In 1982, Activision programmer David Crane made a masterpiece known as Pitfall, a simple sidescrolling adventure game with the object of collecting all the treasure within a time limit(twenty minutes). The enemies were mostly static, except for a menacing white scorpion which lurked in the underground caves and followed ‘Harry’s every move whether he was above or below ground(Psychic scorpions, anybody?). The game was very popular and raised the bar for video games of the future. Two most notable games which readily used and expanded upon elements from Pitfall are Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog. A sequel to Pitfall would introduce several other features, some of them good, some bad, and at least one that would leave you bald from sheer aggravation.

Pitfall II: Lost Caverns was released in 1983 and sold well enough. The beginning looked much like the original, with an above-ground level and an underground one. The similarities end there. Looking down, the player would see what looked like a lion or something; that is one of the minor characters in the game, one which you need to rescue. You are also standing on what looks like a red cross, which is a restart-marker. Once you move, the game starts, and so does the music. It starts with a happy little tune perfect for an adventure game or movie. As soon as the first few measures of the intro play, the background music sticks to around eight measures of melody. Depending on the mood you are in, and how long you play, it can get extremely boring. Once you found an item, it would play the happy intro again.

When you start the game, one of the most important things to do is to go as far as you can to the end of the screen above ground BEFORE you get to the underground section because otherwise the game is unwinnable(unless you haven’t touched one of those other cross markers) if you do. Once you get the treasure at the very end of that part, then climb down the stairs on the screen with the gigantic hopping frog. Make sure he doesn’t touch you or you will have to deal with the main annoying element of the game: being carried back to the marker - SLOWLY.

These markers are scattered throughout the area, with all but one being underground. Touching them will play the happy tune, just like the treasures and the two prisoners you are trying to find and rescue. Get hit by an enemy, and you get sent back to the last new one you touched. If it’s far away, then it will take awhile even though the game sends you on the shortest path to the marker. As you are sent there, a sad intro plays and then it quickly switches to the repetitive background melody. With certain enemies in some areas, this can get so irritating it will make you want to break the cartridge, because some of the sprites have a pattern you have to memorize with extreme precision. One pixel off and you are sent back to the marker and have to go through that particular maze of rooms again.

On top of that, the enemies are stupid; with the exception of the scorpion, none of the other sprites goes out of its way to get to you. The scorpions retain their psychic abilities, following you as soon as you climb down to a certain height, and can be hard to avoid when they stop directly under the ladder you are on. The electric eels, on the other hand, are easy to avoid. Unless you are diving really deep, there’s no need to fear them. Even then, they are so slow and predictable, you usually don’t even have to acknowledge their existence. Another annoying enemy is the rat, which guards the lion and pushes you off if you are in front of it(it’s the only enemy that doesn’t send you back to the marker). If you are behind it, you’ll make the rat disappear.

Of all the enemies this new game has, it has no alligators or snakes. Also absent are the quicksand and tar pools which claimed many a pixelated Harry in the previous adventure. There are no vines to swing on either, and Harry can swim in this game. Some of these changes are welcome, making for a fresh new diversion for those who liked the first. However, it seemed to deviate a bit far from the original, making it confusing for many who were fans of the original Pitfall.

The setup of this world was confusing at best, since the player could wander from room to room and become lost, much like in the ‘Adventure’ puzzle game. Finding treasures would take forever, and instead of wandering either east or west, and staying on that course, you would have to remember every room you visited, as well as to get that one gold brick that was above ground. Only because I was curious as to how this game ended did I try to finish it. Of course I also wanted to ride on the balloon which appears at a certain location and allows the player to reach some higher-up areas. Other than that little break from the humdrum, I was extremely bored and frustrated. To add to that, the music, which was actually very well-programmed, complete with a percussion track, was getting on my nerves.

When I finally beat the game(I’ve beat it maybe three or four times) I was treated to the ‘happy’ theme and an animation of Harry jumping up and down in triumph. It was quite a feat, not only in hand-eye coordination, but also sheer patience and curiosity. Plus I had nothing better to do.

Pitfall and Pitfall II made way for some big innovations to be sure, but the second one needed to be perfected before it was released. For example, the speed at which Harry was transported to a cross marker could have been faster. In Sonic the Hedgehog, the markers used in that game showed where Sonic(and later on, Tails or Knuckles) would reappear after losing a life. Other games had that system as well, and it worked, depending on how it was employed.

Jill of the Jungle, which incorporates many obvious elements of Pitfall, Super Mario Bros., and Sonic the Hedgehog, also is high on the start-over aggravation scale. Every time Jill died, she would be sent back to the beginning of the level, with most of the enemies dead, but much of the progress still down the drain. Especially annoying were the levels with the demons in them, because those gigantic flying creatures took several hits to destroy(and were invulnerable to her knife) but only gave the player FOUR measly points for killing them. Needless to say I despised levels which had those things roaming around - especially Heck, which was chock full of them.

Sonic the Hedgehog also had its share of annoying levels especially in the spinoffs. One Zone(as the levels are called in the Sonic games) in Sonic 2 has double the ‘acts’(or rounds) of other zones, and is hard as hell. My sister and I beat it a couple times only because I played as Tails and was basically invulnerable, walking on lava and gathering rings to keep Sonic alive.

These days I’m not too big on adventure games, especially ones where I have to start over often if I even make one mistake. Yes, there needs to be challenge in an adventure game, as well as predictability, but the annoyance needs to be minimized. Time for redoing or repeating a level should be expedited if possible. The Sonic games got it right, by simply having Sonic reappearing at the last marker he activated, rather than being carried to it. Collision detection and level measurement of enemies could be improved, as is the case of Pitfall II where it is extremely hard to tell when some of the flying enemies are high enough to run under. These kinds of challenges can add to the fun, but if it’s too easy to make a mistake, then it takes the fun out of the game. This is why I usually prefer puzzle or simulation games, or even the shoot-em-ups, because they are unpredictable and you don’t have to rely on pixel precision to avoid having to play the same level or area over and over again.

With more games employing the 3D type of environment, the predictability factor plus the aggravation of quick, easy deaths and constant startovers can easily ruin a game. Randomness is needed to make a game interesting, but there should be a wider range of levels as well to make the enemies and obstacles more forgiving while the player learns how to play the game. With this balance of randomness and ease of play, the game will be more replayable and fun, and there will be fewer people losing interest in their games due to memorization taking away the challenge.

In short, the Pitfall-type games have gone stale, and are decades overdue for a revamp.

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