Pitfall!
| Pitfall! | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Logo of the Atari 2600 version | |
| Studio | Activision |
| Publisher | Activision |
| Senior Developer | David Crane |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1982 |
| platform | Atari 2600 , Atari 5200 , Atari 8-bit , Commodore 64 , ColecoVision , Intellivision , MSX , Windows Phone |
| genre | Jump 'n' run |
| Game mode | Single player |
| control | joystick |
| medium | Game module , download |
| language | English |
Pitfall! (Engl. for "pit") is a in 1982 by Activision published video game Developer David Crane for the play console Atari 2600 .
Pitfall! was after Donkey Kong the second world-wide known jump 'n' run (platform game) and the first without a predetermined sequence of levels. Numerous successors and adaptations for other systems appeared.
The plot of the game and the naming of the character were obviously inspired by the first (1981) film in the Indiana Jones series with Harrison Ford in the lead role.
In 1984 the successor called Pitfall II: Lost Caverns appeared .
action
The player controls the character Pitfall Harry in a jungle environment over various obstacles (including rolling tree trunks, lakes, scorpions, crocodiles, quicksand, ...). The aim of the game is to collect 32 treasures (gold bars, silver bars, diamond rings and money bags) within a period of 20 minutes. The scene change takes place horizontally when the edge of the picture is reached. The entire play area extends over 255 screens.
The player has the option of steering Pitfall Harry through the play area on two levels: Via the normal route on earth or through an underground tunnel. An underground scene corresponds to three scenes on the surface. This saves valuable time, but it is easy to overlook a treasure. In addition, there are often walls below the ground that prevent further progress there. In order to get to all the hidden treasures within the time limit, the player must find the right combination of above and below ground.
Harry starts out with 3 lives and 2000 points. Contact with certain opponents such as scorpions, crocodiles or quicksand costs a life. Other opponents slow down Harry or take time. Collisions with rolling tree trunks cost points based on the length of contact. If Harry falls into a pitfall, he gets a deduction of 100 points. A perfect game result corresponds to 114,000 points. However, this can only be achieved if all scenes are played through with practically no errors and the player does not receive a single point deduction.
All 255 scenes of the play area are set up in a ring, so that Harry can walk through the play area both right and left. In the instructions for the game, developer David Crane himself advises to walk right from the start to the left. This makes it easier for yourself to play, as the tree trunks in particular always roll from right to left. In addition, when a life is lost, the character is set down on the left edge by default, so that the respective scene can then be passed through more easily - or the scene following on the left - can be started directly.
Economic
Pitfall! was very successful commercially (it is the second best- selling game for the Atari 2600 system after Pac-Man , with more than 4 million units sold ) and also appeared for other popular consoles and home computers , e.g. B. ColecoVision and C64 .
successor
- Pitfall! 1982 for the Atari 2600 game console .
- Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, released in 1984 for Atari 2600, Atari 8-Bitter and C64 , was the sequel to the first game (again by David Crane). Technically further developed, it was no longer just left or right, but also down or up. There were also many more objects that had to be avoided. For the Atari 8-bitter there was a second level after completing the "normal" game, which was much more difficult than the first.
- Super Pitfall 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System .
- Pitfall! - The Mayan Adventure 1995 for Windows 95, Atari Jaguar , Super Nintendo Entertainment System , Sega Mega Drive , Sega Mega-CD and Sega Mega Drive 32X . This game has a hidden level where the original Pitfall! can be played. In the meantime there are also implementations (porting) of this title for other systems, e.g. B. by THQ for the Game Boy Advance .
- Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle 1998 for PlayStation .
- Pitfall: The Lost Expedition 2004 for Xbox , PlayStation 2 , Nintendo GameCube , Game Boy Advance , mobile phones .
- Pitfall: The Great Adventure 2007 for Wii. The game is a port from Pitfall: The Lost Expedition .
- Pitfall! 2013 for iOS and Android devices
Others
The game appears in the series South Park in the episode Just physical love in the Vatican? (8th episode of the 6th season, first broadcast March 7, 2002).
literature
- Pitfall! In: Nick Montfort, Ian Bogost: Racing the Beam. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2009, ISBN 978-0-262-01257-7 , pp. 99-117.
Web links
- Pitfall! at MobyGames (English)
- Pitfall! in the internet archive (with the option to play)
- The original game instructions (English)
- Original game instructions from Pitfall and many other titles
- German article on Pitfall
- Presentation by David Crane at the Games Developer Conference (GDC) 2011 about the creation and development of Pitfall (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Top 10 Best Selling Atari 2600 Games - IGN. Retrieved July 26, 2019 .
- ↑ Karlheinz Russwurm: Pitfall II. Computer Kontakt Magazin, Issue 12, 1984, p. 12.