Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
Encyclopedia
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns is a platforming
video game originally released for the Atari 2600
video game console
in 1984
. It is the sequel
to the popular Pitfall!
. Both games were designed and written by David Crane
and published by Activision
. The star of the games is Pitfall Harry, an 8-bit jungle explorer, the game's plot was later remade loosely into Super Pitfall
.
s, scorpion
s, cobra
s, and quicksand
. Although the background does not scroll until Harry reaches the edge of the screen, the game was one of the first large platform game
s for a home video game console
. Lost Caverns stays true to the gameplay of the original but greatly expands the scope of the environment, as Harry now descends deep into the catacombs. In addition to the scrolling style of the first, this game adds the element of vertical scrolling, as when Harry falls from a cliff or flies around after grabbing onto a balloon.
While faithful in many respects to its predecessor, Lost Caverns featured numerous changes to make it play differently from the original game. Pitfall Harry has unlimited time and lives, making it impossible to "lose" the game; when Harry touches a dangerous creature, he simply loses points as he floats back to the last continue point (marked with a red cross
) he touched.
Unlike the original Pitfall!, which has a ground level and the underground, Pitfall II has 27 horizontal levels that are predominantly the same height, each being stacked one on top of the other. While these levels span the full eight screens in length, they are not openly accessible all the way across, as some portions are blocked by cave walls that force Harry to travel through other areas in order to progress. Quicksand and tar pits are replaced by rivers and chasms, neither of which is deadly to fall into (though dropping onto a hard surface will cause a loss of points). Balloon
s allow Harry to ascend to new areas. The game does not have the snake
s or crocodiles of the original, but scorpions are still present. New animal hazards include bat
s, which fly across some screens from left to right; condor
s, which start by flying right to left, then reverse and fly left to right the remainder of the visit to that screen; Electric eels
that swim in the rivers; and frog
s that jump over some pits that have ladders, often above where a bat is present.
Two new unplayable characters debut in Lost Caverns: Quickclaw, Harry's cowardly pet mountain lion, and Rhonda, his adventure-seeking niece. Both of these characters also appear with Harry in the Saturday Supercade
children's cartoon based on the Pitfall games (in fact, Rhonda and Quickclaw were created for Saturday Supercade a full year before this game was released). Collecting Rhonda, Quickclaw, and a diamond ring
is necessary to win the game. In versions without a second cave, upon collection of all three, the game ends on the spot. The maximum possible score is 199,000 (which differs in the Atari 8-bit and 5200 versions, see Adventurer's Edition below).
While Quickclaw is visible on the platform below the starting point of the game, he is inaccessible from this point, and Harry must traverse nearly the entire cave in order to reach him. On the screen to the right is a creature called the "cave rat". Harry can drop into the first river through a hole in the third screen. From there, moving one screen to the left brings him to the location of the cave rat. However, the cave rat at this point cannot be passed, and will push Harry back into the water, thereby blocking access to Quickclaw and its own collection. The cave rat can be accessed after reaching Quickclaw by approaching it from behind (on the left side). When it reaches the right side of the screen, it will stop, and its collection will result in 15,000 being added to the score.
Another enhancement over the previous game is the addition of a soundtrack. The musical cues act as subtle rewards and punishments for performance. The main "heroic" theme plays for a short while before reaching a loop of atmospheric music. When Harry collects a treasure, the main theme begins again. If Harry dies, a slower, minor key version of the theme plays, continuing until Harry succeeds at finding more treasure. Finally, if Harry ascends using the Balloon, Sobre las Olas
("Over the Waves") is played.
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns was one of the largest games ever created for the Atari 2600
and featured elements previously considered impossible on hardware that was already six years old at the time. Smooth scrolling, detailed animation, and a musical score that includes multiple channels were all made possible by custom hardware built inside the game cartridge. Crane designed and patented a component he called the Display Processor Chip (DPC), which could greatly enhance the 2600's graphics capabilities and could process music in 3 channels plus drums. Crane hoped that the DPC would be used by other game designers to further extend the life of the aging console
, but the video game crash of 1983
made this moot.
to the game, that would be playable after the initial game was finished.
Marketing would not allow the two versions to be different, and demanded that the additional game be stripped from the Atari version. Instead, Brad Fregger
, the producer, and the designers decided to leave it in and make it an easter egg.
The new level was more complex and, in many ways, more challenging than the original one. The new challenges include a set of new creatures: rabid
bats, which fly in a more erratic pattern and reverse directions upon reaching the end of the screen (they also do not appear for several seconds after reaching the screen, thereby "surprising" the player); frogs that traverse the entire horizontal screen and follow Harry, rather than simply jumping over a pit; fire ant
s and piranha fish
, both of which move very fast and are very hard to avoid. Rabid bats can be avoided by jumping as well as slipping under, fire ants must be jumped a total of three times in order to pass a screen containing them, and piranha fish swim randomly in either direction.
Ladders do not just climb from one level to the next, but cover great distances without connecting to all levels they pass, thereby making reaching certain points maze-like. Broken surfaces with numerous gaps make crossing without falling difficult. Some gold bars are accompanied by dangerous creatures that must be avoided in order to collect the treasure.
The mission in the second cave is to collect four props: a rope, a pot, a trumpet, and a snake charmer. After each of these is collected, it is transferred to a certain platform, where if visited the words "CHARMING THE GOLDEN ROPE IS PITFALL HARRY'S ONLY HOPE" scroll across the bottom of the screen. If reached after all four items are collected, the snake charmer plays the trumpet, and the rope rises up from the pot. This allows Harry to reach the ground level, and the game is won.
The ground that is reached upon winning is not at the very top of the cave, and it is actually visible during the game as a blank platform from an area of the cave directly above its location. The platform is not accessible while the game is being played. Only after winning does it assume the appearance similar to the game's start.
and released in 1984
, but it was also faithfully ported
to the Atari 5200
, ColecoVision
, PCjr, CoCo, Apple II
, Atari 8-bit
, MSX
and Commodore 64
systems.
, Sega
licensed the game from Activision and turned it into an arcade game
, which turned out to be a cartoonish hybrid of both Pitfall! games. A home port of this game also appeared on Sega's SG-1000
game console in Japan.
This version, unlike the original one, does feature lives, which can be lost upon being harmed. There is also a timer, which can be replenished for 30 seconds, by collecting treasures. There are only four levels in the game, and the progression between them is linear: one level must be cleared by touching a key in order to continue to the next one.
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
video game originally released for the Atari 2600
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
in 1984
1984 in video gaming
-Notable releases:* May 10, King's Quest , the first animated adventure game, the first in the King's Quest series, and the first to use the AGI engine.* June 4, Nintendo releases Donkey Kong 3...
. It is the sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to the popular Pitfall!
Pitfall!
Pitfall! is a video game released by Activision for the Atari 2600 in 1982. It is the second best selling game made for the Atari 2600, with over 4 million copies sold.-Gameplay:...
. Both games were designed and written by David Crane
David Crane (programmer)
David Crane is a video game designer and programmer.Crane started his programming career at Atari, making games for the Atari 2600. After meeting co-worker Alan Miller in a tennis game, Miller told Crane about a plan he had to leave Atari and found a company that would give game designers more...
and published by Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
. The star of the games is Pitfall Harry, an 8-bit jungle explorer, the game's plot was later remade loosely into Super Pitfall
Super Pitfall
is a 1986 Japanese video game for the Nintendo Famicom and PC-8801 by Pony Inc. It was released for the Famicom as platformer with seamless scrolling in September 1986. Two months later, the PC8801 version was released with switching screens...
.
Gameplay
The original Pitfall! has Harry exploring a jungle, collecting treasures, and avoiding danger in the forms of crocodileCrocodile
A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...
s, scorpion
Scorpion
Scorpions are predatory arthropod animals of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by the pair of grasping claws and the narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back, ending with a venomous stinger...
s, cobra
Cobra
Cobra is a venomous snake belonging to the family Elapidae. However, not all snakes commonly referred to as cobras are of the same genus, or even of the same family. The name is short for cobra capo or capa Snake, which is Portuguese for "snake with hood", or "hood-snake"...
s, and quicksand
Quicksand
Quicksand is a colloid hydrogel consisting of fine granular matter , clay, and water.Water circulation underground can focus in an area with the optimal mixture of fine sands and other materials such as clay. The water moves up and then down slowly in a convection-like manner throughout a column...
. Although the background does not scroll until Harry reaches the edge of the screen, the game was one of the first large platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
s for a home video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
. Lost Caverns stays true to the gameplay of the original but greatly expands the scope of the environment, as Harry now descends deep into the catacombs. In addition to the scrolling style of the first, this game adds the element of vertical scrolling, as when Harry falls from a cliff or flies around after grabbing onto a balloon.
While faithful in many respects to its predecessor, Lost Caverns featured numerous changes to make it play differently from the original game. Pitfall Harry has unlimited time and lives, making it impossible to "lose" the game; when Harry touches a dangerous creature, he simply loses points as he floats back to the last continue point (marked with a red cross
Cross
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two lines or bars perpendicular to each other, dividing one or two of the lines in half. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally; if they run obliquely, the design is technically termed a saltire, although the arms of a saltire need not meet...
) he touched.
Unlike the original Pitfall!, which has a ground level and the underground, Pitfall II has 27 horizontal levels that are predominantly the same height, each being stacked one on top of the other. While these levels span the full eight screens in length, they are not openly accessible all the way across, as some portions are blocked by cave walls that force Harry to travel through other areas in order to progress. Quicksand and tar pits are replaced by rivers and chasms, neither of which is deadly to fall into (though dropping onto a hard surface will cause a loss of points). Balloon
Balloon
A balloon is an inflatable flexible bag filled with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, while some early balloons were made of dried animal bladders, such as the pig...
s allow Harry to ascend to new areas. The game does not have the snake
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
s or crocodiles of the original, but scorpions are still present. New animal hazards include bat
Bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...
s, which fly across some screens from left to right; condor
Condor
Condor is the name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere.They are:* The Andean Condor which inhabits the Andean mountains....
s, which start by flying right to left, then reverse and fly left to right the remainder of the visit to that screen; Electric eels
Eel
Eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera and approximately 800 species. Most eels are predators...
that swim in the rivers; and frog
Frog
Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...
s that jump over some pits that have ladders, often above where a bat is present.
Saturday Supercade
Saturday Supercade is an animated television series produced for Saturday mornings by Ruby-Spears Productions. It ran for two seasons on CBS beginning in 1983...
children's cartoon based on the Pitfall games (in fact, Rhonda and Quickclaw were created for Saturday Supercade a full year before this game was released). Collecting Rhonda, Quickclaw, and a diamond ring
Diamond ring
Diamond ring or This Diamond Ring or Diamond Rings may refer to:Jewelry*Diamond ring, a type of jewelry featuring a diamond. For this usage, see also engagement ring.Media...
is necessary to win the game. In versions without a second cave, upon collection of all three, the game ends on the spot. The maximum possible score is 199,000 (which differs in the Atari 8-bit and 5200 versions, see Adventurer's Edition below).
While Quickclaw is visible on the platform below the starting point of the game, he is inaccessible from this point, and Harry must traverse nearly the entire cave in order to reach him. On the screen to the right is a creature called the "cave rat". Harry can drop into the first river through a hole in the third screen. From there, moving one screen to the left brings him to the location of the cave rat. However, the cave rat at this point cannot be passed, and will push Harry back into the water, thereby blocking access to Quickclaw and its own collection. The cave rat can be accessed after reaching Quickclaw by approaching it from behind (on the left side). When it reaches the right side of the screen, it will stop, and its collection will result in 15,000 being added to the score.
Another enhancement over the previous game is the addition of a soundtrack. The musical cues act as subtle rewards and punishments for performance. The main "heroic" theme plays for a short while before reaching a loop of atmospheric music. When Harry collects a treasure, the main theme begins again. If Harry dies, a slower, minor key version of the theme plays, continuing until Harry succeeds at finding more treasure. Finally, if Harry ascends using the Balloon, Sobre las Olas
Sobre las Olas
The waltz "Sobre las Olas" is the best known work of Mexican composer Juventino Rosas . It "remains one of the most famous Latin American pieces worldwide," according to the "Latin America" article in The Oxford Companion to Music.It was first published by Rosas in 1888...
("Over the Waves") is played.
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns was one of the largest games ever created for the Atari 2600
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
and featured elements previously considered impossible on hardware that was already six years old at the time. Smooth scrolling, detailed animation, and a musical score that includes multiple channels were all made possible by custom hardware built inside the game cartridge. Crane designed and patented a component he called the Display Processor Chip (DPC), which could greatly enhance the 2600's graphics capabilities and could process music in 3 channels plus drums. Crane hoped that the DPC would be used by other game designers to further extend the life of the aging console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
, but the video game crash of 1983
Video game crash of 1983
The North American video game crash was a serious event that brought an abrupt end to what is considered the second generation of console video gaming in North America. Beginning in 1983, the crash almost destroyed the then-fledgling industry and led to the bankruptcy of several companies producing...
made this moot.
Adventurer's Edition
The Atari 5200 and Atari 8-bit versions, called the Adventurer's Edition on their title screens, are special because of the unique additional content. The programmers who were porting the game to the Commodore 64 and the two Atari platforms, took two different approaches to the task. While Tim Shotter rewrote the code from scratch for the Commodore version, Mike Lorenzen, the Atari version designer, reused David Crane's code from the 2600 version. This approach shortened the debugging process, allowing Lorenzen to add an entirely new levelLevel (computer and video games)
A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
to the game, that would be playable after the initial game was finished.
Marketing would not allow the two versions to be different, and demanded that the additional game be stripped from the Atari version. Instead, Brad Fregger
Brad Fregger
Brad Fregger is an American entrepreneur, author and former game producer publisher, and book publisher.Fregger was involved in the computer and video game industry at its inception...
, the producer, and the designers decided to leave it in and make it an easter egg.
The new level was more complex and, in many ways, more challenging than the original one. The new challenges include a set of new creatures: rabid
Rabies
Rabies is a viral disease that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals. It is zoonotic , most commonly by a bite from an infected animal. For a human, rabies is almost invariably fatal if post-exposure prophylaxis is not administered prior to the onset of severe symptoms...
bats, which fly in a more erratic pattern and reverse directions upon reaching the end of the screen (they also do not appear for several seconds after reaching the screen, thereby "surprising" the player); frogs that traverse the entire horizontal screen and follow Harry, rather than simply jumping over a pit; fire ant
Fire ant
Fire ants are a variety of stinging ants with over 285 species worldwide. They have several common names, including ginger ants, tropical fire ants and red ants.- Appearance :...
s and piranha fish
Piranha
A piranha or piraña is a member of family Characidae in order Characiformes, an omnivorous freshwater fish that inhabits South American rivers. In Venezuela, they are called caribes...
, both of which move very fast and are very hard to avoid. Rabid bats can be avoided by jumping as well as slipping under, fire ants must be jumped a total of three times in order to pass a screen containing them, and piranha fish swim randomly in either direction.
Ladders do not just climb from one level to the next, but cover great distances without connecting to all levels they pass, thereby making reaching certain points maze-like. Broken surfaces with numerous gaps make crossing without falling difficult. Some gold bars are accompanied by dangerous creatures that must be avoided in order to collect the treasure.
The mission in the second cave is to collect four props: a rope, a pot, a trumpet, and a snake charmer. After each of these is collected, it is transferred to a certain platform, where if visited the words "CHARMING THE GOLDEN ROPE IS PITFALL HARRY'S ONLY HOPE" scroll across the bottom of the screen. If reached after all four items are collected, the snake charmer plays the trumpet, and the rope rises up from the pot. This allows Harry to reach the ground level, and the game is won.
The ground that is reached upon winning is not at the very top of the cave, and it is actually visible during the game as a blank platform from an area of the cave directly above its location. The platform is not accessible while the game is being played. Only after winning does it assume the appearance similar to the game's start.
Platform variants
The game was originally created for the Atari 2600Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
and released in 1984
1984 in video gaming
-Notable releases:* May 10, King's Quest , the first animated adventure game, the first in the King's Quest series, and the first to use the AGI engine.* June 4, Nintendo releases Donkey Kong 3...
, but it was also faithfully ported
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
to the Atari 5200
Atari 5200
The Atari 5200 SuperSystem, commonly known as the Atari 5200, is a video game console that was introduced in 1982 by Atari Inc. as a higher end complementary console for the popular Atari 2600...
, ColecoVision
ColecoVision
The ColecoVision is Coleco Industries' second generation home video game console which was released in August 1982. The ColecoVision offered arcade-quality graphics and gaming style, and the means to expand the system's basic hardware...
, PCjr, CoCo, Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
, Atari 8-bit
Atari 8-bit family
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers manufactured from 1979 to 1992. All are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU and were the first home computers designed with custom coprocessor chips...
, MSX
MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...
and Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The 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...
systems.
Arcade version
In 19851985 in video gaming
-Notable releases:* Brøderbund releases Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, the first game of the prolific Carmen Sandiego series* Nintendo releases Super Mario Bros. on September 13, 1985, which eventually sells 40 million copies making it the best-selling video game of all time until 2008.*...
, 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...
licensed the game from Activision and turned it into an arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
, which turned out to be a cartoonish hybrid of both Pitfall! games. A home port of this game also appeared on Sega's SG-1000
SG-1000
The SC-3000 was the computer equivalent of the SG-1000.The SC-3000 sold for ¥29,800 in 1983 and was marketed as a computer for beginners...
game console in Japan.
This version, unlike the original one, does feature lives, which can be lost upon being harmed. There is also a timer, which can be replenished for 30 seconds, by collecting treasures. There are only four levels in the game, and the progression between them is linear: one level must be cleared by touching a key in order to continue to the next one.
Atari 2600 version
The version developed for the Atari 2600 featured a four-part harmony music soundtrack throughout the game, a first for the Atari 2600 platform. This was accomplished by building a custom chip called the "DPC" chip into the cartridge. This was also designed by game author David Crane.Reception
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns was named #1 in the “best 25 Atari 2600 games of all time” in issue 46 of Retro Gamer Magazine.External links
- Pitfall II Video at archive.org (C64 Version)
- Giant composite map of the game (Commodore 64 graphics shown; map layout applies to all non-Sega versions of the game)
- Pitfall II map (Atari 8-bit version)
- Legends of the C64 article on David Crane and Activision (includes Pitfall II info)