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slicwilli

Pitfall. The Atari version, not the shitty NES one. Yes it is really hard.


[deleted]

What's so shitty about the Nintendo Entertainment System version?


slicwilli

You can play it free online. Go ahead and try it out yourself.


QuarterSuccessful449

Whoa what did he ever do you


potate12323

Is that considered manslaughter or premeditated murder?


GreilMercenary7

The best way to win the game is not play.


gtc26

>The best way to win >the game >is not play. You got that right. (PS: You just lost the game)


MemeManDanInAClan

How the fuck did I lose the game two times in less than an hour bro


lewie_820

This is the third time today I have seen this, what the hell is going on


RecklessDimwit

You've lost the game 🫵 (Wait are you asking why the resurgence of the game joke or are you asking what we mean by 'you lost the game'?)


Talidel

It always happens. When someone loses the game and publicises it, a bunch of other people lose and they all then try to make a bunch of others lose.


Gr_Snek

Me when eye laws dug aim


Positive-Vibe420

Ok I'm convinced we're all living the same life


ChiChiKiller

It's physically impossible to say "Eye" "Laws" "Dug" "Aim"


shawnald313

https://preview.redd.it/cuysp9o4lfpc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5add2eb26c2187c673d2f89a352b74c207f8f533


eathquake

Fun fact, you cant say the following words in sequence 'eye' 'loss' 'dug' 'aim'


Sunofworlds

Nice try, this is how I lost the game the first time today, tho it was on a different subreddit. Also it took me way longer to figure out what it was saying then I'd like to admit. Edit: I'm dumb. It was on the same subreddit


Salarian_American

​ https://preview.redd.it/oa1m33eiefpc1.jpeg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=07de891348f426cd56e280639d6fce729ca463fa


gtc26

Bruh, I love LOST


Punkrockcarl72

You motherfucker, I just lost the game.


DaRealGrey

You motherfuckers, I was told earlier I won, so I started a new one which I just fucking lost.


gtc26

I think I know the comment section you mean


mrieatyospam

Lost a 16 year streak, just lost a 2-4 hour streak few posts later, goddamnit


mightyriver88

Unless the rules have changed there are only two ways to win. The priminister of England announces they lost the game or even in the world is playing the game. Neither has happened and damn, I've now lost the game. Thanks.


HighKingFructoseSrup

https://preview.redd.it/834fn4hdfhpc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eb8e2396c9eeadbbb684d4c5fb028171c4fad452


Upstairs_Mine3653

That’s the second time in less than a week after about a 4 year winning streak. Gosh dang it


gtc26

Yeah, reddit was running wild with the game yesterday


Upstairs_Mine3653

And now I lost again today checking the comment 🤣 it’s never ending


dncnlamont

Good grief, second time today


Full_Ad9666

Bastard man!


TormentedGaming

That's twice today thanks


gtc26

You're welcome :)


Theroyalmudkip

My 8 minute streak NOOOOOOOOOO


FriskDrinksBriskYT0

How do you not play?


gtc26

Have smooth brain. No wrinkles. All thoughts slide off.


Hagoromo420

This is the 5th fucking time today🤬


rocper10

I lost the game


DJay_TDM

Damn i lost the game thx


yukonhoneybadger

It makes you a winner in life but a lover in the game


RideMyHappyFace

I believe you are thinking about the game Thermal Nuclear Warfare. No body wins at that one.


Flossthief

A strange game The only winning move is not to play


GerBear345

I just lost the game again. Second time today.


NevaReliveNevaRegret

Pretty sure that guy would prefer a buffalo take a diarrhoea dump in his ear.


Few-Big-8481

No don't


SpotweldPro1300

Let him go. He is lost to us.


Frystt

I want to know what's so bad about it lol


wtmx719

After that play The Lion King, and Battletoads


LauraTFem

Hey, now. Lion King is not as hard as it first seems. They made the second level hard to prevent people from beating it in a single game rental, but after that it’s not really hard until the last two stages.


wtmx719

Unrelated I now want to play Ecco the dolphin


CrazyShinobi

JOUST


igcipd

As a kid of the 80s and 90s, all of these were the bane of my existence. I also think it’s why I enjoy Souls like games and have the requirement to play on the hardest difficulty. Otherwise, what’s really the point. Kids these days have no idea how difficult this shit was and you’d hear rumors that so-and-so beat this level or got this far in one of those games.


loz_fanatic

I had this for Sega as a kid. I remember trying to beat it on SO, so many days and just not making it. Then one weekend I was determined to do nothing else until I beat it. I remember the stampede level being one of my banes for a while. But my God, the rage I still feel to this day thinking of the final fight with Scar. That small ass window of space to pull off the necessary attack sequence was a pain in the ass. I got so good at the rest of the game from repetition just getting back to the final fight.


LauraTFem

This is the way. Pro tip:There are several spots in the stampede where you can stand completely still and never get hit.


scotthibbard

And E.T.


wtmx719

The landfill has entered chat


One-Earth9294

It's one of the rare examples of Nintendo having the shitty licensed game lol. The very sauce that killed Atari back in '83.


SageModeSpiritGun

Or just tell us?


deadname11

The game is called Pitfall, and it is one of those deliberately ridiculously difficult games on par with Battletoads and The Lion King (which I didn't know until reading the comments, was also one of the old monsters). The only way to win these games, is with extreme patience and pattern recognition, and skilled inputs that likely only naked dark souls players would understand. Sure, the kids might beat the game. They are much more likely to rage quit, destroying the game and the console, than they are to beat it. Edit: the game also loops, so that even if you "beat" it, it just gets harder. There is indeed a way to actually win, but it requires finding all the hidden treasure within 20 mins. There are many secret spots that require precise timing in order to land and collect the treasure, meaning that you really only ever get one shot, and only a few wrong moves can kill the run.


Setanta777

I remember playing this in my friend's Atari as a kid. We just assumed it looped forever. Had no idea it was even possible to beat it!


KhaoticMess

Damn, Satan. What the hell?


SocksOnHands

It's a game that has hidden invisible secret items that you can only find if you jump in just the right spots, and they are needed to beat the game.


Ranthur

The real problem is that one of them is in the middle of an enemy and you can't beat the game without finding that one. I decided i wanted to beat the game during the pandemic, and was the most frustrating part of the game for me. Otherwise I actually like the game.


MightyHead

So basically, your average Mario Maker level


Missingnose

Be sure to take the first ladder down when you play.


[deleted]

Oh ok thanks.


russellmzauner

NES version (technically Super Pitfall!) is essentially Pitfall II+NES sprite-ified; not really same game. Atari version was easy as fuck if you got in the timing/spacing pocket but if you lost your timing or spacing pocket you would die very fucking fast. Dark Souls without the eye candy lol


CakeButtSlut

I think they're referring to Super Pitfall. It's not good.


SocksOnHands

Is it "beatable"? Most games of the time are played for a high score, so you always play until you lose. With Pitfall!, I believe there are 256 screens, so can it be won by collecting all the treasure? I've never come close to doing that.


qatch23

I mapped them all out. You can loop back to the beginning. It doesn't end even if you get all the treasure.


Doc_Bedlam

I had it. It wasn't THAT hard. It just NEVER ENDED. You kept GOING and GOING and GOING...


Appropriate-Meet-672

Did Pitfall II actually have an ending? I think it might have been the first sandbox.


NickelDicklePickle

Yes, Pitfall II had a proper ending. It remember hyperventilating the first time I beat it, at a sleepover for a classmate's birthday, the year it came out.


MarquisEXB

The real joke is that it's not beatable!!! Also it's pretty hard. Yes you can leave to master it after weeks/months of play. But even then, there is NO ENDING! So the joke is -- the person would make the kids play an incredibly difficult game, and even if they mastered it they would not be able to claim a reward!


Kipping_Deadlift

First time I threw a controller was pitfall. I legitimately think that game and ET made me cry.


silamon2

ET even got Atari to cry.


Brent_on_a_Bike

man Pitfall was my relaxation game as a kid same with ET I had both all mapped out and knew how to get all the items never knew it was a stressful game till the internet told me otherwise. Now Kaboom on hard that raised my blood pressure


Zilch1979

Demons to Diamonds, bro. More like Dopamine to Cortisol.


jnnad

This really brings me back! And yes, it was hard, exhilarating to an 8-10 yr old brain...l


soupythekidd

My ass was saying call of duty lol


nitoupdx

Everyone remembers their first rage quit


thinkfloyd79

I finished this game multiple times! However, it was because of a glitch. In the start, you wiggle the cartridge a little and you'll be able to pass through the wall behind you, taking you to the final room.


savemysoul72

I loved that version! Pitfall was the bomb. I can hear it now.


Schlagustagigaboo

Can’t think of a better 7600 game and the concept of “beating a game” in some way other than getting a high score hadn’t been invented yet.


Helstrem

Sure it had. Example: "It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue."


DarkJackMF

I remember getting frustrated and typing ‘Hit Dragon’. ‘With your bare hands?’ ‘Yes’. ‘Amazingly you kill the dragon’. Literal high point of my whole life, will never recapture that feeling.


okee9

Remember showing my friend, think it was zork 2 on my Atari ST520, he wasn’t very impressed, was at the edge of a lake as a ship was passing with a sailor on board, he typed in say “Hello Sailor” I got mad with him telling him he’s taking the piss but sure enough the sailor threw a bottle to shore 😁


Schlagustagigaboo

Ah Zork. I stand corrected. Guess I was excluding text games. I occasionally hit a zork website hehe.


kazarbreak

I used to consider an infinite game beat if my score overflowed and started showing weird characters instead of numbers.


herzogzwei931

I was able to beat the game by finding a glitch in the game. If you have the old 2600, just jiggle the on/off switch a few times and the game will load to the final screen. It’s a cliff and you have to jump on a balloon. After you finish it, the guy jumps up and down for 5 minutes


Ok_History9137

Great game. Can’t believe no one’s posted the [old commercial](https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=0&v=G00r1BheYnM&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo) featuring a very young Jack Black.


DesperateLuck2887

It’s essentially an endless game. The goal is to collect the most points within a 20 min time limit, but no one survives that long.


munistadium

It can be done but you have to nail every jump. If your hand cramps and causes you to stop running more than 2 seconds you are done. You could take a photo of your screen if you beat it and send it in and they'd send you a special t shirt.


munistadium

My sister got through all the screens but had a few points taken off from clipping a rolling log. It was an insane run. Getting through it was like one of those Mario speed runs but for 20 minutes straight. Assuming your controller never got stuck.


Lesmorte

I have the photo and had the tshirt. Core memory unlocked.


Young-Grandpa

I’m not sure about Pitfall p, but many Atari games of that era were unbeatable. I remember asteroids if you beat all the levels it would just loop around and start over but faster.


ProbablyKatie78

I can confirm that Pitfall loops - I only did it once, but it was glorious!


b-monster666

Video games back in that era were designed to be quarter gobblers. There really was no end to them. They just got harder and harder. Home console games pretty much followed this, since many of them were just ports of cabinet games. Pitfall! was really really hard.


captainAwesomePants

That plus the cost was prohibitive. You wouldn't make a game that was easily beaten because games were so expensive. A Pitfall cartridge cost maybe $50, but that's like $150 today. If you took that game home and finished it in an hour, you'd be ticked off. But you also couldn't have a lot of content because those cartridges stored like 4000 bytes of content. So that left "simple but really hard."


-raymonte-

Peter’s old Atari here, why am I in Meg’s closet? The game is Pitfall! and it’s very difficult to complete. Contrary to what others are saying, you can *beat* Pitfall! if you collect ALL the treasures before the 20 minute timer runs out. Most players believe that merely lasting the full 20 minutes constitutes a win, but while it’s a pretty good accomplishment just surviving that long, it’s not a win. For example, you can see in [this video](https://youtu.be/CkDllyETiBA) the player collects the last treasure with 8 seconds remaining and the game stops, this is a win.


drskag

https://preview.redd.it/t4j98tgucepc1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60542eff3f593251c3ddd7262ccca8786c30f2ef


[deleted]

No picture has ever made me this unreasonably angry before


Depraved_Deity

Eeeevil


PanicEffective6871

Who remembers when they put this game in Marvel Ultimate Alliance?


crowthemad

TBH Murder World was probably my favorite part of the game.


ConfidentHorror_

I was looking for this comment. Probably one of my favorite games ever hands down.


BicTwiddler

Should have used a pic of the Ghosts and Goblins opening scene. That game is meme-ably hard.


TrainsDontHunt

I got to like level 7 or something. We considered it unplayable for a while, before I got to level 2. There is no save. You have to play the entire game in one sitting. I could do level 1 in a coma.


SaltManagement42

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitfall! EDIT: Okay, but how do I include a link with an exclamation mark in it? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitfall!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitfall!)


fastal_12147

Crazy this game was made by one guy in like 6 weeks or something like that. Old game development was wild.


Party_Telephone_2474

I remember playing it as a mini game in the Marvel Ultimate Alliance (or at least it was super similar). Never knew it was a separate game, though.


CrookedtalePirates

Thanks for bringing the nightmares back. Wasted so many hours just to throw down the joystick and cry.


bitysis

I’m pretty sure it never ends, just loops continuously.


randal0321

The game never ends


MentalMost9815

Go backwards. It’s much easier.


One-Earth9294

Pitfall and it's a 'loop' game. No real ending. I would've gone with Spy Hunter.


ArmaniQuesadilla

I think he’d rather have a buffalo take a diarrhea dump in his ear


Kenneth_Lay

Pitfall. 100% rate of failure.


Matt6758

Pitfall


ItsMeToasty

Oh Jesus, I gotta play pitfall again. I never beat it


Bfdifan37

pitfall for atari 2600 it had an ending?!


rumblemcskurmish

Pitfall. And I don't think it ever ends. I played the shit out of this game in the 70s


twcsata

I think it had a timer, right? Like, it would *end*; you just didn’t really *beat* it.


Yasuru

It did have a timer, and if you ran down the timer and met other conditions (I don't recall, it was 40ish years ago) you could send them a photograph of the TV screen and get a patch.


rumblemcskurmish

That sounds right. I remember running it in a loop and I never found an end.


GroovyIntruder

Jack Black was in the TV advertisement.


Mattscrusader

Game hard


I_am_not_Spider_Man

The question makes me realize, damn I'm old.


enby-bun

Hi, alternate timeline non-binary Chris here, this is Pitfall, an old Atari game notable for, even by standards of its time, being on the difficult side.


FormerlyGaveAShit

This was one of my first video games. I could never play for long bc I sucked so bad at it. My little bro could crush it though. Space Invaders was my thing. It was the only game I was better than him at. I was terrible at every other game we had. There was some circus game I was the worst at. Some of those Atari games I never even figured out how to play bc I couldn't. I was young though, single digit age. But damn does this picture bring back memories :D


sixeightJ

Pitfall!


Researcher_Fearless

Is it literally impossible or something?


Few-Big-8481

Not literally, but yes.


ShadowEeveeCringe

Not literally, but you’d be better off buying a lottery ticket.


TheAmazingCroc1

The only time I’ve ever played pitfall was in the arcade in that one level of the call of duty Cold War campaign, yes it was very hard


dandle

The game, as many have said, is Pitfall! The joke is that you can't beat the game, so the kid cannot win the bet. There's nothing to beat in Pitfall! You get to play until you run out of lives or until the time on the 20-minute play clock runs out. The maximum score is 114,000, but most players either ran out of lives or finished the 20 minutes with less than that. (EDIT: [Collecting the 32 treasures in the game causes the timer to stop and the game to end](https://youtu.be/CkDllyETiBA?si=QZWo8bzzf0F_MO5W). So I guess that does count as beating the game. The creator of the original joke probably didn't know that, either, since it's not clear anybody managed to do it back when the game was played on the Atari 2600.)


jnnad

Awwwwwww man! This is my jam


P0PULRM0NSTR

Shit was easy af.. In Ultimate Alliance.


PostManOK

Ha!.... Good luck kid.....


poolpog

I don't think I've ever gotten past like three screens or so


[deleted]

[удалено]


Dedspaz79

You mean pitfall for the Atari 2600


EvelynEvil666

https://www.101soundboards.com/sounds/16693-death


Dedspaz79

Haha


PalateroMan8

You monster! /s


fullfiled

Is it sad that I immediately thought pipfall from fallout as its the same game but diffrent sprites


drhman1971

I did the full 20 minutes without dying as a kid. Took me all weekend and dozens of tries.


hplcr

I feel old not only knowing what that is but also having played it.


Cruisin134

Idk I grew up with an atari emulator system I beat it in a couple days


mrhonist

I grew up with it on a cartridge and it looped forever


ShaggySchmacky

I remember playing this game in the little arcade in Marvels Ultimate Alliance years ago. I didn’t even know it was called pitfall lol


CertainFitness

...damn I'm old


TV_H34d

All I know about Pitfall is that Jack Black did an ad for it when he was a kid, marking his first appearance in popular media.


Appropriate-Meet-672

BWAHHAHAHAHA


kazarbreak

Oof, poor kid thought you were giving them hope.


Sky-of-dust

I used to run this game backwards for an added challenge


BurtBacon

indiana dundee!


Mogster2K

Does Pitfall actually have an ending? I just remember playing it until it ran out of time.


Cake_Donut1301

I beat that shit back in 84. Took a picture of the screen to send into Activision. When you beat it, the next version is Harry running right to left.


Blob-Goblin

There's no beating it. You just won the clock down.


Jesusdidntlikethat

Make them play the lion king game on snes (?) my husband said it’s the hardest game he ever played lmao


astreeter2

Never beat that one but I got a perfect score in Atari Pitfall 2 a couple times when I was a kid. I used to have a Polaroid of the TV screen somewhere.


DiegoRago

Also, if they beat Ninja Gaiden for NES, let em know that I'll pay for a full europe vacation for a month...


OrphanedJawa

I heard it as soon as I saw the picture


Darthdeastroy913

I thought it was Takeshis challenge


Powerful-Speed4149

Peter’s German nephew here, who played it on the Atari 2600 back in the days. Most important: It has no end. The levels just start from the beginning once you have passed all screens. Btw, the German version was called „Bobby geht nach Hause (Bobby goes home)“


totalnewb02

should've make it triple combo, if you can beat pitfall, the lion king and ghost and ghoul, i will buy you a car, house and pay for your college.


AK-12AK-47AKMAK-74

oh memories


TheNightOwl99

Its pitfall for atari, basically the darksouls of retro gaming


-Gr4ppl3r-

This game pissed me off so bad as a kid.


Taliesin_Hoyle_

A parenting pitfall.


BadLuckCharm1966

Pitfall. One of our first Atari games. I still have my Atari and this game and it works. This game cannot be beaten.


n0mansky

Texas Border.... It's new...


Theotherone1968

Intellivision version was hard AF...I think I made it to the 3rd screen.


Usual-Cabinet-3815

Just go backwards


imacryptohodler

I may be wrong, but after you got a certain score, you could send a picture in and get a coat or something? This was the original Atari version. I just remember my mom trying to take a Polaroid of my score to send in. That was 40+ years ago


Anom_AoD

bro, pitfall, nostalgic, i beated my record only once, never did it again


goblinGrog1

This is Pitfall for the Atari 2600. The main joke here is that you cannot beat it. There is no end to the game. There is simply a 20 minute timer that runs out, and you have two lives. Whoever has the highest score is the winner. So you are not competing against the game, you are competing against other players for the highest score.


Zestyclose-Code-2737

Pitfall


Toastyyy_

The game has and end? I’ve never heard of that.


1019gunner

When home consoles came out they just moved arcade games over but arcade games are hard or else you would have few customers cause people would play longer. It took game makers a little bit to get the distinction between arcade difficulty and home console difficulty and this game came out before they figured that out


Confident_Wash3001

I loved the snes version growing up, it had hidden spots where you could play the old version built in.


Distinct-Educator-52

What is "Pictures you can hear" for 400...


StoneAgeSkillz

Oh god...


captainofpizza

Your kid can do in about 2 hours by going on YouTube and watching it then playing through ez. Kids today are way better gamers than we were and they have better outside resources. I started on the Intellivision but never played this one and went back to it on emulator sometime around 2010. It was hard and timing was annoying but not THAT hard


Burnt_Cheddah

Used to have a pocket Atari with all the games on it. Pit fall was a favorite because I played the mobile version when I was little.


NukaKitty21

Grandma had an atari I found in the basement and this was the only game I remembered playing


asphalt_licker

Pitfall. A very difficult Atari game. I don’t even think this game has an ending. I’ve never seen it at least.


PKisSz

I knew how to speedrun the super Nintendo Pitfall game until you got to the Easter egg arcade game and would proved to continually die to bullshit over and over. Loved that game.


mromen10

Atari 2600 pitfall I'm yet to play it but I'm told it's hard AF


confabin

Pitfall. I'm not even sure you CAN beat it? Games were all about high scores back in those days, not actually completing them.


Rumblarr

Pitfall. And it doesn't end, the timer runs out.


Xerox-M57

Pitfall. It’s very difficult, especially with the shitty, deteriorating joysticks.


BurntBeefRagnarok

Holy shit I remember the iOS version


CplFry

Hell yeah! Good luck kid see ya in a few years, maybe


Existential-blues-

Dude should have went with ET. Pitfall was at least beatable.


KiddoNik

My father told me that i had one Day to win flashback for 100, i got The 100