dmx87 proudly presents! Started in 2023, this work is still evolving.

~ Enter the Micro ~

Bruce Lee™

Published 1984 by Datasoft, Inc.
Programmed by Ron J. Fortier
Graphic Art by Kelly Day
Concept by Ron J. Fortier and Kelly Day
Documentation by Ingrid Holcomb
Licenced by Ziv International
Bruce Lee™ designates a trademark of Linda Lee

The Story

In what is considered the first ever platforming beat'em up, our eponymous hero fights his way through the mysterious and perilous fortress in an epic quest to overthrow the evil Wizard, claim infinite wealth and the secret of immortality.

A Licence to Kick

Ron J. Fortier, a programmer in the California based software company Datasoft, Inc. had just finished converting Sega's Zaxxon to the Atari 400/800. While waiting for his next assignment, he continued his research on the inner workings of the Atari by tinkering with a platforming game engine.

‘I created the engine for a game not knowing what licence, if any, it would be used for. It was sort of a sandbox for me to test if the “puzzle and play” thing that I envisioned in my head would work from a technical standpoint,’ he said in an interview with Electronic Games Magazine in November 1984. [1]

Ron J. Fortier, 1984

It turned out that the licence secured by DataSoft would be a game starring the legendary martial artist, actor and—most importantly—the 1958 Hong Kong Cha-Cha champion: Bruce Lee.

The deal was put together with the Bruce Lee estate and Ziv International by CEO Pat Ketchum and Director of Business Development, Steve Bloom. It was officially announced in May 1983. [2]

Deal in hand, the team now had to find a direction they wanted to take the game.

‘Let's face it,’ admitted Fortier at the time, ‘The whole Bruce Lee phenomenon was pretty much dead at the time - no morbid pun intended,’ he quickly added.

Perhaps with the benefit of hindsight, in a 2015 interview with Retro Gamer Magazine, Fortier remembers, ‘It was later that the core essence of what I was creating became the game known as Bruce Lee. We knew it would be big. There were great licences that you could dig your teeth into, and none were better than Bruce Lee. It obviously had name recognition, but it also set an expectation for the gameplay.’ [10]

The team watched all the Bruce Lee movies, as well as other martial arts films on videotape to seek inspiration and true enlightenment.

Mitch Junkins, Director of Marketing at DataSoft at the time, adds that in order to create the proper spiritual deportment for creating such a game, the team also ‘ate a lot of sushi.’

The Way of the Platform

In the past, the programmer did everything on the games. DataSoft decided to lean towards more of a ‘movie studio ’ style operation. Dedicated artists were now hired.

John Butrovich: ‘That change in work profile meant people and team management had to introduced into the company. Was the programmer the boss of the artist? Who had final say? These rough spots led to some inventive techniques.’ [4]

Fortier: ‘The three core game mechanics were fairly obvious: platform exploration, timing and fighting. We had this idea of utilizing really fantastic graphics to create a sort of computer-movie with the player as character. We wanted the animation in particular to be outstanding.’

Kelly Day, graphics artist and co-designer, read extensively on Asian architecture and attempted to integrate the visual effects he saw in the films.

Kelly Day, 1984

Fortier adds, ‘We had just started to use graphics editors at DataSoft around the time we started Bruce Lee. Prior to that point, programmers did graphics by hand. Kelly was a master artist that understood the limitations of the systems and how to exploit them for visuals.’

Guarding the Wizard's fortress is the large, green sumo-wrestler Yamo and his sidekick, the nameless black Ninja. Yamo can punch and throw devastating flying kicks, while the Ninja delivers blows using his ‘Bokken stick.’

However, Bruce can often outmaneuver them by a timely duck that sometimes even causes them to fight eachother!

A Game of Death

Fortier: ‘A two-player game was impossible, but playing one of the non-player characters and foiling your friend was not. It was easy to hook up the non-player characters to the joysticks.’

The game indeed sports a multiplayer option, either by taking turns as Bruce - with separate scoring, or having a friend control the Green Yamo. Ah yes, the memories of Being Yamo, standing on a ledge biding his time waiting for Bruce to come around, then swiftly delivering a well-timed punch that tumbled him to his death was immensely satisfying.

Kelly Day recalls, ‘Some of the best things in this game just... happened! We had gotten all of Bruce Lee's moves down and Ron was just sort of playing around, using a joystick to control the Green Yamo...’

A fun two-player strategy was for Bruce and Yamo teaming up on the weaker Ninja, thus helping the hero to more easily complete his adventure. A sneaky way for single players to circumvent the anti-cheating mechanism was to start a two player game and weighing down the fire button on the second joystick. Yamo would just stand there endlessly punching without posing much of a threat [1].

The fortress which Bruce must traverse consists of 20 chambers. It's riddled with deadly traps and hazards such as spikes, electrical charges, switching platforms, rolling vines, floor lights, and exploding ‘T'sung-lin’ bushes.

Be like Water

Fortier: ‘Every designer wants a varying level of difficulty in their games. You don't want someone to run through it, and you don't want to frustrate someone. The key for Bruce Lee was to get it dialled in at the right rates. I, luckily, had a development system that allowed me to assemble my code and test rapidly.’

One of the primary factors for it's longevity, in this writer's humble opinion, is that the difficulty level is relaxed a bit compared to contemporary games. Even though there are some accurate timing and reflexes required, the game never feels too hard to master, even for novice players.

Fortier, on the other hand, had one regret about the difficulty level: ‘Pat Garcia was president and he had problems playing the game, so he had me dial it back a bit. Given the choice I would have gone with the second to last settings as I felt they were perfect.’

The Development

The game was assembled on an Apple II, then beamed into a slave Atari for testing. This allowed for quick turnaround from code to test.

Mitch Junkins remembers, ‘We had weekly updates with Ron and the other programmers to look at the gameplay and discuss completion.’—‘I always had to bribe them with donuts to get them to come to the meetings,’ he laughs.

Eight months after starting development, the game was ready for the US Atari market in May 1984, retailing at $34.95 for the disk version. The Apple II version, programmed by Rick Mirsky, was announced in May 1984. [12] PC and PCjr versions, programmed by Sheng-Chung Liu, was announced in November 1984. [13] The Commodore version, handled by Ron himself, quickly followed in time for the upcoming lucrative Christmas season.

Fortier recalls, ‘The first conversion was to the C64. As I had increased RAM and 25 per cent more CPU speed, I decided to write an Atari emulator [2]. Apple, PC and PCjr were in-house, so I was able to work with the programmers.’

The iconic music and sound effects for the C64 version was created by John A. Fitzpatrick, a contractor who also provided sound for other DataSoft games such as Conan, The Goonies, Mancopter, and Mr. Do!

Ron's next-cubicle neighbour and fellow Software Development Manager, John Butrovich: ‘Datasoft never had an in-house sound person. All the sound guys we used were contractors, they had all the necessary tools and facilities.’

DataSoft contracted out the ports to Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, FM-7, MSX, NEC PC-88, Sharp MZ-800 and the ZX Spectrum to external developers.

Fortier: ‘You really couldn't say much about the Spectrum as I just remember it blinking a lot. The MSX was fun, but working internationally was challenging at the time so our team couldn't help that much on quality.’

This was used in many magazines in 1984.

The Reception

The game was generally well received, with some scepticism about yet another celebrity game tie-in put to shame.

Somehow a copy (or at least a press release) ended up in the hands of Steve Marano, author of the Micro of Monmouth Atari enthusiast's newsletter, as early as April 1984.

[...] In summary, the combination of excellent graphics and playability as provided by Ron Fortier with a thoughtful packaging policy as practiced by DataSoft results in a thoroughly enjoyable game. I wholeheartedly recommend BRUCE LEE. [3]

Of the bigger publications, David P. Stone reviewed the game in the June 1984 issue of Computer Gaming World:

I don't know what ‘martial arts’ is, but I know what I like. And, I like Bruce Lee. It delivers all the foot kicking, fist jabbing, quick ducking action-packed adventure you'd expected from a good grade B, martial arts movie. [4]

Fortier: ‘I was blown away by it's success. While it pales in comparison to today's dollars, I think we had a higher percentage of the installed base. It was one of those games that everyone had.’

The New Boss

In June of 1984, Gillette—yes, the razor blade company—decided they wanted to get into the entertainment business, and aquired a 40% stake in DataSoft. Pat Ketchum had some corporate bingo lingo handy:

‘The new affiliation with Gillette will enable Datasoft to continue its strong growth trend by introducing new products with widespread consumer appeal.’ [9]

After Bruce Lee, Ron J. Fortier's next project would be the Atari and C64 versions of another licence, Conan - The Halls of Volta (1985), followed by his final 8-bit project, the C64 conversion of Alternate Reality: The City (1986). Before it was finished, however, he decided to move on to Epyx for a Project Manager role.

Eventually Gillette decided to get out of the entertainment business, pulling funding. DataSoft had to file for bankruptcy in September 1985. [5]

The company was put up for auction. Sensing that the Alternate Reality concept had potential, DataSoft business executives Samuel L. Poole and Ted Hoffman put in a winning bid under a new company called IntelliCreations. [3]

One of the losing bidders was the original founder and CEO, Pat Ketchum.

Curiously, while IntelliCreations set up shop, Gillette continued to fund the development of Alternate Reality. Programmer Ken Jordan remembers:

Its interesting that before Sam and Ted actually got the new company started, the Gillette razor company (who was a major investor in DataSoft) actually paid Jim Ratcliff and myself directly for a few months to keep work on the AR City Apple ][ and C-64 ports progressing (the checks we were paid with actually came from the Jafra cosmetics company - kind of strange we thought). [6]

The Sequel Connection

In 1986, some speculation about a Bruce Lee sequel would surface when the new DataSoft/IntelliCreations CEO Sam Poole revealed in an interview concerning Alternate Reality:

Obviously as we're designing and developing the [Alternate Reality] series, we've learned a great deal about random character generation, and logic and statistics. As a result, we're now looking to use some of those same types of features in a follow up program based on Bruce Lee, which has been a major seller in Europe.

Called Bruce Lee - Enter the Dragon, it will be a full roleplaying adventure and have strong hi-res graphics and animation sequences, but taking advantages of some of the techniques we've developed in [Alternate Reality]. Combining the best of both. [7]

But in 2022, Fortier responded to the fact that there never actually was an official sequel, hinting at cash-flow problems in DataSoft:

That is correct. I and others did want to start on a sequel immediately after finishing the original, but management at DataSoft wouldn't green-light the project / cash. [8]

Asked about the sequel, Mitch Junkins weighs in: ‘I don't know how it [Bruce Lee] performed against our royalty guarantees, but that usually drives the business decision. I believe the license was one and done.’

John Butrovic, still in DataSoft at the time, has no memory of a sequel and was surprised to hear of it.

The Cash Crunch

John Butrovich: ‘That [IntelliCreations] worked until Electronics Arts (our distributor) changed their return policy and the company felt a cash crunch.’

The new DataSoft was again in finanical peril and as such had to look for white knights.

It was finally announced—in August 1988—that Software Toolworks had aquired IntelliCreations. [10] Ken Jordan dryly remarks: ‘Mainly to get our office buildings and warehouse, it seemed.’ [6]

Interestingly, in 1989, Software Toolworks published a game starring our favourite martial artist, Bruce Lee Lives, for DOS. It yet uncertain whether this was a new licence, or a re-use from the DataSoft aquisition.

We'll have to find out.

In any case, it feels like the circle has been closed.

The Legacy

The game continues to inspire hobby game developers around the world — including myself — to create new games set in the Bruce Lee universe.

Bruce Lee - Official versions

In-house

	Atari 800 XL	Ron J. Fortier, Kelly Day	1984 US Gold (May)	Video
	Commodore 64	Ron J. Fortier, Kelly Day, John A. Fitzpatrick	1984 US Gold (Sep)	Video
	Apple II	Rick Mirsky, Kelly Day	1984 DataSoft Inc. (May)	Video
	PCjr. / DOS	Sheng-Chung Liu, Kelly Day	1984 DataSoft Inc. (Nov)	PCjr Video DOS Video

Contracted

	Amstrad CPC	Timedata Ltd.	1984 US Gold	Video
	BBC Micro	D. Cowham	1984 Micro Power Ltd.	Video
	FM-7	Mitani Matsuda	1984 Comptiq (Sep)	Video
	NEC PC-88		1984 Comptiq (Oct)	Video
	ZX Spectrum	L.T. Software	1985 Ocean	Video
	MSX	Mike Livesay	1985 Comptiq	Video
	Sharp MZ-800	J.O.	1988 Vsetin (Apr)	Video

Reviews

Unofficial versions

	Gameboy Advance	Jim Bagley	2003 Jim Bagley	Video Website
	Sega Master System	Kagesan	2015 Kagesan	Video SMS Power
	Commodore Plus4	Sasvári, Tamás (TCFS), Tettinger, Tamás (Chronos), Pankaczy, Csaba (Csabo)	2022 Psytronik	Video Plus4World
	ZX Spectrum	Highriser	2022 Highriser	Video Itch.io
	Atari 2600	Spendidnut, IanAjax	2023- Work-in-progress	Video Atari Age forum thread Github

Inspirations

	Karate King	Memotech MTX500	Mike Bayne, Chris Bayne	1985 Megastar Games Inc.	Video
	Ultimate Bruce Lee	Windows	Stu Collier, Smila Storey, Infamous	2005 Stu and Smila	Video Archive.org
	Bruce Lee II	Windows	Bruno R. Marcos	2013 Bruneras.com	Video Review
	Bruce Lee II	Commodore 64	Jonas Hultén	2015 Kollektivet.nu	Video Website
	Return of Fury	Commodore 64	Vidar Bang (dmx), FlowTnt, TIX	2019 Rebel Android	Video Itch.io
	Kung-Fu Bruce	Windows	Stephen Tomcat	2019 Stephen Tomcat	Itch.io
	Return of Fury	Atari XL/XE	Ute, Fantomas, TIX	2022	Video

Original cover sketch

Artist: Unknown - if you know who made this, let me know.

The font

The font for the ‘Bruce Lee’ lettering used in the box and manual was sourced from Speedball textbook for pen & brush lettering, 18th edition (1960), specifically Far East Type (p. 40)

It has been reworked into digital as China Doll JNL by Jeff Levine.

Acknowledgements

• Thanks to John Butrovich for valuable insight!
• Thanks to Mitch Junkins for valuable information!

Links

• Finnish RetroGaming Comparision Blog - A comprehensive test of almost all versions of Bruce Lee.
• Comparison of many platforms in this YT video.
• Pat Ketchum interviewed in Antic Magazine Vol. 2 Issue 5. (August 1983)

Footnotes

[1] The game features an anti-cheat mechanism whereas if you start a two player game Yamo will become computer-controlled after a period of inactivity. Weighing down the button prevents this.

[2] For a while I was wondering what he meant by ‘Atari emulator’. It finally dawned on me while chatting with the cool guys doing the Atari port of Return of Fury, where I mentioned that the tile collision detection in the C64 version used tile-mask data, and they replied ‘What mask data?’ - Ah, my dear Mr. Hastings; the Atari hardware-based player-object to background collision detection was indeed emulated on the C64, cutting down on development time!

[3] The original name was H-P Software Productions, Inc. But Hewlett Packard objected, and it was renamed IntelliCreations.

[4] John Butrovich: ‘When Scott Spanburg was working on The Goonies, he devised an animation method centered around "Goonie Bucks". The artist has so many GB's to spend on each screen. Whether a sprite or bitmap animation, everything was costed as an 8x8 buck. So, the artists had to live within the animation budget by managing their GB's. This was at the juncture where we were moving to using common 6502 code core between machines (Apple II, Atari 800, Commodore 64.) What the artist thought would be easy to do on the Atari wouldn't be as so on the Apple II with no graphic hardware assist. Forging ahead within the fledging industry was a learning experience for all.’

References

[1] Electronic Games Vol. 2 No. 16 1984-11. Pages 78-79.

[2] Electronic Fun with Computer Games Vol. 1 No. 7 1983-05. Page 45.

[3] Micro of Monmouth Atari Enthusiast's Newsletter April 1984. Page 4.

[4] Computer Gaming World Volume 4.3. Page 32.

[5] Twin Cities Atari Interest Group (TAIG) 1985-09. Page 26.

[6] Alternate Reality Infrequently Asked Questions

[7] Zzap! 64 Issue 13 1986-05. Page 76.

[8] Tweet by @RonFortier from 8th July 2022

[9] Computer Gaming World Volume 4.3. Page 16.

[10] LA Times, 9th August 1988

[11] Retro Gamer Magazine Issue 145, 2015.

[12] InCider, May 1984. Page 144.

[13] PCjr. Magazine, November 1984. Page 64.

Changelog

• 2024-12-21 - More research, reviews, footnotes, references, text.
• 2024-12-14 - John Butrovich, text.
• 2024-11-25 - CCI review. Atari 2600 port info.
• 2024-05-29 - Added another review, Kung-Fu Bruce, text.
• 2024-01-20 - Added Bruce Lee RX, Bruce Lee GBA
• 2023-07-28 - Mitch Junkins, text.
• 2023-07-20 - Screenshots, text.
• 2023-07-19 - Linking up reviews, text, sub-headlines.
• 2023-07-19 - Initial text. Need to add more links, references.