Ep.263 – Swinging Through History: How Pitfall! Became the First Great Platformer

Four kilobytes. That's all David Crane had to work with when he built pitfall in 1982. Four kilobytes to animate a running man, design 255 unique jungle screens and create a treasure hunt that would go on to sell millions of copies. What most of us would barely use for a text file today. Crane used to lay the foundation of an entire genre. Today, we're exploring how one of the Atari 2600's most ambitious games came to life and how Pitfall swung its way into video game history. So grab your vines and your joysticks and join us for today's swinging trip down memory card. LA.

Foreign.

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. I hope these words find you well. Hello and welcome to the 263rd episode of our video game history podcast, a trip down memory card lane. Each week we'll tell you a story relevant to the current week in gaming history. It can be about a game or the people who have created it. It can be about a console or the technology that brought it to life. We often talk about the companies that bring it all together, making our hobby video games a reality. While telling you each story, we hope to teach you something new about the topic. What it took from the world as its inspiration or what it gave back to the world in its legacy. Today, we're swinging into pitfall and the 1982 classic that took players on a daring jungle adventure. With its innovative gameplay and timeless design, Pitfall became one of the most iconic titles of the Atari 2600 era, setting the stage for generations of platforming games to come. I'm David Cassen and as always, I'm joined by my co host who'd probably try to jump over a pit and land face first into quicksand. He's my brother, Rob Casson. Robin, do you think you'd be a treasure hunting legend or would you just be another jungle mishap?

Well, I don't know if I'd find very much treasure, but I also don't think I'd be a mishap. More like a George of the Jungle situation going on.

Oh, you think you would be George of the Jungle?

Well, not. I can't be Tarzan.

He's.

He's pretty damn good. But you know, George is out there doing his best.

He. Aren't we all?

That's my point, Dave. That's my point.

Oh, you have any familiarity with the Pitfall, any of the Pitfall games?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I'd hope so. This is one of those. This is one of those series that I don't know if it has any relevance like nowadays. There hasn't been a game in the series for a while.

But I mean, I don't know, man, I just remember I, I had a handheld game that was this.

Yep. Yeah. If anyone played any games or had anything nostalgic to do with the Atari era, pitfall will always come up. Every list, every collection, every. Well, you know, it's one of those games that just, you can't forget. It's. It's literally one of the defining titles of the Atari 2600. All right, well, we have its whole story to tell. Before I get to said story, why don't you share with us what else has happened during this week in gaming history.

All right, well, kicking it off. It was 40 years ago this week, on September 13, 1985, that Nintendo released the Super Mario Brothers from the Famicom in Japan. This game would change the industry forever. Designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, it took players on a side scrolling journey through the mushroom kingdom where Mario set out to rescue Princess Toadstool from Bowser. Its tight controls, creative level design and infectious Koji Kondo soundtrack redefined what video games could be more than just a hit. It revitalized the home console market after the 1983 crash and cemented Mario as gaming's most recognizable mascot. Its influence is immeasurable, establishing the platformer as the dominant genre of its era, shaping game design for decades and becoming one of the best selling titles of all time. Super Mario Bros. Wasn't just a game, it was the beginning of Nintendo's global empire. Facts I agree, it was cool.

It was very cool. And 40 years. 40 years.

How does that make you feel? Dave? Oh, indeed. Next up, on September 9, 1996, Crash Bandicoot launched on the PlayStation in the United States, introducing players to Naughty Dog's bold attempt at a 3D mascot platformer nicknamed the Sonic's Ass game during development for its over the shoulder perspective, Crash turned technical limitations into creative choices, delivering tight platforming across colorful pre rendered backdrops. Its quirky cast, memorable bosses and precise controls quickly made it a bestseller and its success helped cement Crash as an unofficial PlayStation mascot. Sequels, spinoffs, 8 and remakes would follow, making Crash Bandicoot one of Sony's most enduring franchises.

Sonic's Ass.

Sonic's Ass indeed.

Should have kept the name.

Well, might not have sold as well.

No, still should have kept the name.

Indeed they should have. Okay, next up, on September 12, 2002. Capcom released Steel Battalion for the Xbox in Japan, one of the most infamous niche titles of its era. Developed by Nudemaker, the game put players in control of a massive mech, a vertical tank. But the real hook was its gargantuan 40 button custom controller, complete with dual joysticks, foot pedals, and even an eject button. Retailing for more than $200, the game demanded total immersion and and punished failure harshly, even erasing save files if you failed to inject in time. While sales were limited, Steel Battalion became a legend in gaming circles as both a technological curiosity and an example of extreme simulation design. Its legacy is one of ambition and excess, remembered fondly by mech fans and as proof of how far developers were willing to go in pursuit of realism.

That controller was crazy.

Honestly, it sounds badass.

It was, it was. I remember, I. I remember when we sold it. It was crazy. Yeah, it definitely, definitely something the likes of which you don't see much. I mean, it rivals a lot of flight, even flight ones, you know, but.

Yeah, that just insane to me. That would be really cool. Even now, you know, I'm into the sim stuff, so.

I know you love it. You love it indeed.

All right, next up. On September 11, 2006, Relic Entertainment released Company of Heroes for PC. A real time strategy game that set new standards for the genre. Set During World War II, Company of Heroes put players in command of allied forces as they fought through pivotal battles in the European theater. The game was praised for its intense tactical gameplay and destructible environments and cutting edge graphics. Powered by the essence engine, Company of Heroes introduced a level of realism and strategic depth that was unparalleled at the time. Earning widespread critical acclaim and numerous Game of the year awards. It remains a benchmark in real time strategy gaming. With its influence still felt in the genre today.

And now it's a whole, a great series. I actually really like the Company of Heroes games.

Yeah, I've played. I think one of them.

I think played the first one, probably.

That would make sense. And last up for this week in gaming history. On September 12, 2008, Atari Inc. Was officially delisted from the NASDAQ stock exchange. This marked a significant downturn for the once iconic gaming company, which had struggled financially for years. Despite its legendary status as a pioneer in the video game industry, responsible for classic games like Pong and Asteroids, Atari had faced mounting challenges in the rapidly evolving gaming market. The delisting reflected the company's difficulties in maintaining its relevance and profitability. Following this event, Atari Inc. Continued to operate but it marked the end of an era for the company as a major player on the global stage.

Bye, bye, Atari. Well, you know, but at least it has some history, huh?

Indeed. Pretty cool at that. Pretty good.

And we're going to talk about said history.

Yeah, let's do it.

Yeah, let's do it. Let's talk about history. I think before we talk about today's topic Pitfall, we got to talk a little bit about its creator, David Crane, because he kind of sets the story. He sets the stage. His story sets the stage for everything. You know, Crane was one of the first wave of video game designers who stumbled into the industry. He kind of stumbled in almost by accident. He studied electrical engineering at Devry Institute of Technology. And after graduating in the mid-70s, he. He landed at National Semiconductor working with microprocessors. Kind of back in that era when the idea of what a personal computer was was kind of barely taking shape. You know, this is kind of. We've talked about this before when we talked about semiconductors in one of our episodes. This is kind of like that wild west era for computing. You know, it was a time when the concept of a portable computer was the size of a suitcase and game code was just migrating away from, like, punch cards. Crane was fascinated by what these new microprocessor chips could do, especially when it came to entertainment. And so that curiosity led him to Atari in 1977, right as that company was gearing up for the launch of the Atari video computer system, which is what we now call the Atari 2600. In an Atari, David Crane quickly made a name for himself. He wasn't just some coder in a corner. He was one of the guys that was figuring out how to make fun on the Atari cartridges. And they're whopping four kilobytes of ROM, you know. Crane's early credits include Slot Machine in 1979, a game called Outlaw. And one of the ones he's really well known for is a really technically impressive game called Video Olympics, which is very much Pong on steroids. I'd say he's probably best remembered from that period for a game called Dragster. That is a game that he would kind of later design at a later point in his career. But he started tinkering with it as an idea at Atari. But as we've talked about before, in more than one episode, Atari's corporate culture was absolutely brutal. Programmers weren't allowed. Allowed to sign their names on their work. We kind of discussed that in our episode on Adventure and the first Easter egg, which was hidden in there very much for the same reason. Programmers were paid like ordinary staff engineers. Even when their game sold hundreds of thousands of cartridges, you know, Crane and his colleagues would walk into stores and see entire end caps full of their games, presumably making millions of dollars for Atari while they were taking home just a modest salary and not even a credit on the game's manual. So by 1979, Crane and three of his closest co workers, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead, they had enough. They wanted recognition, they wanted royalties, they wanted to be treated like artists and not invisible factory workers. And so they made demands of Atari. Atari refused and they walked out. They partnered up with Jim Levy, who is a former music executive, and they all founded Activision. Levy kind of brought to the table the idea of promoting Rockstar, quote, unquote, talent. And so this is the climate in which Pitfall was born, right? Crane finally had the freedom and the ownership to create this, the kind of ambitious game that he'd always wanted to make. But before Pitfall was even an idea, Crane had to cut his teeth on some of Activision's very first cartridges. His earliest releases for the company were Dragster and fishing derby in 1980. Dragster, as we talked about, a game he's very well known for, is a one on one drag racing game where players had to master the rhythm of shifting gears to get the fastest time. It was really simple, but it showed off Crane's knack for squeezing tight mechanics into tiny amounts of memory. Fishing Derby, meanwhile, was more of a head to head contest to see who could reel in the biggest haul from a lake before a hungry shark stole the catch. And so over the next couple of years, Crane kept experimenting with game mechanics like these. He released laser blast in 1981. That's a fixed shooter where you control a fleet of UFOs kind of blasting ground defenses. And then came Freeway, which was basically Frogger with chickens. You'd guide your bird across 10 lanes of traffic while cars whizzed by. Very original, very original. Each of these games built Crane's reputation and contributed to Activision's credibility as the first third party studio, really. And if you look at these games, Rob, you can already kind of see the DNA of Pitfall in them. The obsession with precise timing and Dragster, the use of quirky animal challenges in Freeway and kind of the, the colorful competition of a fishing derby. They kind of all hint at the type of creative playground that Crane was developing. By 1982, you know, he had already proven himself with these Games. Dragster, Fishing Derby, Laser Blast, Freeway, and Grand Prix. But his design philosophy kind of kept pushing him forward. He wanted the Atari 2600 to do things that players hadn't seen before.

Like what?

Well, in an interview, Crane kind of compared this notion to solving a Rubik's Cube, right? The joy wasn't just in the end result, but in finding clever new ways to make limited hardware surprise you, because the Atari was definitely limited hardware, you know? And so the spark from Pitfall came from an experiment in this vein. Crane was trying to create realistically animated graphics on the Atari 2600. And that led to the. His famous Running man sprite. And for three years, three years, he toyed with that, running animation and different prototypes. There were cops and robbers. There was chase sequences, but nothing actually clicked. The. In 1982, he finally found the right place for it. Put the man on a path, set the path in a jungle and give him a reason to run. There are treasures to collect, obstacles to avoid. And with that, Rob Pitfall Harry was born. Now, the jungle setting wasn't quite so random either. He admitted that he was influenced by Raiders of the Lost Ark. It had exploded in theaters in 1981. So we're right in the Indiana Jones influence era. And he also drew inspiration from the old Heckle and Jekyll cartoons, where magpies would dart across alligator heads to outwit their enemies. And that specific gag directly inspired Pitfall Harry's ability to leap across crocodile jaws. And so when you're making a game like this, the programming details matter, too. At first, jumping across alligator heads was brutally difficult. You had to move the joystick and press jump at the exact same instant. Crane realized that that was, as he said, almost impossible to play. So he tweaked the code to give players a tiny window to nudge the joystick after pressing jump. And that one subtle change turned frustration into. Into a skill you could actually learn. And that's kind of part of why Pitfall felt so polished compared to other Atari 2600 title. I think for me, the real magic, though, was under the hood, was in the programming. Unlike other games of the time, which hard coded every screen, Pitfall used a clever algorithm. Crane designed a counter system where eight different bits determine the layout of trees, pits, ladders, and objects. And that meant that all 255 unique jungle screens were generated on the fly using less than 50 bytes of ROM.

Oh, damn.

And now, remember, he only had four kilobytes to work with. So this trick was really one of the only ways, you know, to contribute to the game feeling so expansive.

And that's still pretty impressive.

I mean, it's very impressive. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's very impressive. Very, very impressive. Even in the last days of development, the team was still kind of polishing things up, you know, Originally, Pitfall only gave players a single life, and Crane's co workers basically tied him to a chair until he added a three life system. You know, he later admitted that it was the right call. It gave players a fair shot at mastering the challenge instead of just dying instantly. Although you probably would have enjoyed it more if it was one life. I don't know about that, since you like brutally hard games.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Crane once joked that the entire design process took about 10 minutes. About a thousand hours of programming later, the game was complete.

Nice.

But what he finished wasn't just a game. When Pitfall was released In September of 1982, it was a blueprint for an entire genre. Rap. So when the vines swung and the scorpion scuttled, the real adventure in Pitfall was what was happening behind the scenes in four kilobytes of elegant code.

Right? It's wild to think that an entire jungle of traps, treasures, and tar pits came from less memory than the text file from for this podcast episode.

And just like Pitfall laid the groundwork for platformers, zencastr can lay the groundwork for your own podcasting journey. Without needing a thousand hours of programming.

Or a jungle full of alligators, zencastr makes it easy to record and produce professional quality podcasts straight from your browser. No downloads, no setup headaches. Just send a link and you're ready to go.

Once you're done recording Zencaster's post production magic levels, her audio removes background noise and spits out clean, polished files like you had a whole editing team hiding in your backpack.

Whether you're jumping into gaming history, movie talk, or just want to share your thoughts with the world, zencastr's got the tools to help you do it right?

So head over to zencaster.com forward/pricing and use our offer code, all one word memory card lane. And you can get 30 off the first month of any Zencast or paid plan.

That's Z E n C a S T r dot com. Make the leap. Just watch out for the crocodiles.

Yeah.

And now let's swing back into our timeline and, and see how Pitfall left its mark on the gaming world.

When Pitfall hit shelves for the Atari 2600 in September of 1982, it didn't just stand out, it absolutely exploded. Within months, it became one of the best selling games on the system, ultimately moving more than 4 million copies, which is second only to Pac Man.

Jeez.

I know, right? And Activision knew they had something special, so they promoted the game like no other game before. Between November 15th and December 13th of that year, they ran a sweepstakes across all the US Markets, where players could compete for a grand prize of $5,000 in gold. Which was fitting for a game about treasure hunting.

Yeah.

Little fun fact about this game. Pitfall gave Jack Black his very first acting role.

Oh.

At age 13, he appeared in the game's TV commercial, swinging on vines and dodging crocodiles long before he'd become a Hollywood star.

Wow.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yep. This was his first acting gig in the commercial. The game did not stay confined to the Atari 2600 for very long. By late 1982, it had already been ported to the Intellivision, followed by the ColecoVision, Atari 5200, and Commodore 64 in both. This was throughout 1983 and 1984. It even made its way to Japan on the MSX in September of 1984, which really cemented its global reach. No matter what platform you owned, there was a good chance that Pitfall Harry was running through your jungle. And so you have this craze, and everyone's in it. And just when players thought that they'd seen everything that Pitfall Harry could do, David Crane pushed the hardware even further with the sequel. So, 1984, Pitfall 2 the Lost Caverns. No, the just Pitfall 2 Lost Caverns arrived on the Atari 2600, and frankly, it was nothing short of a technical marvel. To make it happen, Crane had to design a custom chip called the DPC display processor chip for the game. It basically gave the console new tricks it was never built for. It allowed for complex graphics and background music in the game. So now we had richer graphics, smoother scrolling environments, and a continuous musical soundtrack, which was something that plain Jane, the stock 2600, was not capable of delivering. And gameplay also took a leap forward. Instead of timed, treasure hunting like the original, Lost Caverns explored an open, multi level cave system. Players could rescue Harry's niece, Rhonda, and pet his mountain lion, Quick Claw, all while avoiding hazards like bats and electric eels. Unlike the original, which punished mistakes with instant death, Pitfall 2 simply respawned you at your last checkpoint, which cost you points instead of lives. And so it was more forgiving it was more ambitious, and it felt like a true next step for the series. It did not sell as many copies as the original Juggernaut, but it was hailed by critics and still recognizes one of the most technologically advanced games ever released on the Atari 2600. And at this point, it's also important to add that Pitfall Mania was in full swing. I mean, in the 80. 1980, you had PAC man, and Pac man merchandising went absolutely nuts. So the next time, you know, any time there was a popular game like this, no doubt that merchandising was popular too. Right. There were board games based on Pitfall jigsaw puzzles. The cartoon show Saturday Supercade had a Pitfall. I mean, Pitfall Harry was one of the characters in the Saturday Supercade. So, you know, you turn on Saturday morning cartoons and you'd have Pitfall, you know, and this. The. The characters that were in the Saturday Supercade, you know, were the characters that appeared in Pitfall 2 and the next one, which is. We'll get to in a second Super Pitfall. But. But again, it's important to know that. That, you know, merchandising was in. Merchandising wasn't just. It was in full. Just full swing.

You know, that's actually crazy for me because I've never heard that, obviously. Like I said, my experience with the game was on a handheld, like, kind of like with the game and watch areas where the. Like just LCD screen games.

Yeah.

And I. I never knew that there was all that other stuff. That's honestly just crazy to me.

Well, you may have bumped into the Modern 2. Activision has put out anthologies. They did a PlayStation 2 one in 2002 that has a bunch of pitfalls on it. I think the psp, which you have, has the activation Activision Hits Remix. I think that was like 2005, 2006.

I definitely didn't have that one that has it.

The first and second games, there's a 2004 pitfall we'll cover in a second, and the first and second games are hidden. Hidden in it. So there are definitely modern ways that you could. I even think this was hidden in a Call of Duty game. If I'm not mistaken, World War II, they had pitfall one or two, maybe both in. In Call of Duty, World War II. So there are definitely ways that Pitfall has reached modern audiences.

You know, World at War.

I think it was literally World War II. Like, yeah, 2017's World War II. I just looked it up.

I thought that was World at War. I'm crazy.

From that point on, Pitfall, Harry and his descendants kind of kept popping up every so often. We definitely weren't done with them at that point. So in 1986, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the NES, got Super Pitfall that tried to move the series into side scrolling territory. Unfortunately, it's kind of known today as one of the weaker entries on the console. It had confusing level design, clunky controls, and it was brutally difficult. And that kind of makes it more infamous than anything. It really got swallowed up in a large market of Super Mario clones. You know, any side scrollers at that period would get reviewed to Super Mario and, and if you didn't stack up, it just didn't. It didn't. After super pitfall in 86, the series really laid dormant for several years until the mid-90s when Activision decided to bring it back in a big way with Pitfall the Mayan adventure. Pitfall, the Mayan Adventure 1994 action platform game. It starred Harry's son, so pitfall Harry Jr. As he goes on a quest to rescue his father through the Mayan jungles of Central America. It is 16 bit so, so you get 16 bit vis visuals, you got cinematic platforming. They were kind of taking inspiration from Prince of Persia, which we've covered before a flashback. That one was released on the Genesis, the Super Nintendo. It was also ported to the Sega CD, the Sega 32X computers and I think it even eventually the Atari Jaguar man, it got a Game Boy advance release at one point too. So I mean that thing got a Thing got around.

Yeah, I would say so.

That thing definitely got around. Critics praised its animation and lush jungle settings. And fans really loved the fact that the original Pitfall was tucked away as a hidden bonus. So there you go. Here's yet another game that it was done. Another game that Pitfall is hidden in and fun little fact. You ever seen the movie Fern Gully?

No, I cannot say that I have, Dave. That does not even remotely sound familiar to me.

Fern Gully, the Last Rainforest. No clue.

No, no, definitely not.

So Ferngly Last Rainforest was a pretty dang popular animation. I mean it's a little bit before your time, 92, but I, I, you know, it's weird because animations don't tend to age, but it was a pretty popular animation I definitely watched dozens of times. That was 92. And the studio that worked on that game, Croyer Films, was brought in to do hand drawn animations and graphics for Pitfall the Mayan Adventure. So definitely, definitely, definitely Definitely some more pedigree. They really wanted to bring back Pitfall in a. A big way, right. And that kind of gave way to bringing Pitfall into the modern age, bringing Pitfall into the realm of 3D. And that started in 1998 with Pitfall, literally Pitfall 3D beyond the jungle. It follows the. It kind of follows the story of the last one. This development team, interestingly enough, was from the Virtual Fighter series, which is kind of fun. You like all the others. The original Pitfall is an Easter egg in this one. But. But, you know, this one continues the story of pitfall Harry Jr. He meets a girl named Mira, and together they are going to free her people from something called the Scourge. A person named a Scourge, rather an evil woman that's kind of bent on controlling the world. And so this one's kind of weird because it's kind of set in like a magical parallel universe. And they. The developers later would go on to say that they kind of did that because there were no genuinely unexplored lands in the real world. And so you have a made up world. And then they wanted to add some different gameplay elements, like morphing creatures and floating platforms. And so putting it in a magical universe kind of gives credence to those, you know.

Huh.

Pitfall Harry in that one was voiced by Bruce Campbell from the Evil Dead films. I know, right?

That's cool.

So we definitely got a little bit of pedigree when they brought it into the modern era and eventually that would get ported to the Game Boy color. Don't know if they had voice when they brought it to the Game Boy color, but. But that's okay. That's okay, right?

No, no, absolutely not. Not if you're missing out on Bruce Campbell. Come on.

Yeah, definitely can't miss out on Bruce Campbell. And so that would give way to Pitfall, the lost expedition in 2004. That would come out on PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, and eventually Game Boy Advance. And what they did with that one is kind of gave Pitfall Harry, like the original Pitfall Harry, the same kind of like 3D makeover that tomb Raider Lara Croft that Crash Bandicoot kind of enjoyed in the mid 2000s. Like I said, it brought back Pitfall Harry and he was trying to help a pretty lady rescue her father and thwart an evil treasure hunter from claiming the lost city of El Dorado, you know, the city of gold.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Very good movie.

So, I mean, if you look at how the Lost Expedition was received, it Was fairly well regarded. I'm seeing sevens out of tens, 4.5 stars out of five. People kind of liked it. It was well regarded for, like, its mix of platforming, puzzle solving. It had tongue and cheek humor. And really, it's probably the last major console Pitfall game of note, to be fair, because after that Pitfall Harry kind of retreated mostly into cameos, mostly into compilations like the Activision series we talked about. I really, really didn't see much of him until 2012 when Activision gave him one more shot at stardom on mobile. And so basically this is just an Endless Runner. They turned Pitfall into an Endless Runner because that's what was popular, right? Temple Run had everyone's attention. Endless Runners were super popular and someone thought, hey, we can, we can make, we can make Pitfall an Endless Runner. So players kind of dashed through jungles and mines and volcanoes. They were swiping to dodge hazards and collect treasures. Funny enough, it was also kind of designed to like coincide as a release. The Android version was literally released on December 21, 2012, which was the day of the supposed Mayan. Mayan apocalypse. Right.

I was gonna say I sounded very familiar. I'm like, why is that date familiar?

Yes, so. So Football Harry, who started out with the Mayans, was now there on the day of the Mayan apocalypse. That's ballsy of them to release a game on the day the world's gonna.

End though, hey, it was a bold strategy, but it played. We saw how it played out.

We sure did. Pitfall as an Endless Runner was. It was a clever nod to Harry's roots, but it came and went quickly, never capturing the long term imagination the way the original Pitfall had. In fact, it's not even available on the app stores anymore, so already been taking away. Looking back, it's hard to overstate how important pitfall was. In 1982, most console games were still simple single screen affairs. You know, score chasers like Asteroids, Space Invaders, or even Atari's own combat per se. And then here comes David Crane who drops Pitfall Harry into the jungle and he gives players an entire world to explore. You know, suddenly you weren't just racking up points, you were on an adventure, dodging rolling logs, swinging on vines and diving into underground tunnels in search of treasure. Right. It. Pitfall was one of the very first examples of what we now recognize as the platformer genre. There's no doubt that that which came out 40 years ago this week. Super Mario Brothers may have defined the side scrolling platform, but the truth of the matter was that Pip. Fair pit. Fair pit Fairy. The truth of the matter was that Pitfall was there three years earlier, kind of setting the stage and really proving that players wanted this kind of gameplay on their home consoles.

That's a fair point, Dave.

That's a pit fair point. I think that for me, without Pitfall, the leap that took us from arcade style quick fixes to sprawling console adventures, it might have taken a lot longer than it did for Activision. It was proof that leaving Atari had been worth it. Pitfall became their flagship franchise, right? They sold millions of copies of games across the the franchise and that established them easily as the most successful third party publisher of the era. And for David Crane himself, to be fair, he Pitfall was like the crowning achievement of a design philosophy that was really built around squeezing more out of limited hardware that anyone ever thought possible. Even if later sequels and reboots kind of, you know, they never reach the same heights as the original Pitfall. Pitfall itself hasn't even really disappeared there. I don't think there's been a good Pitfall game since you've been. You were born and you still know about it, right?

Yeah, I. Like I said, I. I guess you might not call them good, but I did enjoy those. One, the handheld ones that I had growing up. And they're fun enough that I kept playing them. That's why I know the game.

I guess that's fair.

Might have even been Pitfall proper, but just like some cheap knockoff. But like, obviously the inspiration came from somewhere and it's impossible to not know it having played a game of that style.

That's very true. Pitfall shows up in compilations. It's hidden in other games like Call of duty, World War II. And it's like I said before referenced anytime someone talks about the golden age of the Atari 2600. You know, in many ways, Harry still swings through gaming history not because of where the series went, but because of where it started. And the reality of the situation too is it. I think it was the peak of David Crane's career in a lot of ways. I'm not saying that he didn't do anything else afterwards. I mean, he went from Pitfall 2 to Ghostbusters, which is a, you know, a great game from that era. He made little computer people, which is like a precursor to the Sims, in my opinion, that I have would like to do an episode on someday. And then he went on to do weird things like A Boy and His Blob and a few Simpsons games. That we talked about in our Simpsons episode like Bart versus the Space Mutants and Bart versus the World. And then he did Night Trap, which is one of the most controversial games of the 90s. An episode on, you know, one day we'll do an episode on the esrb and that will definitely be a part of that conversation. And he's still going. In 2021, he made a game called He Was a. He was. He's got the title Conceiver designer for a game called Circus Convoy.

Okay.

Yep. Now also, to be fair, he has tried to revive pitfall. In 2012. He crowd started a crowdfunding campaign, a Kickstarter if you will, to fund a spiritual successor to Pitfall. But unfortunately it fell short of its funding goal. So the. So it was scrapped. Right. They've crane, along with Gary Kitchen, who was another prominent programmer from the Atari era, have done a lot to bring Atari into the modern era. They created a company in the late 2000 and tens that focused on hardware technology to be able to make cartridges and ROM boards to develop modern Atari 2600 games. That's pretty cool, you know, and that's where Circus Convoy actually came from. They founded a studio called Audacity Games that was dedicated to making new games for old consoles. So when Circus Convoy was released in 2021, I would like to add, it was released for the Atari 2600.

Wow. Expected that in that.

Cool.

Yeah, I never would have thought that.

And they're still doing. I think they're working on one now called Rescue from Poseidon's Gate. So definitely something that they're still working on anyway, you know, of course, this is, this is just one stop on our continuous trip down memory card lane. If you'd like to explore more of video game history, we've covered plenty of other classic platformers that owe themselves to this, from Super Mario brothers in episode 159 to Prince of Persia in episode 58, and even through to the rise of 3D platforming with Crash Bandicoot in episode 211. Of course, you can find those episodes and all the rest anywhere you listen to your podcast, like Spotify or Apple Podcasts or. Or Rob, you can find them. You can find them on our website at www.memorycardlane.com. rob, what else can people find on our website?

Well, I believe that you can find a link to our Discord page where you can come chat with Dave and I about episode topics or gaming related topics. Maybe. You never know until you join. You can find a link to our Patreon where you can help support us get access to ad free and unedited versions of our episodes. You can find a calendar of our future episode topics you know we're going to be talking about. Can't remember if I said that first or not. I don't think so. And you can find link to our social media accounts where I can be found on several platforms as Rob O underscore Raptor and Dave.

I can be found on various platforms as David is wrong. Rob, I gotta tell you, I have been working hard on kind of a complete refresh of our website, of our brand. Something I'm trying to have wrapped up by the end of the year so we could go into 2026 with a new look, new feel. A lot of things I'm really excited about. I know that beginning of this year when I started subtitling the episodes, I really enjoyed that and I was like, I want to go back and do that to all of them. But also I've learned the truth of the matter is we've been at this for five years now, right?

True. Yeah, very true.

And I have learned a lot in five years, not just in how to make a podcast, but how to, you know, how to summarize a podcast and how to sell ourselves and all this stuff. But also too, my programming skills have gotten better in five years and so I can do a lot of things now that I couldn't do before. And I'm really excited for all the things I'm working on. Like we'll have search functionality on the new website by platform, by person, by year. You know, we'll have a lot of cool things, completely new display, and. And we'll be getting a refresh from the ground up. I've already started to redo some of the old episodes and I really like the way things are shaping up. It's just really exciting to get to bring five years of experience to the entire five years of our podcasting history. It's been. It's a lot of fun. A lot of work, but a lot of fun too.

Well, definitely glad to hear that, Dave. And you know, it's definitely a great thing. You know, we are always wanting to look forward and move on up and in the mantra of learning and, you know, perhaps teaching. Yeah, I do believe that's something that each week we like to talk about. So why don't you, why don't you take it away?

Well, each week, ladies and gents, as is tradition, we'll tell you a story relevant to the current week in gaming History. It can be about a game, a person, a technology. We once covered a doll museum and a circus. Actually, it was a play museum, but start out with dolls. You remember the creepy doll mansion?

Oh, absolutely. You don't forget the creepy Doll Mansion? Yeah.

When we sit down to research new topics each week, the most exciting part is finding out new and interesting things about the games we already know. Then we get to come on here and teach you all these fun things. It's a fantastic cycle of teaching and learning, which we celebrate by going round table and talking about what we've learned. So, Rob, what did you learn today?

Well, having not grown up in the era, I learned that there was apparently a whole marketing thing behind Pitfall and that the, you know, there were cartoons with the characters and in all the collections and stuff. I had no idea about all that. But I think that the most shocking thing to me and all is that your character's name is Harry.

Yeah, Pitfall Harry.

I had no idea that the guy had a name. I just, you know, I remember playing the game and you were just a dude trying to survive in a jungle, and that was it. I never would have guessed that the guy had a name.

Yeah. So I'm very sad that you never noticed. Pitfall, Hairy bed sheets.

Yeah. Nope.

That.

Not even a thing to me. It doesn't even, like, I can't even envision that.

I don't think I had any themed bed sheets like that. I know I had a Super Mario Brothers toy chest, like a. Like a square box. Still do. Oh, you still have it.

You talking a. I still got it. Yeah. I'm looking right at it.

That thing is probably 35 years old. Wow.

Absolutely. I. I love that thing. I've taken great care of it, man.

Wow, that's amazing. That makes me real happy. But, yeah, I don't think I ever had bed sheets. I could be wrong on that.

I don't know. Now we all know you had the. The Barbie bed sheets, Dave. It's okay.

Absolutely. You got me.

So that's my big takeaway. Pitfall Harry. How about yourself, Dave? What's your big takeaway for the week?

I really liked the programming side of this, as I normally do. The fact that they were able to generate these levels on the fly using eight bits, that. That kind of ingenuity and programing really fascinates me. And so that was great. I also didn't know this got hidden in so many video games as I was going through it and going, oh, it's hidden here. Oh, it's hidden here. Oh, it's in there. I was like, wow, Pitfall's been in.

A lot of games, so that is actually surprising. I feel like maybe I've seen seen it once or heard about it in one thing like on those buzzfeed articles. But yeah, I never would have guessed that it was in so many at all. It, it is definitely something that was shocking to hear.

All right, well, Rob, before I wrap up this episode and take it into next week, is there anything you'd like to add?

I will take one quick moment to say thank you so much to all of our listeners. It means the world to us to have you along as we go week in, week out learning about the games that we grew up on or maybe the, you know, whatever else gaming related. Who knows? Who knows? You'll never know unless you listen. But for those that do, thank you.

That brings us to the end of our journey through the jungle Pitfall. From David Crane's Running man experiment to the algorithm that generated 255 unique screens, this was a game that pushed the Atari 2600 further than anyone thought possible. It became one of the console's bestsellers, spawned a groundbreaking sequel and and inspired sequels, ports, and even mobile reboots across the decades. Even if later entries never quite match the magic of 1982. Pitfall. Harry's adventure blazed a trail for platformers to follow. Super Mario Bros expanded it into side scrolling worlds. Prince of Persia perfected fluid animation and Crash Bandicoot carried the torch into 3D. But they still all owe something to Crane's jungle run. So whether you remember clutching a joystick while Harry leapt across crocodile heads, or you're just learning about this piece of gaming history today, Pitfall's legacy is clear. It was proof that consoles could take us on real adventures. And in that way, Harry is still out here swinging on vines through the history of video games. Next week we're leaving the jungle adventures of Pitfall behind and heading straight into the chaos of battlefield 1942. Released in 2002, this groundbreaking first person shooter redefined multiplayer warfare with its massive maps, combined arms, combat and team based strategy. From commanding tanks and planes to coordinating with teammates, Battlefield 1942 set a new standard for immersive large scale battles. So join us as we explore its history, mechanics and enduring legacy on next week's epic trip down memory card lane to the thing. Yeah, one.