The Making of Karateka fastens its belt for an August 29 release

Step into your gi, Digital Eclipse has announced that their interactive documentary, The Making of Karateka, launches on August 29, 2023.

The Making of Karateka is more than just a new port of Jordan Mechner’s legendary 1984 Apple II brawler. It also promises video features, playable prototypes, and design documents providing an in-depth behind-the-scenes look at Mechner’s work. Digital Eclipse has even gone to the work of extrapolating on a prototype to provide it into a full-fledged game called Deathbounce: Rebounded. It’s a dual-stick shooter, which is a pretty great sub-genre.

Digital Eclipse has last tested the interactive documentary concept with the Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration. It goes beyond the simple remaster format by going in-depth into the making of the games. Karateka is a great starting point, as Mechner made it years before the more renowned Prince of Persia. It’s a formative game known for its cinematics and rotoscoped animation.

I personally haven’t played Karateka. I’m pretty sure I have a copy of it for my Commodore 64 that I haven’t dug into yet, but I’ll probably just wait for this release to try it. After all, it’s out in just a couple of weeks. The Making of Karateka releases August 29, 2023 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. The Switch version is lagging behind those versions, with a planned launch in September.