Making and Remaking Karateka (1982-2012)
A mini-documentary series tracking the development and modern remake of Jordan Mechner's classic 1984 game Karateka.
In 2012, Jordan Mechner was about to release a remake of his classic 1980s game Karateka. He asked me if I’d like to make something to help promote it, and in passing, he mentioned he had boxes full of materials from the original game.
And I said, “show me the Apple II.”
And this series is the result.
Jordan has recently released an illustrated harcover of his journals from the making of Prince of Persia (the smash follow-up to Karateka). The journal is an amazing read. I highly recommend it.
With each person I interviewed for this series, I collected another pronunciation of “karateka.” So Jordan and I made this tongue-in-cheek bonus video to “clear the air.”
