was Pitfall the game that started 2D platformers? Or Mario?

[Anthony1]

After recently playing Pitfall, I have to think that this is the game that really started the 2D platform genre. There is running and jumping, and going from left to right, and that is what 2D platform games are all about.

Certainly when Super Mario Bros. hit for the NES, that was a game that took the concept to a whole nuther level, and really fleshed out the whole thing, and created tons of things that were later ripped off, and reapted over and over by countless platform games, but really, if you think about it, Pitfall was the game that started it all.

It may have been somewhat primitive, but Pitfall was the first true 2D platform game. Right? Or am I mistaken? I wouldn't be suprised if there was another 2D platform type game even before Pitfall, but if not, I really think that Pitfall was the game the started the whole action platform genre, and Super Mario Bros. just took it to a whole new level, and from then on people copied mario.

[GaijinPunch]

I'd say Donkey Kong predates Pitfall, but yeah -- SMB is probably what kick-started the genre.

[NoahsMyBro]

I'm not at all the definitive source for this stuff, and I have no idea what the first 2D platformer was, but I'm fairly confident Space Panic/Apple Panic, Lode Runner, and probably several other games predate Pitfall.

Mario Bros may have (not Super Mario Bros - I'm talking about single screen coin-op/5200 game in the sewer pipes).

Of course, though all of the above involve running and jumping on platforms of various heights, they are all also single-screen games, so maybe you don't consider them proper platformers.

[Proclus]

List of crucial platform games usually mention Space Panic (1980), Donkey Kong (1981) and then Pitfall! (1982). Even though it is not the first of all platform games, I guess that no previous game in the genre had been this adventure-oriented.

A few years later, SMB truly reconfigured the genre...

[Melf]

I think the distinction made is that SMB was one of the first (if not the first) side scrolling platformer. Pitfall's screens looped and didn't actually scroll. I may be wrong about SMB beig the first though.

[Dr. Morbis]

There were tons of single screen platformers before Pitfall, and there were many flick-screen platformers too. But what I'd like to know is what was the first scrolling platformer? Did SMB get its inspiration from a more obscure source, or is SMB the true Grandfather of all scrolling platformers?

[GarrettCRW]

AFAIK, SMB was the first scrolling platformer (the only Famicom/NES games up to that point that I've seen with scrolling at all were 10 Yard Fight, Kung Fu, and Excitebike).

[Blendo75]

Pitfall really added an "adventure" aspect to the platform genre and in that sense Super Mario Bros. is a spiritual successor of it. However who's to say that Miyamoto didnt have something like Super Mario Bros in mind but just didnt have the hardware for it? The leap from Donkey Kong (1981) to Mario Bros (1983) to Super Mario Bros (1985) is a fairly natural progression in play mechanics and expansion of the game world.

[Mayhem]

SMB wasn't the first scrolling platformer. I can think of a few home computer games that did it before 1985, including Wanted: Monty Mole and Son of Blagger.

[Raccoon Lad]

Don't forget Pac-Land (1984)

[davidbrit2]

This is just like the whole Wolfenstein 3D/Doom debate. Wolf served mostly as an inventive proof-of-concept from a historical standpoint, and Doom brought the genre more into the mainstream. It's the same sort of thing with Pitfall (or whichever was actually first) and Super Mario Bros.

[Ed Oscuro]

Wolf served mostly as an inventive proof-of-concept from a historical standpoint
Actually, that would be another Carmack production, Catacomb 3D (http://www.classicgaming.com/catacomb/frameset.htm), followed later in the series by the first hub-based texture-mapped 3D game ever, Catacomb Apocalypse. Point's sound though...Wolf 3D proved the process from a commercial standpoint.

[davidbrit2]

Very true. I forgot about good old Catacomb. Though that series is probably even more niche than Wolfenstein. Heh.

[NoahsMyBro]

Which brings up one of my minor pet peeves. Does anybody besides me remember that before Castle Wolfenstein 3D, many people (like me) enjoyed 'Castle Wolfenstein' on the Apple ][, dodging SS, taking their uniforms, etc... ?

[Ed Oscuro]

Nope, but I've read about it. this (http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?gameid=2039) link just helped clear up some confusion for me: apparently id licensed the name, so they didn't just rip it off...if The Underdogs have the correct scoop here, which I assume they do.

[tyranthraxus]

And of course Ultima Underworld was commerically released before Wolf 3D.

Jumpman would be another early platformer.