This article is about the pioneering Pitfall! video game. For the computing term, please see anti-pattern. For the Alaska heavy metal band, see Pitfall (band). For the Animal Crossing item, see Pitfall (Animal Crossing). For the Alex Trebek TV game show, see Pitfall (game_show)

Pitfall! was a popular video game released by Activision for the Atari 2600 in 1982. The game is considered by many to be the first platform game ever made, and is the best selling game ever made for the Atari 2600, with over 4 million copies sold.

Gameplay

The player must maneuver a character known as Pitfall Harry through a maze-like jungle in an attempt to recover 32 treasures in a 20 minute period.

Along the way, he must negotiate numerous hazards, including tar pits, quicksand, rolling logs, rattlesnakes, scorpions, walls, fire, and crocodiles. Harry may jump over or otherwise avoid these obstacles by timing his climbing and running, and in certain places he can swing on a vine to avoid them.

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 centre. 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. Pitfall! was a massive success for the 2600. It is considered to have been the best selling game ever made for the system, with over 4 million copies of the game sold. Several ports were made for computer systems (such as the Commodore 64 and Atari 800), as well as for other videogame systems (such as the ColecoVision and the Intellivision).

Jack Black made his TV debut in a commercial for Pitfall, as shown on an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, where he shows Jack a clip from the commercial.

Sequels and licensing

Crane also produced a popular sequel, Lost Caverns the following year. It sold well, though not as well as the original, and is considered by many to be one of the best games ever made for the system. Also, unlike most games of its day, it had a definite ending.

In 1985, Activision licensed Pitfall! to Sega, who made an arcade version of Pitfall II: Lost Caverns. The game, which is now quite rare, actually had little to do with that game, and had more resemblance to the original Pitfall! released three years earlier. Pitfall! was also created for the Commodore 64 using Activision Gamemaker as a demonstration of the game building software.

Pitfall Harry and niece Rhonda along with pet Quickclaw the lion (from The Lost Caverns) appeared in cartoon short form on Saturday Supercade.

Pitfall! appeared on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987, but Super Pitfall was not successful and received poor reviews.

The game made its debut on the SNES and Genesis/Mega Drive systems in 1994, with the popular The Mayan Adventure. The game was ported to the Windows 95 operating system the following year. The Mayan Adventure was well known for having the original Pitfall! available to play on it. Two other games under the Pitfall! name have been released, Beyond the Jungle in 1998 and Pitfall Harry, released in 2003.

In 2004, a sequel was released for Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Microsoft Xbox.

In 2005, the Pitfall alligators were edited into one of the television commercials for TBS' new Gametap website.

In May 2006, Fargate Productions released a trailer for a live action Pitfall movie.

External links

• AtariAge entry for Pitfall!
• MobyGames' entry for Pitfall!
• The Dot Eaters article featuring Pitfall!, Crane and Activision
• Trailer for Fargate Productions Live Action Pitfall

Activision games 1982 computer and video games | Atari 2600 games | Platform games | Atari 5200 games | Atari 8-bit family games | ColecoVision games | Intellivision games | Commodore 64 games | MSX games | Mobile phone games

Pitfall! | Pitfall! | Pitfall! | Pitfall!