Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

aka: David Crane's Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
Moby ID: 6946

Trivia

Display Processor Chip (DPC)

"Pitfall 2" was the first and only game that use a DPC-enhanced cartridge. David Crane designed a special circuitry that could be built into a game cartridge, significantly enhancing the power of the Atari 2600. All the advanced features of the game were a direct result of the chip such as extra graphics capabilities, four-voice music and vertical scrolling.

High score reward

If the player sent proof of a score of 99,000 points or more for the Atari 2600 version of the game, they would be rewarded with a Cliff Hangers patch. Here is a picture of that patch at AtariAge.

Method of Porting Apple II version

In his Game Developer Research Institute interview, Rex Bradford, the developer who ported Pitfall II to the Apple II platform from the Atari 2600, mentions that they ignored the source code they were provided with and re-wrote the game from scratch after studying the game play of the original.

C64 and Atari 800 ports

Tim Shotter, who was responsible for the C64 port, took a traditional approach writing the game from scratch using completed 2600 release as a specification while Mark Lorenzen, resposible for Atari 800 port, decided to do things differently. He wrote display code that replaced Atari 2600 display routines and used David's Crane original code intact. Both ports reached beta stage at the same time but because C64 version had been written from scratch, the code needed debugging what lasted about two months. As for Atari 800 it was not necessary and these two months of waiting for the debugged C64 version gave the opportunity to enhance Atari 800 version with addition of entirely new original level.

Awards

  • Retro Gamer Magazine
    • (Issue 46) - #1 'Top 25 Atari 2600'
  • Zzap!
    • May 1985 (Issue 1) - #56 'It's the Zzap! 64 Top 64!'

edit trivia · view history


Know of any trivia we're missing? Contribute.

Trivia contributed by PCGamer77, Alaka, LepricahnsGold, roughana, mailmanppa, FatherJack.