Kid Ice
01-10-2003, 11:40 PM
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
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