Fighting Games - The Early Years

[NeoZeedeater]

Capcom's Street Fighter II in 1991 was obviously a turning point where fighting games took off into much greater popularity than ever before but I was always a fan of the genre much before that.

At what point the genre was born is up for debate but games that involved two characters dueling date back to 1976 with arcade releases like Sega's boxing game Heavyweight Champ and Project Support Engineering's jousting game Knights in Armor. Boxing sort of became its own genre so I'm going to leave it out of the rest of the thread.

Another early fighting game worth mentioning is Vectorbeam's 1979 arcade game Warrior which featured overhead view swordfighting.
http://www.videotopia.com/warrior.jpg

The first instance of one-on-one martial arts fighting that I know of is Ultravision's 1982 Atari 2600 game Karate.
http://www.speccy.org/sromero/atari/scrshots/Karate.gif

Atari was also making a game around this time for the 5200 called Black Belt but it never saw release.
http://www.atariprotos.com/5200/software/blackbelt/blackbelt_7.png

Ebenel released Bushido: The Way of the Warrior for DOS in 1983. I don't think it's a true fighting game as it probably involved roaming and
exploring but I haven't played it so I'm not certain.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/shots/p,2/gameId,1351/gameShotId,5915/

One of the most important milestones in the history of the genre was Data East/Technos' arcade game Karate Champ(1984). This game greatly furthered fighting gameplay and popularity. It was ported to several home formats. This was the first fighting game I had ever seen and I was mesmerized by it enough to put so many quarters/tokens into it.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/screens/K/xKarate_Champ.png

Also from 1984 was Broderbund's Apple II game Karateka by Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner. While the game does have screen scrolling the action is still one-one-one fighting. Karateka introduced in game cinemas to the genre. It was ported to several other formats.
http://www.feiramoderna.net/blog/img/karateka.gif

Konami's arcade game Yie Ar Kung Fu(1985) introduced a wide variety of opponents including female characters.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/screens/Y/xYie_Ar_Kung-Fu.png

The MSX and Famicom versions were not ports of the arcade game(although they still ruled); the Western computer versions released by Imagine were.

MSX version
http://home.no.net/uffen/info/kungfu.jpg

1985 also marked the beginning of Taiyo(later renamed Culture Brain)'s Hiryu no Ken series. The original arcade game was released in the West by Data East under the name Shanghai Kid.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/screens/S/wShanghai_Kid.png

The first couple Famicom games - Hiryu no Ken(1987) and Hiryu no Ken 2(1988) were released domestically as Flying Dragon(1988) and [b]Flying Warriors(1990). The series continued on with several sequels(Famicom, Super Famicom, Playstation, N64, etc.). I'm not a big Culture Brain fan but I enjoyed Flying Warriors as it felt more strategic than many others on the market.
http://www.vgmuseum.com/images/nes/01/flyingwarriors.html

Nintendo's first fighting game was Urban Champion(1985 in Japan, 1986 in NA) for the NES. I know I said I wasn't going to mention boxing games but I think the street combat aspect of this one makes it closer to a regular fighting game.
http://www.games4nintendo.com/nes/thumbs/urbanchampion.jpg

Beam Software created excellent the Way of the Exploding Fist series, starting in 1985. The first game was a pure fighting game and the second game had an adventure mode which was a non-linear fighting/exploration hybrid, the predecessor to Beam's 1988 game Usagi Yojimbo/Samurai Warrior. Fist + was also released in 1988.

Way of the Exploding Fist(C64 version)
http://www.c64gg.com/Images/W/Way_of_the_Exploding_Fist_ingame1.gif

Then there's System 3(better known the developer of The Last Ninja). World Karate Championship/International Karate and its sequels were also excellent fighting games. Data East sued over this game claiming it was a rip-off of Karate Champ. They lost but this outcome would later save their asses when Capcom sued them years later.
http://www.c64gg.com/Images/I/International_Karate_ingame.gif
http://ritchy.free.fr/jeux/ik+.gif

Bangkok Knights(System 3, 1987)
http://www.c64gg.com/Images/B/Bangkok_Knights.ss.gif

Also worth noting is Palace Software's 1987 release Barbarian AKA Death Sword. This is not only the first fighting game with fatalities but it also has one of the best soundtracks in gaming history. It's too bad its side-scrolling sequel wasn't as good. It was released on several computer formats. I prefer the C64 version for the audio although the ST version shown here is nicer looking.
http://ahladnik.free.fr/bilder/barbarian.jpg

Jaleco's Famicom Disk game Fuuun Shourinken came out in 1987. It had a sequel the following year. I liked its style but the gameplay was kind of weak.
http://www.geocities.jp/f_tamakoku/famicon/database/1987_picture/1987_05/fuunsyourin.gif

Capcom's arcade game Street Fighter never had the success of its sequel but it did lay the groundwork for it and introduced the circular motion attacks like fireballs although the control was much cruder than in SF2. It also had those giant buttons like Nintendo's Punch Out!! series had a few years earlier. Street Fighter was ported to PC and to TurboGrafx CD under the name Fighting Street.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/screens/S/wStreet_Fighter.png

1989's Hippodrome by Data East was a fantasy themed arcade fighter.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/screens/H/wHippodrome.png

Electronic Arts took fighting games into more sim-like territory with their 1989/1990 computer/Genesis game Budokan. The Amiga version is shown here.
http://www.meristation.com/img/trivial/2003/amiga34.jpg

Tongue of the Fatman AKA Mondu's Fight Palace AKA Slaughter Sport was released on many computers and on Genesis. Weird stuff.
http://spoonman.roarvgm.com/videogame/screens/fatman/0003.png

Please add anything I missed. I left out more mixed genre stuff like Sega's Black Belt and LJN's The Karate Kid although I see nothing wrong with having those in the conversation. Overall for pre-SF2 fighting games I was much more impressed with the stuff being made in the West although that reversed itself after SF2 when Japan took over the genre almost completely.

What are your thoughts on early fighting games?

[chrisbid]

i would probably include 2 player boxing games on that list, Activision Boxing is an interesting 1-on-1 fighter in my book

btw, i love this kindof research :)

[Kroogah]

Excellent, you covered pretty much everything worth covering. Even Urban Champion, heh. I applaud the inclusion of pictures, too.

Karate for 2600. Look how far we've come.

[ClubNinja]

Related note: Budokan *rocks* on the PC. I still have my 5.25" copy handy whenever I need a fix.

[tyranthraxus]

For the most part fighting games were pretty bad up until the late 80s and
SF2 really took it to a new level. As I recall the 2 player games often had
poor controls or response and the solo games were often too easy.

Bushido I did play way back... interesting that you dug it up. I hadn't heard
of that game in 15 years or more! As I recall it wasn't much fun but it was
an early DOS game so its worth its note. I believe you would be challenged
by a single enemy and upon beating it you would walk to the next screen.

Although its a side scroller and not a Vs game like the others I think
Double Dragon is worth mentioning because it offered quite a variety
of moves and weapons.

[Arcade Antics]

I'm a huge fan of The Shanghai Kid. There, I said it. LOL

Not the best karate game in the world, but a local sandwich shop had it, and we played it all the time. There's something oddly charming about its choppy animation and strange - yet intuitive - gameplay. It's one of those g ames that everyone ought to try at least once, the weirdness of it will instantly make you a fan or a... non-fan. :)

I'm surprised to see it on your list, although given the excellent detail and high quality of your posts, I shouldn't be. :)

[Mayhem]

IK+ on the C64 = one of the best fighting games ever (pity you elected to use an Amiga screenshot of it!).

Even more so that someone hacked the game to allow 3 human fighters to participate (and yes, despite only having 2 joystick ports, you can get 4 player adapters for the C64).

The soundtrack isn't too bad either ;)

[MegaDrive20XX]

Excellent read again! Very well done :)

[IntvGene]

I like the list. I remember playing International Karate alot as a kid. It was great. I also remember Urban Champion, only because it was such a disappointment.

Swordfight (A2600) needs an honorable mention here. Although the game was finished at M-Network in the early 80's, it never saw the light of day until recently. Mattel didn't release it apparently because the game requires two players. By the time the game was ready, the video game market was demanding cartridges that were for one player only or that had a one-player mode.

It sheds some light on why the development of these titles was delayed, that is, until proper AI could be programmed.

[jajaja]

Great article! :)
What is the most violent fighting game through time? I know Mortal Kombat is realy violent, but is there any games that are worse than Mortal Kombat?
Maybe Thrill Kill? I havnt played it, but I know it was banned.

[Flack]

Just wanted to comment on Bushido as well (I see there are a lot of fellow old-schoolers in the house!) I think the other comment was right. I remember using the number pad to attack enemies, and when done walking to the next "room" to fight another enemy.

[jajaja]

where can I find the soundtrack for Barbarian aka Death Sword? All i find is the .sid

[Jorpho]

And what's wrong with the SID? You can play it in Winamp with the right plugin (and even convert it using the disk-write plugin).

[Flack]

Hello? Kung-Fu Master?

http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/screens/S/xSpartan_X.png

Just kidding. I forgot to add after my last comment ... NICE JOB! I LOVED reading through your article! You obviously put a lot of work and effort into it. Great stuff!

[jajaja]

And what's wrong with the SID? You can play it in Winamp with the right plugin (and even convert it using the disk-write plugin).

Nothings wrong with the SID, i never said so. But it only have 3 tracks and they arent anything spesial imo. So I guess when he said that this was one of the best soundtrack through history of gaming, i guess its based on personal opinion.

[NeoZeedeater]

Thanks guys. :)

I don't consider Kung Fu Master or similar stuff like Dragon Wang part of the fighting genre which is why I left them out. I'm a big fan though as I played the hell out of Kung Fu Master, mostly on C64 and NES.

And the reason I showed the Amiga pic of IK+ was because I already showed the 8-bit version of its predecessor. I prefer the way the characters look in the 8-bit one myself.

Here are a few I missed(the names might be a little off on some of these imports but I haven't seen the names in English for most of them)-

Big Charange Judo(Jaleco, FDS, 1988)
http://www.geocities.jp/f_tamakoku/famicon/database/1988_picture/1988_10/88_bigcharangejyuudou.gif

Fighting Road(Toei, FC, 1988)
http://www.gametronik.com/site/rubriques/nes_famicom/Jeux/Fighting%20Road/Fighting%20Road.png

Judo War(Jaleco, FC, 1990)
http://www.geocities.jp/f_tamakoku/famicon/database/1990_picture/1990_06/jyuudouwar.gif