Pitfall!

Pitfall! on Atari 2600

The game is a platformer with side scrolling , but not smooth, as in more modern platformers, but with a change of the screen, that is, when the hero reaches the end of the screen, a new screen appears, there are 255 such screens in the game ^[7] . All screens are decorated in the same jungle style. You will have to manage an adventurer named Harry Pitfall . The goal of the game is to collect all 36 ^[8] treasures laid out on the screens (gold bars, bags of money and rings with precious stones) in the allotted 20 minutes, which is prevented by numerous obstacles and enemies.

Enemies and obstacles do not differ in variety, these can be: logs rolling from right to left or lying in place, bottomless, or water-filled pits, which are either constantly located in the center of the screen or disappear from time to time (lianas necessary to overcome to swell over most pits abysses, crocodiles can be in water pits, to overcome such pits you need to wait until the crocodiles slam their mouths and jump over them through the water), bonfires standing in one place of the snake and crawling scorpions behind the player. Some enemies / obstacles kill the hero at the slightest contact (scorpions, snakes, crocodiles, precipices), others (logs) only pick up points credited for the collected treasures.

Each screen is divided horizontally into two levels: the upper one is the surface of the earth and the lower one is underground passages. The lower level is much safer, but there may be insurmountable obstacles in it, because of which you have to go back, losing precious time. In addition, traveling along the lower level, you can skip screens, which on the one hand speeds up the progress, on the other hand - it increases the chance to miss the treasure necessary for passing. To move from level to level, dips and stairs are located on some screens.

The developer and creator of the game is David Crane , who worked for Activision in the early 1980s and was already involved in game development, including Outlaw shooter in 1978, Canyon Bomber arcade in 1979, and Kaboom arcade ! also hit on the Atari 2600 ^[4] in 1981 . According to Crane himself, the idea to create a game came up with him back in 1979, and its concept was ready in just 10 minutes, but only in 1982 a game system (Atari 2600) appeared, powerful enough for his idea ^[5] (very controversial assertion that the Atari 2600 gaming system was released for sale in 1977 ) .

The incredible success of the game is already indicated by the fact that the game was sold 4 million times; on the Atari 2600, only the famous Pac-Man is ahead of it in this respect ^[4] . In almost all reviews, the game received high marks, although there were exceptions, so Pitfall! Atari 5200 received almost everywhere very negative criticism. Also Pitfall! repeatedly entered the various lists of the best games, for example: 33rd place in the list of 100 best games of all time according to the American magazine FLUX (Issue number 4), 21st on the list of 25 best platformers of all time according to the British magazine Retro Gamer (issue number 37), 41 place in the list of 100 best games of all time according to the version of the American magazine Game Informer (issue number 100 for August 2001) ^[9] .

Reviews

• Video game Critic, a console-specific information website, rated the game as follows:

For Intellivision

Almost the maximum rating of A on a scale from F- to A +. This version of the game was named in detail even more realistic than the original ^[12] .

For Atari 2600

High grade A- on the same scale. The graphics, music and sound effects of the game were highly appreciated. The only minus in the opinion of the site is a certain uniformity of the game ^[7] .

For ColecoVision

It was rated as well as the original version. In general, the review says the game remains the same. Of the positive changes: better rendering of trees in the background and improved sound effects, of the negative: the worst decoration of the treasures and the somewhat unsuccessful appearance of the protagonist, who, according to the reviewer, grew twenty pounds ^[13] .

For Atari 5200

This version of the game received a very low rating, just C-. The control of the game was called extremely unsuccessful, because of which, instead of having fun, you have to fight with the joystick. In addition, Video Game Critic notes, the hardware of a more advanced console could show more than the exact version of the original game ^[14] .

• The Atari Times website rated the original game at 95% (95% for gameplay, 90% for graphics, sound and music, and 85% for controls), while the Atari 5200 option was only 32% (40% for gameplay, 30% for graphics and management and 20% for music and sound). The original game was named one of the most striking in the history of the Atari 2600, and the later version on the Atari 5200 is surprisingly weak, especially in terms of control and music and sound effects ^{[6] [15]} .
• On the MobyGames cataloging computer games website, various versions of the game were rated (on a five-point scale): 4.1 on Atari 2600, 3.8 on Atari 8-bit, 3.7 on Atari 5200, 4.1 on ColecoVision 3.9 on Commodore 64, 4.2 on Intellivision and 3.4 on MSX computers ^[1] .
• On the popular GameFAQs web portal, the original Pitfall! received a rating of 8.6 in the opinion of reviewers and 7.3 in the opinion of readers ^[16] .
• The mobile version of the game released in 2003 by Jamdat Mobile was rated highly enough. The English-language news and information website covering the topic of computer games - IGN , set it to 8.0 on a ten-point scale, calling the game an accurate recreation of the original version with excellent gameplay ^[17] . Another English-language site GameSpot appreciated the mobile Pitfall! at 7.1 / 10. According to the site, the game will leave any fan of the original game happy ^[18] .

Modified Pitfall Options! went out and continue to go out on various gaming systems. The first such game was Pitfall II: Lost Caverns , created by David Crane in 1984 ^[19] , the latest for 2010 is the reissue of the game Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure , released by Activision for Virtual Console Wii on April 13, 2009 ^[20] . In addition, the game continues with: Super Pitfall ( 1987 , NES and TRS-80 Color Computer ), Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure ( 1994 , Game Boy Advance , Sega Genesis , Atari Jaguar , Sega 32X , Sega CD , SNES and Windows ), Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle ( 1998 , PlayStation ) and Pitfall: The Lost Expedition ( 2004 , GameCube , PlayStation 2 , Windows, Xbox and Game Boy Advance) ^[19] .

In addition, the original version of the game was published in Activision's Atari 2600 Action Pack ( 1995 , Windows), Activision Game Vault: Volume 1 and Activision Game Vault: Volume 3 ( 1997 , Windows), A Collection of Activision Classic Games for the Atari 2600 (1998, PlayStation), Activision Anthology ( 2002 , PlayStation 2), Activision Anthology: Remix Edition ( 2003 , Macintosh and Windows), Activision Anthology (2003, Game Boy Advance), Activision Hits Remixed ( 2006 , PSP ) and Activision Anthology ( 2008 , Java ME ) ^[19] .

• Original Pitfall! present as a secret bonus in the games Pitfall The Mayan Adventure (Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Atari Jaguar, Sega CD and Sega 32x), Pitfall 3D (Playstation) ^[15] , Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (2006, Game Boy Advance, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 , PSP, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360 ) and the Jungle Book (1994, SNES).
• Activision promised every player who sent a screenshot confirming that the player was able to pass Pitfall! (original version on Atari 2600) with a minimum of 20,000 points, send a special patch “Explorer's Club” ^[9] .

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