Blog Archives

Last week I bought the Humble Mobile Bundle 2, a collection of indie games for my android tablet. One of the bonus games was the android edition of Karateka, a 1984 Apple II game that I had never heard of.  It also included an ebook called The Making of Karateka.  This ebook is the journal of Jordan Mechner from 1982-84, from when he was a 17 year old Yale Freshman with an idea for a karate game on the apple II which was waay ahead of his time to 1984 when the completed game was published.  This book is much more than the story of how the game came to be.  It is a time capsule into the history of early gaming, and 1980s movies.  It also shows the transformation of the author from a brilliant, lazy, socially awkward computer nerd freshman, into manhood and into a confident game designer, budding filmmaker, and author.  Another great pre-wrimo read.  (Oops– over my self imposed 100 words for these daily updates).