Budokan: The Martial Spirit

Released: 1989
Published by: Electronic Arts
Developed by: Electronic Arts
Author(s): Michael Kosaka, Ray Tobey, Rick Tiberi, Cynthia Hamilton, Connie Braat, Mike Lubuguin, Mike Nowak, Nancy Fong, Sefen Hsu, Rob Hubbard, Mike Isgur, Steve Landrum.

VGA graphics mode

EGA graphics mode

 

Introduction

Budokan is a two-player fighting game that features four different martial arts: Karate, Kendo, Nunchaku and Bo. With these four disciplines, the game provides a large variety of moves (about 32 for each martial art!) . You can initially practice each of these, then spar with your trainer, and finally when you feel able, enter the Tournament where all your skills will be put to the test in a series of 12 matches against competitors.

This is a more serious fighting game where it is just as important to watch your 'Ki' (energy) level as well as your stamina. During a spar, any time when you are not fighting increases your Ki. When you attack you use half your Ki, and the more Ki used the more damage that move will inflict if a hit is made - when that occurs your opponent loses half his Ki. Similarly your stamina bar is an indication of your strength and endurance - performing different moves or being struck by your opponent reduces your stamina, while resting and successfully blocking your opponent will increase your stamina. The lower your stamina, the slower your attacking and blocking moves will be.

 

 

 
Intro with Ad Lib music (left) and Roland MT-32 (right)

Before entering the Tournament you will need to have mastered all four martial arts, as you can only use each of them up to four times, so you should weight up which martial art to use against each opponent according to their skill and yours.

 

System Requirements

System Requirements	Intel 8088/8086 CPU, 384 KB of RAM (512 KB required for 256-colour modes), DOS version 2.11 or higher. Graphics support for Tandy/PCjr, Hercules, CGA, EGA and MCGA/VGA. Audio support for PC speaker, Tandy/PCjr, Ad Lib, Game Blaster/CMS and Roland MT-32/LAPC-I. Keyboard and Joystick supported.
Original Media	Two 5.25" 360 KB (DS/DD) floppy diskettes or one 3.5" 720 KB (DS/DD) floppy diskette.
Installed Size (MB)	708 KB

From where can it be run?

The game can be run from the original floppy disk(s) or copied to your hard disk. There is no installer, so to play from a hard disk the manual instructs you to create a new subdirectory called BUDOKAN under C:\ and copy the contents of your floppy disk(s) to this directory on your hard disk, then run BUDO from there.

 

Copy Protection

Budokan: The Martial Spirit has manual copy protection. After the title screen you will be asked to identify a family crest:

Open the game manual, and after the Table of Contents there will be page that shows 12 family crests. Locate the symbol shown in the middle of the screen and use the left and right arrow keys to alter the selected text to match the symbol. If you are correct the Courtyard doors will open and you can play the game. If you get it wrong, you will still be permitted to play, but only in practice mode in the dojos. If you try to Kumite (spar), you will be presented with this screen, and then it will ask you again to identify a family crest. Even if you get it right it won't work and will dump you back to DOS (which is a bug in the game), so you have to get it right when you first start the game:

Here are the family crests and their Kanji, for convenience (click for a larger version):

 

How to Setup

Budokan has no setup utility. The game will automatically detect the best graphics mode for your computer, though you can force it to run in a different mode.

For audio, the game does not automatically detect the best sound driver apart from Tandy/PCjr. For other PCs, it always defaults to PC speaker for sound unless a command-line argument is provided to specify a sound card.

BUDO.COM accepts these command-line arguments:

HERCULES - Run game in Hercules mode.
CGA - Run game in CGA mode.
EGA - Run game in EGA mode.
VGA - Run game in VGA mode.
MCGA - Run game in MCGA mode.

CMS - Creative Music Card (CMS Card)
ADLIB - Ad Lib Card
MT32 - Roland MT32 or LAPC-I

JOY1 - Player 1 uses Joystick #1 instead of keys or keypad
JOY2 - Player 2 uses Joystick #2 instead of keys or keypad

NOSHADOWS - The characters in Budokan cast shadows if the program thinks your computer is fast enough to display them. You can increase the game speed by removing them with this command.
SHADOWS - If shadows don't appear and you want them to, type this command.
NOSOUND - No sound effects.
NOMUSIC - No music.
QUIET - No music or sound effects.

Example:

BUDO EGA ADLIB NOSHADOWS

will run the game in 16-colour EGA graphics mode with Ad Lib sound and won't display shadows for the characters

 

Problems

Symptom: I ran the game but all I get is a blank screen. I have a VGA card installed but only have an EGA monitor.
Cause: The game automatically tries to detect your graphics card and will run in that mode. If your monitor does not support it, you will just get a blank screen.
Resolution: Force the game to run in a graphics mode that is supported by your monitor, such as EGA or CGA.

Symptom: I ran the game but it hangs on the title screen.
Cause: Initialising audio may have failed. If you chose 'MT32' as the audio device and it cannot be found, this can cause the game to lock-up.
Resolution: Force the game to run in an audio mode that is supported by your computer. Try running the game with no audio option selected, which will default to PC speaker if you are running on a non-Tandy or IBM PCjr. If the game then runs ok you know the problem is with audio initialisation.

Symptom: I ran the game in DOSBox but I don't hear any of the digitised sound effects when sparring.
Cause: The digitised speech/sound effects in Budokan use the PC speaker, regardless of whether you have selected a sound card for the music. This may be disabled in your DOSBox configuration file.
Resolution: Edit your DOSBox .conf file, go down to the [speaker] section, and make sure you have a line that reads:
pcspeaker=true
There sould be no hash at the start either, as all lines with a hash prefix are treated as comments in the .conf file.

Keys / Controls

You can play Budokan: The Martial Spirit using either the keyboard (Q-W-E, A-S-D, Z-X-C and Left Shift key for action), numeric keypad (1-9 and Right Shift key for action), or joystick. To change the input device to use for either player, hit ESC at any time to display the Game Configuration window and hit '1' or '2' to choose that player. If you choose joystick as an input device, the calibration screen will appear where you can see if all joystick movements behave as you would expect. If they don't press 'T' to calibrate:

If you choose the same input device for both players you will be warned of this and will be taken back to the Game Configuration window to correct it.

Sparring             Keyboard      Keypad        Joystick            Action:   L-Shift          R-Shift     Joystick Button Keys are not redefinable. If using a joystick, moves are made by initially making a direction followed by hitting the button, then moving in a direction again to select the move you want to make. For example, in Karate, Down -> Button -> Top-Right will crouch then do a high kick. Top-Right -> Button -> Top-Left will jump forward then do a high spin kick. Refer to the game manual which has good visuals on each move and how to perform them. B = bow (stop sparring)

Menu / Pop-up Window Navigation Use the numeric keypad and ENTER to select, or joystick and fire button. ESC takes you back. Other Keys ESC = Show Game Configuration window 1 = Player 1 control select (keys, keypad or joy) 2 = Player 2 control select (keys, keypad or joy) T = Joystick calibration 3 = Sound effects on/off 4 = Music on/off 5 = Exit to DOS

 

To Quit the Game

Press ESC to bring up the game configuration screen, then press '5' to Exit to DOS. You will be prompted to confirm your choice by pressing 'Y'.

 

Supporting Documents

• User Manual
• Walkthrough/Hint Guide

 

Additional Files, Drivers and Utilities

This section includes any additional files, updated drivers (original and third-party) or utilities that help make the game a better experience.

• Tandy 3-voice patch - Forces Tandy 3-voice sound on a non-Tandy/PCjr machine. This of course is to be used with a Tandy compatible sound adapter on your regular IBM PC/XT/AT.

 

Save Games

Budokan offers no save game capability. When you enter the Tournament, you must continue through. If you leave the Tournament, you will lose your progress and have to start from Level 1 again.

An alternative to this is to use a save state utility such as Game Wizard 32 (which came in both DOS and Windows flavours), or there are some variants of DOSBox that support save states, such as this one. Press Ctrl-F1 to bring up the keyboard shortcuts and assign a chosen key to both 'Save State' and 'Load State'. The running program must match when loading from a save state, so load the game first, then attempt to load from a previously saved state. I'm not sure if multiple save states are possible - I don't think so, as loading a state does not prompt you to choose.

 

Versions of the game known to exist

Version	Date	Comments
1.0	December 1989	Initial public release.
1.0?	1993	Re-release on budget label The Hit Squad.

 

Original Floppy Disk Contents

Here are each disk's contents:

"Dojo Disk" - Disk 1 of 2 (5.25" 360 KB DS/DD) with volume label of "DOJO DISK":   Directory of A:\ BUDO COM 31,687 31-10-1989 0:00 DOJO DAT 330,692 31-10-1989 0:00 2 File(s) 362,379 Bytes
"Tournament Disk" - Disk 2 of 2 (5.25" 360 KB DS/DD) with volume label of "TOURNAMENT":   Directory of A:\ TOURNEY DAT 361,983 31-10-1989 0:00 1 File(s) 361,983 Bytes
"Tournament & Dojo Disk" - Disk 1 of 1 (3.5" 720 KB DS/DD) with no volume label:   Directory of A:\ BUDO COM 31,687 31-10-1989 0:00 DOJO DAT 330,692 31-10-1989 0:00 TOURNEY DAT 361,983 31-10-1989 0:00 3 File(s) 724,362 Bytes

 

Installed Directory Contents

Once installed, the following directory structure exists in the game directory:

Directory of C:\GAMES\BUDOKAN . <DIR> 21-07-2022 6:54 .. <DIR> 21-07-2022 19:14 BUDO COM 31,687 31-10-1989 0:00 DOJO DAT 330,692 31-10-1989 0:00 TOURNEY DAT 361,983 31-10-1989 0:00 3 File(s) 724,362 Bytes