Karateka was Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner‘s first published game. He programmed it (originally for the Apple II) while attending Yale University in 1984.
It’s a simple martial arts fighting game that uses rotoscoped graphics to create realistic animation. Back in 1984 they were pretty revolutionary.
LISTS: as decided by His Majesty The King of Grabs, in order of greatness:
1. Super Nintendo (1992)
2. PC Engine/Turbografx-16 (1991)
3. Commodore 64 (2011)
4. PC MS-DOS (1990)
5. Atari ST (1990)
6. Amiga (1990)
7. Sega CD (1992)
8. Sharp X68000 (1991)
9. ZX Spectrum (1996)
10. Megadrive/Genesis (1993)
And of course there’s always the Apple II original, which is ‘The Daddy’ of them all.
All Hail The Prince of Persia, and all hail Jordan Mechner!
More: Prince of Persia on Wikipedia
All versions of Prince of Persia on The King of Grabs:
Apple II, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, PC MS-DOS, SAM Coupé, Sharp X68000, PC Engine/Turbografx-16, Sega Master System, Sega CD, Game Boy, Super Nintendo, Nintendo Entertainment System, Megadrive/Genesis, Game Boy Color, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
Since I’ve included one ‘unofficial’ port in our Prince of Persia Special (the Commodore 64 version), I’ve also got to include this 1996 ZX Spectrum conversion by Nicodim (because it’s so good).
The Commodore 64 version of Prince of Persia is not an official release, but a 2011 ‘homebrew’ game created by Nostalgia (not the perfume – the team). And it is quite astounding!
The Game Boy Color version of Prince of Persia was developed by Ed Magnin and Associates and published by Red Orb Entertainment in 1999.
The Sega Megadrive/Genesis version of Prince of Persia was developed and published by Tengen and Domark in 1993. It is another great conversion – unique to all the rest.
Developed by Motivetime for Virgin Games and released in 1992, the NES version of Prince of Persia is unfortunately another flawed conversion.
Developed by Arsys Software for Konami and published in 1992 this Super Nintendo conversion of Prince of Persia is arguably the best out of all of them.
The game has been expanded and seriously enhanced with superb graphics and stereo sound.
The Game Boy conversion of Prince of Persia was released in 1992 by Virgin Games, and it is not too shabby at all.
Another Japanese conversion of Prince of Persia; this one done by Bits Laboratory for Brøderbund and released for the Sega CD in 1992.
Graphically and sonically it has been ‘enhanced’ to take advantage of the Sega’s CD‘s capabilities, but thankfully the developers resisted the temptation to fill the game with loads of Full Motion Video, which was prevalent on the format at the time.
The King of Grabs 