International Karate is a karate fighting game created and published by System 3 for various home computers. Of these versions the 1986 releases for Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers, created by Archer MacLean with music by Rob Hubbard, stand out for their good playability and overall high production values. Although conceptually identical, the ZX Spectrum version, created by a different team and released some months earlier in November 1985, is inferior. Epyx licensed and published the game in the US as World Karate Championship in April 1986. Except for a new loading screen and necessary tuning for the American NTSC television system, the US releases were unchanged. International Karate + a successor which expanded the gameplay through the introduction of an additional - although not player controllable - karateka, was released in 1987. Through the unauthorized release of International Karate + Gold in 2001, this player was made controllable using a joystick adapter.