2022/8/14: Atari 2600: Slot Machine, Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

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VideoGameCritic
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2022/8/14: Atari 2600: Slot Machine, Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

Postby VideoGameCritic » August 14th, 2022, 10:39 am

I have a real treat for you today - a David Crane trifecta!

I re-reviewed three of his games, and they all went up in grades.
Slot Machine: F to D-
Pitfall: B+ to A-
Pitfall II: A- to A+

What do you think?

Teddybear
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Re: 2022/8/14: Atari 2600: Slot Machine, Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

Postby Teddybear » August 14th, 2022, 3:50 pm

While it is easy in 2022 to gloss over a relic like Pitfall I sincerely enjoyed the rewrite of your review.

Finally, Pitfall II receives the A+ that it truly deserves......(joining Starpath Frogger, River Raid and Warlords as the only games to get this perfect grade) and it is impossible to argue with this select group. Pitfall II was simply jaw-dropping to play when it came out in 1984 and finally completing it with friends looking on is one of my fondest video gaming memories of all time.

matmico399
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Re: 2022/8/14: Atari 2600: Slot Machine, Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

Postby matmico399 » August 14th, 2022, 7:13 pm

Pitfall II has finally received the grade it has always deserved. The elusive A+. Simply blown away by when I first played it and I was like why can't more games be as fun as this?! It is really amazing how they created this game to play on the 2600. Crane was so good. By the way the monkey icon is on this one. I haven't played it in a couple of years but where they're actually monkeys in it? I don't remember those.

sixam
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Re: 2022/8/14: Atari 2600: Slot Machine, Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

Postby sixam » August 14th, 2022, 8:59 pm

You mention in the Slot Machine review that you have reviewed Slot Machine for Fairchild Channel F. That review isn't listed on your site. Will you be posting that review?

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Re: 2022/8/14: Atari 2600: Slot Machine, Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

Postby VideoGameCritic » August 14th, 2022, 11:21 pm

Now that I have adjusted the Pitfall grades, it appears all is right with the world. Finally!

matmico: look at the Pitfall 2 screenshot. That thing looks like a monkey to me!

sixam: Yes, I will be posting the Fairchild slot machine review soon. It's all done.

djc
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Re: 2022/8/14: Atari 2600: Slot Machine, Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

Postby djc » August 15th, 2022, 1:32 am

VideoGameCritic wrote:
matmico: look at the Pitfall 2 screenshot. That thing looks like a monkey to me!



LOL we had this conversation a few years ago in a different thread. I had mentioned that the point of the game was to save his dog and other people (correctly) pointed out that it is a cat named quick claw or something like that.

No monkeys to speak of. (there is a sentence I didn't think I would write today).

sixam
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Re: 2022/8/14: Atari 2600: Slot Machine, Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

Postby sixam » August 15th, 2022, 7:28 am

Quickclaw the cowardly mountain lion, along with Harry's niece Rhonda, were characters from the Pitfall cartoon series. It was part of Saturday Supercade, which had cartoons based on Frogger, Donkey Kong, Pitfall, Qbert, Donkey Kone Junior, Kangaroo, and Space Ace. The Pitfall II game is actually a tie-in with a TV series!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_ ... de#Pitfall!

All the videos of the Pitfall cartoon show I could find are of poor quality. This is the best I could find: https://youtu.be/LlWaQjEYQQk

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Stalvern
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Re: 2022/8/14: Atari 2600: Slot Machine, Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

Postby Stalvern » August 15th, 2022, 11:17 am

The real inaccuracy is dismissing the underground path in the first game because it doesn't have treasure in it. There's no treasure, but you move three times faster underground, which is crucial in getting all the treasure within the time limit.

goldenband
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Re: 2022/8/14: Atari 2600: Slot Machine, Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

Postby goldenband » August 15th, 2022, 11:56 am

Yes, it's physically/mathematically impossible to get all the treasures before time runs out unless you use the underground paths. I've gotten a perfect score in Intellivision Pitfall, though not in Atari 2600 Pitfall (yet), and there's only about 90 seconds of wiggle room at most.

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k8track
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Re: 2022/8/14: Atari 2600: Slot Machine, Pitfall, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

Postby k8track » August 15th, 2022, 1:31 pm

I did watch Saturday Supercade when it was brand new at the time, and I was delighted when Pitfall II came out a year later complete with Quickclaw and Rhonda. Having watched the cartoon prior, it all made sense. However, I never saw all of the episodes and don't know if the Raj Diamond was in any of them, nor the cave rat that could only be subdued from behind. I also wonder if the golden rope charmer from the 8-bit/5200 versions might have been in an episode.

I did watch an old episode of Saturday Supercade very recently, just a few weeks ago, for the first time in decades. It was not remotely as cool as I'd remembered it. It was very annoying and grated on my nerves. I barely slogged through it. I can't believe I used to watch that kind of crap. My mom was a saint for having to listen to that in the background for who knows how many years.


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