This is really well done. Took me back to the good old coleco days. The controls on mobile are well done.
Open-source browser port of Pitfall from the Atari 2600
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Re: Open-source browser port of Pitfall from the Atari 2600
#12Mobile controls!!!!!!
It’s actually playable on my iPhone. Gotta love that!
Edit: I still suck at it just as much as I did back on the old 2600, but it’s still fun.
Re: Open-source browser port of Pitfall from the Atari 2600
#13Enjoyed this GDC presentation about the developement and working with the original hardware
Re: Open-source browser port of Pitfall from the Atari 2600
#14I remember playing this on the spare B&W TV with no color. My father bought a new color TV and we got the old one for the Atari 2600 and it was like baller status.
I had an Atari computer, and for years it was hooked up to a black-&-white TV. I got a job in a computer store and bought the legendary Commodore 1702 (which I still have). It was like looking at candy. I remember some games in particular (especially from Synapse) looking just brilliant.
"Looking at candy" is such a good description of Synapse games on the 1702. I had Zaxxon, Necromancer, and Blue Max. Many Access Software titles were beautiful too (Beach Head, Raid Over Moscow,etc). Fun times!
Re: Open-source browser port of Pitfall from the Atari 2600
#15I notice that the rolling barrels/logs sometimes fade out in what looks like alpha blending. Was that really possible on an Atari 2600??
Re: Open-source browser port of Pitfall from the Atari 2600
#16I played Pitall 2 on the C64 and will never forget the background music as long as I live.
Re: Open-source browser port of Pitfall from the Atari 2600
#17I played Pitall 2 on the C64 and will never forget the background music as long as I live.
The original Pitfall did not have a continuously scrolly playfield. When you got to the far left or right, a new screen was displayed along with every element on that screen (like barrels).
The creator of this version probably chose to have the barrels fade in to accommodate this.
Re: Open-source browser port of Pitfall from the Atari 2600
#18How is the original source available? Wouldn’t Activision still hold the copyright ?
Distella is a disassembler specifically for the Atari 2600. Since its creation, it has been modified to disassemble Atari 7800 code as well. It creates source code that is usually recompilable without any human intervention. It examines the code and performs some basic tracing routines which allow it to accurately distinguish data from code.
Re: Open-source browser port of Pitfall from the Atari 2600
#19Port it to SDL2.
Re: Open-source browser port of Pitfall from the Atari 2600
#20Such an incredible game. I’m amazed what the Atari 2600 was capable of with 2 player sprites, 2 missile sprites, a ball sprite, 128 bytes of memory, no buffer, and a 1.19 MHz CPU. Because of what talented developers (like David Crane) could deliver, the console had an incredible 15 year lifespan (longer than the NES).
According to Wikipedia the NES had a lifespan of 20 years.