The world's greatest videogame easter egg DOESN'T EXIST (*for legal reasons 🤫) Pitfall 2 Atari 800!

There's an entire hidden game within the game of Pitfall 2 that Activision didn't want you to see. Let's explore the Atari 800 Lost Caverns of Lost Caverns in this Quick Bytes recipode! Made possible by our friendly sponsor PCBWay.com - great PCBs from $5!
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RECIPE INGREDIENTS*
• Full Brad Fregger interview on early access tiers at patreon.com/posts/42856323 or kzbin.infojoin
• Pitfall 2 walkthrough inc. Easter Egg: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZpfQkqipbbd1iMU
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CHEERS TO
• David Crane: dcrane.com
• Brad Fregger
• Noah Fregger
• Mike Lorenzen
• Tim Shotter
• Brian Weiser
• Claire Hetrick
• Gardenside Prods. & Clue Detectives & Paradise Radio
• Special thanks to Ladyfractic & Puppyfractic:
🐶 Get a discount on Puppyfractic's featured collar fitness/GPS tracker at bit.ly/periwhistle & a free Bark Box at bit.ly/barkyfractic!*
SAUCES USED WITH THANKS
• David Crane interview courtesy: jogabilida.de
﹂Check out their KZbin: kzbin.info
﹂Check out their Patreon: www.patreon.com/jogabilidade/posts
• ARetroSyntaxEra: kzbin.info
• The Smithsonian
• Ben Valdes
• KevinMos3
• www.ataricompendium.com
• Evan Amos
• Wikipedia & Wikimedia Commons
• The Internet Archive
• Every attempt was made to contact copyright owners before including content. Very occasionally things can get forgotten in the excitement to release a video so please don't hesitate to let me know if that is the case & I'll put it right. All other media featured is marked as public domain on Google Images or used with written permission or shown under fair use law.
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SOME INGREDIENTS BY
• MattGrandis.net - website design
• _GazMarshall - some graphics
• kzbin.info - colour palette cleanser
• PaulKitching3d.com - some 3D models
©️ All music & content copyright Perifractic's Retro Recipes/Bideas LLC 1988-2020. All rights reserved.
*Some links may offer some peanuts to support this retrochannel but all opinions are 100% unbiased.
#retrogaming #retrocomputing

[@RetroRecipes]

Thanks for watching! A couple of small clarifications: • 5:56 For those who didn't think I showed the Easter Egg, _you're looking at it!_ That's it at 5:56, 6:35, 9:01 etc. • 4:54 This is the 5200 graphics not VCS but the music improvement David's DPC chip gave is the same. • 5:47 I mentioned the 8-Bit Atari graphics "weren't really much better than the VCS" as this is how Brad put it in the full interview. To clarify, the _Pitfall 2 Atari 8-Bit graphics_ were lower resolution than the C64. A big reason for this is the VCS & 8-Bit Atari versions are based on the same source code. I think this is what Brad was meaning to convey. Happy Easter! Your friend in retro, Perifractic

[@retroelectrodad5933]

Yep, Atari 8-but graphics were far better than VCS, compared to the C64 I think they’re comparable as the Atari is stronger in certain areas but the C64 has the edge in areas used most in games of that era - sprites and colour resolution. Mind, the Atari 8-bit graphics are an evolution of the VCS with higher resolution, DMA and frame buffering. This would mean it was easier to take the design of the VCS title’s code and move it across with a little enhancement. I would imagine the C64 port was more complicated necessitating the rewrite.

[@Chocolatchips]

The 'secret door' to the "second level" is also on the Atari 5200 version of Pitfall II. When I was a kid, getting in there was the whole point of the game! Years later, I played through a different version and... the biggest portion of the game was missing! "What'a rip!", I thought. "Why is the best part of the game missing!?"

[@rbrtck]

@@retroelectrodad5933 A8 graphics might have evolved from the VCS, but they're more like C64 graphics due to the use of frame buffers and powerful character-based modes. Few, if any, A8 game programmers ever "chased the beam", while this was normal, standard, necessary practice on the VCS. The A8 and VCS really only share the large Atari color palette and the ability to relatively easily change colors on the vertical axis, but in all other respects, the C64 is more similar to the A8. Generally speaking, these are the A8's strengths, while the C64's strengths are sprites (as you pointed out) and the number of colors that can be placed on the horizontal axis (all 16 colors). Additionally, for certain types of games, namely 3D simulations, the A8's ability to trade off resolution for faster CPU speed (less DMA) gives it a performance advantage, while the C64 is superior when using "high" (320 pixels horizontally) resolution, which gives it an advantage for many adventure/RPG games (e.g. Origin's _Ultima_ series). The C64 version of _Pitfall II_ , however, does not take advantage of the C64's strengths. Clearly the person who ported it spent more time and effort on the graphics, but he didn't do anything with them that couldn't have been done on the A8. The guy who made the A8/5200 version spent less time on the graphics and a lot more time total (evidenced by his exhaustion and dehydration), which was how he made all of those extra levels. It wasn't because the A8 is similar to the VCS, because it isn't--it's a lot more like the C64 overall. In fact, porting from the A8 to the C64 or vice versa would have been trivial in comparison to porting either version from the VCS. It wasn't done this way because that would have been a serial process that took slightly longer, and time was of the essence, but it would have taken less work overall. Note that this wouldn't be true if the C64's sprite and color mapping capabilities were fully used, but in this case they were not.

[@retroarcadefan]

@@retroelectrodad5933 Indeed! 8-bit computers and 5200 weren't even close to 2600.

[@The8BitGuy]

Yeah.. I was kind of scratching my head at the end saying "aren't you going to show us the easter egg?"

[@KenKuhns]

I had the 2600 version of Pitfall II when I was a kid. A friend of mine had an Atari 600 computer and Pitfall II for it - he wasn't very good at it, though. One day we were at his house playing it and since I knew where all the treasures were, I beat it - or thought I did anyway. When that black "door" opened up behind quick claw - neither of us knew what it was (and he had never seen it before.) When Pitfall Harry ran through it into a new set of caverns, we were both stunned. We played through that second set of caverns for hours trying to figure it out. I ended up beating it later on when he loaned me the computer (and I loaned him my Atari 7800).

[@RetroRecipes]

Amazing! You lived it!

[@emmettturner9452]

Very cool story!

[@nadparvez1361]

I remember being 13 years old and completing the game on my Atari 800. I was completely stunned when that door opened up and transported Harry to another secret level even more difficult and bigger, with new enemies like the ants. Just fantastic.

[@Chordonblue]

Amazing! THAT explains why the game seemed so long! I only completed it on my 800XL - once. Remember, there were no game saves, no battery, no codes - nothing! I kept my computer on for days as I slogged through this game. I had NO IDEA that 1/2 the game was an Easter Egg! I just thought it was a REALY. LONG. Game!

[@CommodoreGreg]

Awesome!

[@arthurdetroit9225]

I actually laughed out loud with the maxi pad commercial bit. Real life LOL.

[@davidjames579]

Is the Maxi Pad some kind of joypad?

[@BBC600]

@@davidjames579 I think only Female gamers can use them. 😉

[@davidjames579]

@@BBC600 Bloody difficult to use I imagine.

[@oscarjimenezgarrido7591]

That actually was a nice reference to a funny joke that someone wrote on the comment section for the Ghostbusters bank account video from a few days ago about playing on a C64 Max using a gamepad - hence, a maxi pad. So this is actually a joke about a joke. Jokeception, sorta.

[@davidjames579]

@@oscarjimenezgarrido7591 Clearly Perri and I have an amazing sense of humour.

[@sweetf2a]

In the 5200 version you don’t have to collect all the gold to get to the extra cavern. Not the prehistoric rat either. In fact you can get to the extra cavern in about 15 mins from the start.

[@scottmefford6917]

Puppy Fractic's Tarzan yell was just too cute. LMAO

[@MoosesValley]

Yes, so cute and sure made me laugh !!

[@v_zach]

I love the moment in the Ready Player One movie where the oologist shouts "Pitfall!" A literal shout-out to the legendary game.

[@amuzulo]

And all along the most epic Easter egg was in Pitfall II! 😁

[@gmirwin]

Sir, I'm glad you get to interview all these interesting people from the 8-bit era. Their stories need to be preserved. And having Puppyfractic for an assistant doesn't hurt. She seemed to like your Scooby Doo voice.

[@00Skyfox]

Too bad they didn’t include this in the C64 version, but that is still pretty awesome that they went around the execs and kept the extra game in. With all the times I completed the game I certainly never saw a door to a second hidden game.

[@retrohead]

this is awesome 👏❤ I had the pleasure of meeting Brad 2 years ago in Iowa when he was giving a lecture at my university. super cool guy. I ended up meeting with him later and he helped me with my resume. He recently sent me a signed copy of his book "Lucky That Way", which has many fascinating stories including this easter egg 😊

[@pinchopaxtonsgreatestminds9591]

Talking about things that don't exist here's one... I used to work on computer games myself, and I joined a company run by Richard Wilcox from Elite. He told me about his work on Summer Games 2 (I think it was. It was one of the summer games titles), and how he was praised for putting in a skill level setting. Only thing is he didn't have time to actually program the settings, so they were all the same. Easy was the same as hard. However the reviews in magazines all gave extra scores in their reviews for the skill level settings, and made comments... "The easy was way too easy, and the hard setting was way too hard". Also I worked for Arc Developments who were also split up from Elite. We worked on many games, and one of them was Predator 2. We got a phone call from a magazine... "Are you working on Predator 2?" Someone at the company replied... "I can't tell you about that..... yet!" And finally I moved to a company making Total Recall, and the artist spent 3 days on the loading screen of Arnold Schwarzenegger (before the days of scanning), and I thought it looked really good. But then we got a phone call saying that we couldn't use his face in the game, because he wanted a 6 figure sum to use it. The company had to send all of our material to Arnie for him to inspect it to make sure it didn't look like him! When he saw the loading screen his reply came back... "It's OK it doesn't look like me you can use it!"

[@RetroRecipes]

Haha that's great!

[@shadowpresident4203]

Pitfall II for the Tandy CoCo disk drive was one of my favorite and most played games back in the day. One of my most confusing gaming memories was trying to beat the game. After finally making it throughout the huge sprawling caverns and rescuing all of the key items/treasures, I got back to the first screen. The first screen is also the last screen. When you start a new game, you can see Pitfall Harry's cat, Quickclaw, right from the get go. This is the final treasure you have to collect to win, according to the instructions. The only problem is, Quickclaw is underground and you have no way of getting to him, without going the "long way" around which means playing through the entire game just to get back to the first screen, except in the underground section. I'd have found this circular travel through life ironic and symbolic of the hero's journey of Pitfall Harry, had my pretentious nerd skills been more refined. My elementary school teachers ought to be ashamed of themselves for that oversight. I had collected all of the other treasures, and finally made it back to Quickclaw. For some reason though, the game kept glitching out when I walked up and touched him. Normally when you collect one of the treasures you just hear a beep and feel like a real hero. This time however, Pitfall Harry just starts jumping in place endlessly and the controls lock up. I played through the entire game several times, experimenting with different orders of collecting treasures. No matter what I did however, Harry just jumped in place when I finally made it back to Quickclaw. It was only a couple years later, after moving on to other games and thinking about it for awhile that I realized what had happened. I had actually WON the game, and Harry was celebrating upon collecting the final treasure by jumping for joy. This might seem obvious in hindsight, but everything was new and different as a gamer back then (especially as a young kid.) I finally looked it up years later upon getting internet access and confirmed that, yes, I had actually won the game without realizing it. Would a "Congratulations u are the winnar!" message have been too much to ask? I suppose when you've got 128K of RAM, yes, yes it would have indeed been too much. Moral to the story- NEVER win the game because it'll just confuse you, and make you think the world is glitching out!

[@bio-boosted]

Nice bit of game history, think it's time I looked into patron for the full interview. As always, nice to see puppyfractic helping out!

[@apri1979]

The Atari 800 was my first computer or console, and we played Pitfall 2 a lot back then. It was a journey for weeks to find all the items and complete the game. Or let‘s say the first stage. The second was very hard and took some nights to finish it. For all younger ones today, you had to keep your machine powered, because you couldn‘t save the game. And it took about 7 minutes to load in the begining, at least with the Atari 800‘s tape deck. After playing the Atari 2600 version of the game i was surprised the second stage wasn‘t in there. I didn‘t know it was that special. But, as far as i know you don‘t have to collect the items in a special order. Btw. the first stage, what took so long back then, could be complete in about 30 minutes. What an epic length for todays standards. ;-)

[@00Skyfox]

And that yawning squeak Puppyfractic makes at 4:30, my dogs used to make that same sound. I love that sound! So adorable 🐺❤️

[@RetroRecipes]

Aw bless em

[@shadowpresident4203]

My uncle works at Nintendo, and I played the new Mario game that has 256 bits! My other uncle works at Activision with David Crane. In the Atari 7800 version of Pitfall III, you fight Mario at the end. My other uncle works with Yu Suzuki at Sega. I'd let you guys play the prototype cartridges he gave me, but you know, I was sworn to secrecy.

[@RetroRecipes]

That's incredible. If you'd ever like me to make a video about something rare or unknown, I'm open. [e-mail]

[@MartinFarrell1972]

Good impersonation of Tarzan Puppy Fractic!

[@Francois_L_7933]

This reminds me a bit of Day of the Tentacles where you can actually play the whole Maniac Mansion on one of the computers.

[@emmettturner9452]

Are you for real? Woah. ...and here I was, trying to get it working on my C64 with those God-awful joystick controls (this game really needs a mouse!).

[@kintozero3169]

I preferred the NES version of Maniac Mansion, but it was really cool getting to play the DOS version as an easter egg in Day of the Tentacle.

[@GoShanePlays]

On a barely adjacent tanget, my brother and I always thought it sounded like "Cold beers to you!" when Harry would swing across a rope

[@heathwellsNZ]

It should possibly be mentioned though... many people associated solitaire with Windows. The Windows version was actually written by Wes Cherry in 1988 while working as an intern at Microsoft. Brad certainly came first... but... not the Windows one...

[@Cuperino]

The thumbnail said: “Do not watch this”, then I saw it was from RetroRecipes and I said: “How could I not watch this?”

[@Darkfiberke]

thanks for making this crazy year feel slightly more normal with your content and humor.

[@Nezuji]

It's interesting how people can forget or misremember things. I was listening to a podcast just yesterday and they said that the "second cave" in the 5200/400/etc. versions of the game is often *incorrectly* called an Easter egg, because it's mentioned in the manual. I just looked at the manual for the 5200 version, and sure enough, right there on the first page after a brief description of the game is the sentence: "Then, venture through the forbidding second cavern and solve its surprising mystery of freedom."

[@jeffjackson9679]

Ahhh. Good memories. I remember owning Pitfall 2 for my 5200, and thinking I beat the game (on level one) and turning it off. I think I replayed it a year later and stumbled on the second secret level and having my 10 year old mind blown away. Keep in mind in the early 80s their was no internet, or even a Nntendo Power mag to tell you of this. YOu pretty much had to stumble upon it, or happen to hear about it from word of mouth at school from other players.

[@electricdreams1616]

I remember Jack Black doing the Pitfall advert all them years ago. The ingenuity of early programmers years ago with only 4K to work on, pretty amazing. I like how Puppyfractic always puts a reassuring paw on your arm whenever she makes an appearance. Puppyfractic is stealing the show lol

[@gguerre]

Paw-bably true...

[@jayconrad6162]

Love your stuff! The floppy drive episode with the C64 Maxi is exactly what I have been trying to do!

[@rolingthunder8612]

fun fact: with the introduction of quickclaw and randa in this game, the saturday supercade cartoon adaptation is at least parshally cannon.

[@CanadianRetroThings]

Great! Now I need to find an Atari 800 and Pitfall 2, then I need to play it till I can do a perfect run through to get the Easter egg??? I will try, but no promises!

[@thedrummerboycr]

I found this comment two years ago: "Brad Fregger 2 Years ago I was the producer for this game and the Easter Egg was only in the Atari 800 and 5200. Actually the “new level” Easter egg had more levels than the actual game and the finish was climbing to the top on a snake charmers rope. So you escaped the cavern with your treasures. It was initially designed to be a known extension of the game, but marketing wouldn’t let us have more level than the C64. So ... we turned it into an Easter Egg."

[@RetroRecipes]

Yes he's been trying to get the word out with little success until now. In the full interview he talks about problems even getting Wikipedia to accept it.

[@arzoch]

Wow. Who did the amazing pixel art for the Activision story in this episode? It's fantastic!

[@RetroRecipes]

A very clever lady named Claire who I found through Upwork! 👍🕹️

[@JEdwardBanasikJr]

Oh man they could have sold the other part as a 3rd game. Pitfall III - The Really Lost Caverns

[@ccchhhrrriiisss100]

Is it like a PITFALL version of INCEPTION -- a "pit within a pit (within a pit)?"

[@davidjames579]

That would have pissed off people who completed Pitfall 2 perfectly. Your reward is: Now we going to charge you for it!

[@andie_pants]

I'm not even a gamer, but you two make this stuff so interesting!

[@Larry]

Aww, I was hoping you'd say how you do it :(

[@OnlyEpicEmber]

You complete the game, get every colectible. Upon looking it up, it seems difficult but doable. There's a few videos of it on KZbin

[@zdanee]

Hello you!

[@emmettturner9452]

He did... it's just that 100% completing the game to unlock something isn't seen as an Easter egg these days since it's the normal goal for most players. ;)

[@8bitrocketstudios]

@@emmettturner9452 100% - literally and figuratively =)

[@emmettturner9452]

@@andymerrett Exactly, and calling them "Level 1" and "Level 2" instead of Game 1 and Game 2 kinda belittles it. ;)

[@DanHegh]

I press "like" on these vids before the intro is over. Why? Because all of them are awesome. We need a "This is fracking awesome" button on YT.

[@RetroRecipes]

Thank you for your kind words! Means a lot 👍🕹️

[@davidjames579]

Fractic Awesome?

[@RetroRecipes]

@@davidjames579 I see what you did there

[@davidjames579]

@@RetroRecipes I learnt to pun from the best.

[@boardsort]

Thank you for once again providing me with my regular weekend retro fix. I swear I look forward all week to waking up on Sunday morning with my cup of coffee and watching you, Ladyfractic and of course Puppyfractic. So much so that this morning I made a commitment to a monthly Patreon subscription to your channel. I really believe this is the best produced, most unique and entertaining retro YT channel out there and I am willing to put my money where my comment is. Thanks again, in retro, Chris in Ohio.

[@RetroRecipes]

It was great to see you there. Thanks a million!

[@josemello3100]

Congratulations for this another video. I always follow this fantastic channel together with my 11 month old little daughter and for sure we both really enjoyed the friendly dog's participation. I, in turn, am very fond of the computer approaches of the Amiga line and I am also a big fan of Atari, so I loved this video about Pitfall. I leave a big hug for you straight from Brazil. And yes, again another big hug for the dog. PS. Sorry for my poor English.

[@RetroRecipes]

Your English is better than mine! Thank you for your kind words. It's very heartwarming that you watch with your little girl. Puppyfractic sends a hug back too! 🐶

[@NothingButAshs]

as someone who started working in the game industry nearly 30 years ago working on the game genie, priding myself about knowing secrets, and had this game before that...I'm super disappointed with myself about never knowing this.

[@kintozero3169]

Wait you worked on the game genie? For which console? Some of my fondest game memories as a kid were entering random game genie codes on my gameboy & seeing how it changed the games

[@NothingButAshs]

@@kintozero3169 Everything from the NES right up to the prototype for the SNES GG2 which would help you make your own codes on it's own.

[@The.Doctor.Venkman]

Excellent research and great presentation, Chris. Thank you!

[@Roche_Furman]

3:25 The crossed eyes 😂

[@RetroRecipes]

She was totally zoned out there!

[@MatterIsNotSolid]

Great memories. I guess the old Atari 2600 games are going to be a bit like how people feel about old vinyl records compared to video games now and in the future. Spent so many lost, relaxing childhood hours playing these games. Simpler times with less worries.

[@humboreverb8879]

Pitfall 2 was the only game I completed on the 2600 Way Way back in the day love that game! The very last level was very very hard and I do remember the Easter egg!

[@typxxilps]

Ii still can remember Davids midnight magic the pinball game in the time before the 1984 olympics in LA great game to kick 10 balls in that cave and free them again. Great memories. Pitfall was not my game , too complicated ... but a lot of others like gunship or apache if I remember those right. Ah, BCs quests for tyres was funny too, totally different among these olympic games of that era... Daley Thompson versus Jürgen Hingsen ... and silent hunter or so ...

[@gamedoutgamer]

Enjoyed this a lot thank you RR! 5:47 wait a second! The 8bit Atari's graphics are a big improvement over the VCS. Where did you get that idea? Yes Pit2's graphics on the 8bit computer look more like a straight port from VCS. Also the 5200 has only 16K of RAM but maybe the 5200 Pit2 cart has 48K of ROM? Had no idea that there was a whole new Easter egg game in it! Learned something today! haha Now I know why the Pit2 carts for the 800 series sell for a premium. Great video as always thank you. 2:47 Why does Puppy Fractic's neck look inflated today?

[@RetroRecipes]

It's what Brad said, but I should've clarified "The 8-Bit version of Pitfall 2's graphics are the same as the VCS graphics." Puppyfractic's neck ruff seems to change from day to day!

[@datacipher]

Wow… so much misinformation and errors in this… I just jumped… in first thing I heard… 4k…. NOPE… pitfall 2 was 10k on the 2600. Then he immediately said the 8 bit graphics chips weren’t much better than the 2600!! UNREAL… the 8 bit gtia and antic are a quantum leap over the 2600. Another wannabee influencer who has no idea what he’s talking about.

[@eskey691]

Yes yes yes just what i need after a long walk in the rain and cold with the dog . Is to sit down with a nice hot drink and my tea (food for you guys in the usa) and boom and cool video to watch. To top it all Puppyfractic and her whistle (it's all in the eys haha), and thats the best dad joke yet haha. Great video as always keep up the great work guys and catch you in the next one :-)

[@RetroRecipes]

Haha thank you!

[@joveaaron-real]

3:30 about to sneeze! (?)

[@MajorTom719]

Yeah I found this about the Atari 800 version well, but for me it wasn't quite an Easter Egg. I had played this game so many times on the Commodore 64 that I completed it perfectly on the first try on the Atari 800 and played all these levels as well. I had just figured it was a better version of the game since it was on the Atari platform, not an easter egg.

[@ncc74656m]

Junior, the dog's name was Indiana.

[@devil8975]

I liked that dog!

[@markdjdeenix6846]

Da da d d da da da

[@mugzy81]

"The dog? You were named after the dog??"

[@fnjesusfreak]

One of the first times I used a C64, I played Pitfall 2. There's a pretty good Apple ][ port, too - even better if you have a sound card, and get the same music as on the other versions.

[@CJStanz]

I had this game for the Atari 800 and remember beating level 1 and discovering level 2. It was cool to find out there was a whole other level, but honestly I remember feeling a little bummed as I thought I beat the whole game and now there’s another part to go. I didn’t know it was platform exclusive or an Easter egg. For all I knew there were levels 3 and 4. I think I stopped playing it at that point. Would have been nice if they’d given you a code you could use to jump directly to level 2 in the future. You never really die in the game you just go back to the last plus sign so I was tempted to just leave the computer on forever after making it to level 2 but I’m sure my Dad wouldn’t have let me ha.

[@RetroRecipes]

Yeah I wondered how that might feel! I guess it gave more value for money, is one way to look at it. You could think of it as a second game you got for free... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@CJStanz]

@@RetroRecipes I suppose so. Though it wasn’t my money at the time ha. (Actually, it was a bootleg on floppy disk not the cartridge so we didn’t even pay for it... shhh don’t tell the Activision guys!) Love the channel!

[@mnemo70]

Hey, that was THE SAME for me! I completed the game back then, only to be standing at the beginning of a whole new level and I was like „Uh? Naaaawwwww.“ because I felt cheated in that I didn‘t complete the game. :-(

[@kevincozens6837]

I just had a thought. The game within Pitfall II should have been released as a standalone game and they should have hidden Pitfall II inside it as an easter egg. ;)

[@GiuseppeGaetanoSabatelli]

Pretty sure I could listen to this guy's voice all day long. But, damn! I didn't know this. lol I love Pitfall II so much, I've been collecting copies of Pitfall II for 2600, I've got 5 so far. Didn't realize there was a "New Game+" in the Atari 800 version!

[@timmooney7528]

Cool. I recall a deal where you could get a free copy of Pitfall mailed to you, but it would arrive as a book full of code.

[@marklechman2225]

3:03 Puppy Fractic is totally falling asleep :)

[@RetroRecipes]

Hehe right?

[@jeena256]

Ghost Busters and Pitfall II = best sound on Atari!

[@ssjkriccolo]

Just stumbled upon your channel. Dude, you have a relaxing voice.

[@RetroRecipes]

Hey, thanks!

[@galbyman]

Pitfall is an amazing game. Pitfall II though was amazing beyond belief.

[@rationalmale6265]

Within the next few hours I'm going to be a proud supporter of your channel and content via Patreon. Brilliant work, guys. My daughter and I love your channel and content. I'm spreading the good word about you guys. Coolest channel on KZbin by far. Keep up the fantastic work and I will continue to support and put my money where my mouth is.

[@RetroRecipes]

Thank you for your kind words! Means a lot 👍🕹️

[@pezjohnson]

The only way that I played Pitfall 2 was at a friend's house in his Atari 5200. Ok, I didn't really play, I watched. I also coached by giving him suggestions. When we finished the first game and the door opened up, we played the second game. I thought that this was how the game was the whole time! I didn't know it wasn't there in other versions. Pretty cool.

[@RetroRecipes]

Amazing! You lived the fairy tale!

[@johnmogavero8156]

Now I have to get the C64 and PITFALL II !

[@raftube77]

Having played it on the 2600 as a kid, and dreaming since to play a proper sequel (even involving trying to make one myself) and literally having recurring dreams about this, I cannot begin to say how awesome this is. There are the “extra” levels in the Sega arcade port and other conversions - but they don’t look or play anything like the original. This atari 800 version looks very close to the 2600 one - at least in the caves, which is 95% of the game anyway. I imagined there might have been a hidden underwater passage leading to a whole new section of the game. So those extra water screens and waterfall drops look awesome; they have a Goonies feel, if you know what I mean. This better not be an early April’s fool joke.

[@RetroRecipes]

It's not 😅

[@stephanepiquemal8297]

Very interesting story. We can probably draw some parallels by comparing the Activision of today with the Activision back then ;)

[@bmkretrogaming7634]

Nice video! Liked, and subscribed.

[@ccchhhrrriiisss100]

My dad has an Atari 800XL with a copy of Pitfall 2 somewhere in the attic. I might set it up during the holidays and fire up Pitfall 2.

[@Jimbaloidatron]

Just don't use the original power supply incase it is failing and damages the computer... You can get a USB to Atari power cable to use with a modern phone/tablet charger for cheap.

[@ccchhhrrriiisss100]

@@Jimbaloidatron - Thanks for the tip!

[@xxxyyy6076]

I remember this easter egg. I never finished the easter egg level, but I reached it many times.

[@mguytv]

You guys are better than my real friends. Awesome channel and awesome content. Wish I had your talent!

[@patrickellington53]

That’s was a great video..I never knew there was another game in pitfall 2..just got back into playing the Atari 2600..got the 2600+ for my birthday a few days ago and have been on eBay and bought a few of my favourite games I played in the 80s when I was a kid..I’ve ordered pitfall 2 to find out it doesn’t work on the Atari 2600+..gutted..😭

[@patrickpoer4643]

I like the That Mitchell and Webb look, quiz show broadcast reference.

[@RetroRecipes]

I did watch that show but didn't intentionally reference it here. Timestamp in my video?

[@patrickpoer4643]

In your video, Timestamp 1:24. The source kzbin.info/www/bejne/p5zSgYyamq15bZI

[@RetroRecipes]

@@patrickpoer4643 Haha just a coincidence. As you probably know, that's the old BBC test card that both of us borrowed ;-)

[@patrickpoer4643]

@@RetroRecipes Remain indoors

[@RandomRetr0]

Cadbury’s roses for everyone

[@Hossak]

Especially for Natalie Imbruglia, sorry I meant Ladyfractic. She reminds me of her - took me a while to figure it out. You guys are great and all deserve chocolates...and doggie treats of course!

[@jonyak1221]

Someone needs to port the hidden game over to the 2600, they could call it pitfall 2 hidden caverns.

[@sambrown9494]

Keeping with the whole point of this (once again great) video, is it roses or milktray that has the neat little half barrel full of caramel? I wish you could get a tube of all caramel barrels, like you could with purple winegums.

[@davidjames579]

I'm thinking Quality Street, but not sure now.

[@twarlex]

Uhhh the Atari 8bit graphics chips were MUCH better than the VCS's! But other than that, great video 😉

[@RetroRecipes]

Hmm I guess something got lost in translation there from Brad. The point is the 5200 version looks pretty much the same as the VCS, whereas the C64 looks prettier.

[@twarlex]

@@RetroRecipes The C64 bit version looks indeed much prettier :). I guess the Atari 8bit version could have looked nicer too (especially for this kind of level design with the per-scan-line-switchable graphic modes and colour pallettes), but an extra level is a fine trade off 😄

[@ridbensdale]

Great video. Pitfall 2 was another game I couldn’t find for the 2600, but had it for the C64. Also, I thought Klax was the last game on the 2600? Or I am treeing up the wrong bark?

[@emmettturner9452]

He didn't say Pitfall! II was the last... only one of the last. I don't even think it was Activision's last. Didn't H.E.R.O. come later and use the same engine?

[@Ian45968]

Activision released Rampage for the 2600 in 1989!

[@RobA500]

It’s okay I won’t tell anyone 🤫. Awesome video. 👍

[@froilanrivero2826]

wooow . Also please make the memory crunching techniques as a standalone fully featured episode thanks in. advance!!!

[@RetroRecipes]

Yup it's in the works!

[@froilanrivero2826]

@@RetroRecipes thank you good sir! and please give an extra cookie to puppyfractic

[@MrRaivokasMagma]

What a thick plot. Could be even thicker.

[@phooeyfudge]

3:30 Pitfall wasn't the first game to feature a fluidly animated human character, Intellivision's NFL Football came out in 1979. 4:33 Pitfall II wasn't one of the last games to be published on the Atari VCS, It came out in 1984. The last games would have been 1990 or 1992.

[@RetroRecipes]

I don’t think the NFL looks nearly as realistic. To me it looked like he was running really far really slowly. Too fast & slow. IMHO Pitfall was first to be realistically fluid and human.

[@RetroRecipes]

If you look at the list on Wikipedia only 20 third party games were published after it out of 382 games, making it “one of” the last. The vast majority were published before it. I do recommend starting your own retro gaming channel though 😉

[@GoWstingray]

Loved this game as a child, and Gilians Gold.

[@Allen-by6ci]

It must have been awesomely insane to work for these companies back in the 80s...

[@davidjames579]

Allowed to live at the office! Health and Safety would never allow that now. Especially after an ambulance is called for the guy!

[@Pholiage]

There is about 30 million YT channels. This one is my favorite by far :)

[@RetroRecipes]

Thank you for your kind words! Means a lot 👍🕹️

[@UnholyTriforceDelenn]

This is the coolest story ever! Plus, I'm so glad this worked out, because easter eggs in video games are the best things ever and should never be denied! :)

[@Trusteft]

Cool video man, thank you for sharing. And one more thing I never mention before. You know a woman (or man) is gorgeous when you record her face from a low angle and still looks good. Happy gaming.

[@RetroRecipes]

Agreed!

[@patrickrail969]

Awesome quality video !!!!!!!!!!!!

[@RetroRecipes]

Thank you for your kind words! Means a lot 👍🕹️

[@RobertWarrenGilmore]

I thoroughly enjoy your understated presentation style. I think I'd watch you talk about anything. Speaking of which, do you think you might do a video on the software design of old games, different ways that game engines and game code were organised back then? The upcoming video on sprite storage techniques sounds interesting.

[@RetroRecipes]

I plan to. Thank you for your kind words! Means a lot 👍🕹️

[@NimrodClover]

At 3:30 - "The first game to feature a fluidly animated human character..." Humm, even though this was very early in computer graphics, I believe Intellivision holds claim to that. David Crane said he started looking to convert his sketches of a profile runner into the Atari 2600 in 1979 and Pitfall was released in 1982. Intellivision was released in 1979 and one of its initial selling points (from commercials) was its fluid running characters, left-right and up-down the screen. Pitfall for the Atari was 3 years behind. Just for comparison, take a look at Intellivision titles such as; Nightstalker, Tron: Deadly Discs, or Advanced Dongeons & Dragons all of which came out the same year as Pitfall and had distinctly different animated running, shooting, blocking, characters. If one is looking for very early examples, just consider any of the sport titles from 1980-81. Yes, Pitfall was great and could be considered the first side-scroller (even though it did not scroll) but first fluid human animation... sorry, my nod is to Intellivision.

[@RetroRecipes]

Fair enough. This one was of my sources: www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2013/08/02/the-pitfalls-of-atari-development-a-retrospective-on-the-industry-s-first-platformer.aspx The other was David himself 😉

[@wisteela]

Brilliant. I love that animation. :)

[@g-starthefirst]

Mike Lorenzen... that name sounds a bit familiar. Also, PLEASE, and I mean please, check out The Neverhood for me, it means so much to me and my friends!

[@intellivisiongamer]

Very interesting, thanks!

[@drewdane40]

1:22 Remain indoors!

[@g-starthefirst]

Mike Lorenzen? Is he related to Mark Lorenzen? Mark Lorenzen is amazing.

[@RetroRecipes]

Hmm I'm not sure, what did he do?

[@g-starthefirst]

@@RetroRecipes Mark Lorenzen worked on the extremely popular action-platformer game, Earthworm Jim (1 and 2). He also worked on my favorite game, The Neverhood.

[@comment1652]

Great video.

[@ayalia1]

I only watch for the puppies opinions. Sub’d. :) oh yah and moonraker, I think it was spelt, was my fav on 2600. Miss the 80’s.. and 90’s.. and 00’s..

[@JamesThigpen]

Here for the dog.

[@v_zach]

4:54 Pretty sure he meant Pitfall 2 on Atari 800. Those aren't VCS graphics.

[@RetroRecipes]

Dang you're right, although the music is pretty much identical and that was a big part of what the DPC chip did: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kIusfpSAo9-DsNk Somehow this error slipped past my Patreons, David Crane, Brad Fregger, and Puppyfractic!

[@GORF_EMPIRE]

Someday, Easter eggs will have video games in them!

[@timmooney7528]

Were there any other enhanced cartridges like Pitfall II used ever sold?

[@phil_townes]

Love your t-shirt! May I ask where it's from?

[@RetroRecipes]

rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dp2380057.m570.l1313%26_nkw%3Dactivision%2Bt-shirt%26_sacat%3D0&campid=5338319429&toolid=20008

[@Cuzjudd]

I took me a while to get the 'of course c not joke.'

[@Sankis]

I'd listen to you read a phonebook. What a pleasant voice you have.

[@RetroRecipes]

Coming up next week!

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

Actually, the 800XL with its 64K was out by the time Pitfall 2 existed, so you need to make more acknowledgement to it rather than the Atari 800 which wasn't being sold anymore. Like the original Pitfall!, I actually own Pitfall 2 for both the 2600 with its DSP audio chip and the Atari 8-bit cartridge, which has sophisticated display chips designed by Jay Miner, father of the Amiga. I didn't consider the 2nd set of caverns in the computer version as an Easter Egg, as I recall the manual had a mention of them. I recall many times finishing the original game and then getting the 2nd set of caverns. I never finished playing those because I had already completed the original objective. Another reason to bust out my 256K 800XL after 17 years... I used to translate manga with mine.

[@RetroRecipes]

Well, I use "Atari 800" and "Atari 8-Bit" as a generic catch all term, but you're right the XL had more RAM. And look at that, I just looked up the user guide, and there is a brief enough mention that marketing would've overlooked! atariage.com/manual_page.php?SystemID=5200&ItemTypeID=&SoftwareLabelID=647&currentPage=3&maxPages=4&currentPage=1