Pitfall!
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| Pitfall! | |
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| Developer(s) | Activision |
| Publisher(s) | Activision |
| Designer(s) | David Crane |
| Platform(s) | Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, Intellivision, Sega SG-1000 |
| Release date(s) | September 1982 |
| Genre(s) | Platforming |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Media/distribution | Cartridge |
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.[1]
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[edit] Gameplay
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 a vine 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 places. This is required to get around some surface areas that have no way across otherwise. The tunnels are filled with dead-ends blocked by brick walls, forcing the player return to the surface at one of the ladders, and try to find a way around again. The tunnels also contain treasure to collect and scorpions Harry must avoid.
[edit] 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 points:
- Money bag: 2,000 points
- Silver bar: 3,000 points
- Gold bar: 4,000 points
- Diamond ring: 5,000 points
There are eight of each treasure. A perfect score by claiming all 32 treasures without losing points is 114,000.
Points are deducted by either falling in a hole (100 points) or coming in contact with either stationary or rolling logs; point loss depends on how long contact is made with the logs.
The player loses a life if Harry comes in contact with any obstacle (except logs, see above) or falls into a tar pit, quicksand, water hole, or mouth of a crocodile.
The game ends when either all 32 treasures have been collected, all three turns have been lost, or time runs out.
[edit] 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 little running man and in 1982 was searching for a suitable game in which to use it:
| “ | 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. | ” |
Its technical achievements included non-flickering, multicolored, animated sprites on a system with notoriously primitive graphics hardware. Innovative techniques were used to keep the codespace within the 4k limit, including polynomials to create 256 screens within 50 bytes of code. The Atari "bullet" was used to draw the vine in higher resolution than permitted with sprites.[2]
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" and giving it a score of 8 out of 10.[3] Several ports were made for computer systems (such as the Commodore 64, Atari 800, and TRS-80 Color Computer), as well as for home consoles (such as the ColecoVision and the Intellivision).
[edit] Sequels
Crane also produced a popular sequel, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns the following year. It sold well, though not as well as the original. Unlike most games of its day, it had a definite ending.
In 1985, Activision licensed Pitfall! to Sega, which made an arcade version of Pitfall II: Lost Caverns. The game, which is now quite rare, is 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 adapted for the SG-1000.
Pitfall! was also created for the Commodore 64 and Apple II home computers using Activision Gamemaker as a demonstration of the game building software.
Pitfall! appeared on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987 as Super Pitfall, but it was not successful and received poor reviews.
The series sequel, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, made its debut on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Mega Drive/Genesis systems in 1994, also showing up on the subsequent Sega 32X system a short time afterward. Having proved its popularity, the game was ported to the Windows 95 operating system and the Atari Jaguar the following year. Its most recent release was in 2001 on the Game Boy Advance. The Mayan Adventure was well known for having the original Pitfall! available to play on it.
In 1998, Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle for the Sony PlayStation, featuring the voice of Bruce Campbell as Pitfall Harry, was released.
In 2004, a sequel was released for PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Xbox. It was titled Pitfall: The Lost Expedition, featuring many cartoony effects with tributes to the original Pitfall!. The first two Pitfall! games are playable in this title as well. A port, Pitfall: The Big Adventure, was released for the Nintendo Wii on September 23, 2008.[4]
The original Pitfall! appears in 1994's The Jungle Book game for the Super Nintendo, where it is a hidden mini-game. In 2006, the original Pitfall! resurfaced as a mini-game in Arcade's Murderworld in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. There is a sequence where the player has to rescue Jean Grey from an arcade machine. The player has to go through a Pitfall!-type game in order to reach Jean and free her from the machine.
[edit] Ports
Pitfall was made available on the Playstation "A Collection of Activision Clasic Games for the Atari 2600" was included with 29 other games. Microsoft's Game Room service for its Xbox 360 console and for Windows-based PCs in May 2010. It was also ported as both a Game Room and Xbox Live title on Windows Phone in April 2011.
[edit] 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 lands for hidden treasure.[5][broken citation] After only one season, Pitfall Harry and Frogger were replaced by Kangaroo and Space Ace. The series has not been officially released on DVD or VHS.
[edit] Marketing
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 television commercial for Pitfall featured then child actor Jack Black at age 13 in his first TV role.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ Buchanan, Levi. "Top 10 Best-Selling Atari 2600 Games". IGN Entertainment, Inc.. http://retro.ign.com/articles/903/903024p1.html. Retrieved 2008-09-24.
- ^ GDC 2011 Panel: Pitfall Classic Postmortem With David Crane http://gdc.gamespot.com/video/6302614/?tag=top_stories%3Btitle%3B2
- ^ "The Hotseat: Reviews of New Products". Arcade Express 1 (2): 6-7 [6]. August 30, 1982. http://www.digitpress.com/library/newsletters/arcadeexpress/arcade_express_v1n2.pdf. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
- ^ "Pitfall: The Big Adventure". IGN. http://wii.ign.com/objects/142/14253553.html. Retrieved 2011-01-27.
- ^ http://memorylab.deanlabs.com/CartoonDetails.aspx?ID=358
- ^ "Jack Black On 'Pitfall'". G4TV. January 19, 2007. http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/672900/jack-black-on-pitfall.html. Retrieved July 29, 2010.
[edit] External links
- Pitfall! at MobyGames
- Pitfall! at AtariAge
- Legends of the C64 article on David Crane and Activision (includes Pitfall! info)
- David Crane GDC 2011 Pitfall Post-Mortem Video
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