PitFall II Easter Egg Background Story?

[Stefan Both]

It's not a secret that I also join the forum64 guys.

Today, I stumbled across a post with a story, I never heard of.

Because I'm not'that'familiar with the Atarians

history, I'm interested in your opinion.

 

The original source is here:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2142727825758661&id=100000643933728&refsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2Fgerald.kloos%2Fvideos%2F2142727825758661%2F&_rdr

 

 

The interesting part is this:

 

Brad Fregger: It appears you are. I wanted to thank you. I was the producer on Pitfall II for the Atari computers and the one basically responsible for what we called, “the biggest computer game Easter egg in history.” I’m writing a book and I was looking for any pictures I could find out of what I think you called the second level. And, there were your screen shots! Perfect!

For your information, the entire story of why and how that happened is in my book, “Lucky That Way”. Or, if you’re interested, I could post a summary here.

 

Brad Fregger: An Easter Egg The Story with Martha MacCallumDavid Crane, the developer of Pitfall, had broken all records when he’d programmed Pitfall II. This was the first 8K game for the Atari 2600. … But, it was still only 8 K.

I was the Producer for Pitfall II on the C64 and the Atari 800 and we, all of a sudden, had 64K, eight times more than David had when he programmed the Atari 2600 version.

The two programmers doing the conversions were Tim for the C64 and Mike for the Atari 800.

At our development meeting I asked Tim how he was going to take advantage of the extra K.

He replied, “I’m going to create the finest graphics ever seen in a computer game.”

“Sounds great. How about you Mike?” I can’t improve the graphics, the graphic chip in the 800 is the same as the chip in the 2600. So, I’m going to create a brand-new game that will be tacked on to the current game and end with the character and his treasures on top waiting for a helicopter to come pick him up.”

“That sounds like a lot of work. We are supposed to have the conversions done in about a month. Can to do that much that fast?”

“I’ll have it finished on time, I promise you.”

 

Mike was true to his word but it almost killed him. He brought a sleeping bag into the offices and almost never left his office. At one point he got very sick and I called an ambulance. He was dehydrated; I made sure he had plenty of water after that. That was the last time I ever allowed a programmer to work that hard with so few breaks. But, it was worth the effort, the extra game was actually better than the original. What an accomplishment.

When the two products were done, I went over to marketing to fill them in on the development and the way the two games differed.

The Marketing VP said, “The two games are different?”

“Yes, the C64 has dramatically improved graphics and the 800 has a new game attached to the original game.”

“What?”

“When the player is finished with the original game, he is taken into a brand new game and when he finishes that he ends up back on the surface waiting for a helicopter to come and pick him up.”

“We can’t have the, Brad. We are marketing the two products together and they need to have the exact same game play. You are going to have to strip that second game out of the product.”

I couldn’t change his mind, none of my arguments worked. I drove back to the office trying to figure out how I was going to give Mike this terrible news. He had just spent a month working 18 hour days and it looked like all of the work would go for naught. Then the solution came to me.

Back at the office I called the two guys together and said, “Tim they loved the new graphics, you did a great job.”

“Mike, I’ve got good news and bad news, which do you want first?”

“What’s the bad news?”

“They are marketing the products together and demand they have equal game play. They insisted that I pull the extra game out of your version of the Pitfall II.”

“GOD! … What’s the good news?”

“We are going to have the best, damn, Easter egg ever!

 

And that’s what we did. We made the extra game an Easter egg that would appear if the player collected all of the treasures in the proper order, the first treasure, first, second treasure, second, etc.

Every once in awhile I’d get a call from customer service telling me that a C64 customer was complaining about not having the extra game that he’s friend with the 800 version had.

“He’s just confused because of the different graphics.” I’d reply. Trouble is, we did such a good job of hiding it that there are very few people in the world who know that the world’s biggest Easter egg is in the Atari 800 version of Pitfall II.

 

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

 

Stefan

Edited November 14, 2018 by Stefan Both

[Stormbringer]

That is so cool! I never knew

[_The Doctor__]

From: Timeline:

Brad Fregger 2 months ago Sept 2018

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.

 

--------

op said apple had the levels as well, which is untrue, you have now heard it from the source.

 

--------

someone wanna have a helicopter pick this guy up now?

Edited November 14, 2018 by _The Doctor__

[Gunstar]

I'd heard of an easter egg ending if you did something back in the day, but if I'd known it was pretty much a whole new game, or like sort of a sequel, I would have tried to find out. I guess I'm going to be playing a lot of Pitfall 2 in the near future.

Edited November 14, 2018 by Gunstar

[Stefan Both]

That is so cool! I never knew

I wasn't aware of the whole story. A guy on forum64 posted it.

It was a side effect of a thread inside a drummer forum

(or something like that).

I don't even know about the game inside the game...

Can anybody verify/confirm that?

And, he is talking about A800 and 64 kbyte?

Does he mean the 800xl then?

 

Stefan

Edited November 14, 2018 by Stefan Both

[+MrFish]

I've heard this talked about for years, especially on the 5200 forums.

 

Here's some recent info about how to open the easter egg and maps, etc.

 

Pitfall II - How to get to level 2?

[+MrFish]

He replied, “I’m going to create the finest graphics ever seen in a computer game.”

 

The trees in the C64 version look pretty nice, but why in the world did they make the background black?

It makes it look like it's nighttime. Definitely looks better with a blue background, like in almost every other

version. I think the Apple II version is the only other one using a black background...

Edited November 14, 2018 by MrFish

[+MrFish]

Here is the hack by Schmutzpuppe to start on Level 2.

 

Pitfall II - Level 2.xex

 

Pitfall II - Level 2.atr

 

[H.E.R.O.]

Ah, marketing. The enemy of creativity.

[+Cafeman]

The bonus level is awesome, but it is also twice as difficult as the OG map! You think those Condors are frustrating? Well, wait to you try to figure out the movement of Map 2's crazy Bat! Yes, back to the cross you go, again and again.

[_The Doctor__]

One of the reasons I decided how wonderful the Atari was in retrospect is game play and how 'challenging' the games were.

[+MrFish]

"I can’t improve the graphics, the graphic chip in the 800 is the same as the chip in the 2600." (Mike Lorenzen)

 

Really? That's news to me...

[pseudografx]

If Pitfall II was done today...

[adam242]

If Pitfall II was done today...

pitfall2018-mockup2.png

 

Make it so, sir!

[Heaven/TQA]

Back in the day I played a lot the 2600 version and solved it and later the 800 xl version. And luckily I played it through and I suddenly was in Level 2 with all those nice/rats and it was hard. Interesting that it did not appear to me as wow another level but just oh Level 2

[RAM]

If Pitfall II was done today...

pitfall2018-mockup2.png

That looks amazing!

[jefffulton]

All good, except the 800 didn't have the same graphics chip as the 2600.
GTIA and Antic were much more powerful than TIA.

The graphics are improved in the 800 version over the 2600 version. The reason for the extra level has more to do (paraphrasing from the Antic podcast interview with the developer) with the fact that he took the 6502 code from the 2600 version as a base and re-did the graphics and then added another level while the C64 coder did everything over from scratch with brand new 6502 code..

Similar storied, but not exactly the same.

It's not a secret that I also join the forum64 guys.
Today, I stumbled across a post with a story, I never heard of.
Because I'm not'that'familiar with the Atarians
history, I'm interested in your opinion.

The original source is here:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2142727825758661&id=100000643933728&refsrc=https%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2Fgerald.kloos%2Fvideos%2F2142727825758661%2F&_rdr


The interesting part is this:

Brad Fregger: It appears you are. I wanted to thank you. I was the producer on Pitfall II for the Atari computers and the one basically responsible for what we called, “the biggest computer game Easter egg in history.” I’m writing a book and I was looking for any pictures I could find out of what I think you called the second level. And, there were your screen shots! Perfect!
For your information, the entire story of why and how that happened is in my book, “Lucky That Way”. Or, if you’re interested, I could post a summary here.

Brad Fregger: An Easter Egg The Story with Martha MacCallumDavid Crane, the developer of Pitfall, had broken all records when he’d programmed Pitfall II. This was the first 8K game for the Atari 2600. … But, it was still only 8 K.
I was the Producer for Pitfall II on the C64 and the Atari 800 and we, all of a sudden, had 64K, eight times more than David had when he programmed the Atari 2600 version.
The two programmers doing the conversions were Tim for the C64 and Mike for the Atari 800.
At our development meeting I asked Tim how he was going to take advantage of the extra K.
He replied, “I’m going to create the finest graphics ever seen in a computer game.”
“Sounds great. How about you Mike?” I can’t improve the graphics, the graphic chip in the 800 is the same as the chip in the 2600. So, I’m going to create a brand-new game that will be tacked on to the current game and end with the character and his treasures on top waiting for a helicopter to come pick him up.”
“That sounds like a lot of work. We are supposed to have the conversions done in about a month. Can to do that much that fast?”
“I’ll have it finished on time, I promise you.”

Mike was true to his word but it almost killed him. He brought a sleeping bag into the offices and almost never left his office. At one point he got very sick and I called an ambulance. He was dehydrated; I made sure he had plenty of water after that. That was the last time I ever allowed a programmer to work that hard with so few breaks. But, it was worth the effort, the extra game was actually better than the original. What an accomplishment.
When the two products were done, I went over to marketing to fill them in on the development and the way the two games differed.
The Marketing VP said, “The two games are different?”
“Yes, the C64 has dramatically improved graphics and the 800 has a new game attached to the original game.”
“What?”
“When the player is finished with the original game, he is taken into a brand new game and when he finishes that he ends up back on the surface waiting for a helicopter to come and pick him up.”
“We can’t have the, Brad. We are marketing the two products together and they need to have the exact same game play. You are going to have to strip that second game out of the product.”
I couldn’t change his mind, none of my arguments worked. I drove back to the office trying to figure out how I was going to give Mike this terrible news. He had just spent a month working 18 hour days and it looked like all of the work would go for naught. Then the solution came to me.
Back at the office I called the two guys together and said, “Tim they loved the new graphics, you did a great job.”
“Mike, I’ve got good news and bad news, which do you want first?”
“What’s the bad news?”
“They are marketing the products together and demand they have equal game play. They insisted that I pull the extra game out of your version of the Pitfall II.”
“GOD! … What’s the good news?”
“We are going to have the best, damn, Easter egg ever!

And that’s what we did. We made the extra game an Easter egg that would appear if the player collected all of the treasures in the proper order, the first treasure, first, second treasure, second, etc.
Every once in awhile I’d get a call from customer service telling me that a C64 customer was complaining about not having the extra game that he’s friend with the 800 version had.
“He’s just confused because of the different graphics.” I’d reply. Trouble is, we did such a good job of hiding it that there are very few people in the world who know that the world’s biggest Easter egg is in the Atari 800 version of Pitfall II.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Stefan

[H.E.R.O.]

Forgot to tell my short story in my earlier post.

 

I remember reading about this in some 80's video mag (probably Electronic Games) and was SO angry since I had & beat the C64 version and all I got was Harry jumping around after winning. 'Course, I didn't experience the easter egg until the advent of YouTube then beating the game myself through emulation.

Edited November 15, 2018 by H.E.R.O.

[Lord Thag]

I remember discovering this. I'd beat the 2600 one a gazillion times and never really bothered to play the 8-bit one because of it. One day, after staying home with the 'flu' (nothing like rubbing your thermometer on flannel sheets to stay home from school), I did. Like usual I ran through the game and beat and then... what the HECK! There's a whole other game here! Still the most surprising easter egg ever. FInally got around to beating it a few months back too.

Neat story!

[pseudografx]

All right, forget yesterday's approach, that was more like what a C64 could do. Let's get serious.

[Gunstar]

I just realized I have Pitfall! II: Lost Caverns Adventure's Edition roms on both my MyIDE 2 and The!Cart from my mass .rom dumps to them. I don't have to play through the original to play it! Yay! Of course it doesn't say Adventurer's Edition until the game screen scrolling, and I just thought it was the usual Pitfall II with a name change because it was another pirate hack trying to distinguish itself, so I've never bothered to load it up, or even normal Pitfall for years, I too, played it to death on the 2600 and the improved 800 graphics never were improved enough for me to play it again. Or the original Pitfall! on the 800 either for that matter, I always go to my 2600 woody console to play them. That changes now though, I'll be playing Pitfall! "3" on my Atari 800/1200XL!

 

 

I sure would like to see hacked versions like Pseudografx pic above though!

Edited November 16, 2018 by Gunstar

[José Pereira]

All right, forget yesterday's approach, that was more like what a C64 could do. Let's get serious.

pitfall2018-mockup4.png

[TheNameOfTheGame]

All right, forget yesterday's approach, that was more like what a C64 could do. Let's get serious.

pitfall2018-mockup4.png

 

:-o

[+MrFish]

Adventurer's Edition

 

Adventurer's Edition is just the name the author's gave to the 8-bit computer and 5200 version of the game to distinguish it from the versions

on other systems (all other systems) that don't have the easter egg / bonus level. So every 8-bit computer and 5200 copy of the game should

say that on the scrolling title.

[pseudografx]

To make sure my graphics makeover is feasible on real hardware, I have redone the picture in G2F and exported it into a XEX so you can check yourself. I have removed all HW sprites and they are all available for use.

 

pitfall2018.xex

Edited November 17, 2018 by pseudografx