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Pitfall!
''Pitfall!'' is a video game developed by David Crane for the Atari 2600 and released in September 1982 by Activision. The player controls Pitfall Harry, who has a time limit of 20 minutes to seek treasure in a jungle. The game world is populated by enemies and hazards that variously cause the player to lose lives or points. ''Pitfall!'' was ported to the Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit computers, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, and MSX. Crane had made several games for both Atari, Inc. and Activision before working on ''Pitfall!'' in 1982. He started with creating a realistic-style walking animation for a person on the Atari 2600 hardware, then fashioned a game around it. He used a jungle setting with items to collect and enemies to avoid, and the result became ''Pitfall!'' ''Pitfall!'' received positive reviews at the time of its release praising both its gameplay and graphics. It was influential in the platform game genre and various publications have considered it one of the gre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Crane (programmer)
David Crane (born 1954) is an American video game designer and programmer. Crane grew up fascinated by technology and went to DeVry Institute of Technology. Following college, he went to Silicon Valley and got his first job at National Semiconductor. Through his friend Alan Miller he learned about potential video game design work at Atari, Inc. and began work there in 1977. After Crane and other programmers felt they were not being paid fairly at Atari, he left the company in 1979. Crane and Miller formed Activision, the first company to independently publish games for the Atari 2600. The company grew to be massively successful, with Crane's game ''Pitfall!'' (1982) being one the biggest sellers for the company. Crane continued to work for Activision making several games for the Atari 2600 and later the Commodore 64. After Activision hired Bruce Davis as the new CEO, Crane left Activison and later joined Garry Kitchen at Absolute Entertainment. At Absolute, Crane began workin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atari Video Computer System
The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridges, a format first used with the Fairchild Channel F in 1976. The VCS was bundled with two joystick game controller, controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle (game controller), paddle controllers, and a game cartridgeinitially ''Combat (video game), Combat'' and later ''Pac-Man (Atari 2600 video game), Pac-Man''. Sears sold the system as the Tele-Games Video Arcade. Atari rebranded the VCS as the Atari 2600 in November 1982, alongside the release of the Atari 5200. Atari was successful at creating arcade video games, but their development cost and limited lifespan drove Chief executive officer, CEO Nolan Bushnell to seek a programmable home system. The first inexpensive microprocessors from MOS Technology in late 1975 made this feasible. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Best-selling Atari 2600 Video Games
The Atari 2600 (previously known as the Atari VCS) was the most successful home system of its generation, and it was home to many popular games that sold millions of copies (a figure unheard of before). The best-selling video game on the console is '' Pac-Man'', a port of the arcade game of the same name programmed by Tod Frye. Originally created by Toru Iwatani and released in 1980, ''Pac-Man'' was later ported to many home video game consoles, beginning with the Atari 2600 in 1982. Within months it became the best-selling home video game of all time, with more than 1.5 million units pre-ordered by customers before its release. ''Pac-Man'' went on to sell over 8 million units worldwide. The second best-selling Atari 2600 game is ''Space Invaders'', a port of the 1978 Taito arcade video game that was programmed by Rick Maurer, which was released in 1980 and became the first video game to sell a million copies. It went on to sell over copies, was the best-selling game o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016. The company was founded as Activision, Inc. on October 1, 1979, in Sunnyvale, California, by former Atari, Inc., Atari game developers upset at their treatment by Atari in order to develop their own games for the popular Atari 2600 home video game console. Activision was the first independent, third-party, console video game developer. The video game crash of 1983, in part created by too many new companies trying to follow in Activision's footsteps without the experience of Activision's founders, hurt Activision's position in console games and forced the company to diversify into games for home computers, including the acquisition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platform Game
A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels with uneven terrain and suspended platforms that require jumping and climbing to traverse. Other acrobatic maneuvers may factor into the gameplay, such as swinging from vines or grappling hooks, jumping off walls, gliding through the air, or bouncing from springboards or trampolines. The genre started with the 1980 arcade video game ''Space Panic'', which has ladders but not jumping. ''Donkey Kong (arcade game), Donkey Kong'', released in 1981, established a template for what were initially called "climbing games". ''Donkey Kong'' inspired many clones and games with similar elements, such as ''Miner 2049er'' (1982) and ''Kangaroo (video game), Kangaroo'' (1982), while the Sega arcade game ''Congo Bongo'' (1983) adds a third dimension via I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Video Games Considered The Best
This is a list of video games that video game journalists or magazines have considered among the best of all time. The games are included on at least six separate best-of lists from different publications (inclusive of all time periods, platforms and genres), as chosen by their editorial staff. List Publications The reference numbers in the notes section show which of the 53 selected publications list the game. * '' 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die'' – 2013 * ''The Age'' – 2005 * '' Collider'' – 2020 * '' Dexerto'' – 2024 * '' Digital Trends'' – 2023 * ''Digitally Downloaded'' – 2016 * '' Electric Playground Network'' – 2013 * '' Edge'' – 2000, 2009, 2015, 2017 * '' Electronic Fun with Computers & Games'' – 1984 * ''Empire'' – 2009 * ''Entertainment Weekly'' – 2003 * ''Esquire'' – 2018, 2019, 2020 * '' FHM'' – 2010 * '' Flux'' – 1995 * '' G4'' – 2012 * '' GamesMaster'' – 1994, 1996 * '' Gamecenter'' – 2000 * ''Game Informer'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platformer
A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels with uneven terrain and suspended platforms that require jumping and climbing to traverse. Other acrobatic maneuvers may factor into the gameplay, such as swinging from vines or grappling hooks, jumping off walls, gliding through the air, or bouncing from springboards or trampolines. The genre started with the 1980 arcade video game ''Space Panic'', which has ladders but not jumping. ''Donkey Kong (arcade game), Donkey Kong'', released in 1981, established a template for what were initially called "climbing games". ''Donkey Kong'' inspired many clones and games with similar elements, such as ''Miner 2049er'' (1982) and ''Kangaroo (video game), Kangaroo'' (1982), while the Sega arcade game ''Congo Bongo'' (1983) adds a third dimension via I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slot Machine (video Game)
''Slot Machine'' is a 1979 video game written by David Crane for the Atari VCS (renamed to the Atari 2600 in 1982) and published by Atari, Inc. Along with ''Star Ship'' and ''Miniature Golf'', it was one of the first Atari VCS games to be discontinued. Gameplay The game has one-player and two-player modes. Gameplay options include ''Jackpot'' and ''Payoff'' modes. The game continues until the player runs out of tokens. Development The game was written by David Crane, who went on to develop ''Pitfall!''. Crane developed the game for his mother, who was a lover of slot-machine games. Programming the game to represent the different symbols of a traditional fruit-machine proved difficult given that the Atari 2600 could only render 8 monochrome pixels for each sprite, so Crane made use of differing shapes that were easily distinguishable, such as cacti. Reception In a July 1983 review in ''Electronic Games'' magazine, Joyce Worley and Tracie Forman described the graphics as "wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Racing The Beam
''Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System'' is a book by Ian Bogost and Nick Montfort describing the history and technical challenges of programming for the Atari 2600 video game console. Content The book's title comes from the fact that the Atari 2600, initially branded the VCS (Video Computer System), did not have a video frame buffer and required the programmers to write each line of video to the TV output, one line at a time. As there were only a limited number of machine cycles in which to do this, the programmers were "racing" a high-speed electron beam across the screen. ''Racing the Beam'' discusses the history of the VCS platform and the design decisions that impacted the types of games that could be written for it. Specific games such as ''Combat'', ''Pitfall!'' and '' Yars' Revenge'' are analyzed from a technical and cultural perspective. ''Racing the Beam'' is the first in a series of books on early video-game platforms and has been cited by modern Atari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Outlaw (1978 Video Game)
''Outlaw'' is a 1978 video game developed at Atari by David Crane. The game has a Western setting, where one or two players either aim at targets or fellow gunfighters to reach 10 points in a set time. Several modes are available allowing for different obstacles an rules varying how the players move, how their bullets act and how the obstacles block the bullets. The game was the first video game Crane made for Atari after being hired in 1977. He described the making of it as a "trial by fire" to learn what he could and could not do within the limitations of the Atari Video Computer System. Like many early games for the system, ''Outlaw'' is a variation of an existing arcade game, namely ''Gun Fight'' (1975). Upon release, it received positive reviews from ''Creative Computing'', ''The Space Gamer'' and the '' Xenia Daily Gazette''. It has since been re-released in various Atari-themed compilation packages. Gameplay ''Outlaw'' can be played in a one or two-player mode. Each play ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
