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The Making of Karateka

in library

2.1/5

( 13 Reviews )

2.1

13 Reviews

English & 5 more
19.9919.99
Why buy on GOG.COM?
DRM FREE. No activation or online connection required to play.
Safety and satisfaction . Stellar support and full refunds up to 30 days.
The Making of Karateka
Description
Check our Digital Eclipse Bundle! Purchase The Making of Karateka together with Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner was a college student when he created one of the biggest-selling games of 1984: Karateka. Now, in a new interactive documentary...
Genre:
Action - Combat - Fighting
Tags:
Action, 2D, Retro, Combat, Fighting, show 3 more... Remake, Martial Arts, Movie
Critics reviews
100 %
Recommend
IGN
9/10
GamingTrend
90/100
Gaming Nexus
8.5/10
User reviews

2.1/5

( 13 Reviews )

2.1

13 Reviews

{{ review.content.title }}
Product details
2023, Digital Eclipse, ...
System requirements
Windows 10, Intel i3 @ 3.0GHz or AMD equivalent., 8 GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series, Nvidia GeForc...
Time to beat
4 hMain
6 h Main + Sides
8.5 h Completionist
6 h All Styles

Game length provided by HowLongToBeat

Description


Check our Digital Eclipse Bundle! Purchase The Making of Karateka together with Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord.


Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner was a college student when he created one of the biggest-selling games of 1984: Karateka. Now, in a new interactive documentary from Digital Eclipse, the story of how a teenager with an Apple II created one of the most groundbreaking, influential games of all time.

THE ORIGIN STORY OF A LEGENDARY GAME CREATOR

Discover how Karateka was made through an exhaustive archive of design documents, playable prototypes, and all-new video features. Like walking through a museum, you can explore the interactive timelines at your own pace.

PLAY THE ACCLAIMED ORIGINALS

Enjoy pixel-perfect versions of the original Karateka games and a variety of never-before-seen early prototypes, with rich quality-of-life features like save anywhere, rewind, chapter select, and director's commentary.

TWO REMASTERED GAMES

Karateka Remastered is an all-new version of the original game featuring cutting-room-floor content, commentary, achievements, and more. Deathbounce: Rebounded is a fast and frantic twin-stick shooter based on Jordan's unpublished prototype.

A GROUNDBREAKING MASTERPIECE

Discover how Karateka became one of the first games to include cinematic scenes, a moving original soundtrack, rotoscoped animation, and a Hollywood-style love story, influencing the decades of games that followed.

THE GOLD MASTER SERIES

New from Digital Eclipse (TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration), the Gold Master Series presents iconic games in an innovative "interactive documentary" format, putting the shared history of games and their creators into one comprehensive package.

©2023 Digital Eclipse Entertainment Partners Co. All rights reserved.

Popular achievements
One Down
Defeat the first Guard in Karateka Remastered
common  ·  50.13%
System requirements
Minimum system requirements:
Recommended system requirements:
Recommended system requirements:
Why buy on GOG.COM?
DRM FREE. No activation or online connection required to play.
Safety and satisfaction . Stellar support and full refunds up to 30 days.
Time to beat
4 hMain
6 h Main + Sides
8.5 h Completionist
6 h All Styles

Game length provided by HowLongToBeat

Game details
Genre:
Action - Combat - Fighting
Tags:
Action, 2D, Retro, Combat, Fighting, show 3 more... Remake, Martial Arts, Movie
Works on:
Windows (10, 11)
Release date:
{{'2023-08-29T00:00:00+03:00' | date: 'longDate' : ' +0300 ' }}
Company:
Digital Eclipse / Digital Eclipse
Links:
Forum discussion
Game features
Achievements
Cloud saves
Controller support
Overlay
Single-player
Languages
English
audio
text
Deutsch
audio
text
español
audio
text
français
audio
text
italiano
audio
text
日本語
audio
text
Critics reviews
84
Top Critic Average
100 %
Critics Recommend
OpenCritic Rating
IGNby Samuel Claiborn
9/10
The Making of Karateka is part game collection and part documentary; a playable history of an 80s game Karateka that tells a remarkable true story in the coolest way possible.
Read full review »
GamingTrendby John Farrell
90/100
The Making of Karateka is a step forward for game's preservation and interactive documentaries. Digital Eclipse has given us an inkling to what might turn into a new age of storytelling, adding up to far more than just a remaster. Combining remade videogames, interviews, and original documents, this offering is a masterclass in how to incorporate an audience into a narrative.
Read full review »
Gaming Nexusby Joseph Moorer
8.5/10
Everything you wanted to know about Karateka, but was afraid to ask, is here. Digital Eclipse has done it again. The bonus reimagined games are cool too. Go save the girl, and shoot down some alien bats. If this is the first in the series, I'm ready to get kicked in the face, multiple times.
Read full review »
Reviews powered by OpenCritic
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User reviews

Posted on: June 2, 2025

Rambutaan

Verified owner

Games: 778 Reviews: 46

Lots of Historic Content

While The Making of Karateka doesn't have every single version of Karateka included, it does have the "holy trinity" of Apple II, C64 and Atari versions, and has many playable prototypes, videos, documents and photos to give you a through understanding of how Jordan Mechner came to creating his breakout 1984 game. Best of all, the 2023 reimagining of the game is top notch and means just about anyone can now experience this early foray into cinematic games on PC.

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Posted on: January 10, 2026

BlaDiBla33

Verified owner

Games: 101 Reviews: 4

Classic game

Played it a lot on Apple 2, and can still finish it 45 years later :-)

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Posted on: February 25, 2026

Dave_Grams

Verified owner

Games: 34 Reviews: 1

Loved it then. Love it even more now.

Digital Eclipse does such a great job with the presentation of their games and including modern day 'remakes' or 're-imaged' versions. Five Stars. Easy. - OSGttv

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Edited on: March 5, 2026

Posted on: March 5, 2026

nicoman01

Verified owner

Games: 158 Reviews: 4

Wanted just to play the C64 game

Instead, I am stuck in the 'Borderbound software presents' frame with a rewind ⏪ button at the bottom of the screen. No matter what I do, the game does not start. The same goes for any other version of the game but for the enhanced Version. So, I bought a documentary, which I am not interested in, and one playable version. The c64 version, which I would have liked to play the most, is not playable. If anyone knows hot to solve this problem, feel free to tell.

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Posted on: October 22, 2023

varmaa

Verified owner

Games: 561 Reviews: 8

Good history, with some quirks

As someone who never played the original, I'm finding this really interesting--it's a great retelling of Mechner's creative process. While I'm still working my way through this interactive documentary, I've found the playable versions of Mechner's earlier games particularly interesting, and I *love* that I can just sit back and watch an emulated "recording" of someone else playing, while being able to jump in at any time. There's a few quibbles I have, though: * There doesn't seem to be any way to show only what you *haven't* yet seen in a particular chapter. I thought I saw everything in the "Deathbounce" chapter, but it says I've only seen 89%, and I have no idea what I missed. * The UI really seems made for controllers, and everything feels awkward with a keyboard and mouse--kind of like one of those weirdly-ported console game that maps buttons to keys on opposite sides of the keyboard, making it difficult to use with one hand on the keyboard and the other on the mouse. Sometimes there appears to be no way to do things with just a mouse, including exiting the application. * The game sometimes immediately exits when run from GOG Galaxy (see the GOG forum for this game for more details). From what I can tell, disabling the GOG Overlay appears to have fixed this so far (fingers crossed), but it's still a frustrating bug.

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