Pitfall! (A26)

Pitfall!

Platform: Atari 2600 Year: 1982 Developer: Activision, Inc. Buy: Amazon

Pitfall! is one of the very first platform adventure games featuring several elements that would become mainstays of the genre including running, jumping, hopping over enemies, and climbing ladders. You control the hero, Pitfall Harry, and must guide him through the jungle in search of valuable treasures like gold and silver bars, bags of money, and diamond rings. All the while you must avoid a vast assortment of dangers including cobras, fires, pits, scorpions, tar pits, alligators, and a never-ending stream of rolling logs. The game ends when you've run out of time, lost all your lives, or collected the last treasure.

Screenshots

The title screen. Swinging over some gators. Beware the snake at the end of the tar pit. Just barely clearing the fire. Found a diamond ring! There's a silver bar, but I don't trust the empty ground.

Music

VGMPF Album Art

David Crane, being a programmer, not a musician, borrowed the fanfares of his audio from a couple well-known themes from television. The fanfare for swinging across the vine comes from Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan Yell, and the death theme is the popular five notes from the Dragnet theme, originally composed by Miklós Rózsa for the movie The Killers.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Listen	Download
01	Vine Fanfare	Johnny Weissmuller	David Crane	0:02		Download
02	Death Fanfare	Miklós Rózsa	David Crane	0:02		Download
03	Treasure Fanfare	Tommy Walker	David Crane	0:01		Download

Credits

• Ripper: N/A
• Recorder: TheAlmightyGuru
• Game Credits:
  • Developer: David Crane
  • Not Credited Vine Fanfare: Johnny Weissmuller
  • Not Credited Death Fanfare: Miklós Rózsa
  • Not Credited Treasure Fanfare: Tommy Walker

(Source)

David Crane, being the sole developer of the game, also programmed the audio, arranged the lifted fanfares, and created the new sound effects.

Game Rip

This rip is missing songs.

Format	Download
	N/A

The music has yet to be ripped. The current recording was made while playing the game.

Releases

USA Title: Pitfall! Platform: Atari 2600 Released: 1982-04-20 Publisher: Activision, Inc.     UK Title: Pitfall! Platform: Atari 2600 Released: 1982-??-?? Publisher: Activision, Inc.     Australia Title: Pitfall! Platform: Atari 2600 Released: 198?-??-?? Publisher: Activision, Inc.     Germany Title: Pitfall! Platform: Atari 2600 Released: 198?-??-?? Publisher: Activision, Inc.

Links

• mobygames.com/game/atari-2600/pitfall - MobyGames.
• atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=360 - Atari Age.
• gamefaqs.gamespot.com/atari2600/584972-pitfall - GameFAQs.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitfall! - Wikipedia.