Choplifter inspired me to make a game that would be even more cinematic. It had the smoothest, most sophisticated animation I’d ever seen on an Apple II. Here was a game that went beyond arcade-style racking up points to depict a human, dramatic situation. But when I saw Broderbund’s new number one bestseller, Choplifter, it blew me away. My first game was a shoot-’em-up called Deathbounce which I had sent to Broderbund Software for consideration. Is that where the idea for Karateka came from? Suddenly I could make games that were like little animated movies.

What really hooked me about it was the colour graphics. I saved up to buy my own using all the money I’d earned over the years drawing caricatures at local fairs and from then on, I pretty much spent every spare moment at the Apple. I did a bit of programming in APL and BASIC, but it only really became a full-blown obsession when the Apple II came along.Ī friend had one and I would use it at his house after school each day. IBM had something called the “Explorers” program where they let kids come in after hours and use their computer terminals. When I first discovered programming as a kid, I enjoyed it like a game in itself, a pastime that I found endlessly absorbing and challenging. So you enjoyed programming more than playing games? Playing the latest game might hold my interest for a few days or weeks but programming the Apple II kept me enthralled for years. It didn’t seem intrinsically more interesting, only a little different. It wasn’t like ‘Oh my god, it’s a videogame, this is the future.’ It was just an alternative that co-existed with the pinball machines. There were pinball machines at the bowling alley, then one day there was something called Tank War. I grew up playing games, but they were tabletop games, like cards and chess and Monopoly. It was a 16K Apple II.Ĭan you remember the earliest game you played? Videogames didn’t appear till I was in junior high school and I didn’t get my first computer until I was 14. I might have stayed on that path if I hadn’t stumbled on to computers. But I loved to draw and write stories and comic books and I spent a lot of time trying to make animated movies on Super 8 film. I grew up in New York and I didn’t much like school as a kid.

What was your home life like and how did your schooldays influence you?

Here he talks to us about Karateka, Prince Of Persia and starting off in the industry. While he’s not the most prolific of game developers, Jordan Mechner remains an important part of the industry, having created some of its most important games.

Prince of persia 3d jordan mechner