Set up by Mark Cale in 1982, System 3’s catalogue grew steadily over its first three years, culminating with the space shooter Death Star Interceptor, which was awarded a coveted Crash Smash. Encouraged by its success, Mark travelled to the States to try to licence it and his firm’s other titles, and while there he licensed several US titles for the European market.
The firm’s make or break moment came in the autumn of 1985, when Mark found himself at a trade event without anything to show for his upcoming releases. He gambled that he could generate nationwide publicity for them with a team of karate experts and a troupe of scantily clad dancers, and to his credit this risky move got System 3 a US distribution deal with Activision.
Despite this coup, it was another big American player that published System 3’s breakthrough title – International Karate, as Activision unwisely passed on distributing the Archer Maclean-coded game in the States. Instead, Epyx snapped up the US rights, and renamed it World Championship Karate.
Even greater success came with The Last Ninja – a brilliant concept whose promise was realised by coder John Twiddy. This isometric martial-arts adventure was a revelation, and it soon became a must-have title for Commodore 64 gamers.
System 3 maintained this momentum with its next release, the follow-up to International Karate – IK+. The ingenious twist on the original being the addition of a third fighter. Like IK+, System 3’s subsequent title – Last Ninja – expanded and improved on its predecessor, while moving the narrative of the series to modern-day New York, and incorporating puzzles and bosses relating to its contemporary American setting.
