 3 and published in 1985 for the ZX Spectrum in Europe. 1986 was followed by ports to Amstrad CPC, Atari XL, Atari ST, C64, and MSX. Epyx marketed the game in the United States as World Karate Championship. A similar gameplay have Karate Champ and The Way of the Exploding Fist.
Game Description
International Karate is a Karate after World Cup, which will be played against different background images, such as the Sphinx or the Palace of Westminster. In single-player mode, the player competes against a number of opponents, their combat strength is steadily increasing. A fight is over when one of the counterparties can obtain two points. For a hit the game characters get either one or half a point; after each point assignment, the figures are moved back into the starting position. In two-player mode, each player has at the beginning of the game six points; Hits transfer these points between the players. Go all the points lost, or does a time limit, the game is over. The control is carried out with an eight -way joystick and one button, which allows 16 different movements. Rob Hubbard composed the music for the game. A theme of the piece is from the soundtrack of the film Furyo - taken from Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. In the third symphonic game music concert at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the theme music was played by an orchestra. Claims to " explored " Hubbard with the play the pentatonic scale in B Minor. He was satisfied with the arrangement.
Litigation
The company Data East sued Epyx, when she saw an infringement of copyright International Karate compared with the products they sell game Karate Champ. In the first instance Data East was given right, as both games have, for example a one- or two-player mode, simulate various same movements and an arbitrator, as well as use a speech bubble with the same terms. Then had to be recalled all International Karate Games. In the revision Epyx ' but the decision was rescinded because the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the opinion was that the criticized points from the presentation of the Karate sport would emerge themselves and could thus not entitled Data Easts present on this. Furthermore, there should a 17.5 years old boy readily be possible to distinguish between the two games.
Criticism
The Happy Computer described the C64 version of IK as "Exploding Fist Nachzieher ", in contrast to the "Truck bursts " of beat ' em ups of 1986 a " pretty darn good ". Blessed are the technology of the game, the voice and the music of Hubbard. It was a " must for Commodore owners who want to establish a fighting game. " Five years later, writes the ASM that even at that time only a few games, announced the International Karate " the fat lady sings. " 22 years after the publication writes Austrian economic journal, IK was one of the " most famous games for the C64 " and a legend " in gaming history. "
Successor
In 1987, the successor International Karate Plus was released. In 2000 was International Karate 2000 a version for Game Boy Color and 2001 International Karate Advanced for Game Boy Advance.