Pitfall!
Pitfall! is a video game released by Activision for the Atari 2600 in 1982. It is the second best-selling game made for the Atari 2600 (after Pac-Man), with over 4 million copies sold.
The player must maneuver a character (Pitfall Harry) through a maze-like jungle in an attempt to recover 32 treasures in a 20-minute time period. Along the way, he must negotiate numerous hazards, including pits, quicksand, rolling logs, fire, rattlesnakes, scorpions, and crocodiles. Harry may jump over or otherwise avoid these obstacles by climbing, running, or swinging on vines to avoid them. Treasure includes gold and silver bars, diamond rings, and bags of money. Under the jungle there is a tunnel which Harry can access through ladders found at various points. Travelling though the tunnel moves forward three screens at a time, which is necessary in order to collect all the treasures within the time limit. However, the tunnels are filled with dead-ends blocked by brick walls, forcing the player to return to the surface at one of the ladders, and try to find a way around again, thus wasting time. The tunnels also contain scorpions, which can harm Harry.
The player starts with 2,000 points and has three lives to complete the course within the 20-minute time limit. Each treasure collected varies in value:
The player loses a life if Harry comes in contact with any obstacle (except logs) or falls into a tar pit, quicksand, waterhole, or mouth of a crocodile. The game ends when either all 32 treasures have been collected, all three lives have been lost, or the time has run out.
When Pitfall! was originally sold, anyone who scored above 20,000 points could send Activision a picture of his or her television screen to receive a Pitfall! Harry Explorer Club patch.
The player must maneuver a character (Pitfall Harry) through a maze-like jungle in an attempt to recover 32 treasures in a 20-minute time period. Along the way, he must negotiate numerous hazards, including pits, quicksand, rolling logs, fire, rattlesnakes, scorpions, and crocodiles. Harry may jump over or otherwise avoid these obstacles by climbing, running, or swinging on vines to avoid them. Treasure includes gold and silver bars, diamond rings, and bags of money. Under the jungle there is a tunnel which Harry can access through ladders found at various points. Travelling though the tunnel moves forward three screens at a time, which is necessary in order to collect all the treasures within the time limit. However, the tunnels are filled with dead-ends blocked by brick walls, forcing the player to return to the surface at one of the ladders, and try to find a way around again, thus wasting time. The tunnels also contain scorpions, which can harm Harry.
Scoring
The player starts with 2,000 points and has three lives to complete the course within the 20-minute time limit. Each treasure collected varies in value:
- Money bag: 2,000 points
- Silver bar: 3,000 points
- Gold bar: 4,000 points
- Diamond ring: 5,000 points
The player loses a life if Harry comes in contact with any obstacle (except logs) or falls into a tar pit, quicksand, waterhole, or mouth of a crocodile. The game ends when either all 32 treasures have been collected, all three lives have been lost, or the time has run out.
When Pitfall! was originally sold, anyone who scored above 20,000 points could send Activision a picture of his or her television screen to receive a Pitfall! Harry Explorer Club patch.
Pitfall!
Technical
CPU
- z80 Z80 (@ 3 Mhz)
Chipset
- SN76489A (@ 3 Mhz)
Display
- Orientation Yoko
- Resolution 255 x 216
- Frequency 59.922738 Hz
Controlers
- Number of players 2
- Number of buttons 4
- Kind of controler
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
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Pitfall! Screenshots
History and development
Pitfall! was created by David Crane, a programmer who worked for Activision in the early 1980s. In a November 2003 interview with Edge he described how in 1979 he had developed the technology to display a realistic running man and in 1982 was searching for a suitable game in which to use it:
The game's technical achievements included non-flickering, multicolored, animated sprites on a system with notoriously primitive graphics hardware. Innovative techniques were used to keep the code space within the 4k limit, including polynomials to create 256 screens within 50 bytes of code. The vines were drawn as a stretched "ball".
| “ | I sat down with a blank sheet of paper and drew a stick figure in the center. I said, "Okay, I have a little running man and let's put him on a path [two more lines drawn on the paper]. Where is the path? Let's put it in a jungle [draw some trees]. Why is he running [draw treasures to collect, enemies to avoid, etc.]?" And Pitfall! was born. This entire process took about ten minutes. About 1,000 hours of programming later, the game was complete. | ” |
Release
Pitfall! was a massive success for the 2600. Arcade Express reviewed the game on August 30, 1982, shortly before release, stating that it "may well be the best adventure game yet produced for the VCS," giving it a score of 8 out of 10. Several ports were made for computer systems, such as the MSX, Commodore 64, Atari 800, and TRS-80 Color Computer, as well as for home consoles, such as the ColecoVision and the Intellivision. Pitfall! was the No. 1 video game on Billboard for sixty-four weeks in a row.
Sequels and ports
Crane produced a sequel, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns in 1983. Pitfall! appeared on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987, under the title Super Pitfall.
In 1985, Activision licensed Pitfall! to Sega, who made an arcade version of Lost Caverns. The game was thoroughly remade with a first level resembling the original Pitfall!, a second level resembling the caverns of Pitfall II, and later levels that were completely original. This version was subsequently adapted for the SG-1000. Pitfall! was produced for the Commodore 64 and Apple II home computers using Garry Kitchen's GameMaker, primarily as a demonstration of the game building software.
A second sequel, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, made its debut on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Mega Drive/Genesis systems in 1994, also appearing on the subsequent Sega 32X. Having proved popular, the game was then ported to the Windows 95 operating system and the Atari Jaguar in 1995. Its most recent re-release was in 2001, on the Game Boy Advance. The Mayan Adventure was well known for including the original Pitfall! game.
In 1998, a remake, Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle, featuring the voice of Bruce Campbell as Pitfall Harry, was released for the PlayStation. In 2004, a sequel to Beyond the Jungle was released for PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox, Pitfall: The Lost Expedition. The game includes both the original Pitfall! and Pitfall II games. A port of The Lost Expedition, Pitfall: The Big Adventure, was released for the Wii on September 23, 2008.
In May, 2010, Pitfall! was released on Microsoft's Game Room service for its Xbox 360 console and for Windows-based PCs. It was also ported as both a Game Room and Xbox Live title on Windows Phone in April 2011.
On August 9, 2012, Activision released Pitfall! for iOS, on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. On December 21, Activision released Pitfall! for Android as a free app.
In 1985, Activision licensed Pitfall! to Sega, who made an arcade version of Lost Caverns. The game was thoroughly remade with a first level resembling the original Pitfall!, a second level resembling the caverns of Pitfall II, and later levels that were completely original. This version was subsequently adapted for the SG-1000. Pitfall! was produced for the Commodore 64 and Apple II home computers using Garry Kitchen's GameMaker, primarily as a demonstration of the game building software.
A second sequel, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, made its debut on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Mega Drive/Genesis systems in 1994, also appearing on the subsequent Sega 32X. Having proved popular, the game was then ported to the Windows 95 operating system and the Atari Jaguar in 1995. Its most recent re-release was in 2001, on the Game Boy Advance. The Mayan Adventure was well known for including the original Pitfall! game.
In 1998, a remake, Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle, featuring the voice of Bruce Campbell as Pitfall Harry, was released for the PlayStation. In 2004, a sequel to Beyond the Jungle was released for PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox, Pitfall: The Lost Expedition. The game includes both the original Pitfall! and Pitfall II games. A port of The Lost Expedition, Pitfall: The Big Adventure, was released for the Wii on September 23, 2008.
In May, 2010, Pitfall! was released on Microsoft's Game Room service for its Xbox 360 console and for Windows-based PCs. It was also ported as both a Game Room and Xbox Live title on Windows Phone in April 2011.
On August 9, 2012, Activision released Pitfall! for iOS, on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. On December 21, Activision released Pitfall! for Android as a free app.
Legacy
Pitfall! is cited as an important early game in the side-scrolling platforming genre; although it did not scroll itself, it had all the features of such games, such as the ability to travel up and down on multiple levels of play. The game was also much longer than other Atari 2600 games of its time, which typically lasted only a few minutes. This was due to most such games being ports of arcade games, where short play time encouraged players to spend more money. The twenty minute time limit was unprecedented, and marked an important point of transition between the arcade and home video game markets. Activision launched a namesake reboot of the game, which is only released for the apple iOS The game has better graphics and has been critically acclaimed. The game was released in 2013.
Television adaptation
In 1983, Pitfall! made its animated television debut as a segment on CBS' Saturday Supercade cartoon lineup, under the name Pitfall Harry. The basic plotline involved Harry, his niece Rhonda, and his cowardly mountain lion Quickclaw exploring various locations for hidden treasure. After only one season, Pitfall Harry and Frogger were replaced by Kangaroo and Space Ace. The series has never officially been released on DVD or VHS.
