It’s a story as old as video games. Times change. Tech opens new possibilities. That genre of video game that once filled arcades or sold by the bucket is no longer top dog. Over the past 40 years we’ve seen many names fade into oblivion as this cycle repeats. One of the many genres to have its day as progress ground mercilessly forward was the 2D platformer. Thrust into a position of ascendancy through pioneers like today’s topic and smash hits like Super Mario Bros., the genre occupied top spot for a decade. In that time, empires grew and fell. And one such empire was Pitfall.
A Pitfall of Pioneering
The very first title in the series was released in 1982 for Atari VCS/2600 to critical acclaim and near-immediate success. Pitfall! saw players navigate Pitfall Harry across a series of screens, avoiding animals, traps and other titular pitfalls.
Donkey Kong, considered the first true platformer, released in arcades in 1981 to massive success. Pitfall!‘s design was revolutionary, moving platform games to a more linear style versus the single-screen open-ended platformers seen in the time since DK‘s platforming breakthrough.
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Compared to other offerings on the Atari VCS, Pitfall! was visually striking.
The full-colour image didn’t ask much from the player’s imagination and with a human figure imperilled against relatively realistic dangers, it was easy to be immersed despite the lack of screen scrolling.
Its themes of jungle exploration and natural hazards were rare on the Atari. Even attempting to emulate the richness of a real-world locale wasn’t that common on the system due to the limited hardware.
Ultimately, Pitfall!‘s legacy would long outlive its series’ commercial use. The game is a pop-culture icon, one of the few that can be referenced for a cheap laugh in movies or on TV.
Gaming writers still muse over the importance of the title, though it’s mostly through the games it would spawn. Games that have come to define the genre like Super Mario Bros. Games that ran with exploration like Metroid.
Rollercoaster of Sequels
Activision would release a direct sequel for Atari VCS/2600 in 1984. Pitfall II: was more of Pitfall! on a grander scale and with a more vertical orientation. Pitfall II reviewed well at the time and is considered one of the most complex and advanced games for the Atari VCS/2600.
Like Pitfall!, its sequel would see ports to a dozen or systems. But unlike Pitfall!, it didn’t leave any permanent marks on the industry, nor is it considered influential or ‘canon’ in the story of platforming games.
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is probably the best-known of the sequels. It was an eye-catching cinematic 2D platformer that caught the trend at the right time. Where Prince of Persia had spawned the cinematic platformer with its ultra-realistic rotoscoped animations, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure would take the Disney route.
Detailed sprites with complex cartoon animations set against a rich, colourful jungle backdrop were jaw-dropping in the same way as Pitfall! had been. To this day, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is considered an important step along the final route to modern 2D platforming.
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It’s also the last time the series would be relevant. The genre that the Pitfall series had spawned had had its day in the sun and by the mid-90s, the masses were making the jump to 3D.
Lost in 3D Translation
Like many 2D platformers, Pitfall would try to bring its magic to the third dimension and would fail miserably while doing so.
Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle is a very ugly game. A pixelated mess with bland textures and unending aliasing. Controls were jerky yet featured some delay as the animations caught up with your intentions.
Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle was also late to the party. By 1998, the 3D of the genre was rapidly maturing.
Landmark feats of 3D level design and control, like Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot and Super Mario 64, had established early high bars that all 3D platform games needed to clear lest they be considered obsolete. Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle was a relic in terms of control and its use of 3D space.
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Like a raft of 2D hits, failure to translate to 3D would erode the series’ relevancy and delay any attempts at yet another reboot. Another six years of absence while 3D gaming matured only pushed Harry’s day further into the foggy past.
A Comeback Too Late
By 2004, Harry had been a full decade without a competent title. The complete failure of Beyond the Jungle had kept Pitfall out of gamers’ minds and out of gaming magazines. Harry had been forgotten.
Pitfall: The Lost Expedition stands as the last roll of the dice and while it was a more complete take on a 3D vision for the series, it was too little and too late. The Lost Expedition still felt like a technical and artistic downgrade to what other action-adventure games were offering at the time but nowhere near as hopelessly outdated as 1998’s outing.
Lost to Time
Pitfall! is a gaming legend, its place in the story of one of the most influential genres in video games is secure. Even Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure claimed a footnote in the late period of the 2D platformer’s long time at the top.
However, the series is dead. Dormant on consoles for nearly 20 years and vanquished from mobiles for a decade, there doesn’t seem to be a place for Pitfall Harry or Harry Junior in platforming.
Throwing ourselves around exotic-but-realistic locales in 3D has been done better by more far more memorable protagonists since 1996. Lara Croft’s first outing was probably closer to what a competent 3D Pitfall should have looked like.
Instead, we got a franchise-killer. A game that looked dated in 1998 and would have been passed by unnoticed were it not for its lineage. But such a poor execution at a crossroads in gaming only cemented Harry as a name from the past. Proof that the last vestige of his former relevance was gone.
The reboot in 2004 received limited acclaim but failed to reignite interest in the series. However, the damage of Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle‘s botched jump to 3D had been done.
The Final Nail
One last attempt was made by series creator, David Crane, to bring the series back funded via Kickstarter in 2012. Crane, with a superb track record in the industry, asked for $900,000 and received only $31,000.
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Crane himself later said he had asked for too much cash and had turned people off with that $900k figure. While that’s one reason that Jungle Adventure failed to capture the public’s imagination, the campaign never gained much traction online.
The fact that gaming media and the public simply didn’t create the viral din necessary for a project of this magnitude to stand a chance is telling on how far Harry and Pitfall! have receded from relevancy.
Rest easy, Harry.
