| | Harry’s Tale
Pitfall® Harry™ turned 20 years old in 2002 (the game, that is … the character’s age is a mystery). If that means nothing to you, then you’re missing out on one of videogame history’s best and brightest. Harry is capping off 20 years of exploration and treasure retrieval with a trip to the one place he’s never been: the Xbox. Old hands and newbies alike now have the chance to see the pith-helmeted hero do his thing, so gather around the campfire, and prepare for a tale of adventure, danger, and heroic daring.
Pitfall Harry was one of the first games Activision released for the Atari 2600, and its success helped create the side-scrolling adventure genre—even if the graphics were just simple lines and jaggy boxes. Like all of Activision’s games from that era, it made the absolute most of the old 2600’s hardware, so that the gameplay more than made up for the graphics. Pitfall Harry dropped you (as Harry) into a dangerous jungle that was teeming with scorpions, snakes, crocodiles, and treasure. You had 20 minutes to cover as much ground as you could, collecting bags of money, gold and silver bars, and diamond rings for points. You would lose points for falling down one of the terrain’s many holes or for coming into contact with the Donkey Kong-style rolling logs. You lost lives for being eaten by a crocodile, bitten by a cobra, or stung by a scorpion. When the timer was up or your lives ran out, the game was done.
As simple as that sounds, it doesn’t even hint at how much fun the game was. Harry’s basic moves (run and jump) were transformed by his dynamic environment into a pretty flashy array of abilities. He could catch swinging vines and use them to cross bottomless pits or croc-infested ponds. He could climb down ladders and explore subterranean tunnels that ran the length of the jungle. Pits opened and closed at random, and crocs snapped without warning, requiring some precisely timed jumps. And, all the while, the clock was ticking, adding extra urgency and putting more pressure on you to get across the screen and move on to the next area. If you did all of this well enough (20,000 points or better), you could photograph your score and send it in to Activision to become a member of Pitfall Harry’s Explorer Club.
Harry’s adventures continued across various consoles and handheld devices for the next few decades, introducing improved graphics and Harry’s son, Harry Jr., who was supposed to carry on the family tradition a la Donkey Kong Jr. and Diddy Kong. These “improvements” seem like gimmicks and add-ons compared to the latest iteration (which, thankfully, focuses on Harry himself and not his offspring). The Xbox version of Harry faces many of the same dangers as the original—like crocs, rolling logs, opening and closing pit traps, and long falls that can only be avoided by taking a vine express. Though the modern Harry has far more polygons, 3-D exploration, and a voice actor, the game has held on to its simple-yet-addictive gameplay and increased the amount of goofy humor. Harry’s “idle” animations are a riot, as he does a silly little jig or assumes the lotus position and levitates while he’s waiting for you to make the next move.
Pitfall Harry for the Xbox pays proper tribute to its roots, while bringing the character and the franchise into the new millennium. Harry can do a lot more these days, and he looks a lot better doing it. But, the game never takes itself too seriously and never loses sight of the fun, light-hearted adventure that made fans out of so many gamers. Whether he’s a simple straight line with arms or a fully rendered 3-D character model, Pitfall Harry is “The Man.”
By Shane Marshall |
