Pit-Fighter
Encyclopedia
Pit-Fighter is a 1990 arcade
game by Atari Games
, notable for its early use of digitized live actors. The Japan
ese arcade release was published by Konami
. The graphic animation for the player character(s) and opponents were created through a bluescreen
process, where the various poses & moves of the characters were acted out by hired actors in front of a video camera. The game's on-screen character animation are replays of the actual footage, not a rotoscoped (redrawn) animation as was common in other games. Live-action shooting reached a brief highpoint with later arcade titles such as Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam
, before gaming trends shifted away.
Pit-Fighter also has 8 unplayable opponents:
The gameplay is similar to Taito
's Violence Fight
and SNK
's Street Smart. The player begins Pit-Fighter by choosing one of the three playable characters, who all have different moves, speed, and power. As many as three people can play at a time, but there will be extra opponents to fight during any of this game's 15 different matches.
Every third fight is known as a Grudge Match. In a Grudge Match, the player must fight against a CPU controlled clone of his or her fighter (if playing alone) or the other players in a multiplayer game. Each player has three "knockdowns" - getting knocked down three times eliminates them from the Grudge Match, the winner is the last man standing. This match plays more like a bonus round
, in that there is only results are gaining or failing to gain bonus money, and losing the Grudge Match does not eliminate a player.
The final battle, the "Championship Match", is between the player and the mysterious entity that taunts between matches every once in a while, the Masked Warrior. If more than one person is playing the game before this match, they must fight each other to the death until only one becomes victorious and can fight him.
The player must jump, punch, and kick their opponent until his/her energy runs out. If the player presses all three of the buttons at a time, the character will perform a "super move".
Sometimes during matches the player will come across foreign objects such as knives, crates, sticks, motorcycles, and bar stools that can be thrown at you or your opponent. The player may also come across a power-up
known as the "power pill". If the player or the opponent grab this item, one will become temporarily stronger and take less damage from hits.
Sometimes even the crowd will interfere in the fights. Two characters, known as Knife Man and Knife Woman, will come out of the crowd and stab the player with their daggers. The player can take these nuisances out with one hit. Sometimes there is also a fat bearded man with a stick. If the player knocks him down, the player can take the stick and use it against the current opponent.
The audience will also push any fighter that ends up among them, and stays there more than a few seconds. They will be forced back into the fighting area.
The arcade version of Pit-Fighter was also featured in the Midway Arcade Treasures 2
(2004) video game for GameCube, PlayStation 2
, and Xbox
, as well as Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition
(2006) for the PC
. However, many gamers considered the arcade version superior to the emulated Arcade Treasures version on the Playstation 2, which was looked down as being inferior to the original game due to timing issues which Digital Eclipse was unable to correct as the game runs at a faster speed than the arcade original.
A prototype of a Pit-Fighter port for the Atari 7800
exists in an incomplete form. It has crude graphics, no sound and poor collision detection.
called Guardians of the 'Hood was released by Atari Games
. This game featured the same style of digitized characters seen in Pit-Fighter and the player could have 3 other players join simultaneously. The big difference this time around was it played like a scrolling fighter, beat 'em up
game and had a completely new cast of characters. Despite its digitized graphics
and unique gameplay
similar to both, Capcom
's Final Fight
and Sega
's Streets Of Rage
, this game was overlooked in the arcades
and never made it to the home consoles. The game was badly received by critics and gamers alike.
Video arcade
An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
game by Atari Games
Atari Games
Atari Games Corporation was an American producer of arcade games, and originally part of Atari, Inc..-History:When, in 1984, Warner Communications sold the Atari Consumer division of Atari Inc...
, notable for its early use of digitized live actors. The Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese arcade release was published by Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
. The graphic animation for the player character(s) and opponents were created through a bluescreen
Chroma key
Chroma key compositing is a technique for compositing two images together. A color range in the top layer is made transparent, revealing another image behind. The chroma keying technique is commonly used in video production and post-production...
process, where the various poses & moves of the characters were acted out by hired actors in front of a video camera. The game's on-screen character animation are replays of the actual footage, not a rotoscoped (redrawn) animation as was common in other games. Live-action shooting reached a brief highpoint with later arcade titles such as Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam
NBA Jam
NBA Jam is a basketball arcade game developed by Midway in 1993. It is the first entry in the NBA Jam series, and was written entirely in assembly language. The main designer and programmer for this game was Mark Turmell...
, before gaming trends shifted away.
Characters
Pit-Fighter features 3 playable fighters:- Buzz: A big and strong ex-professional wrestler.
- Ty: An agile kickboxingKickboxingKickboxing refers to a group of martial arts and stand-up combat sports based on kicking and punching, historically developed from karate, Muay Thai and western boxing....
champion. - Kato: A quick 3rd degree black beltBlack belt (martial arts)In martial arts, the black belt is a way to describe a graduate of a field where a practitioner's level is often marked by the color of the belt. The black belt is commonly the highest belt color used and denotes a degree of competence. It is often associated with a teaching grade though...
.
Pit-Fighter also has 8 unplayable opponents:
- Executioner
- Southside Jim
- Angel
- C.C. Rider
- Mad Miles
- Heavy Metal
- Chainman Eddie
- Masked Warrior
Gameplay
Taito Corporation
The is a Japanese publisher of video game software and arcade hardware wholly owned by publisher Square Enix. Taito has their headquarters in the Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, sharing the facility with its parent company....
's Violence Fight
Violence Fight
, is a 1989 fighting arcade game developed and published by Taito.Violence Fight was later added to Taito Memories Vol. 2 for the PlayStation 2, and Taito Legends 2 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Windows-operated PCs...
and SNK
SNK Playmore
SNK Playmore Corporation is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. SNK is an acronym of , which was SNK's original name. The company's legal and trading name became SNK in 1986....
's Street Smart. The player begins Pit-Fighter by choosing one of the three playable characters, who all have different moves, speed, and power. As many as three people can play at a time, but there will be extra opponents to fight during any of this game's 15 different matches.
Every third fight is known as a Grudge Match. In a Grudge Match, the player must fight against a CPU controlled clone of his or her fighter (if playing alone) or the other players in a multiplayer game. Each player has three "knockdowns" - getting knocked down three times eliminates them from the Grudge Match, the winner is the last man standing. This match plays more like a bonus round
Bonus round
A bonus round or bonus game, known in the industry as an end game, is a special round in a game show or similar contest. The bonus round usually follows a main game as a bonus to the winner of that game...
, in that there is only results are gaining or failing to gain bonus money, and losing the Grudge Match does not eliminate a player.
The final battle, the "Championship Match", is between the player and the mysterious entity that taunts between matches every once in a while, the Masked Warrior. If more than one person is playing the game before this match, they must fight each other to the death until only one becomes victorious and can fight him.
Sometimes during matches the player will come across foreign objects such as knives, crates, sticks, motorcycles, and bar stools that can be thrown at you or your opponent. The player may also come across a power-up
Power-up
In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...
known as the "power pill". If the player or the opponent grab this item, one will become temporarily stronger and take less damage from hits.
Sometimes even the crowd will interfere in the fights. Two characters, known as Knife Man and Knife Woman, will come out of the crowd and stab the player with their daggers. The player can take these nuisances out with one hit. Sometimes there is also a fat bearded man with a stick. If the player knocks him down, the player can take the stick and use it against the current opponent.
The audience will also push any fighter that ends up among them, and stays there more than a few seconds. They will be forced back into the fighting area.
Ports
- AmigaAmigaThe Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
(1991) - Amstrad CPCAmstrad CPCThe Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
(1991) - Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
(1991) - Commodore 64Commodore 64The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
(1991) - Mega Drive/GenesisSega Mega DriveThe Sega Genesis is a fourth-generation video game console developed and produced by Sega. It was originally released in Japan in 1988 as , then in North America in 1989 as Sega Genesis, and in Europe, Australia and other PAL regions in 1990 as Mega Drive. The reason for the two names is that...
(1991) - Sega Master SystemSega Master SystemThe is a third-generation video game console that was manufactured and released by Sega in 1985 in Japan , 1986 in North America and 1987 in Europe....
(1991) - SinclairSinclair Research LtdSinclair Research Ltd is a British consumer electronics company founded by Sir Clive Sinclair in Cambridge. Originally incorporated in 1973 as Ablesdeal Ltd., it remained dormant until 1976, and did not adopt the name Sinclair Research until 1981....
ZX SpectrumZX SpectrumThe ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
(1991) - Super NESSuper Nintendo Entertainment SystemThe Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
(1991) - PCPersonal computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
(DOSDOSDOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
) (1991) - Atari Lynx (1992)
- NintendoNintendois a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
Game BoyGame BoyThe , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
(1992) - TigerTiger ElectronicsTiger Electronics is an American toy manufacturer, best known for its handheld LCD games, the Furby, and Giga Pets. When Tiger was an independent company, Tiger Electronics Inc., its headquarters were in Vernon Hills, Illinois....
(199?)
The arcade version of Pit-Fighter was also featured in the Midway Arcade Treasures 2
Midway Arcade Treasures 2
Midway Arcade Treasures 2 is the second collection of classic arcade games published by Midway for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. This compilation includes 20 games that were not in the 2003 release of Midway Arcade Treasures or the 2005 release of Midway Arcade Treasures 3.The game plays...
(2004) video game for GameCube, PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, and Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
, as well as Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition
Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition
Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition is an arcade compilation released exclusively for the PC on February 17, 2006 in North America, and on March 17, 2006 in PAL regions. It is a compilation of Midway Arcade Treasures 2 and Midway Arcade Treasures 3, which had both been previously released on...
(2006) for the PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
. However, many gamers considered the arcade version superior to the emulated Arcade Treasures version on the Playstation 2, which was looked down as being inferior to the original game due to timing issues which Digital Eclipse was unable to correct as the game runs at a faster speed than the arcade original.
A prototype of a Pit-Fighter port for the Atari 7800
Atari 7800
The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a video game console re-released by Atari Corporation in January 1986. The original release had occurred two years earlier under Atari Inc. The 7800 had originally been designed to replace Atari Inc.'s Atari 5200 in 1984, but was temporarily...
exists in an incomplete form. It has crude graphics, no sound and poor collision detection.
Sequel
Issue 49 of EGM (August 1993) had a two-page preview of the planned sequel which the magazine claimed was over 75% finished and would be released in the 4th quarter of 1993 on the Genesis. Kato, Buzz and Ty were returning along with three new selectable fighters: Connor (Karate Champion), Tanya (Roller Queen) and Chief (Ex-bodyguard). Pictures showed two CPU fighters, Helga (level 1) and Jay-Jay (level 2). No further information was ever given about this sequel, but the screenshots show that the game appeared to be a rehash of the first game, graphically speaking, just with new characters.Related game
In 1992, a fighting gameFighting game
Fighting game is a video game genre where the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as...
called Guardians of the 'Hood was released by Atari Games
Atari Games
Atari Games Corporation was an American producer of arcade games, and originally part of Atari, Inc..-History:When, in 1984, Warner Communications sold the Atari Consumer division of Atari Inc...
. This game featured the same style of digitized characters seen in Pit-Fighter and the player could have 3 other players join simultaneously. The big difference this time around was it played like a scrolling fighter, beat 'em up
Beat 'em up
Beat 'em up is a video game genre featuring melee combat between the protagonist and a large number of underpowered antagonists. These games typically take place in urban settings and feature crime-fighting and revenge-based plots, though some games may employ historical or fantasy themes...
game and had a completely new cast of characters. Despite its digitized graphics
Graphics
Graphics are visual presentations on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to brand, inform, illustrate, or entertain. Examples are photographs, drawings, Line Art, graphs, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols, geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings,or...
and unique gameplay
Gameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and player's connection with it...
similar to both, Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
's Final Fight
Final Fight
is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up game originally released by Capcom as a coin-operated video game in . It was the seventh game released by Capcom for their CP System arcade game hardware...
and Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
's Streets Of Rage
Streets of Rage
Streets of Rage, known in Japan as , is a side-scrolling beat 'em up released by Sega in 1991 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It is the first installment of the Streets of Rage series which was followed by Streets of Rage 2 and Streets of Rage 3. The game was also converted over to Sega's Game...
, this game was overlooked in the arcades
Video arcade
An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
and never made it to the home consoles. The game was badly received by critics and gamers alike.
Trivia
- Several of the characters share the names of the actors who played them.
- In the player select screen in the arcade version, each player has a color to select the fighters with. For player one is blue. For player two is red. And for player three is yellow.
Cast
- Buzz: Bill Chase
- Ty: Marc Williams
- Kato: Glenn Fratticelli
- Executioner: John Aguire
- Southside Jim: James Thompson
- Chainman Eddie: Eddie Venancio
- Mad Miles: Miles McGowan
- Heavy Metal: Kim RhodesKim RhodesKimberly "Kim" Rhodes is an American actress, who portrayed the role of "Cindy Harrison" on two different soap opera series, Another World and As the World Turns, as well as Carey Martin in the Disney Channel sitcom The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and The Suite Life on Deck, where she played the...
- C.C. Rider: Rich Vargas
- Angel: Angela Stellato
- Masked Warrior: Bill McAleenan
- Knife Woman: Dianne Bertucci
- Knife Man: Milt Loper
- Finale Women : Tina Scyrater, Maria Lenytzkyj