In 1983, action games for DOS were rarer than ninjas popping out of your closet.
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In 1983, action games for DOS were rarer than ninjas popping out of your closet.
Text adventures were all the rage, along with some RPGs. If you were an action fan, you had to really hunt down games that broke the mould. One of them was Bushido: The Way of the Warrior – an experience so exclusive, it’s still only available on DOS.
The goal of Bushido is brutal and simple: eliminate everything that dares to move. No, don’t just kill them – smash them into a confetti of pixels.
Bushido doesn’t waste any time on trivialities like back story. Who are you? Why are sword-wielding ninjas popping out of nowhere while you’re calmly drinking your tea? Who sent these assassins? We don’t know. Just kick, punch, and ask questions never.
Bushido is Karateka‘s older, scrappier cousin. I mean, tell me if this doesn’t sound familiar: at the beginning of the game, you – a lone martial artist – approach a temple. An adversary blocks your path. With only your bare fists, you must defeat him.
Also like Bushido was a graphical marvel for its time. Yes, this game only uses CGA graphics, which was the best graphical mode for DOS at the time. However, it uses two CGA palettes: palette 0 with the orange and green colours, and palette 1 with the cyan and magenta colours. Few games did this. Even deep into the 80s, most CGA games stuck to one palette.
As well, the sprites are big and detailed – there’s no sticks and blobs here. The background displays many things, such as slippers and steaming tea on a table. And while the animation has all the fluidity of wet concrete, there were primitive particle effects. By the standards of DOS – a platform outclassed by the Commodore 64 in the visuals department – these graphics were impressive.
In the early 80s, sound on the DOS was beyond awful. Actually, they were a crime against ears. But surprisingly, Bushido squeezed every bit it could out of that lone tinny, tortured speaker. It actually had music and sound effects. Shrill? Definitely. Appreciated? Strangely, yes.
Now if you’re planning on playing this on period-correct hardware, I have to warn you. Anything beyond an IBM PC/XT is going to be unplayable. If you have a CPU more powerful than an 8088, this game will turbocharge through so fast, the game will be over in seconds. You’re better off playing this on DOSBox and emulating an XT.
Bushido also uses a strange control scheme. This game requires a Numpad, and if you don’t have one, it will be unplayable. Basically, there are three modes:
- <F2> for punching mode
- <F3> for movement mode
- <F4> for kicking mode
When you press <F2> you have nine varieties of punches at your disposal, all executed with a number on your Numpad. For example, <3> is a forward upward punch. <F3> is not combat mode, but moved you back and forth across the screen. For example, you can duck by pressing <8> or do a backwards flip by pressing <1>. And of course, <F4> gives you access to an arsenal of kicks.
By modern standards, this is an odd way of control but when you consider that even consoles like the Colecovision used Numpads, it makes sense. And when you get used to it – in a finger gymnastics sort of way – it’s a whole lot of fun.
Ebenel Enterprises developed Bushido. John Lee and Robert Lee are credited with working on this game. This is the only game they ever made.
Is it basic? Sure. Frustrating? If you don’t know the bizarre controls. But not only does Bushido demonstrate what DOS was capable of doing in 1983, its great CGA graphics, strange control system, and timeless simplicity make it worth visiting even now. It’s 1983 in a nutshell – weird, wonderful, and yet still compelling.
