Prince of Persia creator making new Karateka

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 28th July 2008

Karateka - they really don't make box art like this anymore.

At Comic-Con 2008 in San Diego, the creator of the original Prince of Persia games has said that he will is currently working on reviving another of his classic games - Karateka.

Questioned about whether he plans to revisit some of his older games, such as The Last Express, Jordan Mechner confirmed that he is currently working on a remake of his first commercial game; 2D fighter Katateka.

"I can safely say it's not going to be the way that you expect," teased Mechner according to Kotaku. Mechner said that he would be directly involved in the creation of the game too - something he can't say about the new Prince of Persia game.

Mechner was also questioned about a few of the quirks in Karateka - namely that the screen of would flip upside down and back to front if the floppy disk was inserted the wrong way, an idea which Mechner intended to be a simple example of copy protection as it would make the game playable, but monstrously difficult.

Mechner said he envisioned that someone, somewhere would fall for the elaborate prank, calling tech support to get the explanation "Well, sir, you put the disk in upside-down."

"That person would think, for the rest of their life, that that's how software works."

Are you a fan of the old Karateka, or were you more about International Karate +, as we were? Let us know in the forums.