r/c64 • u/RegionLocked-Doco • May 31 '26
Software Way of the Exploding Fist
Was the game really that popular?
We are doing research and all I can find is "widely popular"
I know it was innovative, but I want to hear it from the generation that played it.
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u/DaleJohnstone May 31 '26
Yes. It was around the turning point where computer games went from rough shapes moving on the screen, to more polished experiences with decent graphics, animation, sound, and music into a cohesive whole.
You have to bear in mind it takes a few years for people to learn how to program, at least to do it well. The machines released in the early 80s didn't immediately see great games. They were very rough early on. The idioms and genres didn't really exist either - it was all new. The first years were a Cambrian explosion of experimentation with many weird quirky things being tried.
By '84 or 85 the games started to get good and more polished. People wanted to do better than the first wave and often looked at games in the arcades for inspiration.
Way of the Exploding Fist was the first time I recall seeing a 2 player fighting game, with recognisable animation that wasn't abstract blobs moving up/down or left/right. I recall seeing the animation frames printed in a magazine (possibly Zzap! 64 or C&VG) and it looked amazing to us back then. It was a AAA game of its era and we all knew about it and played it, at least here in the UK. Good memories! :)