Pitfall II: Lost Caverns (Atari 2600)

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Description

You play Pitfall Harry searching for the Raj diamond, his niece Rhonda, her cat Quickclaw and a variety of treasures somewhere in the Andes. Poisonous frogs, eels, scorpions, bats, and other hazards get in the way.

Pitfall II is the sequel to Pitfall!, the original platform game. Gameplay has remained pretty much the same, with each screen presenting a side view of obstacles to get past, and potentially treasures to collect. The landscape is more maze-like, with a variety of paths and dead ends to search. Along the way, there are checkpoints the player will encounter in the form of red crosses. When the player dies, Pitfall Harry will be sent back to the most recently crossed checkpoint. The score is reduced based on the distance traveled to get to the cross.

As he explores Harry can collect gold bars which give him a 5000 points award. His total score acts as an energy reserve. If the score is reduced to zero then the game ends and the player must restart from the beginning.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Alternate Titles

• "ピットフォールII" -- Japanese spelling
• "David Crane's Pitfall II: Lost Caverns" -- Alternate title

Part of the Following Groups

• Game with creator's name
• Gaming Service: Game Room
• Pitfall series
• Protagonist: Treasure hunter

User Reviews

The closest the 2600 ever came to an epic	TheoryOfChaos (55)
Do more things besides collecting gold	Katakis | カタキス (42937)

Critic Reviews

TeleMatch	May, 1984	1 out of 6	100
Digital Press - Classic Video Games	Sep 25, 2004	10 out of 10	100
Tilt	Apr, 1984		100
Retro Game Reviews	Apr 24, 2016		100
The Atari Times	Jun 09, 2001	95 out of 100	95
The Video Game Critic	Aug 05, 2011	A-	91
Woodgrain Wonderland	Sep 11, 2017	A-	91
Oldies Rising	Dec 25, 2013	17 out of 20	85
Techtite	1999		80

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Maybe this game should be split... (Arcade, SG-1000?)	2	Terok Nor (32581) Aug 07, 2015

Trivia

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.

Awards

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

Related Web Sites

• Cave map (A map of the entire cavern.)
• Game Map (A screenshot map of the game)