I wanted Pitfall bad as a kid. The day came when I ate something that gave me the hives. I remember it like it was yesterday: never having hives before, my parents took me to the hospital. Once home, my mother asked if there was something ‘special’ I wanted. I said ‘Pitfall’ for my Atari. The following day - while resting on the couch feeling miserable (and covered in lotion to stop the itching) - my father came home from work with a copy of Pitfall wrapped inside a Montgomery Wards’ bag. I couldn’t control my excitement! My mother made me wait until after dinner to play the game, though, which felt like an eternity. Lol Since my father loved video games, he sat down with me to play this incredible game. It was a magical experience for us both, and I will never forget it.
It can't be understated how amazing this game was back then. We used to play this for hours, taking turns tying to see who could get far enough to see new treasures. And just to be able to go the wrong way and make it harder for yourself was really innovative.
Yes, I 100% agree! It's still my favorite Zelda actually. Used to spend hours burning every damn bush in the forest but it was fun! Zelda 1, Commando, and Metroid were the reasons I bought a NES in the first place.
It's still fun now! That's the hallmark of a great game. That's why I can go and play something like Ms. Pac-Man or Galaga and it doesn't lose a step. Speaking of Galaga, how innovative was the whole 'ship gets captured / win it back / shoot two bullets' thing back in the day? My child mind was blown haha. Great job on these videos, Patman!
@@DelDuio As a kid after baseball games our dads would take us to the hot dog joint that had Galaga and Pac Man and the Ms. as well among others, they'd drink their beer and watch tv and we'd play games until closing time.
I now still play Pitfall on an Atari-Activision Plug and play Joystick that I bought back around in 2009. There was a Pitfall game made for the Adroid mobile phone that is like a temple run game.
I think the lady was Lucille Benson, She was in various movies n tv shows such as Duel, Silver Streak, 1941, and was Sheriff Roscoe s Momma in a episode of DOH, as well as countless others.
And David Crane would go on to make the 1989 NES video game "A Boy and His Blob" where the boy feeds his blob a jelly bean which would turn into something useful like a rocket, meanwhile dodging snack foods that would do him in the blob in.
Pitfall was one of my favorite games on the 2600. I always wondered how 'Activision' made better games for the system than Atari did. Now I know. Thank you, Patman QC, for making such an interesting and informative video~!
Pitfall 2 was *incredibly* advanced & ahead of its time for a 2600 game. Even back then I couldn't believe they were able to put all that into an Atari cartridge
Great vid, sir! I've got Pitfall on the iPad. It's an into the screen endless runner, but it's good fun. It starts off with Harry playing the original in the jungle, then the volcano erupts and he runs for his life. The achievements make sense now, as they are homages to the Explorer Badge!
But the smartphone app game is named Pitfall and definitely pays homage to the original, it’s a runner like Temple Run, but I think it definitely has the feel of Pitfall, you swing on Vines, jump over scorpions and crocs, collect treasure and go through tunnels and jump over pits and logs . . Uhhh how can that not be Pitfall? Lol. The game is great!!!! :-)
@@philiple8890 I know what you mean... they really did do a good job with it. And I like the different costumes you can get too. IIRC in the intro, Harry is playing Atari VCS Pitfall on some mobile device when the volcano erupts and he has to run for his life. Perhaps 2 years younger me was just wrong :)
Really REALLY loved The Mayan Adventure. My favorite part was when you got to the end and rescued Pitfall Harry, and it was revealed... It was the Atari 2600 sprite of Harry. XD
allen harper I remember having lots of fun playing through The Mayan Adventure as a teen just like I have fond memories of the original duology on Atari.. The PS2 version admittedly I still gotta finish.. Interestingly I dreamt once there was a game called Pitfall 4 which was a modern iteration of the series totally on par with Uncharted.. Dunno what’s taking Activision so long to come out with something like this..
@@Mintcar923 They don't think it will sell, so they won't put any money into it. A billion dollar company doesn't wanna spend even 4 million to make something new. Sad times we live in
ricky sanchez I see new IPs here and there by known companies.. Well not that Pitfall is actually considered new hahaha Newsflash if a game is done correctly and marketed appropriately it will definitely sell..
This was quite literally my first video game. I played the original Pitfall on the Atari 2600 over and over and I loved it so much. But I became completely obsessed with Pitfall 2 once that came out, so much so that I got it again for my Atari 5200 later on. I played that game so much, I drew pictures of it, pretended to be Pitfall Harry and ran around, all that stuff.
Pitfall was my first platform/adventure game. I had the Atari 2600 back in the day and Pitfall was one of my favourite games back then. I have Pitfall the Lost Expedition for the PS2. I think Pitfall was one of them games that paved the way for Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Crash Bandicoot, Tomb Raider, Horizon Zero Dawn and so many other action/adventure games.
As a promo for the game I had a 3D cardboard diorama of the box art that was given to me by a sales rep trying to promote sales of the game before it was released.
Wonderful video, very informative! Im in a community for Pitfall: The Lost Expedition and came across this video when looking up Pitfall stuff on TH-cam. Nice to learn the in-depth history behind the original!
Another great review. I first played Pitfall back when it was released on the Atari 2600, my cousin in Arizona got an Atari for Christmas and I stayed with my Grandparents for the summer, I’d go over his house and we’d play for hours. Then we got an Intellivision and that was one of the first games we got, me and my sister would play it along with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and Burgertime, such fun games and they hold up today.
Thanks for the nice words. It's amazing how these classic games the dawn of time hold a much better than the stuff they're putting out today. Thanks for sharing your story
Great vid! This was my FAVORITE Atari game w many hours played! Yar's Revenge, Laser Blast and Defender were great also and close behind on my list of faves. Good times!
Pitfall was my favorite 2600 game. I once scored around 22,000 but didn't know about the patch. I do remember getting to a certain point in the game where there were several screen in a row with gold bars and that really jacked up the score.
It ranks pretty high on my list of action-adventure games for the 2600! Of course I'm also a big fan of Adventure, Haunted House, Superman, Frankenstein, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Frostbite, Mountain King and Adventures of TRON!
If you think about it, Pitfall is the original cinematic platformer: its detailed backgrounds and character animations are a definite attempt to create atmosphere, and the game even follows most conventions of cinematic platformers such as flip screen and forced perspective. More controversially, I would argue that it's also the original Metroidvania game: it could definitely be called an "open world platformer" and it also has the genre's typical ruins/wilderness type of setting. It lacks the element of character growth opening up new areas, but collecting gold is a character growth of sorts (it does boost your health, and the game remembers which gold you did and didn't collect), at the very least the Metroidvania genre seems very inspired by Pitfall.
Pitfall.....played it endless hours on my Atari 2600. Remember when i went into the store in the 80's and my father asked me: ok son, your choice. Pacman or Pitfall? And i took Pitfall.....will never forget how my father looked at me....totally shocked ;-)
For years....YEARS....I never realized that Pitfall was doing the "Tarzan yell" when he swings on the vine. About 4 or 5 years ago, a buddy of mine pointed it out and my head exploded.
Pitfall was a night and day upgrade to Atari 2600 games before and after. Didn't know there was a Colecovision version. Coleco titles where hard to come by. I recall the local toy stores were the place to get them. Mall Electronic stores like Video Concepts strictly carried Atari 400.
This was the very first Atari 2600 game I remember playing when I was six Christmas Day 1981 after my older sister woke me up screaming "WE GOT AN ATARI!!!!!!" 😱 and dad hooked it up to the living room TV. Combat was the other game, it was the one that came packaged with the system. I think he uh I mean Santa Claus bought it from Sears but it was an actual 2600 not the Sears knock-off system.
My brother & I just went to Freeplay Orlando last year and David Crane the creator of the game & the founders of Activision were there and told their story it was very interesting they were the 1st 3rd party company.
@@ShinobiShowdown Well Atari execs in the eighties screwed up royally, being greedy and over confident. Now it looks like modern day video game execs are doing the EXACT same thing?🤔
Another improved C64 port of Pitfall! was included with Garry Kitchen's GameMaker (1985). It was programmed by David Crane as a demonstration of GameMaker's features. The graphics and gameplay can be modified and played.
Thanks for the great video, I never played the original, I was playing "pip fall" on fallout 76, it's a nice little throw back but I had enough fun playing it I just had to check out the original and your video was perfect. You had the progression the back story and most importantly you made it feel nostalgic even though I had never played the original. Thank you and I hope to see more of your videos
Pitfall was indeed groundbreaking. The fluid animation for the 2600 was something never seen before in a home console. It was just so different than almost everything that came before it on Atari at the time, it was destined to be successful. Also using the look and feel of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, which was a huge blockbuster just a year earlier was brilliant. BTW, the use of that scantily-clad babe in the thumbnail is clever clickbait, but you should at least show her in the video so people don't get mad at you... Unless I missed it.
Fun fact: David Crane is from Nappanee, Indiana, which is the heart of the Amish community in Indiana. His dad owned a furniture factory there and based on what I know about Nappanee having grown up just 15 minutes away, probably employed several Amish workers. Apparently his dad would bring home various old electronics to David when he was a kid and David would take them apart and make something else with them.
Pitfall has had a number of homages and parodies of it in more recent games. In the first Marvel ultimate alliance, there's a carnival section by the villian Arcade, who has a machine puts the hero you're playing into classic pitfall, which you need play thru a bit of it to advance. In Fallout 4, they made a homage/parody called Pipfall, after the pipboy unit the character wears. It plays the same but has all green graphics like an old school computer. I didn't own an atari 2600 as a kid, but my older cousin did. When I went to her house, I played thru all titles she had, and Pitfall was leaps about bounds more interesting than anything else on it. It's one of the few 2600 games with any real depth. A real gem as most games of that era didn't age very well.
Didn't know about the parodies . But it sounds cool. Thanks for the info. The reason pitfall has age so well has to be due to David Crane squeezing every out they could from the humble Atari 2600. It's amazing what they could accomplish back then. .
1:45 what a complete Jack off of a boss! Those four guys are basically the reason for Atari’s success, and he compares their achievements to remedial labor. I’m at least glad that they didn’t take that bullshit anymore, and decided to create Activision, which I never knew the story to before you told it. Also, I can’t believe that Jack Black’s first appearance was as a kid in a Pitfall commercial! He’s just as funny, and charming as he’s ever been, and it’s really interesting seeing him as a kid! Thanks for this awesome video my friend ❤
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries Of course, no problem! Your definitely the best gaming historian channel in my book, I just love your style of videos. Your my go-to-guy if I ever need any information on arcade games -so that I can make pirated copies- so that I can have fun with them, and definitely not make any pirated copies of video games!
Great video! On a side note, the Pitfall Harry action figure you showed is a fan made mod of a GI Joe figure from the 80's. It's not an official figure though I bet the person who made it will take it as a compliment.
David Crane is a pure genius. I got to meet him at a retro event and have my picture taken with him. He is also a great ambassador of classic games. I never got the Activision patches back in the day but bought the vintage Pitfall patch and several others on eBay to finally own.
That commercial with Jack Black was good to see. Nice coverage of this classic. I still remember completing Pitfall 2 on Colecovision as a kid. Those balloons were cool rides.
Missed this one the first time around. Surprised no mention how the Atari 400/800/5200 version of Pitfall II had an entirely new adventure open up once you beat the game.
Pitfall2 'LostCaverns' on Atari2600, Had Some Cool Ass Music! Even When It Dragged Ya Back To TheStart! I Think I Remember Trying To Make it Across Some Balloons...It's Been Forever. (Somebody Swiped All My 2600 Games at WVU College...like 50 of'Em. I Let My Brother Borrow Them...& They Got Jacked. CosmicArc, YarsRevenge, KeyStoneCapers...All Of'Em.)
It’s 11.54pm. Early rise for work tomorrow .I’m almost asleep. It’s a notification on my phone and it’s The Patman. It’s Pitfall. It’s me sitting up now watching a video 🤣
I had the honor of interviewing Mr. Crane for my 2014 book Memoirs of a Virtual Caveman, and he had some interesting things to say about Pitfall II, which is my personal favorite 2600 game.
I remember when I was a child and I got The Lost Expedition on the GameCube. At the time, I never played the original title or even the sequel (or the numerous conversions), because, well, we didn't have an Atari lol. I can say I really enjoyed how it played as much as I did Metroid Prime, often considered as one of, if not the best Metroid titles to this day. Controls were smooth, music was decent, and the story was cheesy, and the exploration from what I remember was really fun. I'm considering getting it and doing a playthrough soon as I get myself a Wii. Edit: forgot to mention in my hyperfixated ramble, but I've been watching a few of your videos (Golden Axe, Altered Beast, etc) and I love the vibe you give your content. Informative, honest, and the rabbit hole of each game definitely pulls me in as the onion layers peel off
9:57 My all time favorite arcade game! Used to play it religously in the arcade in the summer holidays as a kid. Had the rom for the mame emulator a few years back too and to this day its the only arcade game ive ever finished 👌
I like how the boss told the guys that anyone can program a game, to defend not giving them a raise, did he do that , just hire anyone to make the ET game?
To be fair to the designer of the ET game, he was on a horrific time crunch (about a month from start to finish) and as far as I know, he worked alone. Having played it and beaten it as a kid, I can say that the game could have been improved with more time... the worst thing about the game is the constantly falling down the holes. Well, and if you try playing the game without the manual, you'll have no idea what you're supposed to be doing.
Very nicely covered and as ever fascinating use of images and other system comparison videos. Pitfall and River Raid were quite a shock, it was almost like a new, more powerful console! Pitfall was classy, polished and very playable. A remarkable game, especially when apparently the VCS was only designed with single screen games in mind, such as Combat.
the Atari 5200 and 8 bit machines had identical code. We use to have disks full of atari 5200 games. This game on the 2600 literally was a fully summer for me and my childhood 'crew'
Pitfall was the first game I bought after I had my 2600 for Christmas 82, I think. It cost £30. My dad was earning about £100 per week. My parents must have had some concerns about affording games in the future. Fortunately Atari went bust and I could pick up games for about £5 from Woolworths shortly after.
We didn't have a whole lot of money growing up so in 1983 when games dropped to five dollars we thought it was a sign from the heavens. Who knew what was really happening with the videogame crash. Thanks for sharing your story
MYSTERY SOLVED! When Jack Black first started to become popular, I was like "man, why does he look so familiar?" I must've seen that Pitfall commercial dozens of times as a kid.
Reminds of of Mac from Always Sunny was in a No Smoking commercial when he was a teen and could never realize why he looked so familiar to me when Always Sunny first aired.
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries I've always known of Pitfall and the references in shows like South Park, as well as the Supercade cartoon. For some reason, I just never got to play it myself. I'd say the 2600 and Colecovision versions are so far equally decent.
Both are grammatically correct if you study linguistic anthropology just one is more common parlance. Always makes me laugh when people correct that because they are in fact incorrect. You can check this out by the way it is very true. It is like raising your pinky finger when drinking tea, also not what people think.
Thank you! All these years and I didn't know the sound was Tarzan. I remember getting calluses between my thumb and forefinger with all the hours of playing.
Got the actual cassettes of the original Pitfall! game for my Atari 2600 and ColecoVision. I also got the original cassettes of Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure for my SEGA Genesis and Game Boy Advance. I even got the Activision compilation discs for my PlayStation 1 & 2. I also got Pitfall The Mayan Adventure downloaded to my Wii via the Virtual Console.
Can't recall the name of that racing game that Activision had. You would drive on snow, at night in fog and so on. If you sent a picture of your score, you get an achievement awards. Those were the days.
There is also a version of this in Marvel Ultimate Alliance where you have to save either Nightcrawler or Jean Grey from Arcade (voiced by Mark Hamill and sounding very much like his version of the Joker).
It's amazing how many short sighted fools are in charge of major companies that can't recognize the talented employees working under them who made it successful to begin with, like those mentioned here they often move elsewhere and leave the company to rot. It reminds me of a story about Thomas Edison, he was working at a telegraph office and his main job was to send a signal on the hour every hour to ensure the wires were still up, but one day his boss came in and found him asleep having created a mechanical device to do the job automatically. Instead of realizing he had come upon someone who was uniquely brilliant, talented and then (after reading him the riot act about goofing off) moving him perhaps to a research department where he'd be better used he just fired him on the spot.
There was actually an Arcade "Pitfall" Cabinet, I played it many times, in Goleta, California (in a moderate size arcade near Fairview). There were many other classic Atari games there as well; I believe now that they had to be market test machines, as I have NEVER seen anything like them since!
It should be noted that Pitfall II also had a dynamic musical score. The music playing sounded exciting, subdued or tragic depending on what was happening to you in the game.
I remember hearing that Sony refused to have any PSX games which weren't 3D, so there were a lot of bad 3D versions of things. Then Dracula X / Castlevania Symphony of the Night was a big hit and they sorta changed their minds.
I got SOTN , MGS, and FF7 w/ my psxwith $ from Xmas and first job, best game purchases I ever made all on one day, best game on a system of 3D hits in spite of its (gorgeous) graphics, easily elevates it to art, so many hours put into SOTN, best game
Great history. It's also a nice case study in branding. I always saw Activision games as a cut above other Atari games (and other Atari software brands.) But as a kid I never knew why.
Loved the history. Played the original Pitfall and Pitfall 2 games a lot. I was only disappointed that the iOS version in 2012 wasn't included in the video. It was the only other Pitfall game that I got addicted to playing. That aside, great job with this.
Have you done one of these for Colecovision's "Tarzan" game? I remember that one being a lot of fun (and having the Tarzan yell that Pitfall Harry did when he'd swing across on the vines).
I wanted Pitfall bad as a kid. The day came when I ate something that gave me the hives. I remember it like it was yesterday: never having hives before, my parents took me to the hospital. Once home, my mother asked if there was something ‘special’ I wanted. I said ‘Pitfall’ for my Atari. The following day - while resting on the couch feeling miserable (and covered in lotion to stop the itching) - my father came home from work with a copy of Pitfall wrapped inside a Montgomery Wards’ bag. I couldn’t control my excitement! My mother made me wait until after dinner to play the game, though, which felt like an eternity. Lol Since my father loved video games, he sat down with me to play this incredible game. It was a magical experience for us both, and I will never forget it.
That's fantastic, I love hearing about stories of family bonding over videogames. Thanks for sharing
Thats a great story!
I cannot describe how much I enjoyed hearing that the top programmers, not getting their due, became more successful than their former employer!
It is a great little ending to the story :-)
Back then if you were wronged you took the initiative to make the situation better. You didn’t ask for the government to make everything equal.
Back then you could make games on your former employer’s console and not get sued.
@@LastEscape009Ahh... Except... they did get sued. Atari lost and third party developers were born.
@@razorpit ever heard of the Sherman antitrust act of 1890?
Everyone in the 40 and up set has fond memories of this one! Amazing how they crammed so much into just 4KB.
It really is, but that's why Activision was so much better than everybody else
As a 45 year old, I concur.
Just shows how sloppy programmers are today, and how much easier they have it.
@@TimmiejaneCarter - I think every new programmer's first job should be coding a 2600 game. That would teach them to respect any hardware.
I remember thinking Activision had all the best games back in the mid 80's...(I'm 40!)
I like the guy around the 0:18 mark. Enjoying a cold old Milwaukee and a game of pitfall with the kids.
It can't be understated how amazing this game was back then. We used to play this for hours, taking turns tying to see who could get far enough to see new treasures. And just to be able to go the wrong way and make it harder for yourself was really innovative.
Absolutely, it's definitely a classic and one of the greatest 2600 games ever released
Which way do you call the wrong way? I always went left. Triple jumping the crocs was an adrenaline high.
Yes, I 100% agree! It's still my favorite Zelda actually. Used to spend hours burning every damn bush in the forest but it was fun! Zelda 1, Commando, and Metroid were the reasons I bought a NES in the first place.
It's still fun now! That's the hallmark of a great game. That's why I can go and play something like Ms. Pac-Man or Galaga and it doesn't lose a step. Speaking of Galaga, how innovative was the whole 'ship gets captured / win it back / shoot two bullets' thing back in the day? My child mind was blown haha. Great job on these videos, Patman!
@@DelDuio As a kid after baseball games our dads would take us to the hot dog joint that had Galaga and Pac Man and the Ms. as well among others, they'd drink their beer and watch tv and we'd play games until closing time.
Watching older videos to support your channel as you recover. I wish you a speedy recovery!
I really appreciate that, thank you so much
Never heard this story before. Never knew that the first third party developer ever was formed to spite thier former employeer. Excellent story!
I now still play Pitfall on an Atari-Activision Plug and play Joystick that I bought back around in 2009.
There was a Pitfall game made for the Adroid mobile phone that is like a temple run game.
Yes I seen that one. It looks okay
One of my fav's, since my dad had a 2600 as a bachelor. It held us kids over until around 1987, when we finally got the NES.
That's awesome, thanks for sharing
I was so sure that that must have been young Jack Black in the commercial. Thanks for confirming. Now I can sleep again. :)
LOL, good call. Thanks for watching
For years later to be in Jumanji 😂😂
I think the lady was Lucille Benson, She was in various movies n tv shows such as Duel, Silver Streak, 1941, and was Sheriff Roscoe s Momma in a episode of DOH, as well as countless others.
And David Crane would go on to make the 1989 NES video game "A Boy and His Blob" where the boy feeds his blob a jelly bean which would turn into something useful like a rocket, meanwhile dodging snack foods that would do him in the blob in.
Pitfall was one of my favorite games on the 2600. I always wondered how 'Activision' made better games for the system than Atari did. Now I know. Thank you, Patman QC, for making such an interesting and informative video~!
Thanks for the nice words, glad you enjoyed my video. I think either pitfall or pitfall 2 were my favorite games for the system
Pitfall 2 was *incredibly* advanced & ahead of its time for a 2600 game. Even back then I couldn't believe they were able to put all that into an Atari cartridge
I agree..
I was dazzled by the high tech graphics back then!
Great vid, sir! I've got Pitfall on the iPad. It's an into the screen endless runner, but it's good fun. It starts off with Harry playing the original in the jungle, then the volcano erupts and he runs for his life. The achievements make sense now, as they are homages to the Explorer Badge!
I thought about putting that at the end of the video but it wasn't a traditional pitfall game so I decided not to
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries You're absolutely right not to. It's great fun, but it's not Pitfall!
But the smartphone app game is named Pitfall and definitely pays homage to the original, it’s a runner like Temple Run, but I think it definitely has the feel of Pitfall, you swing on Vines, jump over scorpions and crocs, collect treasure and go through tunnels and jump over pits and logs . . Uhhh how can that not be Pitfall? Lol. The game is great!!!! :-)
@@philiple8890 I know what you mean... they really did do a good job with it. And I like the different costumes you can get too. IIRC in the intro, Harry is playing Atari VCS Pitfall on some mobile device when the volcano erupts and he has to run for his life.
Perhaps 2 years younger me was just wrong :)
Really REALLY loved The Mayan Adventure. My favorite part was when you got to the end and rescued Pitfall Harry, and it was revealed...
It was the Atari 2600 sprite of Harry. XD
That's a really cool Easter egg, I never finished the super Nintendo version but I enjoy playing it
allen harper I remember having lots of fun playing through The Mayan Adventure as a teen just like I have fond memories of the original duology on Atari.. The PS2 version admittedly I still gotta finish..
Interestingly I dreamt once there was a game called Pitfall 4 which was a modern iteration of the series totally on par with Uncharted.. Dunno what’s taking Activision so long to come out with something like this..
@@Mintcar923 They don't think it will sell, so they won't put any money into it. A billion dollar company doesn't wanna spend even 4 million to make something new. Sad times we live in
ricky sanchez I see new IPs here and there by known companies.. Well not that Pitfall is actually considered new hahaha
Newsflash if a game is done correctly and marketed appropriately it will definitely sell..
@@Mintcar923 Yeah but cost money. My point was that they don't wanna invest any money Into it unless they are guaranteed big returns.
This was quite literally my first video game. I played the original Pitfall on the Atari 2600 over and over and I loved it so much. But I became completely obsessed with Pitfall 2 once that came out, so much so that I got it again for my Atari 5200 later on. I played that game so much, I drew pictures of it, pretended to be Pitfall Harry and ran around, all that stuff.
That's awesome, I don't recall the first Atari game I played. It was probably bowling if I had to guess
Pitfall was my first platform/adventure game. I had the Atari 2600 back in the day and Pitfall was one of my favourite games back then. I have Pitfall the Lost Expedition for the PS2. I think Pitfall was one of them games that paved the way for Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Crash Bandicoot, Tomb Raider, Horizon Zero Dawn and so many other action/adventure games.
It was definitely an influence on super Mario considering the game came out three years prior
As a promo for the game I had a 3D cardboard diorama of the box art that was given to me by a sales rep trying to promote sales of the game before it was released.
That's awesome, I've never seen that before
Wonderful video, very informative! Im in a community for Pitfall: The Lost Expedition and came across this video when looking up Pitfall stuff on TH-cam. Nice to learn the in-depth history behind the original!
That's great, welcome aboard. Please subscribe if you haven't already
Another great review. I first played Pitfall back when it was released on the Atari 2600, my cousin in Arizona got an Atari for Christmas and I stayed with my Grandparents for the summer, I’d go over his house and we’d play for hours. Then we got an Intellivision and that was one of the first games we got, me and my sister would play it along with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and Burgertime, such fun games and they hold up today.
Thanks for the nice words. It's amazing how these classic games the dawn of time hold a much better than the stuff they're putting out today. Thanks for sharing your story
Great vid! This was my FAVORITE Atari game w many hours played! Yar's Revenge, Laser Blast and Defender were great also and close behind on my list of faves. Good times!
Thank you very much, those are all classic games
Pitfall was my favorite 2600 game. I once scored around 22,000 but didn't know about the patch. I do remember getting to a certain point in the game where there were several screen in a row with gold bars and that really jacked up the score.
That's awesome, I never made it that far
My favorite 2600 game growing up and still my go to for the system. Love the vid
It's my all-time favorite for the system. Thanks for the kind words
It ranks pretty high on my list of action-adventure games for the 2600! Of course I'm also a big fan of Adventure, Haunted House, Superman, Frankenstein, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Frostbite, Mountain King and Adventures of TRON!
If you think about it, Pitfall is the original cinematic platformer: its detailed backgrounds and character animations are a definite attempt to create atmosphere, and the game even follows most conventions of cinematic platformers such as flip screen and forced perspective. More controversially, I would argue that it's also the original Metroidvania game: it could definitely be called an "open world platformer" and it also has the genre's typical ruins/wilderness type of setting. It lacks the element of character growth opening up new areas, but collecting gold is a character growth of sorts (it does boost your health, and the game remembers which gold you did and didn't collect), at the very least the Metroidvania genre seems very inspired by Pitfall.
I agree with everything you said 100%. It is definitely the first MetroidVania In my opinion. Good call
I just found this channel , its great. You do a good job showing history, versions and game play.
Thank you so much, glad you enjoy my content. Please subscribe if you haven't already
Pitfall.....played it endless hours on my Atari 2600. Remember when i went into the store in the 80's and my father asked me: ok son, your choice. Pacman or Pitfall? And i took Pitfall.....will never forget how my father looked at me....totally shocked ;-)
LOL, looking back you made the right choice :-)
Man, did you dodge a bullet!
Dauerbomber awesome decision!
Thanks for this wonderful story, pitfall 1 and 2 were so hard to beat back then..... 😊
Thank you for the nice words, I could never be pitfall one but I did complete pitfall to
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries oh really? Is there any emulator for Atari games? It would be nice to play them once again..... 💯
For years....YEARS....I never realized that Pitfall was doing the "Tarzan yell" when he swings on the vine.
About 4 or 5 years ago, a buddy of mine pointed it out and my head exploded.
When I first played it as a kid I didn't realize it either, it wasn't until years later when I put two and two together
Pitfall was a night and day upgrade to Atari 2600 games before and after. Didn't know there was a Colecovision version. Coleco titles where hard to come by. I recall the local toy stores were the place to get them. Mall Electronic stores like Video Concepts strictly carried Atari 400.
I agree, pitfall Set the bar way high
This was the very first Atari 2600 game I remember playing when I was six Christmas Day 1981 after my older sister woke me up screaming "WE GOT AN ATARI!!!!!!" 😱 and dad hooked it up to the living room TV.
Combat was the other game, it was the one that came packaged with the system. I think he uh I mean Santa Claus bought it from Sears but it was an actual 2600 not the Sears knock-off system.
When Jack Black could fit in his Jumanji suit!!
LOL
Outstanding observation!
Best comment ever
My brother & I just went to Freeplay Orlando last year and David Crane the creator of the game & the founders of Activision were there and told their story it was very interesting they were the 1st 3rd party company.
They were the first third-party company and they were created because Atari was so greedy that's what's interesting about it
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries Yes Steve Jobs started Apple Computers for the same reason he was a former Atari employee as well.
@@ShinobiShowdown Well Atari execs in the eighties screwed up royally, being greedy and over confident. Now it looks like modern day video game execs are doing the EXACT same thing?🤔
Another improved C64 port of Pitfall! was included with Garry Kitchen's GameMaker (1985). It was programmed by David Crane as a demonstration of GameMaker's features. The graphics and gameplay can be modified and played.
Loved this game on my atari 2600 back in the day. some great memories, thanks for the documentary :)
Thank you for watching
I never finished pitfall (2600), but did finish both caves in pitfall 2 (5200)
Same here, never did finish the first game but it did finish second one
Thanks for the great video, I never played the original, I was playing "pip fall" on fallout 76, it's a nice little throw back but I had enough fun playing it I just had to check out the original and your video was perfect. You had the progression the back story and most importantly you made it feel nostalgic even though I had never played the original. Thank you and I hope to see more of your videos
Pitfall was indeed groundbreaking. The fluid animation for the 2600 was something never seen before in a home console. It was just so different than almost everything that came before it on Atari at the time, it was destined to be successful. Also using the look and feel of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, which was a huge blockbuster just a year earlier was brilliant. BTW, the use of that scantily-clad babe in the thumbnail is clever clickbait, but you should at least show her in the video so people don't get mad at you... Unless I missed it.
Excellent video. Such a great game.
Thank you very much, it's a classic
Fun fact: David Crane is from Nappanee, Indiana, which is the heart of the Amish community in Indiana. His dad owned a furniture factory there and based on what I know about Nappanee having grown up just 15 minutes away, probably employed several Amish workers. Apparently his dad would bring home various old electronics to David when he was a kid and David would take them apart and make something else with them.
I was always most impressed with the color Activision logo in the lower corner. 1982... the year EPCOT opened. Wow.
I thought it was really cool as well
Honestly, I didn't know there were Pitfall Games other than Atari Pitfall 1 and 2 as well as Super Pitfall NES.
This was very informative...
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it
It's tragic that Activision went from being synonymous with quality to being synonymous with avarice.
Pitfall has had a number of homages and parodies of it in more recent games. In the first Marvel ultimate alliance, there's a carnival section by the villian Arcade, who has a machine puts the hero you're playing into classic pitfall, which you need play thru a bit of it to advance. In Fallout 4, they made a homage/parody called Pipfall, after the pipboy unit the character wears. It plays the same but has all green graphics like an old school computer.
I didn't own an atari 2600 as a kid, but my older cousin did. When I went to her house, I played thru all titles she had, and Pitfall was leaps about bounds more interesting than anything else on it. It's one of the few 2600 games with any real depth. A real gem as most games of that era didn't age very well.
Didn't know about the parodies . But it sounds cool. Thanks for the info. The reason pitfall has age so well has to be due to David Crane squeezing every out they could from the humble Atari 2600. It's amazing what they could accomplish back then.
.
1:53 "With blackjack! And Hookers!"
oh wait, that was Mystique...
1:45 what a complete Jack off of a boss! Those four guys are basically the reason for Atari’s success, and he compares their achievements to remedial labor. I’m at least glad that they didn’t take that bullshit anymore, and decided to create Activision, which I never knew the story to before you told it. Also, I can’t believe that Jack Black’s first appearance was as a kid in a Pitfall commercial! He’s just as funny, and charming as he’s ever been, and it’s really interesting seeing him as a kid! Thanks for this awesome video my friend ❤
Absolutely, thanks for watching
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries Of course, no problem! Your definitely the best gaming historian channel in my book, I just love your style of videos. Your my go-to-guy if I ever need any information on arcade games -so that I can make pirated copies- so that I can have fun with them, and definitely not make any pirated copies of video games!
LOL, Regardless of whether it's pirated or not I sure do appreciate the nice words. Thanks@@redheadedanimations9368
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries lol thanks no prob 😂
pitfall II on my dads 5200 was the first game i remember. been hooked ever since
It's definitely a classic
Great video! On a side note, the Pitfall Harry action figure you showed is a fan made mod of a GI Joe figure from the 80's. It's not an official figure though I bet the person who made it will take it as a compliment.
Oh, I thought it was official. Thanks for the correction
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries The figure was also $60 And the website sells it has a bunch of other unofficial figures based on game art and movies.
David Crane is a pure genius. I got to meet him at a retro event and have my picture taken with him. He is also a great ambassador of classic games. I never got the Activision patches back in the day but bought the vintage Pitfall patch and several others on eBay to finally own.
It is been so long but I think I may have received the barnstorming patch but I'm not really sure.
Brilliant, one of your best videos. Had no idea about any of this.
Thanks, it's pretty interesting knowing the history of one of the biggest developers
This is amazing!!!! Thank you for your work!
Thank you very much
That commercial with Jack Black was good to see. Nice coverage of this classic. I still remember completing Pitfall 2 on Colecovision as a kid. Those balloons were cool rides.
Thank you, I always preferred the second one over the first one
Missed this one the first time around. Surprised no mention how the Atari 400/800/5200 version of Pitfall II had an entirely new adventure open up once you beat the game.
My introduction to this awesome series was on the SNES, I wasn't aware it had such a long history !
Absolutely, it's very interesting to learn about it
Pitfall: the lost expedition was my childhood.
I will love for pitfall to be in smash as a representative of the atari games.
That would be fantastic
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries Let´s bomb Sakurai Twitter page with this request and it will happen.
Pitfall2 'LostCaverns' on Atari2600, Had Some Cool Ass Music! Even When It Dragged Ya Back To TheStart!
I Think I Remember Trying To Make it Across Some Balloons...It's Been Forever.
(Somebody Swiped All My 2600 Games at WVU College...like 50 of'Em.
I Let My Brother Borrow Them...& They Got Jacked.
CosmicArc, YarsRevenge, KeyStoneCapers...All Of'Em.)
Sorry to hear that, I always like number two much better than the first one and you are right about the music
It’s 11.54pm. Early rise for work tomorrow .I’m almost asleep. It’s a notification on my phone and it’s The Patman. It’s Pitfall. It’s me sitting up now watching a video 🤣
LOL, I hope it was worth it. :-) By the way, was that the pat-signal On your phone?
1:43 That;s like having The Beatles under contract and then spitting in their face after 50 gold records!
Exactly, good call
There was a contest in the 1980s for people to provide an idea for the next game after Pitfall II. They used one of the ideas in a later game.
10:25 That thing looks awfully a lot like the Fuji TV logo, is that the Fuji TV logo?
It sure does, other people I mentioned that as well. Good eyeballs though :-)
I had the honor of interviewing Mr. Crane for my 2014 book Memoirs of a Virtual Caveman, and he had some interesting things to say about Pitfall II, which is my personal favorite 2600 game.
I remember when I was a child and I got The Lost Expedition on the GameCube. At the time, I never played the original title or even the sequel (or the numerous conversions), because, well, we didn't have an Atari lol.
I can say I really enjoyed how it played as much as I did Metroid Prime, often considered as one of, if not the best Metroid titles to this day. Controls were smooth, music was decent, and the story was cheesy, and the exploration from what I remember was really fun. I'm considering getting it and doing a playthrough soon as I get myself a Wii.
Edit: forgot to mention in my hyperfixated ramble, but I've been watching a few of your videos (Golden Axe, Altered Beast, etc) and I love the vibe you give your content. Informative, honest, and the rabbit hole of each game definitely pulls me in as the onion layers peel off
That's a pretty high compliment so I appreciate that. Thanks so much
9:57 My all time favorite arcade game! Used to play it religously in the arcade in the summer holidays as a kid. Had the rom for the mame emulator a few years back too and to this day its the only arcade game ive ever finished 👌
It's funny, we never had it around here and we had a number of arcades and bowling alleys. I only came across it on Mame a number of years ago
I like how the boss told the guys that anyone can program a game, to defend not giving them a raise, did he do that , just hire anyone to make the ET game?
To be fair to the designer of the ET game, he was on a horrific time crunch (about a month from start to finish) and as far as I know, he worked alone. Having played it and beaten it as a kid, I can say that the game could have been improved with more time... the worst thing about the game is the constantly falling down the holes. Well, and if you try playing the game without the manual, you'll have no idea what you're supposed to be doing.
Very nicely covered and as ever fascinating use of images and other system comparison videos. Pitfall and River Raid were quite a shock, it was almost like a new, more powerful console! Pitfall was classy, polished and very playable. A remarkable game, especially when apparently the VCS was only designed with single screen games in mind, such as Combat.
Many thanks! It goes to show how far advanced those four programmers were when compared to everybody else working at Atari
the Atari 5200 and 8 bit machines had identical code. We use to have disks full of atari 5200 games. This game on the 2600 literally was a fully summer for me and my childhood 'crew'
Pitfall was the first game I bought after I had my 2600 for Christmas 82, I think.
It cost £30. My dad was earning about £100 per week. My parents must have had some concerns about affording games in the future. Fortunately Atari went bust and I could pick up games for about £5 from Woolworths shortly after.
We didn't have a whole lot of money growing up so in 1983 when games dropped to five dollars we thought it was a sign from the heavens. Who knew what was really happening with the videogame crash. Thanks for sharing your story
This was my favorite game of all time at one point ("all-time" being seven years at that point in my life). True story.
MYSTERY SOLVED! When Jack Black first started to become popular, I was like "man, why does he look so familiar?" I must've seen that Pitfall commercial dozens of times as a kid.
LOL, glad I could help
Reminds of of Mac from Always Sunny was in a No Smoking commercial when he was a teen and could never realize why he looked so familiar to me when Always Sunny first aired.
I'm just now playing Pitfall for the first time - both Atari 2600 and Colecovision versions. Surprising, because I've played most video game classics.
It's a classic, especially if you grew up in that era
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries
I've always known of Pitfall and the references in shows like South Park, as well as the Supercade cartoon. For some reason, I just never got to play it myself. I'd say the 2600 and Colecovision versions are so far equally decent.
8:24
"But at least the game does play good"
Me (an author): WELL. THE GAME PLAYS WELL.
I am a hick from the sticks - specifically Illinois. What do you want?
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries hey me too! You a Yankee illinoisan or correct illinoisan?
To further elaborate correct illinoisan is Springfield south
Both are grammatically correct if you study linguistic anthropology just one is more common parlance. Always makes me laugh when people correct that because they are in fact incorrect. You can check this out by the way it is very true. It is like raising your pinky finger when drinking tea, also not what people think.
Thank you! All these years and I didn't know the sound was Tarzan. I remember getting calluses between my thumb and forefinger with all the hours of playing.
I remember the first time I heard of the technique, "bank switching" in an article about David Crane and Pitfall 2.
I've still got my patch ! I remember takng a Polaroid and sending it off
Excellent, that's a collectors item for sure
A great game! Going left was always the secret to beating it.
What's with that woman in the screen shot? I don't remember seeing her in any pitfall game.
She was the scorpion lol
She's the lure.
It's actually a pornstar named Lita Chase. Just Google Lita Chase Screaming Joy.
You're welcome😉
Patman has gone silent on this?😏
I havent played Pitfall in a long time as i enjoyed it. I agree, it should always stay 2D like many others.
I prefer the follow-up but the first one is still really good
Got the actual cassettes of the original Pitfall! game for my Atari 2600 and ColecoVision. I also got the original cassettes of Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure for my SEGA Genesis and Game Boy Advance. I even got the Activision compilation discs for my PlayStation 1 & 2. I also got Pitfall The Mayan Adventure downloaded to my Wii via the Virtual Console.
Wow, sounds like you are quite the fan :-)
Can't recall the name of that racing game that Activision had. You would drive on snow, at night in fog and so on. If you sent a picture of your score, you get an achievement awards. Those were the days.
Great video and entertaining. I only played Pitfall, The Mayan Adventure. Great game and still looks great.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you, yes the game still holds up
There is also a version of this in Marvel Ultimate Alliance where you have to save either Nightcrawler or Jean Grey from Arcade (voiced by Mark Hamill and sounding very much like his version of the Joker).
Thanks for the tip, I did not know that
I also mapped the best route for the best time. Wish i knew about the photo and patch.
WOW! AWESOME Throwback!
It's amazing how many short sighted fools are in charge of major companies that can't recognize the talented employees working under them who made it successful to begin with, like those mentioned here they often move elsewhere and leave the company to rot. It reminds me of a story about Thomas Edison, he was working at a telegraph office and his main job was to send a signal on the hour every hour to ensure the wires were still up, but one day his boss came in and found him asleep having created a mechanical device to do the job automatically. Instead of realizing he had come upon someone who was uniquely brilliant, talented and then (after reading him the riot act about goofing off) moving him perhaps to a research department where he'd be better used he just fired him on the spot.
There was actually an Arcade "Pitfall" Cabinet, I played it many times, in Goleta, California (in a moderate size arcade near Fairview).
There were many other classic Atari games there as well; I believe now that they had to be market test machines, as I have NEVER seen anything like them since!
I never got to see it in person but I was aware of it
I used to play this on a Commodore 64. I really miss those days.
You and me both, it was a grand old time
Back in the day, my two favorite Atari 2600 programmers were Activision and Imagic.
Those two are my favorites as well. I love the box art on IMAGIC games
It should be noted that Pitfall II also had a dynamic musical score. The music playing sounded exciting, subdued or tragic depending on what was happening to you in the game.
I remember hearing that Sony refused to have any PSX games which weren't 3D, so there were a lot of bad 3D versions of things. Then Dracula X / Castlevania Symphony of the Night was a big hit and they sorta changed their minds.
I can recall that happening as well. It's a good thing Symphony of the night came out when it did
I got SOTN , MGS, and FF7 w/ my psxwith $ from Xmas and first job, best game purchases I ever made all on one day, best game on a system of 3D hits in spite of its (gorgeous) graphics, easily elevates it to art, so many hours put into SOTN, best game
Was this game discontinued for today’s consols? I use to play the 92’ version in PC.. my fav game ever!
I don't know if it's available on any new consoles Or not
I found the mayan adventure for pc 🙏🏼
Great history. It's also a nice case study in branding. I always saw Activision games as a cut above other Atari games (and other Atari software brands.) But as a kid I never knew why.
Absolutely, it's amazing what they were able to squeeze out of the 2600. Thanks for the nice words
keep up the good work!
Thanks, will do!
Pitfall 2 was very fun and making it to the checkpoints were a big challenge. Imagine getting hit just before reaching the next checkpoint.
I preferred the second game over the first. It's a classic
Loved the history. Played the original Pitfall and Pitfall 2 games a lot. I was only disappointed that the iOS version in 2012 wasn't included in the video. It was the only other Pitfall game that I got addicted to playing. That aside, great job with this.
Thanks a lot
I actually had a 2600 but never played this game, thanks for the history lesson
Absolutely, thanks for watching
Have you done one of these for Colecovision's "Tarzan" game? I remember that one being a lot of fun (and having the Tarzan yell that Pitfall Harry did when he'd swing across on the vines).
No I have not
Another great video. Thanks!
Thanks for watching!
This cat is the Dr. DIMENTO of video games. Keep on!
LOL, thank you very much
I took a Polaroid picture of the screen when I finished Pitfall.
LOL, I did that with barnstorming
Really satisfying backstory on this one!
One of my favorite games. Am waiting on parts for my ATARI 2600 so I can hook it up and start playing some classics
It's definitely a classic And one of my favorites