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

[k8track]

Wasn't Donkey Kong the first 2D plataformer where a player could walk, jump, avoid/kill enemies and grab itens?

I believe the first one was Space Panic. You couldn't jump, but you could dig holes and then lure the enemies into them.

[Stalvern]

Wasn't Donkey Kong the first 2D plataformer where a player could walk, jump, avoid/kill enemies and grab itens?

That's a single-screen game.

[Hagane]

Wasn't Donkey Kong the first 2D plataformer where a player could walk, jump, avoid/kill enemies and grab itens?

I believe the first one was Space Panic. You couldn't jump, but you could dig holes and then lure the enemies into them.

But you cannot jump on Space Panic, so it does not count, it plays more like Lode Runner actually, it is much different than something like Sonic, Alex Kid or Super Mario where you could run, grab itens and jump between spaces. Donkey Kong is truly the first platformer.

It's a bit like Virtua Fighter which is the first 3D poligonal fighting game, even if 4D Sports Boxing came first a couple of years before VF.

[Hagane]

Wasn't Donkey Kong the first 2D plataformer where a player could walk, jump, avoid/kill enemies and grab itens?

That's a single-screen game.

Oh, now I know what you mean, Pitfall might be the first one then, and you can clearly see Pitfall influences on Super Mario Bros when Mario goes down inside the underground caves pretty much like Pitfall.

[goldenband]

Superman for Atari 2600 comes close (to being the first multiscreen platformer). The problem is, you fly instead of jumping!

But the basic idea of a character who "normally" walks but takes to the air to avoid obstacles and enemies in a non-linear world with multiple possible paths? That's present in Superman. There's even a bottomless pit (though you can't fall into it) and warp zones. The game was wildly ahead of its time when you think about it; it's just that the implementation is weird.

[Retro STrife]

Interesting info! I tried google but didn’t come up with an answer if anything came before Pitfall. But fun fact I learned on Wikipedia in the process.. While I called it a “multi screen platformer”, I guess the more accurate term is “flip screen platformer”. It’s “flip screen” since the screen doesn’t scroll (as in, side scrolling), but just flips from one scene to the next. My recollection is that the Smurfs game is also flip screen.

It wouldn’t surprise me if a 2D flip screen platformer came out before Pitfall on computers, but I can’t think of one on consoles.

[Stalvern]

It wouldn’t surprise me if a 2D flip screen platformer came out before Pitfall on computers, but I can’t think of one on consoles.

Aztec was released on the Apple II in 1982 as well, although I don't know whether it hit the shelves before or after September. Regardless, it's a much more advanced and sophisticated game and would have been in development long before Pitfall's release. Similarly inspired by Indiana Jones, it's set in a sprawling, alligator-infested tomb that's randomly generated for each play. The rooms and passages in the tomb extend deep underground as well as left and right, and there are weapons to be found for use against the enemies. Absurdly clunky controls aside, it's a tremendous achievement for the time and feels much more in line with the coming generation of platform games (and its randomized level design foreshadows much later roguelites like Spelunky); it makes Pitfall look like a napkin doodle.