⭐ This guide has been featured in RANews ⭐
September 2021 (Vol. 109)

Karate (Atari 2600)

Originally published by Ultravision in 1982 and later re-released by Froggo, Karate is considered one of the worst Atari 2600 games ever released. The game was supposedly designed by black belt Joseph Amelio however upon release it received poor reviews.

• Set by: endtimes
• Guide by: Schlim

Introduction

Set Difficulty: 1/10
Time Estimate: 15 minutes
Missable Achievements: 0

Gameplay

The gameplay is very poor and requires more luck than skill. Strategizing moves might be possible but generally mashing random moves and hoping you get luckier than the AI works better.
You control the fighter on the right. You can combine the fire button as well as a direction on the joystick to perform 5 different moves. Each move offers different points added to your score. Knockdowns can occur when the player connects a perfect up kick to the face. The winner is determined by who has the most points after the two minute timer finishes or whoever reaches 900 first. Once a fighter wins this means they progress up a belt in this order:

White -> Orange -> Green -> Yellow -> Black -> Tournament Champion

This means that when you lose the opponent CPU AI becomes harder even when losing the first fight.

The manual says that Difficulty A is slow mode and Difficulty B is fast mode however I couldn’t see much of a difference.

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Move Set

Button Combination	Move
Neutral + Fire	Up Punch
Up + Fire	Up Punch
Down + Fire	Straight Punch
Right + Fire	Straight Kick
Left + Fire	Up Kick

Scoring System

Move	Points
Up Punch	10
Straight Punch	10
Straight Kick	15
Up kick to side of the head	20
Up kick to face	25
Knockdown	60

Achievement Guide

	Ichi-Ryu
	Rokui-Ryu
	Godan
	Hachidan
	Karate Champion

Here I will explain how to guarantee a win pretty much every time. Begin the game by walking to the bottom of the screen. Once there spam Left + Fire and your fighter will repeatedly do up kicks. Since up kicks give the highest score you won’t need to do any other move. The opponent will continue to walk into the up kicks. Winning by knockout is very common with this method. If you fail the first fight then reset the game since the opponent will go up a belt.

TIP: Enable turbo fire on your Fire button to make this task even easier and consistent. This also works well with fast forward.

	Staring Contest

Load the game and press select to set it to mode 001. After a second or two the timer should automatically start counting and the players wont move. Simply wait (or fast forward) until you win the championship. If the opponent moves just reload the ROM and try again.

	Get Back Here!

Once a fight begins hold left until you reach the other side and the achievement will appear.

	Sweep the leg by kicking the face

Should be achieved in casual gameplay. Perform an Up kick ( Left + Fire ) on the opponent and they should eventually be knocked down. In my experience this is more common when you’re completely horizontal to the opponent.

	Hiraki-Ashi Master

The aforementioned tactic is, believe it or not, too powerful for this achievement. The achievement requires you to win on the timer and the previous tactic usually results in a knockout. Simply walk back as far as possible then go down and perform the tactic from there and you should get just under 900 before the timer runs out. The opponent might strike first, if this occurs then simply reset against another white belt until you get them in the up kick ‘stun lock’.