20 year old Pitfall mystery solved

[Kid Ice]

What a relief. I have been living with a delusion for 20 years now that I finally got cleared up thanks to Activision Anthology.

When I was a kid, I actually READ the manuals that came with games. In the Activision manuals, the designers would always give a message at the end.

There was something I thought I read in David Crane's message in the Pitfall manual that has haunted me for years. Here's what I thought the message said:

"If you see any of my writings out there in the jungle, drop me a line."

When I was 12 years old, to me this could only mean one thing; there was a hidden message somewhere in Pitfall, like the one in Adventure. It was in there somewhere. And I tried to find this damn message for years. I tried so hard, I came close to finishing the game a few times.

So today I'm opening up stuff in Activision Anthology. It's amazing how much stuff you can open up in a two hour session; back in the day, it was NOTHING to spend two hours playing a single game, perhaps even on a single life.

Anyway, I'm poking around, when suddenly I realize you can read the manuals! I knew you could look at them, but for some reason I never thought to hit the X button to actually look at them.

So I immediately go to the Pitfall manual. No, I have not seen a Pitfall manual since I was a kid. Mind you, I have more than 300 Atari carts now, and not even a Pitfall cartridge. It's absolutely weird.

So I thought the message said:

"If you see any of my writings out there in the jungle, drop me a line."

But it actually says:

"If you can find any writing materials deep in the jungle, drop me a line."

So, it was a false memory. Pretty damn close, though!

the kid

[Cmtz]

That must have sucked. You must have felt very fusterated for years. I know I felt so pissed after I played ShadowGate for hours just to acomplish nothing.

[gamingguy]

In Pitfall 3D, there's an emulated version of Pitfall. If you press the right 2-button combination, one of the crocodiles says, "Hi Mom!" Cute. :-)

You can also change Harry's head to a digitized version of the PS1 programmer, and set-up infiinite lives (very handy!). I wonder if the Activision Anthology has any hidden tricks like that?

[FlashStash]

Kid Ice,

You're not alone! I thought EXACTLY the same thing. and I read the correct line in the manual! I thought it meant that instead of the usual treasure, I'd find something like a pencil and paper, and get some message when I picked them up or something!!

FS

[Nelson]

* Points at Kid Ice and FlashStash *

HA-HA!

[GENESISNES]

DAMMIT NELSON!! stop posting with pointless and crappy posts...

[mauigamer]

I love the Nelson ha ha's. Keep up the good work Nelson.

[RJ]

Ha ha...er, I mean here-here!