# Help me identify a video game **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 20, 2015, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-a-video-game/710357 "2015-01-20T04:32:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-a-video-game/710357/1 "2015-01-20T04:32:30Z")
The spouse and I are trying to remember the name of an arcade video game we used to play in the '80s. It might have been a console game later, too, but it was definitely an arcade game first. All I can remember about it was that it was a fighting game from a Japanese company. The fights took place in a wide-open space with a high ceiling, and the fighters would start out on opposite sides of the screen. The fighting involved a lot of leaping around, from one side of the screen to the other (your character could make it across the whole screen in one jump, usually leaping up close to the ceiling). I think it only had like one joystick and one or two buttons, so it wasn’t complex. I have a vague memory of the characters starting out facing the player, in kind of a bowlegged fighting stance. I know this isn’t much to go on, but maybe it will trip someone’s memory. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-a-video-game/710357/2 "2015-01-20T04:47:51Z")
Some of the description (especially the jumping) reminds me of _Yie Ar Kung Fu_, but the levels are outdoors, as far as I remember. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-a-video-game/710357/3 "2015-01-20T04:57:00Z")
Assuming your memory is faulty on some parts, Karate Champ is the game in the 80s where the fighters had that bowlegged stance. The game had two joysticks though and no buttons. A leap could take you far, but not across the whole screen, maybe about a third of the way. > **[Karate Champ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karate_Champ)** > > Karate Champ, known in Japan as Karate Dō (空手道, "The Way of the Empty Hand"), is a fighting game developed by Technōs Japan and released in arcades by Data East in 1984. A variety of moves can be performed using the dual-joystick controls using a best-of-three matches format like later fighting games. The game was commercially successful, especially in the United States where it was the highest-grossing arcade game of 1985 and the best-selling home computer game up until 1989. Karate Champ establ... ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-a-video-game/710357/4 "2015-01-20T04:57:52Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Some of the description (especially the jumping) reminds me of _Yie Ar Kung Fu_, but the levels are outdoors, as far as I remember. Yes! That was it! Though I could have sworn it had a different name when I played it. That was definitely the game, though. I remember the music and the characters. Thanks! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-a-video-game/710357/5 "2015-01-20T13:41:07Z")
Moved Cafe Society --\> the Game Room. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-a-video-game/710357/6 "2015-01-20T14:22:39Z")
Was just thinking about “Karate Champ” and other similar games in this recent thread [Trying to identify an arcade game circa 1985 - The Game Room - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=734391)