International Karate +
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International Karate +, often abbreviated as IK+, is a karate computer game published in 1987 by System 3 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC. Conversions of this game were later released for the Atari ST, Amiga and Amiga CD32. In 2002, following the retro-gaming trend, Ignition released IK+ for the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation, both of which are faithful to the Amiga/Atari ST version. Activision released the title in the United States as Chop 'n Drop.
In the game, three karateka fight against each other on a beach, trying to be the first who scores 6 points. After every 2 rounds, there is a bonus game which is either deflecting bouncing balls or kicking away bombs. The game can be played by 1 or 2 human players, at least one fighter is always controlled by the computer. The game is similar to other karate titles that appeared previously, such as Karate Champ and Way of the Exploding Fist. Also, the over-the-top sound effects are taken from the 1973 Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon.
Unlike the predecessor International Karate, there is only one backdrop, but it is well-drawn and contains many background animations.
Archer Maclean did most of the work on developing the game, but the music was written by Rob Hubbard. Music for Amiga version was arranged by Dave Lowe. In August 2005, the music from International Karate was performed at the third Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig, Germany.
The game's logo which gives the appearance of being a pseudo Chinese character stylisation of the letters I and K is in fact the real character 永 (Yǒng) which means "permanence".
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[edit] Easter eggs
The game is notorious for containing many easter eggs. Usually, they are accessed by pressing a key or typing out a string. The most famous is that whenever the 'T' button on the keyboard is pressed, the trousers (gi bottoms) fall down and (on some versions) the player-sprite blushes. Other Easter eggs:
- Pacman appears occasionally in the background. Typing his name makes him appear.
- A periscope appears, looks around and is frightened when it sees the player. Typing 'peri' makes it appear.
- Typing curse words causes a paternalistic message to appear, repeated typing of curse words causes the current game to reset.
- The shades of the background and reflection of the sun over the sea, as well as the shadows of the players can all be altered. The size of the IK+ logo on the shield used in the bouncing ball deflection bonus round, can also be changed.
- On the Amiga version, typing 'TOTO' displays the message "CHEERS TO ALL AT INTOTO". Intoto was a computer shop in the UK that was frequented by Archer MacLean.
[edit] Cheats
Pausing the game while a karateka is unconscious causes that karateka to become invulnerable upon regaining consciousness. This works for both player- and computer-controlled karateka. Whether this is a bug or a deliberately introduced cheat is unknown.
In 2001 a hacked version of the game was released for the C64, called IK+ Gold. Amongst other improvements it added a 3-player option, for which a multi-player adapter was needed.
