TGC

Title: Sprite Castle 048: Pitfall
Date: Wed, 04 Nov 2020 23:00:32 +0000
Link: http://podcast.robohara.com/sprite-castle-048-pitfall/

Description: On this episode I head into the jungle in search of fame and fortune while playing this week’s game, PITFALL! Sprite Castle Plays Pitfall!: YouTube […]

I honestly never knew you could complete Pitfall. I always thought it was just running and collecting gold and stuff untill you gave up.

Still getting caught up on all my podcasts (I basically have five different podcasts on which I've fallen behind) and just listened to this one a day or so ago. This jogged my memory of something I used to have for a very short time years ago. I remember seeing an ad in a magazine where you could write in and Activision would send you a pamphlet with a BASIC program you could type into your C64 and it would show Pitfall Harry running across the screen. I did receive it, and never got the chance to type it in myself. My friend Brian had a C64 and I lent it out to him. I never got it back; he totally lost it. I wish I still had it. I'm not sure how rare it is or how many people even remember this obscure thing.

I did some googling just now and I did I came across it! It's called "Programming Pitfall Harry" and it's exactly the one that I had for two seconds way back when. There's even a video up on youtube of someone typing it in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in7tHizJA10

Here's some pics on Twitter: https://twitter.com/8bitshowandtell/status/1349459230328164353

I feel vindicated that this actually existed and that my mind wasn't just conjuring it up.

Yeah, good timing -- Robin made that video two days ago!

I know you said you are behind on your podcasts, but Robin (the guy who made that video) and his friend Darren do the podcast "Growing up 80s" that I've mentioned on my show. The good news is that they only do one podcast a month and they are relatively short, so it shouldn't add too much to your listening schedule.

I'm sure when I was a kid I was thrilled not only to discover Pitfall on the C64, but that it was (more or less) identical to the Atari 2600 version. Looking back, I wish Activision had used more of the Commodore's features to improve it.

Well I'll be darned, isn't the timing something? Had I searched a week or so ago, I might have turned up empty. I guarantee you that if I hadn't been so foolish as to loan out that pamphlet, that I would still have it in mint condition today, as I have every other video game-related piece of literature I've ever gotten.

I'll have to check out that podcast sometime soon, thanks!

One other thing that crossed my mind, you mentioned an old Heckle and Jeckle cartoon as being the inspiration for the alligator-hopping in the game. What it reminds me of is the scene from Live and Let Die when Bond basically does just that.

For what it's worth, Robin did most/all the coding on the C64 all-in-one joystick (Jeri Ellsworth did the hardware).

I actually got rid of a bunch of old Commodore books not too long ago. They were all old "learn BASIC" or "how to program" books I'd picked up over the years. I checked online and every one of them is available online. You get to a point where moving this stuff from place to place gets old.