WaverBoy Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 I can't think of an earlier game based around a cartoony character that jumps and climbs from level to level, avoiding things, killing things, and picking up objects. Of course, I'm far from an expert on arcade history...so I could very well be embarrassingly wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 Pong. You just have to use your imagination quite a bit I believe that it's Space Panic (Apple users will remember the game Apple Panic...based on the same game) Click image for details 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharky Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 Hmm I used to think it was Donkey Kong that started Platform games? So it was Space Panic that inspired the making of Donkey Kong? Actually Ill like to know, what was the first Scrolling Platform game? Was it Super Mario Bros, or Pac-Land ? Actually I far as I remember, Pac-Land was the first Scrolling platform game Ill had ever seen and I was impressed. But maybe it was Super Mario Bros, that later games like Fire and Ice, Cool Spot, Chuck Rock, was insprired upon. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 Pitfall! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharky Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 Pitfall! Umm Pitfall! the first scrolling platform game, nah maybe the the first Multi-Screen Platform game, but then didnt Donkey Kong have 2 or 3 screens. Maybe Pitfall 2 was the first Scrolling Platform game. I didnt think of that ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 I didn't say it was a smooth scroll How about Jungle King? That one scrolls smoothly. And the second scenario kinda plays like a platform. (klov lists it as "alternating"). That one was made 2 years before the super mascot was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharky Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 Jungle King That dates back to 1982! So now i know that Atari's Jungle Hunt is cloned from the Arcades. You could hardly call it a platform game, yet it does scroll. Althought this could be the first hortizonal scrolling game! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IceCold Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 Althought this could be the first hortizonal scrolling game! What about defender and all the other early shooters, they scrolled horizontally... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy_Dude Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 That was just an illusion Defender didn't have a background. You need a background to scroll. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharky Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 My guess is that no one could really say what was the first Hortizonally scrolling game as some early games used sprites moving from left to right to create the illusion of horizitonal scrolling when reallty you were stuck in the same spot only. i believe Vertical Scrolling games came before true hortizonal ones did, lets say River Raid as the first vertical scrolling game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaverBoy Posted June 21, 2003 Author Share Posted June 21, 2003 Space Panic it is! Man, I've never heard of that one. I'll have to check it out. Perhaps we can dub Donkey Kong the first POPULAR platform game... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stein Posted June 21, 2003 Share Posted June 21, 2003 yep, space panic... I've seen this discussed (and agreed to) on other forums as well. as far as the first scolling game goes I belive it was Fire Truck (1978) made by Atari no less and it scrolled in every direction, not just horizontally or verticly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stein Posted June 21, 2003 Share Posted June 21, 2003 Space Panic it is! Man, I've never heard of that one. I'll have to check it out. Perhaps we can dub Donkey Kong the first POPULAR platform game... Agreed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted June 21, 2003 Share Posted June 21, 2003 yep, space panic... I've seen this discussed (and agreed to) on other forums as well. as far as the first scolling game goes I belive it was Fire Truck (1978) made by Atari no less and it scrolled in every direction, not just horizontally or verticly. Yep...totally forgot about that one. Though we've drifted quite a lot from the word "platformer". I strongly disagree about Donkey Kong being the first "popular" platformer...Apple Panic (which came out very soon after Space panic hit the arcades) was required gaming if you owned an AppleII computer. I'll give DK the earliest popular arcade platformer, though. I still think that Pitfall! is the earliest side-scrolling platformer. I don't see jumping a screen at a time instead of pixels at a time enough reason to ignore it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stein Posted June 21, 2003 Share Posted June 21, 2003 I strongly disagree about Donkey Kong being the first "popular" platformer...Apple Panic (which came out very soon after Space panic hit the arcades) was required gaming if you owned an AppleII computer. I'll give DK the earliest popular arcade platformer, though. Fair Enough Donkey Kong still rates as my favorite classic game ever so I'm biased anyways. I still think that Pitfall! is the earliest side-scrolling platformer. I don't see jumping a screen at a time instead of pixels at a time enough reason to ignore it. hehe good point! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharky Posted June 21, 2003 Share Posted June 21, 2003 I still think that Pitfall! is the earliest side-scrolling platformer. I don't see jumping a screen at a time instead of pixels at a time enough reason to ignore it. Thats right, Instead of 1 pixel of a time, Pitfall used 1 screen at a time instead. So really Super Mario Bros and Pac-Land would be "improved" clones of Pitfall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogacuda Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 Bumping this old thread to get some help for a project I've adopted. I've almost completely rewritten the wiki on Platform Games (kept about 3 paragraphs of the old one; it was really bad), and I could use some expert opinions in tightening it up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_game A lot of these firsts aren't well recognized or well documented (most sites that reference these firsts incorrectly mention later Nintendo games). The first scrolling platformer and first 3D platformer mentions are just my best guesses based on the fact that they are years earlier than anything else I can think of. I'm also curious if anyone knows more specific dates for the release of Donkey Kong and Jump Bug, as I really wonder which was first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcadebasement Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 Klov lists space panic as maze/labyrinth and I think that's fair since you couldn't jump. Sure it looks like platforms graphically. but really... is it? As for side scrollers well defender would be in there surely - it DOES have a background. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogacuda Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 Klov lists space panic as maze/labyrinth and I think that's fair since you couldn't jump. Sure it looks like platforms graphically. but really... is it? As for side scrollers well defender would be in there surely - it DOES have a background. Defender is a shooter, though, not a platformer. And yeah, in my article I names Space Panic as a relevant precursor to the platform game, but not a platform game itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcadebasement Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 I meant defender as one of the first scrollers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+HatNJ Posted November 19, 2006 Share Posted November 19, 2006 Well I thought it was Pitfall and David Crane even said this in the Discovery channel Documentary on Google video http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3637639460474263178 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supercat Posted November 19, 2006 Share Posted November 19, 2006 Well I thought it was Pitfall and David Crane even said this in the Discovery channel Documentary Pitfall was most likely the first isometric down-looking side-view game; it restricted the player to side-to-side motion, but the ground on which the player moved extended front and back. Also, its brand of screen-to-screen movement was very different from Donkey Kong in that all the screens were part of a unified world. Whether you call it "scrolling" or not, it's still a definite extension to the platform genre even though Warren Robinet had pioneered multi-screen in Superman/Adventure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimefighter Posted November 19, 2006 Share Posted November 19, 2006 Pac-Land is glaringly omitted from the Wikipedia article, as it came out in 1984 a year before Super Mario. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Monkey Posted November 20, 2006 Share Posted November 20, 2006 Pac-Land is glaringly omitted from the Wikipedia article, as it came out in 1984 a year before Super Mario. A more relevant early scrolling platformer would be Namco's 1984 smash Pac-Land. It was not only a very successful title (and later ported to many consoles)[3], but it more closely resembled later scrolling platformers like Wonder Boy and Super Mario Bros, and was probably a direct influence on them. It even had multi-layered parallax scrolling, an effect that wouldn't become common until the second generation of scrollers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaverBoy Posted June 6, 2020 Author Share Posted June 6, 2020 On 11/18/2006 at 11:27 AM, Frogacuda said: arcadebasement said: Klov lists space panic as maze/labyrinth and I think that's fair since you couldn't jump. Sure it looks like platforms graphically. but really... is it? As for side scrollers well defender would be in there surely - it DOES have a background. Defender is a shooter, though, not a platformer. And yeah, in my article I names Space Panic as a relevant precursor to the platform game, but not a platform game itself. So Space Panic isn’t really a platformer after all... Back to Donkey Kong then! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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