Forget Mario. Pitfall Harry is the OG platforming hero.

Left Is Right

Though most all of the 2D platformers to follow Pitfall! used the convention of having the hero run from the left to the right, this was not the ideal way to play Pitfall!. Indeed, the game starts off with Pitfall Harry standing on the left side of the screen, facing right. Savvy players would do an about-face and start sprinting in the opposite direction. The advantage to this unorthodox strategy was that the rolling logs would roll in the same direction as you, all but eliminating them as obstacles. More importantly, if you did end up perishing by fire, snake, or what have you, Harry would always appear on the left side of the obstacle, which meant you didn't have to deal with whatever killed you in the first place.

Running to the left can be the edge you need to find all the treasure in Pitfall!.

Though there were several options for video game enthusiasts who were looking for home consoles in the early '80s, the only real choice was the Atari 2600 Video Computer System. The stylishly wood-paneled console had more memorable, system-selling games than any of the competition, and many of these were published and developed by Activision, a publisher composed of ex-Atari programmers who jumped ship after Nolan Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Bros. Games like Kaboom!, Barnstorming, River Raid, and H.E.R.O. helped cement Activision's place in the world of video games, but the real coup d'état for this young company was Pitfall!.

Pitfall! is the only game from Activision's 2600 era to have turned into an actual franchise--and with good reason. By all accounts, Pitfall! is responsible for launching the platformer genre as we know it. Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, Rayman--all these guys owe some of their very existence to Pitfall Harry. Even without considering the countless number of video games that it both directly and indirectly inspired, Pitfall! is still an excellent game in its own right.

As jungle explorer Pitfall Harry, you had to make your way past all forms of jungle nastiness, and your ultimate goal was to collect all of the treasure that was hidden in the jungle in fewer than 20 minutes. Pitfall Harry's abilities were limited to running, jumping, climbing ladders, and hanging on to the occasional swinging vine, and you had to use these skills and your wits to avoid deadly scorpions, snakes, alligator-filled swamps, rolling logs, and bottomless pits. Actually achieving a perfect game of Pitfall! was a pretty daunting task, and unless you were some kind of savant, the only way you could realistically pull it off was by playing the game over and over and over again. Looking back, there's a graceful minimalism to the way Pitfall! plays, but at the time, it offered some of the most complex and nuanced gameplay you could find on the 2600.

Despite the fact that platformers have become a lot more sophisticated, especially since video games in general made the shift to 3D, it's surprising how little the fundamentals--like jumping around, avoiding enemies and obstacles, and collecting stuff--have changed since Pitfall!. It was a great game then, when it was one of the best-selling 2600 games, and it's a great game today. For its innovation, its longevity, and its sheer playability, we're proud to call Pitfall! one of the greatest games of all time.

Looking back on it now, it almost seems silly, but Pitfall! is totally one of the deepest games ever released for the Atari 2600. At the time, most games were simple one- or two-screen affairs that never really went anywhere. Pitfall!, by comparison, seemed like a lush jungle world, complete with underground secret shortcuts and tons of deadly snakes. It was totally mind-blowing at the time. And if I may make a short, shameful confession, I used to draw pictures of Pitfall Harry running at gold bars on most of my school folders. Pitfall! totally rips.