| Pitfall! | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Activision |
| Publisher(s) | Activision |
| Designer(s) | David Crane |
| Platform(s) | Atari 2600, Intellivision, Atari 5200, ColecoVision, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, MSX |
| Release | September 1982
|
| Genre(s) | Platform |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Pitfall! is a video game developed by David Crane for the Atari 2600 and released in 1982 by Activision. The player controls Pitfall Harry, who has a time limit of 20 minutes to seek treasure in a jungle. The game world is populated by enemies and hazards that variously cause the player to lose lives or points.
Crane had made several games for both Atari, Inc. and Activision before working on Pitfall! in 1982. He started with creating a new realistic-style walking animation for a person on the Atari 2600 hardware. After completing it, he fashioned a game around it. He used a jungle setting with items to collect and enemies to avoid, and the result became Pitfall!
Pitfall! received mostly positive reviews at the time of its release praising both its gameplay and graphics. The game was influential in the platform game genre and various publications have considered it one of the greatest video games of all time. It is also one of the best-selling Atari 2600 video games. The game was ported to several contemporary video game systems. It has been included in various Activision compilation games and was included as a secret extra in later Activision-published titles.