DF Retro: Pitfall - The Mayan Adventure - A Truly Special 16-bit Platformer!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 พ.ย. 2018
- John Linneman returns with a brand new DF Retro, this time concentrating on one of the most fascinating 16-bit platformers of its era.
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The more DF retro the better.
I might be in the minority, but I subscribed just for the retro videos. I don’t own or plan to own any of the current gen system and don’t have any interest in the latest graphics cards.
I know what you mean, but the the really great retro games have been discussed to death already. Do I really need to see the 100th video on Super Mario World, Sonic, Or Donkey Kong Country? No. I actually found this video very interesting.
I couldn't agree more!
@@youtubesuresuckscock I genuinely enjoy playing this more than Yoshi's Island but clearly YI is the better game...but it's also been discussed into the ground. There have been so many videos, podcasts and articles made on Yoshi's Island and other popular games. I cover some of the big games too, of course, but I really enjoy diving into more obscure titles like this. I don't think I overestimate the importance in terms of history, however. This was tied directly to Activision's rebirth, it was a sequel to the first platformer ever, it followed the hand drawn animation route rather than DKC-like CGI using a different studio than anyone else, and it started the relationship with Soundelux for Activision. Also, the fact that later releases are almost uniformly worse than the original releases is an interesting quirk.
@@youtubesuresuckscock This was my first video game and platformer and I was about 5 years old or so. This is where I learned a lot of the basics and common tropes. It made Crash Bandicoot make sense when I got to it a few years later.
The mayan Adventure was a gorgeous game. I really enjoy these long df retro videos.
I agree. It is a pity that this game did not receive due respect from the gaming public.
Nice video - terrible game - there are about a dozen times in the footage where u can see how bad the hit detection is. You hit the enemy... & no reaction. This game is way too laggy for 16 bit. That animation when u run into a wall, and fall over - DUMB. This is animation first, gameplay second.
@@bigcheesepuff1 A lot of the beloved, well-animated 90's platformers had similar problems too though. As much as I love the games, the likes of Aladdin, Lion King and Earthwork Jim also had a few moments of hit detection shenanigans.
@@Noobsaibot21 - Lion king had problems, Aladdin's issues were minor, and EWJ is one of the best games every made - not in the same league.
What always gets forgotten how much better these games looked on a CRT.
They all look amazing on a crt
crt is masterpiece for Sega
Never thought I’d ever hear John say “filthy jungle beats”.
Honestly Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is the perfect sequel to Pitfall. It’s the logical evolution of Pitfall. The original game was so simple, so it would’ve been hard to create a full game (in the 1990’s) from it, but the setting of Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is perfect, and the art style and the challenges presented are exactly what you’d expect from Pitfall if it was made in the 1990s.
John, here's some info about the PC version that you might find interesting.
I just tried running the game on my Win98 PC, with a Voodoo 3 (also tried a Permedia 2 for good measure). There are a few video options, but all of the windowed modes have some screen tearing - or should I say, background tearing? The character runs fine, but the scrolling is not smooth. The only way to make it run smooth is to set full screen mode and vsync. This limits your resolution to 320x200 (lower than the Megadrive version) because for some reason 320x224 runs impossibly fast.
Now here's the kicker: in 320x200 the monitor is actually running at 720x400 and 70hz. This was a standard DOS mode. Many old games targeted a framerate of 35/70fps for this reason. So it seems that the background actually wants to run at 70fps, rather than 60fps, since any 60hz screen mode creates tearing. But... here's the other kicker... apparently the speed of the game depends on the framerate. So on 70hz mode the game runs a little faster, and perhaps a bit too fast for what was already a difficult game.
So the PC port might seem good, but it looks like you must choose a poison - between jerky screen scrolling and sped-up gameplay. Arguably, slight screen tearing is better than the framerate problems on modern Windows, but it's still not ideal. I don't know why they did this weird background, anyway. Might be a remnant of DOS-era development.
Yeah, so this is interesting. On a 486DX/2 66MHz, the 'smooth' mode DOES run correctly but I've never seen it work properly on fast PCs. Low-end Pentium systems seem OK with it as well.
I noticed the frame-rate thing after finishing the video, annoyingly. I discovered the 'framerate' cheat which shows 69fps on my system the entire time but I couldn't capture at 70hz and the video is 60hz anyways so it always looks a little weird.
...but yeah, it is a weird one in terms of performance. I wish this version had been ported elsewhere.
Wouldn't a 75Hz display solve that issue though? These days they can be had pretty cheap, and many even support Freesync.
@@BE3R-LF94 no, it needs to specifically support 70hz. And nowadays, most cheap monitors seem to only support 60hz or 75hz. Freesync doesn't seem to matter, because Windows only sees 60hz and 75hz as supported modes. I spent an entire day trying to set my current Freesync monitor to 70hz, to no avail. The only solution might be to use an older monitor. EDIT: I got Dosbox to work properly by disabling GPU scaling. It helps, but my monitor on 720x400 only runs at 68hz so it's not quite as good as the real thing (not to mention the sound lag)
@@The86MLK Last time I checked, AMD's Frame Rate Target Control (when it works) is accurate to the frame. You still get the odd 1-2 frame variance, but 90% of the time, the framerate you choose is LOCKED. I guess I should test that myself, since I own a copy.
Windows 95 and 98 still ran on the DOS kernel. They were basically running on top of DOS and shared all the libraries with DOS.
That's why you had many games that came with both DOS and Windows executables on the same disc.
One of my very favorite TH-cam channels.
Thanks for every video you guys put out there.❤️
Once again I end up captivated, watching a 30 minute video on a series I've never played. DF Retro is the full fat experience.
Man Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure would be a really good game for a remake/sequel. In the future, if some company wants to revive an old franchise, Pitfall would be a brilliant idea! It’s a great platformer that could really benefit from modern HD graphics, and a new 2D side scroller would be awesome to see!
Probably the coolest thing would be to see basically the first 2D Platformer be revived. That’d be amazing! Could you imagine how cool it’d be to see such an ancient series again? Who wouldn’t buy that!?
I miss this series. You would have thought Activision would have at least brought the series back in an attempt to rip off Uncharted back when that franchise was all the rage.
Why rip off uncharted when you have the game everyone tries to rip off: Call of Duty
@@wile123456 Because ripping off Uncharted via Pitfall would seem like the natural thing modern day Activision would do that I'm surprised they never went down that route.
I agree, why they never did this is beyond me. I mean, Harry even looks as if he was voiced by Nolan North XD
I do love the artstyle of the Lost Expedition^^
I would love to see Activision do a Pitfall game in the style of Uncharted or Tomb Raider.
Activision released an endless running version of Pitfall back in 2012. It was basically a reskinned version of temple run and they never updated it to work on modern ios devices.
John, seriously man, this DF Retro thing is some of the BEST content available on youtube. Absolute top drawer, i look forward to every single new video you do with this series. Thanks.
I originally played this game on genesis, and liked it. But later on, got it for Windows, and man, I loved that version of the game! I haven't tried to run in on windows 10, but was able to get it to run pretty well on windows 7. I remember before win7, I had trouble getting the audio to work. Who knows. If you can get the windows version to work, then Im willing to bet its the best version to play!
Back in 1994 the only two games my parents bought to me were Sonic & Knuckles and Pitfall. I love them both. The fact that John gives some space to these games on DF Retro is amazing. I always wanted the 32x version because in magazines looked so good. I think I dodge a bullet :P
Wow, thanks for the history lesson John!
My dad gifted me a copy of this game for windows and I used to play it for hours!
It became like an icon of my gaming childhood and I kept the original copy that I of course still have (I think it came in a bundle with earthworm jim and battle arena, the latter I lost but was the worst of these).
Now I will appreciate it even more knowing that is a history achievement!
15:10 on a consumer TV back then, you wouldn't see dithering EVEN with RGB Scart. I had RGB with Mega Drive and PS1, and basically discovered dithering while watching screenshots from the internet on my PC CRT monitor in late 90s. Production monitors SHOULDN'T be taken as a reference for "archeo-CRT look".
Agreed, I prefer a consumer RGB crt for gaming, as opposed to high TVL reference monitors. People are obssessed with the latter thought, which I find strange. My Sony consumer 25 inch RGB set has "only" around 500 TVL(which is low compared to PVMs) and it's still perfectly sharp to render old games in detail. Hell, I even love the 400 TVL sets, really nice "grain" (or texture I suppose) to those, and still perfectly harp. I own(and have owned many) professional monitors, but my consumer Sony tube is by FAR my favourite for gaming. A more "organic" picture, if you will. More blooming(which looks awesome) and less pronounced blanked lines. I do like the PVMs and others for watching anime DVDs and 4:3 Blu Rays though :)
I agree with you. Games of the era were never disgned to be played on production monitors. They were designed around the quirks and limitations of consumer CRTs.
True.. Sony Wega Trinitron is the way to go.. Hassle free and chaep or even free pick up..
The games were made and color graded using PVM's so yes, they actually should be used as a reference.
I can understand Americans, who don't have easily access to RGB... but here in Europe you can finde a SCART-eqippued CRT literally everywhere fro free.
Thank you for featuring these almost forgotten games in all that detail and comparing the different versions so extensively! This makes DF Retro so unique and fun to watch. Can't wait for the next episode!
Yeah, it's really refreshing. Gaming past seems weirdly... selective. It's like every gaming generation has a few winners and the rest is chopped liver. It's very different from film and music, where it seems like everything is remembered. But the pop culture pool of gaming history is pretty much confined to Sega, Nintendo, Sony and Atari's 2600 console, then the classic arcade games. People don't talk about the Mayan Adventures, or Stimpy's Adventure, Space Station Silicon Valley, Zool, Gex, or countless other oddballs that were successful at the time.
And while these games aren't all perfect, you just know that some people grew up with them. They're worth remembering and musing over.
Well done! This is also one of my favorite 16-bit games. I have it for the Sega CD and it just oozes quality. It is also one of the reasons why I prefer to use composite cables for my Genesis over anything else to blend the dithering. Thanks.
I'll be over here crying about 16-bit River Raid being canceled :( :(
Yeah, I remember seeing some screenshots of the remake in EGM or Gamepro. Thought it looked really cool.
I can be having a really terrible day, but then a DF Retro video comes out and everything's okay for a half hour. :)
Pitfall 2 on the 2600 is simply mindblowing
The wonders an extra chip on the cartridge can do, eh? Pitfall 2, Lagrange Point on the Famicom, Starfox and DOOM on the SNES, Virtua Racing on the Genesis (whose SVP chip served as the base for the 32X, funnily enough)...
This video is such a treat! Thank you for sharing this!
DF Retro is the greatest piece of content on TH-cam. Keep it up 👍
Chipmunk Harry on GBA “Whoa!” Was hilarious!
Absolutely!
My immediate reaction was "is he a mouse now?!"
DF Retro means this will be a good day
I just glanced at the title and saw "Pitfall" and "16-bit" and momentarily thought John had lost his mind.
I'd completely forgotten this game even existed.
Another fantastic DF Retro video. Keep up the great work
I never really got into this game, but you get a thumbs up just for the nostalgia. And because DF retro is awesome.
80s kid.
I have a copy of Pitfall the lost expedition sleeping on my shelves since years.. I guess I'll have to play it!
Thanks for covering games older than 3 months.. It's always great to re-visit or even discover those classics from the past.
This game was my childhood. It was a brutally hard game especially the later levels. They don't make games like this no more.
Now we have "difficult" games like the Dark Souls series, where most of the difficulty comes from trial and error.
Such a shame.
Oh, you want hard games with this sort of theme? There is La Mulana 1 & 2 which are inspired by Indiana Jones and 8-bit gaming. And of course Spelunky which is inspired by Spelunker.
@@AvatarEquis Nice. Thanks. I've already played Spelunky but La Mulana looks great. Will get that on Steam.
@@GrimReaperAlva Right On!
@Avatar X Checked the trailer, looks damn good. The music sounds like Megaman/Super Nintendo-ish mixed with an adventure theme. I might give this a shot, thanks for the tip.
>Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure
That's a DF Retro episode I never anticipated, but I welcome it wholeheartedly.
Man you always make these DF Retro videos top notch. Great episode
The greenest of evergreen content. Always a pleasure to watch
The enthusiasm you bring to DF Retro always makes these videos a treat! The Mayan Adventure is a beautiful game, worth remembering; now if only we could get a restored release of the Windows 95 version on a service like GOG: that would be amazing.
This was a fantastic retrospective. I first played the Sega CD version back in the day and thoroughly enjoyed it. Being port-curious as I always am, I checked out all the other versions and came to basically the same conclusions you did. So many of the conversions are disappointing in one way or another (or more), and it's interesting to find that the 16-bit originals are still the best ones to play.
Please continue with this retro stuff!!! In 1994 , at this time there is no technical group that could verify the accuracy and differences betweens consoles port games amongst arcades ! In 1994 I got this game and I knew the Genesis version was slightly better than the snes , but anyone do not trust me!
Thanks for bringing this game to my attention, it's really well animated, yet feels much more "action-y" than, say, Flashback.
Thumbs up!
This video made me buy the game (Genesis version) ;)
I remember back when I was in grade 3 and trying to run the game on Windows XP. It must have been around 2002. I had trouble launching the game but somehow, through troubleshooting was able to make it work and had a blast playing through and eventually finishing the game.
Wow, I completely forgot that I owned and played the hell out of this back in the day. Nice!
Funny. We didnt really have the tech analysis back then when we was kids to this degree like now. Yet we enjoyed these games.
This came included with my dad's IBM Aptiva in '95 when I was a kid. It was probably the only non-educational game my parents let me play for a few years before they relented on Command and Conquer and Doom... good times.
Bruce Campell as Pitfall Harry alone makes Pitfall 3D an instant classic in my book. I still have my old PS1 copy and did play it a little bit just to see if it still worked. It did and the story had me in stitches! :D
This is more like a classic DFretro for me. You picked a game you loved growing up and did a deep dive on every version and it's a great video as always ! I always loved the look of this game but never enjoyed playing it much and after watching this that may have been due to playing it on snes.
I would really love to see a DF Retro: Commander Keen
yassss
Windows 95 represent. The only version with a built in level select.
Well, technically, the other versions have level select as well but you have to enter a cheat to use it so it's annoying. The WIn 95 version saves your progress so you can choose any level from the menu at any time. Super awesome!!
And it's the only one with improved graphics + CD audio soundtrack.
It's the best version for sure.
They weren't inspired only by Aladdin but also The Jungle Book (Mega Drive/Genesis version, also by the same Virgin). As someone who grew up playing those two a whole lot, I can say with confidence that this game has VERY similar animations to those. And it doesn't end there. I actually had to do a bit of research (to my surprise I never seen this game before in action) because based on what's shown here I could swear this was also a Virgin game. It's not, but I'm still not convinced there isn't some crossover (would need to look up the credits for both, which I might just do). It's just too damn similar.
My first memory is watching my grandpa play level 2 of this game, and as a 6 year old, I kept begging for the controller until he finally gave in and let me play 😀
Thoroughly enjoyed this detailed analysis. I have always enjoyed this game on Sega CD. And Genesis. It is a worthy and honorable sequel to David Crane's original two.
Imagine a Pitfall Reboot in the style of Tomb Raider/Uncharted.
Make it cinematic yet comical and cel-shaded to look like the pulp magazines of old, and I think we've got a winner in here! :D
I do need a Modern Indiana Jones game
Funnily enough, tomb raider and uncharted are already pitfall reboots.
You would get either Tomb Raider or Uncharted, depending on the genre you gave to the main protagonist xd.
It would be nice to have a Tomb Raider-like adventure that's ESRB E or T and isn't an edgy gorefest
For some reason when you said you were doing a "Pitfall" video the other day my mind jumped to and got confused with "Flashback" for some reason. Glad you mentioned the comparison, made me feel better about my confusion. Keep up the good work!
Pitfall: The Lost Expedition was one of the best game i've ever played !
Great episode! I have very fond memories of playing this game on my dad’s work 166mhz pc. The graphics were superb
One of my favorite SG games. What a wonderful in-depth look back at all the versions!
Pitfall on the Atari 2600 had a secret cave that would open if you swung on the line 3 times. It would have a gold bar inside it
Awesome content as always! Thank you!
I love DF retro. John's doing god's work.
Loved this game as a kid. Started out my gaming on the atari with the original pitfall, so when this game came out, I was all about that Sega CD version. The soundtrack was superb.
What a surprise to see this game featured! I am also a big fan of the SEGA CD version, with its deep surround jungle sound FX, stirring music and extra levels. About every winter, I hook up the SCD and play this on my Panny plasma, using composite cables -- no dithering. The animation tech seems very similar to the Virgin and Shiny games.
The montage of this episode is awesome! Transitions are really good!
This game,was fun. I can sit down and play these old school games any day.
I love Pitfall the lost expedition
Amazing analysis. You have the experience and knowledge to do this job. Thanks.
Great video! I did not know there was a Jaguar port. The first time I played it was on a friend's SNES, where his dad had to beat the bosses for us. Then got GBA one, and even still I enjoy it for what it is, Chipmunk Harry and all!
Amazing work as always, John!
Fantastic documentary. Had insights in business, development, technology, really interesting stuff.
Whoa the PS1 version, I like that running animation (in side view). The animators even did the thing where he’s running in one direction and his head looks back behind him in a different direction! That’s excellent.
Oh man! No one talks about this game. I got it randomly for my birthday one year on the Sega Genesis and really enjoyed it. No one else I knew had played it or even heard of it. It was nice to see a comparison of all the versions and see the history behind it. Awesome.
My only problem with the game was I had massive crashing issues with it on the Genesis. I was only a able to finish it once because of this. It was frustrating getting to the end of the game just for it to lock up on me. Agh. I probably had a bad copy or something.
Excellent video, DF Retro is one of the main reasons why I subscribe to this channel.
Did you try using any virtualization tools to get it running on a modern PC? I was wondering what results you could get it if you used something like VMware workstation with a Windows 95 image.
I can't believe I watched the whole video... it was interesting. Keep the retro content coming!
Thank you for covering this. This was new to me.
These DF Retro video are so awesome. more please
Nice work John, I learned a lot on this one.
Btw good on you for talking about how composite video, on crt with scanlines is how Megadrive games were ment to look.
Way too many people online have a talked about robot farts and bad colours because they played on shitty emulators on their PC lcd screen on 2006.
This isn't how anything looked or sounded at the time.
I really think this is how so much of the revisionist history started online.
I had this for PC back in the day when I was a kid. My dad got rid of it and I never got to finish it. So this was a bit of a nostalgia trip. Great video, as always!
Was this well thought of in the US? Because in the UK it was mostly ignored as being fairly average.
Best of the best !!!!!! Lovely episode!!!! Thank you !!!!
Thank you john! Yet another excellent retro video
Man, these long videos with the multi port game comparisons are the best.
always wonderful the material produced by DF
Thank you for this particular DF Retro!
I love them all but, Pitfall The Mayan Adventure is one of my favorite games I played on the SNES.
Hopefully Pitfall will return one day.
Glad you enjoyed it! I was hoping some folks would enjoy this one. :)
I was 11 when the original pitfall was out in 1982, would run home from school just to play this :)
Thanks for another fantastic episode 👍
Fantastic video as always John! Keep 'em coming :)
Very good DF!!! Nice technical flashback!!!👏👏
Df retro is the best thing youtube have since LGR
I remember when my mother got her first computer. It had Windows 95 and came with a CD with a bunch of random software on it including a demo for Pitfall. It only had the first level but I was hooked. I didn't get the full game until years later and loved it. Unfortunately, as said in the video, it runs poorly on modern systems. Luckily emulating the Sega CD version is a decent substitute.
This is a nice trip down memory lane. Speaking of bonus games included in the game, why not do some retroperspective on it too? The one I remember mostly was "Tiny Phalanx" in Zero Divide for the Playstation. The funny thing is, I played the bonus game more than the main game itself.
I love this retro series. Please keep them coming.
Fantastic job John!
7:50 "when I need some quick action"
I find it interesting that I've owned the Mega CD version of this for a very, very VERY long time, but probably not played past the waterfall section , that I can imagine is level 2.
I think I was distracted by the 32X & Saturn launches, and Sega's arcade games. They were absolutely mind-blowing back in the early-mid 90s.
Add that to Gunstar Heroes, Sonic 3 & Knuckles and the Beat 'em Up craze with SFII & MK3 especially, and I reckon it was simply crowded out of my gaming time. By 1996 I had a tonne of school work, then I was learning Windows / DOS / Novell stuff at college, and Grand Theft Auto came along for the PC as well, before I knew it.
That was one hell of an interesting time in terms of tech and games. What an era. Didn't even mention the Internet.
I'll have to revisit this game, and give it the time that it clearly deserves. Nice recommendation.
I also have 'Trapfall' which is a Pitfall clone for The Dragon 32/64 & Tandy Color Computer. It's amazing that this stuff was simply a part of our lives, even though we were all influenced by the titles in different ways.
Fantastic video. Keep it up!
My favorite PC game as a kid, played it all the time. I was disappointed many years later when I couldn't find a version that matched the quality of the PC port.
Man, it's incredible how good Aladdin still looks! That few seconds were enough to bring back a lot of 16-bit memories.
I'd never heard of this title beforehand, such a curious era for Western platformers! Fantastic analysis!
John back at it again with amazing DF retro.
Thanks for this episode, John. I have some really great and warm memories about this game. To me it was a sleeper hit and was amazed when found it, specially when it was around the time DKC was all the rage. Fun fact, I remember reading in Gamepro that the ambient sound was recorded in the Costa Rican rain forest, therefore its high quality. Keep up the great job (also hoping for an update to the Symphony of the night video to add the Requiem version. That thing is horrible in many ways)
Oh man i still remember as an 9 year old playing Pitfall on pc way back in the day.
People often argue whether the SNES or Mega Drive/Genesis Aladdin is better but I just say look at what came after. All the big Disney games after Aladdin were closer to the Mega Drive/Genesis style than the Capcom version. Aladdin also went on to inspire Earthworm Jim and this game here. This cinematic/animated era of gaming is one I remember and love dearly and it is celebrated by this fantastic video.
A Magic carpet DF retro vid would be fantastic PC/PS1/Saturn with 3d glasses etc.
John you might want to get one of those glass GBA replacement screen. Excellent video as always!!
DF Retro Rocks
Great video 🤙 Loved this game on the Genesis