How to play Black Belt online
- Choose your rank: on the temple screen press a keypad digit from 1 to 8 (1st to 8th degree black belt); higher degrees make the ninjas faster
- Start: press Enter (Start) and then the 0 key
- Walk: arrow keys
- Turn around: Z
- Moves on the keypad: 1 high punch, 2 high block, 3 high kick, 4 middle punch, 5 middle block, 6 middle kick, 7 low punch, 8 low block, 9 back kick (9 only through the on-screen keypad: press K, pick the key with the joystick and press Z)
- Pause: P
Gameplay
After a pseudo-3D view of a temple, the game switches to six side-view rooms inside it, each with its own decoration and colours, where all-black ninjas appear. The doorway at the bottom of the first room leads back outside; the doors in the background cannot be opened. This is an early, unfinished build: there is no collision detection, so nobody can be hurt, there is no way to clear a room, and your fighter walks slowly with no run option. It is a curiosity to explore, not a game to beat.
About this prototype
Black Belt started as Martial Arts and carried the model number CX5231. Programmer Alan Moss Sr., a karate expert, reworked Alan Murphy’s animations so the moves looked like real techniques. In a 1983 in-house video Moss described a game built on martial arts philosophy, where avoiding a fight was often right, with difficulty that adapted to the player, and hinted at two-player cooperation. Internal documents show the project slipping past its 15 March 1983 due date, and the programmer left Atari around then. Builds survive from 23 December 1982, 6 January 1983 and 5 July 1983. AtariProtos says it is unclear whether Atari cancelled the game or had nobody left to finish it; it was never released.
