Karnov (1988)
Shooter

Publisher	Data East USA, Inc.
Developer	Data East Corp.

Karnov is a video game by Data East from 1987. It was originally released as an arcade game; an NES version followed, along with various other versions. The game puts the bulging muscled, fire-breathing, ex-circus strongman east-Russian (Asian) hero on a quest to search for treasures. However, between him and the treasures were several horrendous monsters, including sword wielding monks, jinns, foot hopping giant fishes and ostrich-riding skeleton warriors.

Karnov later became Data East's mascot, and was reintroduced in many other Data East games, including Bad Dudes in which he played a boss in the first level. Karnov would later appear in 1994 in another one of his own games for the Neo-Geo hardware called Karnov's Revenge. This game, also known as Fighter's History Dynamite, is not a sequel to the original Karnov, but to Fighter's History, a competitive one-on-one fighter in which Karnov was the end boss.

Karnov, although popularly illustrated as an Eastern European or a Slav, is actually from the Far East of the former Soviet Union as shown on the original arcade flyer and again in 'Karnov's Revenge'.

Karnov's full name is Jinborov Karnovski.