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retrogaming·RetroGamingbymelonpunk

Classic action game Karateka is being turned into a playable documentary

Last year, Digital Eclipse released Atari 50, a sprawling, interactive tour through Atari’s long history. I described it as “a cross between an interactive documentary and a virtual museum exhibition,” and it really set a new bar for retro game collections. Now, the studio is tackling another project: Karateka, the game Jordan Mechner made before the iconic Prince of Persia.

Called The Making of Karateka, the new project sounds much like Atari 50, only focused on a specific game. It includes “pixel-perfect versions” of the original Karateka releases and early prototypes you can actually play, along with a host of design documents and documentary-style video features. There’s even a brand-new remastered version of the action game. “What they’ve built around my 1984 kicking-punching debut is so much more than a game remaster, I’m still trying to wrap my mind around it,” Mechner wrote on his personal blog.

The studio also says that the game is just the first in a new collection it’s calling the “Gold Master Series.” Basically, the idea is to give a number of influential games the Atari 50 treatment.

“The Gold Master Series is something we’ve been planning for a long time here at Digital Eclipse – independently-produced projects that celebrate key designers, studios, and games that changed the world,” Digital Eclipse’s Chris Kohler wrote in a post announcing the series. “Our mission is to elevate these games, presenting them in their best possible light while putting them in their proper historical context, an approach we’ve dubbed the ‘interactive documentary.’”

Given how impactful Karateka was for action games, it’s a great place to start. The Making of Karateka doesn’t currently have a release date, but it’s slated to launch this year on Xbox, PlayStation, PC, and the Nintendo Switch.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/11/23791568/karateka-playable-documentary-digital-eclipse-trailerOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
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gamebooks·Gamebooks / Choose Your Own Adventure / Fighting Fantasybymelonpunk

Rise of the Ancients by Dr. Graham A. Wilson - A Fantasy adventure game book series.

RISE OF THE ANCIENTS BK1: BRUIDD An unlikely invitation compels you to travel to the remote coastal town of Broodhaven to participate in a once-in-a-lifetime competition. There, you soon discover that nothing is as it seems. As you progress through each increasingly dangerous round of the contest, the secrets of the town and its noble families are slowly revealed. A hidden history conceals the truth of your own identity and the real reason why you were summoned here. That which sleeps awakens, and so it falls upon you to confront and overcome an ancient and unimaginable terror! Only you can unlock the past and break the dark cycle! A family legacy must be fulfilled. Destiny awaits! Can you stop the nobles of Broodhaven from unleashing a hideous chaos upon the world, or suffer a fate far worse than death?

In this interactive gamebook, you make the decisions, and you suffer the consequences.

Choose wisely or die trying!

I've played the first book a few times and really enjoyed it, though not managed to finish it yet. It's more complicated to play than a Fighting Fantasy book, with many clues and objects to track. With that, I ended up spending some time creating a spreadsheet to track my progress, then I added some code to roll dice, then I added code to handle combat tracking. It's probably riddled with bugs, but should anyone want to use it, here it is (Google Sheets).

https://riseoftheancients.wixsite.com/rotaOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
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