I finally watched this marvelous talk from legendary game designer Jordan Mechner on the development of his groundbreaking game, Karateka, presented at GHC ’24, 40 years after the game’s debut.

I enjoyed hearing Mechner discuss his inspirations, development process, and challenges. He has kept journals since college and uses them to illustrate his story. His ambition is evident in his writings. In one entry, he noted:

My goal for this summer is to finish Karateka. If it’s half as big as I dream it may be, that should be enough to launch me into the video game world.

In another:

I can’t help vaguely dreaming about doing for video games what Walt Disney did for animation.

No doubt that ambition was a major contributor to his eventual success.

He also shared constructive insights:

This is the phase when it’s tempting to just wrap it up, but it’s also the phase that makes the different (sic) between an okay product and a really outstanding one.

Karateka was one of a handful of games I played obsessively on my Apple //c during high school and beyond (others include Lode Runner and Mechner’s second game, Prince of Persia). There was nothing quite like Karateka at the time. The combination of mechanics, storytelling, and music created a classic game and an unforgettable experience. The talk transported me back to my youth, a wonderful opportunity to reminisce.

Mechner also has two books based on the journals he kept: “The Making of Karateka” (also an interactive documentary) and “The Making of Prince of Persia”.

For the techies, he also released the source code for Prince of Persia on the Apple II and related technical information. Reading 6502 assembly after 40 years is a trip!