first arcade Scrolling fighter

[SuperBrother]

Nice one MD, that's the game I was thinking of.
Fair point about Rastan, it still wipes the floor with the other side scrollers or it's era though.
Given that Karate Champ was one on one then Kung Fu Master is the 1st one I can think of. It may be worth checking out KLOV or mamefan to double check.

These Games TM retro sections don't write themselves you know

[Strider]

These Games TM retro sections don't write themselves you know

I don't know what you're on about...

[Molloy]

Games of the style of Kung Fu Master died off pretty quickly. I think it's really Renegade that defined the template for the scrolling fighter.

[Leon Retro]

Kung Fu Master( Spartan-X ) seems to be the first scrolling fighter ever.

I went through Mame and couldn`t find anything else earlier to 1984.

[MD]

Yeah MAME great way to do research... It's like trying to find the habbitats of the African Swallow from the Ladybird book of birds.

Found 3 other games which came before Spartan X which could be classified as scrolling beat 'me ups...

Renegade? Renegade? Don't give me that light weight game, give me Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun.