What amazes me at times is what you can do with a limited amount of resources available. You know, you have a great idea, streamline it then squeeze everything in a tiny space that will entertain you and others for hours. That's how Pitfall was made – it was a concept made by programmer David Crane for which created a realistic running man however wasn't sure how to incorporate this fellow into a game. According to Edge Magazine which interviewed David, the entire idea of having this running man starring in what it now (then) become Atari's second best-selling game of all time Pitfall. Whilst I feel it was a great game, I wouldn't go as far as the second best Atari game of all time however squeezing this fun game into an 8k cartridge is pretty damn impressive.
So this mysterious running man now has a name called Pitfall Harry and his goal is to collect 32 pieces of treasure scattered over 200 plus screens. However Harry needs to be concerned about the numerous hazards like jumping over scorpions and snakes, dodging rolling boulders and hurdle over fire, careful navigate through crocodile infested waters and of course, the pit for which can suddenly open up with very little notice. Also it is multi-leveled and did I mentioned that you need to find all 32 within 20 minutes? It's difficult enough just to survive 20 minutes (unless you just stand there) in addition to collecting 32 pieces of treasure. And if that's not enough, you only have two lives.
So what's amazing about this game is that it's extremely fluent and fast paced platform game. Why this was astounding as many games during that time is either coded in basic, a war game of some sort, an adaptation of a board game or if you have hoards of cash, an arcade game. Of course there's nothing wrong with all of them however Pitfall brought the arcade feeling at home all slotted in 8KB of data. Also this game didn't have that ‘one screen syndrome’ (like Asteroids or Space Invaders) and being multilevel added a small twist to the game (as it can create a short cut…well almost).
To control Pitfall Harry is as simple as using the joystick to go left, right, up and down and pressing the fire button makes Pitfall Harry jump. However the highlight of this game is the pit as it suddenly open up from beneath you. Regardless if the pit is filled with water or simply a hole, you will die instantly thus wasting a life. However there are at times a swinging vine that once grab hold of it, swings across these hazards with the musical ‘Tarzan theme’ playing in the background or bypassing crocodiles in the water. Yet if you encounter those dreaded crocodiles and there's no swinging vine, you can only land on their heads otherwise their huge jaws will chomp you to death thus losing a life.
The game is extremely fluent to play as it's coded in assembly language. That's a feat in itself as a good number of games still use basic (thus executing very slowly). The entire screen is filled with vibrant colours to match as you'll come to expect when visiting the jungle; that is trees with lush green leaves, the ground brown and the tunnels, dark with a mixture of browns and black. Pitfall Harry's movements are very slick for its time and arguably the only other game that can match it is Decathlon (which happens to be another Activision game). Sadly there's no musical scores other than swinging on the vines yet even though the general sounds like jumping etc are nice, it can do with a little more musical scores.
Also another great concept of this game is at the start, you can go left or right without any limitations yet going from right to left is easier than heading from left to right. Again its ground breaking as most games don't have more than one screen little be known going either left or right. So if you are undecided what to play for the Atari system, this game is a great place to start as it surely displays the power of the Atari using just 8KB of data. That said, both the Atari 400 and 800 can play this game without any hassles. Whilst it's not the best game on the market for the Atari however it's certainly up there among the greats.