2011/8/5: Atari 2600: Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, River Raid II

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Crimefighter

2011/8/5: Atari 2600: Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, River Raid II

Postby Crimefighter » October 31st, 2011, 9:47 pm

>I find it hilarious how nobody can figure out what the animal on the first screen is.  For the longest time I thought it was a monkey.  Then I read that is was a cat.  And now I see somebody thought it was a dog.


None of you guys watched Saturday Supercade...maybe it was before your time...cause the characters are based on the Pitfall cartoon.

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scotland
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Joined: April 7th, 2015, 7:33 pm

Re: 2011/8/5: Atari 2600: Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, River Raid II

Postby scotland » April 20th, 2017, 8:10 pm

Happy 35th Birthday to Pitfall!

Image

Who can see an image like that and not hear the Tarzan sound?
Pitfall released April 20th, 1982. Also, if you look at the cartridge face art, its subtitled "Pitfall Harry's Jungle Adventure". I wonder if there could have been "Pitfall Harry's New York Adventure" where he meets four turtle warriors in the sewer or something. Its also interesting that there was the Activision box art (which says Atari Video Computer System) and the Atari branded boxart (which doesn't seem to say Activision on it, and says 2600)

In celebration, I played a port on the Ti99. I died. A lot. Well, such is the life of a jungle adventurer.

bigladiesman
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Joined: March 31st, 2019, 1:08 pm

Re: 2011/8/5: Atari 2600: Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, River Raid II

Postby bigladiesman » April 3rd, 2019, 2:02 pm

[This game has been played by emulation]

For me, Pitfall is a very special game. I played it for the very first time in 1995, when I rented Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure for the Mega Drive on a local video store: Down, 26x A, Down at the title screen, and there it was, without having to enter it as a bonus level.
And I fell in love with it. I think that on average I devoted more time to the hidden game than to The Mayan Adventure itself: My 11-12 yr. old self was thrilled: this game was made before I was born, and it was so addictive! You guys can guess what this means: a retrogamer was born. Until the advent of emulation, four or five years later, it remained latent, but the foundations of one of my hobbies were laid. So that.

About the game itself, even David Crane has said it's as simple as it gets. Graphic and sound-wise it doesn't, by no means, exploit all the possibilities of the Atari 2600, nor of any of the systems it was ported to. The gameplay consists on running and jumping and that's it. But it's laid oud and executed so well that it turns out to be addictive even today.
Overrated? Well, maybe: despite (or maybe because?) its simplicity Pitfall overshadowed many awesome games of the era that now remain forgotten except for a few gaming circles. However, its influence has been by all means positive: it's the blueprint of all platforming games, and this covers lots of grounds.


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