Pitfall!

aka: Jungle Runner, Pitfall Harry's Jungle Adventure
Moby ID: 8793
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Description official descriptions

Pitfall! is a platform action game. You play Pitfall Harry who is on a quest to locate treasure deep in the jungle. With a little luck, you'll be able to find money bags, silver bars, gold bars, and diamond rings. But many obstacles will get in the way, some of which merely deduct points from your score, while others are fatal. Rolling logs and falling down a hole will deduct points, and scorpions, alligators, snakes, bottomless pits, swamps, and fires will cause Pitfall Harry to lose a life. You have 20 minutes to try to collect all of the treasures on the numerous screens if you can live that long!

Spellings

  • ピットフォール - Japanese spelling

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Credits (Atari 2600 version)

Conceived and designed by

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 87% (based on 25 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 145 ratings with 4 reviews)

Pitfall Harry's adventures in the jungle

The Good
Don't you just love playing games that were released in the early '80s? There was no plot or storyline to worry about. All you had was a simple objective, such as getting from one side of the screen to the other or see how many targets you can shoot in a limited time. Pitfall! is just one example, with the object here is to try to collect as many treasures as you can without losing one of your three lives or running out of time.

These treasures are scattered across multiple screens. As usual, there are several dangers that the player needs to worry about, including crocodile-infested swamps, tar pits, quicksand, snakes, fire, and scorpions. You can swing across the first three dangers, Tarzan-style.

Although quite poor compared to today's standards, the graphics were good at the time. The background consists of trees joined together to make you feel you are walking through a jungle. Pitfall Harry is animated nicely as he walks under the player's guidance. He swings across dangers in a smooth way. When Harry does lose one of his lives, one of his backups falling down from one of the trees is really neat.

The sound is excellent. A basic sound is heard when Harry jumps or falls down the hole to reach the underground caverns. What I like are the tunes when Harry swings and picks up one of the treasures. And who could forgot the dreaded tune when Harry loses one of his lives?

As I mentioned, there are scorpions that you have to avoid, and these are located in the underground caverns. They are difficult to jump over, but there is a trick to this - by preparing the jump. You can participate in the Scorpion dance, which is mentioned in the trivia section. This dance is good fun, especially if you are listening to some music. I recommend I Like to Move It by Reel 2 Reel.

The Bad
Underground caverns are good to navigate, and you are encouraged to explore them fully. What I don't like about some of these are the brick walls that you crash into when you usually enter a new screen. Crashing into a brick wall means that you have to backtrack to where you entered the cavern and go up to the surface.

The Bottom Line
In Pitfall!, the object is to guide Harry through the jungle, searching for treasures and avoiding many dangers before the twenty minutes are up. There are underground caverns, in which the player is encouraged to navigate.

The graphics are good. Harry is animated nicely, as he walks and swings across dangers. The sounds are great, blending well with what you are doing. The controls are easy to get used to; the player only needs to worry about changing direction and jumping.

There are at least four other Pitfall games, but it is the original that really stands out. It is fun and addictive. If you have an Atari 2600 but haven't got Pitfall! yet, you don't know what you're missing out on.

Atari 2600 · by Katakis | カタキス (43102) · 2008

A 1980s classic!

The Good
Pitfall was a platformer classic at his time, with good gameplay and sound effects. Graphics also wasn't bad, and the game was challenger. His jungle style was unique and there was another game similar to it, which was Taito's Jungle Hunt, also very good.

The Bad
Colecovision's version was harder than the Atari 2600 one. Also, it's hard to pass over the crocodiles, in both versions.

The Bottom Line
If you have a ColecoVision or Atari 2600, get and play Pitfall! It's a nice game. A 1980s classic!

ColecoVision · by Gustavo Henrique dos Santos (97) · 2014

The best Atari 2600 game?

The Good
Almost endless running, jumping and swinging.

The Bad
Never did finish this puppy though I came quite close.

The Bottom Line
This was a neat scroller for the Atari. Had good graphics and sound (for an Atari game). I mapped out all of the "rooms" and shortcuts but could never quite get all the way through.

Atari 2600 · by Mr. E (3) · 2003

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Trivia

Cartoon

Pitfall! was popular enough to have a Saturday morning TV cartoon based on it. The cartoon focused on the adventures of Pitfall Harry, his niece Rhonda, and the cowardly mountain lion Quickclaw.

Explorer's Club

Players who were able to rack up 20,000 points or higher were eligible to receive the Explorers' Club patch from Activision if they sent in a screenshot to the company. Here is a picture of that patch at AtariAge.

Glitches

A clipping bug in the ColecoVision version of the game would allow the player to actually walk through the walls in the lower area if hit just right. A demonstration can be seen in this video.

Awards

  • FLUX
    • Issue #4 - #33 in the "Top 100 Video Games of All-Time" list
  • Game Informer
    • August 2001 (Issue 100) - #41 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
  • Retro Gamer
    • September 2004 (Issue #8) – #85 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)
    • Issue 37 - #21 in the "Top 25 Platformers of All Time" poll
  • TeleMatch
    • Issue 04/1984 – #3 Video Game of the Year 1983 (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by Big John WV, Guy Chapman, Kevin Tuttle and PCGamer77.

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Related Games

Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle
Released 1998 on Game Boy Color
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
Released 1984 on Atari 2600, Commodore 64, PC Booter...
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure
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Pitfall: The Lost Expedition
Released 2004 on PlayStation 2, Xbox, Windows...
Pitfall Planet
Released 2016 on Windows, Macintosh, 2019 on Nintendo Switch
3D Pitfall
Released 1995 on DOS
Jungle Hunt
Released 1983 on PC Booter, Atari 2600, Commodore 64...
Jungle Pinball
Released 1994 on DOS
Jungle Quest
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Related Sites +

  • Pitfall! 20th Anniversary
    Learn the history and play of one of the most popular Atari 2600 games ever created.
  • Skatefall!
    August 16th, 2006, John Freeborn released this Flash game, a skateboarding-themed homage to Pitfall!

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  • MobyGames ID: 8793
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Servo.

Atari 5200 added by RKL. Windows, Xbox 360 added by Alaka. Windows Phone, BREW added by Kabushi. ColecoVision added by Satoshi Kunsai. Atari 8-bit added by Terok Nor. MSX added by koffiepad.

Additional contributors: Guy Chapman, Pseudo_Intellectual, LepricahnsGold, Patrick Bregger, Kevin Tuttle, robMSX.

Game added April 4th, 2003. Last modified January 18th, 2024.