Along with Karate Champ and Yie Ar Kung-Fu (both also released in 1984), Karateka is one of the earliest martial arts fighting games.

[12] The player controls an unnamed protagonist attempting to rescue his love interest, Princess Mariko, from Akuma's castle fortress.

The character walks and runs from left to right through a linear, side-scrolling level, dealing with attackers and obstacles, while moving deeper into the fortress.

In addition to human enemies, Akuma occasionally sends his trained hawk to attack the player, which can be deflected with well-timed punches or kicks.

Though it was described as single-sided, the disk could be inserted upside down to play a full version of the game with the display reflected vertically, appearing upside-down and backwards.

According to Mechner, this was done as a joke, causing users to call tech support and be told to flip the disk over so the game played right-side-up.

[18] Having learned computer programming using the Apple II, he had written a clone of Asteroids and a modified version he titled Deathbounce.

[19] He drew inspiration from Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock print art, and the cinematic works of Akira Kurosawa, early Disney animated films, and silent pictures—which he said "convey such powerful emotion and atmosphere without a word being spoken".

[14] Mechner wanted to create fluid animations within the Apple II's eight-frame-per-second capacity, but this was hampered by the presence of additional on-screen elements, such as one of the palace gates.

[1] Mechner believed that Veda Cook's versions for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers were the best ports, with some superior features including enabling his father to reorchestrate the music.

[21] The game was released in Japan for the Famicom in 1985, ported by Soft Pro, and specifying its martial art as Nanto Saishi Ken (南斗再試拳 South Dipper Retry Fist).

In early 1985, Jeff Hurlbert of Hardcore Computist said the "recently-released" Karateka "is the most recent and best illustration of a trend towards computer games that look like movies".

[27] In January 1985, Computer Entertainer rated the Apple II version 7½ out of 8 stars, praising the visuals, animation, sound effects, music, karate moves, and story line, but criticizing the blonde-haired appearance of the karateka and princess in a Japanese setting.

[28] Computer Entertainer later rated the Commodore 64 version seven out of eight stars in July 1985, praising the "visually stunning" graphics and "authentic" moves, but again questioning "the use of a blond hero and heroine in a Japanese setting".

[31] Info rated the Commodore 64 version three stars out of five, praising the animation but disliking its simple and two-dimensional game play, and concluding that it "needs more depth".

[16] The team experimented with different approaches, ending up with "brand-new combat mechanics" and a "rhythm-based" fighter, where "you match the rhythm of your opponent's attacks and eventually earn your counterattack".

The player can complete the game as any of the characters, maintaining immersion while transitioning between them, though the ultimate goal is reuniting Mariko with her "True Love".

Development on The Making of Karateka began in 2020 after realizing the wealth of archival material on the game, including journal entries from Mechner, floppy disks and documents from The Strong National Museum of Play.

[40] The studio's executive editor Chris Kohler discussed the amount of material, stating "I don't know if we could do this for any single video game.

[41] Despite starting on material for a re-release of Karateka in 2021, Digital Eclipse released the compilation Atari 50 first in 2022, which celebrated the history of the company through an interactive timeline, featuring documentary footage, interviews and games to play.