The Karate Kid shows no mercy to NES, Atari ST players in November 1987


Two summer blockbuster martial arts movies and 17 months later, the homebound game player finally got a chance to slip into the gi and become Daniel LaRusso. The Karate Kid delivered a digital karate chop to owners of the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Atari ST computer in November 1987. The Karate Kid films had already woven themselves into the fabric of the culture, as the Rocky flicks of the Pepsi Generation. Now, its digital doppelgängers landed on our consoles and computers. 

They were imperfect translations, certainly, but they were a testament to the irresistible pull of a good story, a compelling hero, and the boundless, sometimes bewildering, desire to step into the screen, however flat and pixelated that screen might be. The silicon sensei had arrived, and the kids were ready to wax on, wax off, and button-mash their way to glory. At the checkout counters of toy and neighborhood video stores, the sound most often heard was not hi-YA! but KA-CHING!

The long wait for the games meant that Nintendo players wound up with two games in one, covering the shift from sunny California to lush Okinawa, Japan - well, maybe Hawaii subbing for the latter, but the games could claim the real Japanese setting. Players could relive Daniel-san's victory in an utterly convincing 8-bit graphic replica of the karate tournament. They could attempt to snag flies from the air with chopsticks in a scene rendered with surprisingly large, colorful character sprites. And fight their way through the memorable typhoon scene against a backdrop of traditional village minkas, raindrops, and lightning flashes.

Atari ST players got even better graphics, but just the sequel film setting. Neither game seemed to have a massive budget, yet both boasted impressive animation. NES developer Atlus somehow captured Ralph Macchio's gait in the frames of his digital counterpart as he strode across American TV screens. And the fluid, lifelike movements of the sparring combatants in the Atari version were so advanced for the time that they still hold up today.

The NES version features an Easter egg that triggers a cut scene of Peter Cetera performing "Glory of Love" in a chiptune 8-bit music video. Cetera is then unlocked as the most formidable fighter in the game. The trouble is, four decades on, no one seems to have yet found this Easter egg in the game! Maybe some more den-den daiko practice is in order!

The philosophical depth of Mr. Miyagi's teachings, the subtle arc of Daniel's character, the visceral thrill of the tournament climax – all of it was compressed, flattened, and squeezed through the narrow pipeline of 1980s gaming technology. And yet the very act of playing these games, of wrestling with their clunky controls, was an act of participation. It wasn't just consuming the movie; it was living it, however imperfectly, in the interactive realm. The crane kick might have been a series of pixels, but the idea of it, the triumph of it, still resonated. Two worlds, two warriors, one legend: Daniel LaRusso, thumb-fighter extraordinaire!

Location: Okinawa, Japan

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