The adventures of Pitfall Harry are a big part of many a gamer's childhood. His escapades were the closest we got to play (outside of licensed games of varying quality) as Indiana Jones on second generation consoles such as the Atari 2600. However, one particular game in the series was a lot more Kingdom of the Crystal Skull than Raiders of the Lost Ark, if you catch our drift.
We are truly sorry if you happen to have had your childhood traumatized by Super Pitfall, a misguided attempt to bring the franchise to the NES in 1986, itself a conversion of Pitfall II: Lost Caverns. Micronic's game had a ton of design issues like the infamous pits of instant doom that you would only know about after you drop off the ladder, or a pistol weapon that was almost useless in face of rampaging enemies. A combination of these and other factors made the game one of the worst in the entire NES library.
But that was then and this is now! On the 30th anniversary of this "hidden gem", Nesrocks decided to give the original game a fan makeover, extensively changing the visuals, redesigning levels and even including all new music composed on FCandChill.
Not only does the game now look and sound lovely, it is actually now fun to play. This modification has impressed even David Crane, the original Pitfall creator who people mistakenly still believe had something to do with this game.
David reached out to Nesrocks and left the following email reply:
Truly an amazing and impressive effort! And to learn assembly language programming in order to pull it off is equally impressive.
I run into Super Pitfall haters all the time and I am quick to point out I had nothing to do with it. Now I can point them to your improved version.
Congratulations! – DC
If you happen to still have your original cartridge lying around, it's time to stop using it to prop that shaky table leg. Grab the modification from here and give it a try in your RetroN 5 or Retro Freak.
If we may add a quote from a great person, "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad" unless you find some amazingly dedicated people that three decades later pick up your rushed, broken work and polish it into a near masterpiece.
Mind you, no one will ever be able to save Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Comments 22
That's one game the Ninty Ninjas can't touch. It looks alright but could have done with a bigger upgrade.
Pitfall 2 on the 2600 was an amazing accomplishment. It was basically a proper Metroidvania running on 70's hardware. Glad to see it return to glory with this.
@Muddy_4_Ever My favourite games on the Atari 2600 were Jungle Hunt and Crossbow.
Glad to hear they got the thumbs up from David Crane himself
Anyone remember the AVGN episode of Super Pitfall wonder that The Nerd would think of this
I still have this title on the NES...hated it. It was so difficult and the music was extremely annoying. The only thing that was funny and made me keep it, was for Luigi in the game (or Pitfall Harry just looked like Luigi). Still though, is this remake going to be coming to the platforms, or just be kept as a PC download only?
Pitfall The Mayan Adventure is one that should be given the HD treatment! That was a fun little title!
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Jungle Hunt was an awesome game! I still have and play it if I feel like really going retro! Off The Wall, Adventure and Krull were other good atari classics! Can't wait to see what games are on the two Atari Flashback Classics Vol 1 and Vol 2 discs for PS4! Also, can't wait to see what Atari games look like in HD quality!
I actually loved this game as a kid. It was so hard, and it was such a great feeling to finally master the balloon, get to a new place I'd never reached before, and beat the game. One of the games I was most excited to finally beat, right up there with Mario 3 and Zelda.
I want to see a race of Super Pitfall and Super Pitfall 30th Anniversary Edition at GDQ.
50 Pinch Barrage on the 3DS eShop not the same, but is..... Was worth the DL imho
@Xyphon22 I hear you! I had this game as a kid too and worked diligently until I finally beat it, which was immensely satisfying given how the poor game design thwarts the player unfairly at every turn. I actually remember the game with some fondness, despite the frustrations. I even still have the original NES game box, which has a pretty cool (albeit entirely misleading) illustration on the cover.
Somebody should send the AVGN a copy of this.
#Letsplaycharades
I always wanted to play this game back in my NES oldies seeking days. Sad to her it was such a train wreck. If I ever get one of these retro systems I'll be sure to scoop it up.
I never played the NES version but I loved Pitfall 2 on Atari.
Improved? Still looks (and sounds) like hot garbage.
@DarthKirby I can assure it plays rather differently. Better by far.
With the mention of AVGN, Super Pitfall actually inspired part of the recent AVGN vidya game. His exaggerated version of that first instant death pit was realized in his game.
This game was horrendous but I loved playing it as a kid. Was one of the few games I owned growing up so I played the hell out of it. I remember finishing it but for the life of me I can't recall how I figured out how to.
I remember enjoying Pitfall the Big Adventure on Wii, fun little Zelda-ish game, even if the cover art conflicted with the actual graphics.
Whiny über fanatical Nintendites who don't use emulators, don't have a NES and flashcart, and wanna play this and the rather large catalogue of high quality homebrew titles? Aw, too bad...
"Get 'em, Nintendo! Shut that emulator site down!"
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
Grow up.
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