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Interview With Pitfall! Creator, David Crane
Bill Kendrick writes "Good Deal Games recently interviewed David Crane, creator of 1982's Game of the Year, 'Pitfall!' (as well as many other titles for the Atari 2600 and other systems). Topics include the 1000s of fan letters Activision received every week, the firing of Bill Gates, and how tennis helped bring Activision together."
Ask Naughty Natalie a Question
Sweet! Wasn't Elevator Action also on that platform? Oh, well, it's too bad they don't still have those in stores.
At least these should still work:
http://www.zophar.net/unix/atari2600.html
Calm down, it's *only* ones and zeroes.
See, if he hadn't gotten his hands on others code, he'd have gone nowhere ...
shockwave version of pitfall
http://www.langleycreations.com/pitfall/
If that one guy at Activision had just kept Bill Gates, Windows might never have existed?
Wow, that's messed up!
Hot on the tails of the latest Linux release, Tetris, will come the jungle adventure Pitfall!
Although at first it won't work on most systems, it promises to be one exciting game!
Other top Linux releases this year included Civilization II, Quake II, and Lemmings. What fun!
LoL. Go Back to GBS
To recall the greatest feat (if indeed you can associate great feats with video games :) involving this game.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/12/19/235023 4&mode=thread&tid=127
"The saddest words of mice and men, are not those which were, but should have been."
Although David Crane is most famous for his Pitfall! creation, I personally prefer David Crane's A Boy and His Blob, which ran on the 8-bit NES system. The story line of a the boy's blob, and his jellybean consumption is unique. I'd recommend every reader check out the review at SA...I usually don't link to them but in this case I'll make an exception.
"The lesson to be learned is not to take the comments on slashdot too literally." --Vinnie Falco, BearShare
Evidently not. He probably would have quit, however, he was an insidious genious. He knew stalling the Atari project for a year would help his future plans: World Domination of course.
A.) Pitfall was awesome. B.) I used to mess around with the AC input to my Atari, and when I did this when the Pitfall cart was in the console, Pitfall Harry was able to fly. Why did this happen?? C.) Was there an end to Pitfall? I heard rumors that there was, and when I was able to make Harry fly, I thought for sure I would reach the end (since a flying Harry never had to worry about alligators or scorpions)...but I never did.
I like the last question, it has a good point!
- MT> You been quoted as stating, "man will always use his most advanced technology to amuse himself." Care to elaborate?
Most advanced tech used for amusement... yeah, that fits. Just off-the-cuff I can think of a bunch of examples:DC> Quotes are a funny thing - there are as many attributed to me that I didn't say as there are things I said many times that are easily forgotten. The best line I didn't say was, "It's a jungle in there!" referring to Pitfall! But the quote you mention has been referred to as "Crane's Law", and I firmly believe it.
(Snip the part about electric model airplanes)
- Gamers driving the high-end PC market
- Doom 3
- $400 GeForce/Radeon/Parhelia graphics cards
- Any sports car from Ferarri/Porsche/Mercedes/BMW/Audi/Acura/Lexus/you
r favoritebrandhere
- Insanely huge home theater installations
- Should I even point out that the porn industry was the first to release material using the advanced features of DVD? Or that they drove the adoption of videocassettes?
I'm sure other people can come up with even more examples.(For that matter, look at street racers putting Acura VTEC engines in their Honda Civics!)
"...America's great minds of today, teaching America's great minds of tomorrow. Poor bastards." -- A Beautiful Min
Pitfall was my favourite game when I was a kid. I'd say it's a tie between Pitfall! and Super Mario Bros. as to which game really invented the platform game genre.
Pitfall! is what originally got me programming. I remember doing a simplistic platform game in GWBasic using ascii characters. That lead to learning Pascal and C and eventually my career as a Programmer/Analyst.
Activision also deserves kudo's for keeping those programmers/designers from being forgotten. Of course, that lead to the whole rock star image conscious industry that spawned the likes of John Romero.
Whatever happened to that guy anyway?
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
And they're both child molesters.
I wonder what he thinks of the recent South Park episode that features Pitfall! when the priest goes into the catacombs.
Pitfall ruined my brother's childhood. After watching me play Pitfall he was deathly afraid of the water (and tar pits for that matter) and never learned to swim. Of course, scaring the crap out of your little brother is every big brother's responsibility. Thank you, David Crane.
Compound Words: A Proofreading Pitfall
by Janis Butler Holm
You've eyeballed your copy, run your spelling checker program, and tested your friends' devotion by requiring them to read this latest masterpiece. Now you're ready to submit it for publication. Right?
Maybe. But are you sure about your spelling? What about those little problems that spelling checkers can't find? What about compound words that require hyphens? What about compound words that should be one word instead of two?
English spellings, though they sometimes follow simple rules ("I" before "E" except after "C," etc.), just as often reflect their accidental evolution in a living, changing language system. Or they may generally follow a set of logical principles, but the number of exceptions to those principles makes learning the rules an almost pointless exercise. Such is the case with the spellings for compound words, many of which defy our commonsense expectations of consistency. (Dictionaries give us "grandaunt" but "great-aunt," "hardheaded" but "hard-hearted," "night table" but "nightstand." We must "hand- feed" but "handpick," be "house-proud" but "house poor," spend a "half-dollar" or a "half hour.")
Recent editions of THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE include a fairly extensive set of rules for spelling compound words, a multipage reference chart that provides answers to any number of usage questions. Here we can find that noun + noun combinations are generally hyphenated ("author-critic," "city-state") and that the name for a "grand" relative is always spelled as one word ("grandniece," "grandfather"). We can learn that "quasi" noun compounds are spelled as two words ("quasi union," "quasi contract") but that adjectival "quasi" compounds are hyphenated ("quasi-judicial," "quasi- stellar"). However, other rules are more complex, and few writers will want to memorize the numerous guidelines that appear here in small print. And the lists of exceptions are not comprehensive, which means that, in many cases, the writer will need ultimately to consult a dictionary in order to be sure of the correct spelling.
To complicate matters further, Internet usage has generated a legion of new compound words. Though you can find these in various versions on the Net, lexicographers (dictionary editors) seem to be favoring one-word spellings, as in "cyberspace," "email," "homepage," "hyperlink," "newsgroup," "online," and "username." But they also seem to have settled on "Web site" instead of "website," so it is clear that the one-word form will have its exceptions. Just as for older compound words, careful writers will be checking their dictionaries.
Are there any shortcuts when it comes to checking compound word spellings? Given the frequency of compound words in English and their extraordinary variety, the answer is, unfortunately, no. Unless you have a day job as an orthographer, as a professional scholar of letters and spelling, the chances are good that you'll need to consult a dictionary when proofreading copy that includes compound words. While spelling checkers can find two-word compounds mistakenly written as one, and while orthographic rules can generate good guesses, the dictionary remains the best and final authority.
One thing that always inspired me to try to play a perfect game of Pitfall was the music. Nice and cheery and adventurous, until you died. Then it got depressing and never got cheery again.
did I just see a Microsoft Add on /.?
Run! Run! The End of the World is Nigh!
Dear Naughty Natalie
What do anal beads feel like?
These days, I can scream and yell about how horny I am in the middle of the Leacock Lobby and no one will bat an eye, but talking about what my friends affectionately call 'deep ass play'? That's a different story. Anyway, I do realize some people are a little squeamish about things to do with the rear entrance and I understand the whole scatological aspect of the area, but I think people are far too reluctant to experiment with anything beyond the choda. I personally take a very selfish stance on anal play. I belong to the anal school of you can do it to me, but don't expect any reciprocal work from me. I know, I know, I'm a greedy little fiend in bed. Needless to say, I was extremely intrigued by this question. Having never tried these saucy little delights, I decided to do a little research. Hey, you never know, I might end up wanting to give them a little go.
According to analtoyguide.com, the most important thing about anal beads is lubrication and relaxation. No one wants dry beads in a tense asshole! For a beginner such as our intrepid questioner, you want to avoid the golf ball sized beads. It's all about gradually building up to the size you feel most comfortable with. The most pleasurable part of anal beads should be the removal, not the insertion. What anal beads do is stimulate the sensitive areas of the rectum and sphincter and can provide orgasmic joy for both the ladies and the gents. If the beads are inserted deep enough in the male's rectum, they'll stimulate the prostate and lead to the Big 'O', and I'm not talking about the stadium!
I asked this girl I used to work with who has done pretty much everything on the map about anal beads. I guess she liked them because she spent an hour telling me about her experiences. Apparently, the combination of vaginal penetration and anal beads made her feel so "full" that when her boyfriend pulled the beads out of her, she had the most incredible orgasm. Sweet!
As always, don't forget to play safe. It's important to disinfect the beads in antibacterial soap and hot water after using them and remember to never insert sharp edges into your anus. Ouch!
He helped start a company that took work-for-hire, no-credit-getting designers and gave them the credit they deserved...
And he later formed a company where he basically does games for corporations in a work-for-hire type situation. His name isn't even mentioned in the "about us" section of his company website.
Not that I lose any respect for him - I'm no elitist, anti-corporate type. Just figured his name would be on the website...
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
Pitfall
Host: Alex Trebek
Announcer: John Barton
Airdate: Syndicated Sep. 14, 1981-Sep. 1982
Packager: Catalena Productions
Origination: Panorama Studios, Vancouver, B.C. (Canada)
Opening Spiel:
"Today, every wrong step could bring disaster as our players attempt to cross this bridge and win a prize package worth $2,500 (later shows)/over $5,000! So watch now as they brave the dangers to win a fortune on Pitfall!" Premise: Two contestants competed in a "Family Feud"-esque maingame to play one of the best bonus rounds in game show history. RULES:
The game is played between two contestants, a returning champ and a challenger. A question is asked of the studio audience (ex.: "What's the hardest thing you've ever tried to do in the back seat of a car?") w/four possible answers (in this case, "drink," "eat," "read," and "undress") selected by the audience members via individual keypads.
The contestants must then decide which of the four answers was the most popular among the audience; whichever player won a coin toss prior to the show gets to select an answer first, and his/her opponent then chooses from the remaining three. Once both contestants have "locked in" their answers, the most popular answer is then revealed, and the player who chose that answer gets one point (BTW, everytime a player scores his/her first, third, and fifth points, s/he recieves a "pitpass" for use in the Pitfall Round; more on that later). If neither player chose the most popular answer, no one scores. In any case, another question is asked, and this time, the player who didn't score on the first question gets first choice of the four answers.
The winner is the player who scores five points first or is ahead after five minutes of play (whichever comes first); that player advances to the "Pitfall Round".
"The Pitfall Round":
In the first part of the Pitfall Round, the contestant is shown a light show to aid him/her in the selection of pitpasses. The contestant faces a giant bridge divided into eight sections; the safe sections light up once, and the three "pitfall" sections light up twice. (to listen to the mystical music that accompanied the light show, click here ) When the light show is completed, the contestant then selects 1, 2, or 3 pitpasses (depending on how many s/he earned the right to in the maingame) for the sections s/he believes to be "pitfalls", and Alex and the contestant then make their way to the top of the bridge.
Now the main part of the Pitfall Round begins. The contestant has 100 seconds to answer general- knowledge questions; for each correct answer, s/he recieves $100 and advances to the next section. When the contestant reaches a section which s/he has a pitpass for, s/he gives the pitpass to Alex and steps over that section to the one immediately after it. (BTW, Alex would not automatically take a pitpass; as a few contestants learned the hard way, the pitpass had to be offered, or else it wouldn't be taken!)
If the contestant steps onto one of those three booby-trapped "pitfall" sections, that section sinks into the floor, and the player remains in the "pitfall" until s/he answers another question correctly, which will stop the clock and bring him/her back up again; the clock starts again when Alex begins reading the next question.
Should the contestant successfully make it across all 8 sections in the alotted time, s/he wins (as announcer John Barton states during the intro) "a prize package worth over $5,000!" (usually a trip or a new car).
NOTES: A personal fave of mine as a child, this show is famous for its great set; the set used for the maingame slid in at the beginning of the game and then split away for the Pitfall Round. And that bridge was great, too, with its bright colors and flashing lights, not to mention the great music (including a cool theme song with a jazzy saxophone solo!). Near the end of the show's run, a small prize was awarded when a contestant reached the fifth section in the Pitfall Round (the lit panel display for that section, which originally read "$500", was changed to "PRIZE"), and the value of the grand prize was reduced from $5,000 to $2,500. Catalena Productions, which produced Pitfall, folded in 1982, resulting in the show's cancellation. Sadly, this occured before they were able to pay off many of the contestants who appeared during the show's final weeks, and those contetstants never recieved their winnings. However, the contestants weren't the only victims. When host Alex Trebek signed a contract as Pitfall's emcee, he agreed to deferred payment for tax purposes. Little did he know, however, that his pay would be deferred permanently... STUPID ANSWERS: "As to the questions used in the bonus round, you didn't need to be a genius to answer them, but then, the contestants that they picked for 'Pitfall' were hardly geniuses!" - Mandel Ilagan, GS fan
To further illustrate Mandel's statement, here are a few select "Stupid Answers": Q: In bowling, how many strikes does it take for a perfect game?
A: 12; the contestant responded "3" Q: How many quarters in a baseball game?
A: This is a trick question; baseball games don't have quarters, they have innings. The contestant responded "Four" Q: What was the family name of the children in the story of "Peter Pan"?
A: Darling; the contestant responded "Jones" Q: Where would a woman wear her "Peter Pan"?
A: On her blouse; it's a collar. The contestant responded "Underneath"
(I thought this was a family show!) Q: What hero's theme song was the "William Tell Overture"?
A: The Lone Ranger; the contestant responded "William Tell"(!) Q: What does a milliner do for a living?
A: Makes hats; the contestant responded "Mends shoes" Q: Budapest is the capital of what country?
A: Hungary; the contestant responded "Turkey" Q: The continent is Australia. How many countries are on it?
A: One (Australia); the contestant responded "Ten" Q: You're in a race car; your right foot is on the brake. What is your left foot on?
A: The clutch; the contestant responded "The floor" Q: You went hunting, and you just shot a brace of quail. How many did you shoot?
A: Two; the contestant responded "27". Q: What do you call a pig that's being fattened for meat?
A: A porker; the contestant responded "Bacon" (to which Alex quipped "You got in too late!") Q: The doctor just checked your patella; what did he check?
A: Your kneecaps; the contestant responded "My throat".
Pitfall! was! the! first! game! that! caused! me! to! write! with! lots! of! exclamation! marks!
Hooray! for! Pitfall!
Burma?
The ins and outs of matchmaking for cranes
Put that chocolate down, hold the wine and roses, and take yourself back to the dark side of Valentine's Day. You remember, that day your sophomore year in high school that began with the discovery of a new 18-megawatt zit and ended in tragedy when [insert teen proto-love interest here] said they wouldn't go out with you if you were the last person on the planet.
I know, this harsh remembrance is not exactly sanctioned by the good folks at Hallmark or FTD, but do it anyway. Do it for the whooping cranes. With barely 200 living in the wild and fewer than 100 scattered at a handful of captive sites, this ancient and imperiled bird is living that nightmare. If you think it's challenging to locate a soul mate on a planet overrun with 6 billion of your species, at least you've got options. One can only hope the whoopers don't really know the depth of their predicament: talk about performance anxiety!
Raising Crane
It is the good fortune of whooping cranes that George Archibald does not suffer from performance anxiety. Archibald cofounded the International Crane Foundation in 1973, and has since turned the headquarters in Baraboo, Wisc., into a nexus for worldwide crane conservation efforts.
In the early 1980s, Archibald played suitor to Tex, a mildly dysfunctional whooping crane who had spent far too much time as a house pet. "Tex got pretty old before she saw other whooping cranes," explains Scott Swengel, ICF's curator of birds. "The older a crane gets before it sees another opposite-sex individual, the harder it is to pair it. She was hopeless by the time we got her. She was completely in love with men. George understood enough about crane behavior to realize that she needed to think she was paired to lay an egg. Whatever it was she was paired with, it didn't matter. So he figured he would just have to spend his own time dancing with her. She really liked him."
The dancing was successful, and with a little whooper semen flown in from Maryland's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Tex laid her first fertile egg. It was also her last. Just 24 days after the egg hatched, Tex was killed by a raccoon.
Archibald's ministrations to Tex were extraordinary, but other ICF staff members also go to great lengths as they play Cupid, pairing up cranes and working to preserve as much genetic diversity in captive populations as possible, with the ultimate goal of safeguarding wild populations. In the sprawling pens of ICF's Crane City, all 15 species of crane have been successfully bred.
A matchmaking session begins with a look at the studbook, which contains the known lineage of all the captive birds of a species. From there, a bird's relative importance to the gene pool is assessed. The math is complicated, but generally speaking the fewer living relatives a crane has, the more valuable it is. "I'm thinking about it always," says Swengel. "The extreme measures that we'll take to get a bird paired is proportional to how valuable it is genetically."
There is some room for true love amid all the chromosome counting. For example, when the studbook keeper for Ginger and Bubba, a pair of whooping cranes, suggested that the two might not be the best genetic match, Swengel didn't want to break up the amorous couple. "I don't want to lose a pair that lays eggs every year and can raise chicks for us and possibly have one of them hurt their new mate. They're both really mean and strong birds."
Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Hatch
ICF staffers always take a close look at records about birds' past social endeavors, down to minute observations about how the cranes behaved during previous social engagements. Matchmakers can't be cavalier because the stakes are high. In the wild, when a date goes poorly, one or both birds simply fly off. In the Crane City pens, where the cranes can't leave, a bad date can lead to a battle to the death.
When aviculturist Tori Kaldenberg began efforts to unite two Siberian Cranes, Lance and Moda, she proceeded with appropriate caution. After the birds had spent some time in adjacent pens, Kaldenberg decided that they were ready for a first date. She brought Moda, the male, to Lance's pen and watched as the two hovered like nervous teens, standing not too close but not too far away. Yet something wasn't quite right: When Moda threatened Lance, she would back away or retreat. "They seemed to be interested in each other but she still was just a little too submissive."
It turned out that all she needed was a set of high heels. Kaldenberg built a mound right where Lance normally stood. "She would use the mound, and I think it gave her the feeling that she was a little more dominant," says Kaldenberg. The birds grew more comfortable until finally they were always within 10 feet of each other.
Next Kaldenberg let them spend every day together for a week and a half. "When we separated them for the night, probably the last three or four times, she would always give us a threat." It was clearly time for the sleepover. "Once they've spent the night together, they're pretty much married. It's like letting your teenager go out for a date the first time. You can't monitor them at night." The very next morning, Lance and Moda became an official item.
The cranes are more like humans than you might imagine. For example, there are pairs that are just friends. "The challenge is for us to recognize those before we've spent eight years waiting" for them to mate, says Swengel.
Then there are the nut cases, somewhat like those couples that do well enough together, yet you pray they never have kids.
For example, Lance's former love interest, Bazov, took fatherhood a little too seriously: He wanted to incubate everything. "He would even invent things to incubate, he wanted to incubate so bad," says Swengel, and his odd behavior intimidated Lance. "She would be over at the far side of the pen acting like she was afraid of the whole thing, and he would be there sitting on nothing. Even though they got along fine as cohabitants, their dynamic about what was going to happen when eggs were laid was totally screwed up."
But while Bazov may have been a bit of a pill with Lance, all it took was a little amorous alchemy to make a happy ending. "We found a different female [one Dr. Saab] who was more experienced and used to incubating," says Swengel. "We put 'em together and they mated and raised a chick all in the same year. Both Lance and Bazov got new mates, and I think both of them are happier."
The Take-Home Lesson
Are there any secrets stored away in the ICF Kama Sutra that you might use to liven up your love life?
For starters, shower regularly. Brolga and Saurus cranes breed in sync with the rains, so ICF uses sprinklers on timers to simulate a rainy season for these tropical cranes. Use mood lighting. The breeding cycle of Siberian cranes is triggered by the length of the Arctic days, so ICF simulates an Arctic night.
And you can't beat slow dancing. Crane mating rituals are more complex than we can get into here, but try to imagine those long necks and wings and legs prancing and unfurling in timeless pursuit of procreation.
You might even want to bring your date to ICF for vetting by the birds. Swengel insists that the cranes are far more perceptive about us than we are about them. "They can tell if you like the person that's with you, and they can also tell if it's your mate or not your mate. And they can tell if you're married; they can tell if you ought to be married, or shouldn't be married. People who have bad marriages? They don't even treat you like you're married."
Could it be that we've got it all wrong, that the cranes should be making matches for us, and not vice versa?
"Probably," says Swengel, chuckling. But it's no joke. "Wild animals apply themselves more to understanding human behavior than humans apply themselves to understanding wild animal behavior."
Anyhow, if you've never seen it, check out this music video inspired by various Atari games (including Pitfall!).
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
3dfx (you still remember them right?) had a series of ads along these lines a few years ago. They were patterned after those pharmaceutical company ads about how their technology is bettering the planet. Transcript from one:
[file footage of children running through grassy fields, etc.]
What could we do with a chip that performs a hundred billion operations per second? Why, we could bolster the world's food supply. We could use our chip to genetically engineer juicier fruits. Hardy, mineral-rich vegetables. Tastier greens. And tender, all-white-meat chickens. We could use our technology to feed the world.
But then we thought -- hey, we could use it for games!
[All the food disappears from people's plates, and the camera pans to screenshots of games]
3dfx PC accelerators -- so powerful, it's kinda ricidulous.
And from another:
[File footage of doctors and old people and such]
We have in our possession a chip -- a chip that could revolutionize medicine as we know it. By performing a hundred billion operations a second, this chip could help us heal across continents. We could touch more lives, help people live longer than ever, and give us all more time to cherish the journey's truest rewards.
But then we thought -- hey, let's use it for games!
[The life-support equipment stops working and everyone dies, pan to screenshots of games]
3dfx PC accelerators -- so powerful, it's kinda ridiculous.
[Doctor from the earlier file footage shots says "you know, that game's a little violent for my tastes"]
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Except it was Don Rickles and Frank Sinatra.
Steal so it doesn't show, asswipe.
i don't care about this interview, doubt anyone else does either. this website sucks. bye.
In the Superman cartridge, if you flipped the reset switch a few times, you could fly up from the phone booth and fly around as Superman without needing to see the bridge blow up.
Pitfall! was defiantely a classic, howver I think it was Pitfall II for the atari 2600 that was truely groundbreaking and possibly the best game ever made for that system. It definately foreshadowed the side scrolling adventure games of the NES and Sega master system. If I'm not mistaken, it actually had a slightly different chipset than the standard 2600 game. Definately worth checking out on an emulator if you didn't catch it the first time around.
We know its you John Romero!
the firing of Bill Gates
/. withdrawl)
I was disappointed... he was fired from an Atari project, not fired from Microsoft (Thought I missed something good over my weekend of
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't
Why, in gods name, are there "tons of sites about" a gaming platform that has Been Dead For Twenty Years?!?!??
Xboxen are cheap, so are ps2s. Get a fucking life jerkoffs.
Wow. I always liked that Hogan's Heroes show. Yeah.
This month's Retrogaming Radio has an interview with David Crane. As much as Shane R. Monroe tries to push Mr. Crane into complaining about the "whoring out" of Pitfall (in recent PSX versions of the game). He responds by basically saying that it's ok for other developers who now own the rights to the Pitfall name, do as they please with their investment. This month's episode also has a review of that new act labs light gun.
There is a way much better interview at retrogamingradio.com (its like 30 minutes long and its in mp3 format and that is only like 1/2 the interview)!
"DC> We were advised that nobody could stop us from pursuing our craft simply because we had honed, or even developed that craft while working at a company. That is all we did when we left Atari to form Activision. Had we stolen company secrets or other materials it would have been different. But we walked out empty handed and reverse-engineered the 2600 for any technical information we needed."
In this day and age of "we own you",and other legal riffraff. Pitfall and other such would have never existed.
OMG Comedy Jon Stewart!
So how many of you still have your Pitfall Explorer's Club patch?
Then, the poor sod had no choice but to open his own business? One can imagine how the world would be if one single little stupid decision wasn't taken...
Hey I wonder what he thinks of the South Park episode in which the priest has to go to the vatican and go through the catacombs which look like Pitfall to get to the sacred document!
Kaboom! was one of those games that you could always play again.
A friend of mine had bought Pitfall and Megamania when they came out. I remember getting to 114,000 on Pitfall after weeks of effort, taking a picture of the screen and sending it in to Activision to get some kind of badge. Naively I was hoping to get at least something special, but I just got the normal badge, no special mention or anything like that. Hey, I even made my mother find two of my friends in the street, so they could see that I really did it.
I think the memory of reaching 114,000 and playing Megamania until the game froze at a score of all 9's are some of my best memories of the Atari 2600. Thanks David Crane and Activision!
What was the text of the plate then? The obvious "PITFALL", or something else? And yes, I've done the obligitory searched with Google, and no reference appears to spell it out, so to speak.
Not a huge deal - but an opportunity for the Karma-hungry.
Ryan Fenton
I was in Grade 4 (1984), and I picked David Crane as the person I wanted to shape my future career around. Of course, I was the only one who knew who David Crane was, but I've always had a special attachment to him. Thanks David, Dan
Yes it is and the reason why gaming companies don't promote developers anymore is really simple, you don't want to be dependent on the reputation of one developer for the sale of game, otherwise they will have all the cards come renegotiation time.
Is that you?
I never owned an Atari. My experience with Pitfall was on the Intellevision. Lord, that game confused the heck out of me. But still, as a young kid, it drove my imagination wild. I'd have dreams that I was Pitfall Harry, swinging over gators and leaping scorpions in search of treasure.
I remember the TV I would use had the absolute worst red settings. When you'ld play and made Harry run left, it looked as if he had long, red hair that flew in the breeze behind him. Of course, turning around to the right would slap the "hair" into his face. My friends and I would amuse ourselves with that little TV glitch for hours on end.
After the demise of my InTV, Pitfall faded from my scene. Then Super Pitfall came along, and it just had to have the original game hidden in there. Nothing but good memories of a great game came flooding right back. And they say games rot your brain. Horse Hockey! Glad I was alive when this game rolled out. Kids today are too spoiled with their Quake 3 engines and their MMORPGs. Of course, they wouldn't even give it the time of day, given it's outdated graphics and all.
Those kids gotta learn that you can never know where you (or your games) are going if you don't know where you (or your games) came from. Big thanks to David Crane for giving a young me such a fun memory.
Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
Never really got into Pitfall, for me it was all about Jumpman on the 64.
I was hoping they would mention Super Pitfall, the abomination that forever ruined the Pitfall experience in my mind. For those who aren't familiar with the title, Seanbaby sums up the experience pretty accurately.
Anyway, I wonder if David had any involvement in Super Pitfall. I highly doubt it.. but even if he did, who would fess up to that?
Somebody mod this thing up...
db
Cig:
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Reminded me alot of pitfall when I played it... So I'm not suprised.
God spoke to me
Even if it wasn't him, great game. Gotta find an emulator for that one.
Wow, that is amazing!
(For those of you who doubt it, ping the two sites, thesource.ofallevil.com and www.microsoft.com. Enough tries and you'll get the same ip address for either!)
There are reasons why democracy does not work nearly as well as capitalism.
-- David D. Friedman
Harry ran through the hot, sticky jungle. His shirt was drenched with sweat and sticking to his body.
"Dear God, not another pit. And alligators. Why does it always have to be alligators?"
Luckily, this pit had a vine swinging over it, so Harry wouldn't have to hop on the alligators' heads like the last pit. He eyeballed the jump, trying to time when to make the leap to grab the vine.
He jumped... and missed, falling into the pit. The alligators were on him in a minute, teeth bared. Harry pulled out his knife and stabbed the first one in the eye.
"That'll show you, you bastard!"
To Harry's amazement, he was getting excited. The blood and adrenaline had made him hard.
"Alright, who's next? I'm gonna shove something up your butt if you're not careful!"
The next alligator was a big one, 16 feet long. Harry eyed the monster with glee. The alligator lunged, Harry sidestepped and grabbed the alligator from behind. He flipped it over.
"Aye, that's some sweet alligator bum!"
Harry threw away his knife and pulled out his turgid cock. It throbbed with anticipation. Harry rammed his thumb into the alligator's browneye to open it up, then plunged his member deep. The alligator screamed.
The other alligators, apparently stunned by this development, became aroused. One alligator mounted another. The third and last had no partner, so with it's engorged penis it mounted Harry. Harry, feverishly thrusting into the first alligator, nearly came when the alligator entered him.
The inter-species coupling pumped for five minutes and culminated when all three came. Alligator spunk filled Harry's now-bleeding anus and spilled out, spreading down his legs.
Harry tiredly climbed out of the pit. He noticed in the distance a hole in the ground with a ladder going down.
"Y'know, I could really tap some scorpion ass right about now..."
And he later formed a company where he basically does games for corporations in a work-for-hire type situation. His name isn't even mentioned in the "about us" section of his company website. [skyworkstech.com]
Here.
I never did send in screen shots for any of Activision's patches. I always meant to get around to it (I earned the ones for Pitfall!, Chopper Command, and Starmaster, at least, and possibly others) but never did. Pathetic as it may be, I've been regretting it ever since (yes, that's correct - I have no life ;).
"For those of you who doubt it, ping the two sites, thesource.ofallevil.com and www.microsoft.com. Enough tries and you'll get the same ip address for either!)"
;-)
Wow! Finally proof!
What I want to know is... how did he get past all the water lizards?
I have a bridge for sale... Interested?
Retro Gaming Radio has part one of a great interview with David crane, recorded at CGE last month. Very funny, very insightful. It goes into various aspects of the industry, and how its no longer about games, its all about the money.. It's nice to listen to interviews like this with golden age gaming developers and see exactly where all the ideas came from, and how pitfall was created, how to play laserblast, ghostbusters, pitfall2 ports for the c64 and atari800.. anyways don't take my word for it, listen to the show!
It makes me wonder why music industry is the only industry where the product creators are made celebrities. I mean I bet Quake has sold more copies than Madonna's latest album but I don't see John Carmack's face in the news papers or not even in the Quake retail box.
There are a few fans out there writing homebrew stuff for it still!
A real masochists' machine though, printing "HELLO" on the screen is an accomplishment :-)
The above post is an editorial, the poster cannot and will not be held responsible for all or in part for it's contents
Activision also deserves kudo's for keeping those programmers/designers from being forgotten.
Wasn't that why activision was founded? :-) because atari hid their designers away?
I note that Carol Shaw, the River Raid programmer, doesn't seem to want to mention that on her web site.
I just played it for 15-20 minutes and ran across a wierd easter egg in one of the first screens when going to get the first diamond ring to the left. (I did go down the subway on the first screen.)
A giant penguin dropped out of the trees and stood at the left hand side of the screen. Freaked me out. I was able to walk right through him though; he didn't do anything to me.
No joke!
Someone actually completed this game flawlessly.
My favorite part was jumping across the aligator's backs! That game was so addictive.
What were his royalties for having Pitfall! spoofed on South Park (the molesting priests episode)
?
It's funny..yesterday I decided to whip out my Commodore 64 emulator (x64 on linux) and I played all the old games I liked. I never liked the shoot em ups, but I DID love Pools of Radiance and Legacy of the ancients....LOVED those games..the ONLY thing I couldnt do yesterday was play them! You need the damn translation wheel to start the game..did anyone really KEEP theirs? So I could't play them :( So, I decided to boot up Alter Ego (my next fav game) and played that for 5 hours straight..I made it to Adult w/o a hitch! (Although I got kidnapped and raped at 8..thank God for the save game feature ;))
If you're not a Liberal in your 20's, then you have no heart.If you're still a Liberal in your 30's you have no brain.
Help me out here...
I vaguely recall playing Pitfall for hours in an attempt to achieve a certain score, in order to join the Pitfall! club or something.
There was information on the box, or in the packaging, and when you achieved a certain score (assuming you took a photo of your TV) -you could join the elite club. I think it was like 10,000 or 20,000.
I've not played this game in ages, but perhaps someone can help me out with this vague memory.
--
Um..
what? what I thought we were in the trust tree in the nest, were we not?
Pitfall! must! have! been! the! inspiration! for! Yahoo!
--
I romp with joy in the bookish dark
"I'll say it again, the people arguing with me are the ppl who hate Microsoft. People sure say strange things in a state like that."
Someone's applying for politicalhood.
NanoGator: Vote for me because my competitor doesn't like me.
Jeeezz, grow up.
It was one of the best Atari 2600 games that Activision made! I think it had its own sound chip.
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