Pitfall Harry

I agree with you. Roadrunner definitely deserves to be in a list of Top 100 Atari games. Keep in mind that Road Runner was released late in the life of the Atari 2600 (1989), a time when most gamers had already moved on to other gaming consoles. There is a huge population of gamers, who are not collectors, who don't even know Road Runner was released for the 2600. Old gamers tend to download the games they remember playing.

Huh. I didn't know the Intellivision Keyboard was rare. I've had one in my garage for over 10 years now. I guess I should open up the box and give it a look.

Mad dogs, Englishmen, midday sun... people said the same when I won the Vic20 Ultima game for $2,600 heh... Did you have a job then?

I love lists! 1. I don't get it. Your opinions are as valid as anyone else's. 2. I couldn't agree with you more. 3. I used to have a Tanman kind of story. I found a copy of Air Raid in a thrift store ten years ago. I didn't find a box, but at the time there were only 4 copies of the game known. It was really cool having it in my collection, but I eventually sold it when I ran into a financial hardship. I'm very, very grateful that I found a buyer for the game because it made the difference between keeping my house and losing it. I guess you could say I put that money to better use. My story is cooler still, because the game went to a collector who actually can afford to own it, who enjoys the hell out of owning, playing and preserving it, even more than I did. Thanks again, Rick! 4. True, but don't minimize the fact that 60 cents can feed a family of four who live in the world's most impoverished countries. 5. People are pretty stubborn animals when it comes to their own opinions. Don't sweat it if you don't immediately convince someone to agree with you. Virtually no one can do that. But getting your opinions out there in an intelligent manner (something you do quite well, by the way) gets people to thinking. And THAT, is always a very good thing. Getting people to think is just the sort of thing to make things different, whether you're an idealist or not.

Legal, maybe. Ethical, definitely not. It all depends on what kind of person you want to be.

That said, you really DON'T have the money to beat Jose. All you have is the means to commit madness.

Here's an Atari 2600 rarity. . .

And Tetris, Breakout, and Frogger. Oh, yeah. This animation is very, very cool! Thanks for sharing it, homerwannabe.

You can only do something like that with a private auction. When you have a public auction, you have to be prepared to deal with the public.

There are many astoundingly wealthy people in this world. There are also many, many people who collect Atari 2600 video games. It is reasonable to assume there is a significant overlap among these two groups of people, any one of which may "squander" twelve kilo-bucks on a video game with the same financial repercussions you or I might incur by spending 60 cents on a bag of peanut M&M's. Is either purchase madness? Ask the guy from Zimbabwe who lives in a mud and dung shack, laboring 80 hours in the blazing African sun for the equivalent of 60 cents per week. There are millions of speculators who follow stocks and commodities exchanges every day, who "invest" not in corporations, but in the trend lines of closing prices of corporations. All they know, or care to know, is the financial trend. If a stock trend points sharply upward, then they may be convinced a "buy low, sell high" money making opportunity is there for the taking. To them, it would be madness not to capitalize on it. Now, you may argue that stock certificates, which grant you fractional ownership of a real financial entity, have intrinsic value. But what about futures investors? Futures investors hold nothing at all. They invest in the hope that other investors will, in all their madness, continue to overpay for the stock of the company they are gambling on. But once again, if such speculators are convinced a money-making opportunity exists by gambling on futures, then to them, it would be madness not to jump in. Some people look at the collectibles market as a means to speculatively invest, without the hassle of brokerage fees. Some of these speculators may love video games, some may be indifferent, and some may even HATE video games and video game collectors with a passion. But all collectibles speculators who invest in a particular video game will understand what a sharply upward trending sale price means. They are like futures investors. They are investing in the hope that other collectors (or other investors) will continue to overpay for the game they are gambling on. They will gamble once more, at some later date, when they believe the time is ripe to cash out. I'm not suggesting all of the present bidders for Air Raid are dispassionate, speculative investors. A few of them could be, though. As the hobby continues to mature, as sale prices for key rare games continue to rise, more and more speculative investors will be attracted to high profile Atari game auctions like Air Raid. But is that such a bad thing, really? If you're one of those lucky collectors who found a copy of Air Raid (or some other uber-rare title) at a yard sale or thrift store for a buck or two, you should be thrilled to know you can auction that sucker off for a king's ransom. And if you don't have such a rarity in your collection, you should still be thrilled to know the potential exists for you to make such a find that can reward you so handsomely. With the possible exception of owning your own home, it is madness for you to own anything you cannot really afford to buy. This is especially true for collectibles. It doesn't make wealthy collectors "better collectors" because they have the financial wherewithal to buy the games they really, really want. It just makes them different. In video game collecting, as it is in all matters of living, it is important to stay within your means. If it is madness for you to pay $12,000 for a copy of Air Raid, and yet a copy of that title somehow landed in your collection via a find or clever trade, then that level of madness would be exactly the same for you not to sell it. For all the collectors, then, who lament the fact that Air Raid has now gone beyond their means, I say stop lamenting. Stuff like this is gonna happen. No matter who you are, you really can't have everything. Enjoy and be thankful for what you have.There is plenty of exciting stuff out there for you collect that is within your means. Of course, as any long time collector knows, there is a very fine line between hobby and mental illness. It is therefore best maintain focus on your own line. There is challenge enough in that without wondering whether someone else has crossed theirs.

Actually, there are only 255 jungle scenes , as is confirmed on page 3 of the Pitfall! instruction manual. The often misquoted figure of 256 seems more logical because it is a perfect power of 2, but the game just didn't turn out that way. Perhaps a "hidden" 256th screen is written somewhere in the code that David Crane reserved as a scratch pad area for testing or something. I wouldn't know, but I'd bet there is at least a couple of Atari 2600 code gurus on this board who could answer that. Getting a perfect score on Pitfall! is attainable, but it ranks among the most difficult gaming challenges the Atari 2600 library has to offer. You can see a list of at least 6 players who have verified perfect Pitfall! scores recorded at Twin Galaxies by clicking the link below. Twin Galaxies List of Verified Perfect Pitfall! Games It is no longer enough to merely complete a perfect game (i.e., finish with all treasures collected and no lives lost) to be considered the world's best Pitfall! player. What distinguishes perfect Pitfall! games now is the amount of time remaining on the 20-minute game timer when the perfect game is completed. Incredibly, Douglas Korekach of Munhall, PA finished a perfect Pitfall! game with 1:42 left on the timer.

Congratulations, nester! It's always a thrill to beat the game and watch Harry do his happy dance. I never get tired of it. Now go find yourself a copy of Pitfall II for the Atari 400/800 home computers (The 5200 version of Pitfall II is identical to the Atari 400/800 version, but with the 5200 version you have to deal with the 5200 controllers). It has the extra "Adventurer's Level,' which offers a whole new level of challenge. The Adventurer's Level features a larger system of underground caverns, loaded with more and deadlier beasties for Harry to dodge. Finish that one in an hour, and I will give you my Pitfall II Explorers Club patch for free.

When people start plunking down $10K or more for an Atari video game, I really doubt PAL vs. NTSC is much of an issue. Legitimate vs. Pirate Hack, or whose "Official Releases" the game is listed on (or doesn't appear on) probably doesn't amount to a hill of beans, either. Heavy hitter collectors are not bidding five figures on Air Raid because of its exhilarating gameplay. They are not coughing up that much dough for label art worthy of Leonardo da Vinci. Air Raid is a bastard game. We all know that. Most of the code is stolen from Space Jockey, and the rest of the code adds nothing to make the game any more endearing. Men-A-Vision was a shady operation at best. The fact that no one has ever come forward to admit any connection to the company whatsoever, after all these years, is testament to its slimy underbelly. What, then, is the attraction to Air Raid? What makes grown men (if there is such a thing in the Atari collecting world) want to part with enough money to buy a new car to add it to their collection? Air Raid has unmistakeable cachet! The blue T-handled cartridge has been at the eye of a storm of controversy for decades now. Each time a new copy of Air Raid has surfaced and sold on eBay, the game has commanded a higher price. And each time that has happened, the PAL vs. NTSC communities have gone to war on the message boards, bickering over which side Air Raid rightfully belongs. Ironically, each side wishes it belong to the other. The arguments over legitimate release or not rage right alongside. Nothing is ever decided. The camps split more decisively with each new iteration. Through the long years, uncertainty over the identity and classification of Air Raid has created such a polarizing rift in the collecting community that the rift itself has become a landmark in the history of video game collecting. Unending controversy has imbued the game with a mystique that transcends its already notable, extreme rarity. The story has grown larger than the game itself. Tanman's Air Raid box IS the story. It answers questions collectors have debated over for decades. The game really is named Air Raid. The game really is a U.S. Release, albeit with a Taiwanese connection. Even if the authors of the printed text on the box cannot be trusted, its discovery and existence is nevertheless a windfall of new information (and new speculation) on the game we never had before, nor had any way of ever finding out. The collector who ultimately owns the Tanman Air Raid box becomes the caretaker of a significant piece of Atari collecting lore. They will own not merely a "holy grail" rarity, but THE rosetta stone that unlocked mysteries that have confounded and divided collectors for decades. Such is the cachet of owning Air Raid. When you have $10K or more to toss down on a video game, cachet means a lot more than on whose "official list" the game is listed. Air Raid neither fits nor belongs on a list. It is a collection all on its own.

Is the Tanman Air Raid box really a one-of-a-kind rarity? I don't think so. As a former owner of the highly coveted Air Raid game, I thought I'd chime in on what I know about it. I found my copy of Air Raid in 1999 or thereabouts. At that time, I was very interested in the history of the game because, even more so then than now, virtually nothing was known about it. And I love a good mystery. Here is what I found: Shortly after my find (c. 1999), I scoured the Internet and dug through old usenet posts for anything I could find out about Air Raid. I wasn't even sure if that was the actual name of the game because the label has no text on it to identify its title, nor is the title mentioned in the game itself. Eventually, I discovered a post that was written by Terry Rutt in the late 1980's (or maybe it was the early 1990's) in which he talks of finding a blue T-handled game called Air Raid by Men-A-Vision. The thread sparked little interest among subscribers, because at that time, the game itself was so rare nobody knew what he was talking about. One very cool thing about his post, though, was that he mentioned "Men-A-Vision". Men-A-Vision is indeed the name that appeared on the game start-up screen when I popped my blue T-handeld find into my Atari VCS. So, I knew then that Terry Rutt must have known what he was talking about. The label artwork suggests Air Raid is a plausible title for the game, but I wanted to be sure. I wondered how Terry Rutt knew the title of the game. The other very cool thing about Mr. Rutt's usenet post was that he included his e-mail address at the end of the post. I sent him an e-mail right away, asking him how he knew the title of the game was Air Raid. I was surprised the e-mail address was still valid, and I was even more surprised to receive his response to my e-mail a few days later. He told me he knew the game was called Air Raid because he had found not only the game cartridge but the original manufacturer's box as well, and the game title "Air Raid" was printed on the box. I begged him to make a scan of his Air Raid box, for the benefit of my own selfish curiosity and for the benefit of the collecting hobby at large. He said he would, if he could locate the box. He told me that locating the box would be difficult, however, because in the years that had elapsed since making his usenet post he had dropped off the map as far as active video game collecting goes, he had since moved to another state, and his collection was scattered about in unmarked boxes in his garage and other locales. He had a good job and a busy life, and fiddling with the old video game collection just wasn't a priority for him. But he did promise to look for the Air Raid box in his spare time and make a scan of it for me when he located it. I sent him monthly e-mail reminders for over a year, but he never found his box. Eventually, he stopped returning my e-mail enquiries and I gave up on asking him. Ten years later, a legitimate sample of the Air Raid box has finally surfaced. This is cool. Really cool. A decades old mystery has finally been put to rest. The title of the mysterious blue T-handled game is indeed Air Raid, beyond all doubt. The title EXACTLY matches the title espoused by Terry Rutt 10 years ago. Confirmation of the title begs the question: How did Terry Rutt KNOW the title of the game was Air Raid? Was it a lucky guess? Or, does present-day confirmation of the game's title lend significant credibility to Terry Rutt's claim that he "knew the game was called Air Raid because I [Rutt] have the box and the title is printed on the box."? I believe Terry Rutt has a copy of the Air Raid game and box. And I believe it is only a matter of time until his copy of it finally surfaces. A high profile auction like Tanman's is just the thing to motivate Terry Rutt to go looking for his copy of the game.

I never thought I'd live to see the day. Wow! Congrats, Tanman! That is an amazing Air Raid box you've got there. Simply, amazing. -Ben

I think you're doing pretty good, actually. There's some really great games on your list. You know which ones I mean. And you're doing especially good if you hunted down all those games from thrifts, flea markets, and yard sales. That's how I built the bulk of my collection. Although, admittedly, it was a lot easier for me to build a collection having started several years before you. Pitfall II is a must-have game, so keep a keen eye out for its chocolate brown cartridge label. H.E.R.O. is another great game you simply must have. I didn't find my copy of H.E.R.O. in the wild until I had over 300 titles. I regret missing out on all those years I could have been playing it. If I had known it was so good, I would have paid double the price it goes for on eBay without batting an eye. Good luck with your collection!

I am, too. Anyway, the contest officially ended today. There was no winner.

It's still running. Although, I have not seen any evidence that anyone has gotten very far yet. The contest is scheduled to end November 1.

Nope it isn´t! Put a cart in your pocket and try it out. Ouch! I guess it's alright as long as you don't sit down... Repeated sitting on a wallet like that can give you a bad case of asteroids. Someone had to say it.

cat: I think what I'm supposed to do is construct a 9x9 image from 40 black pixels and 41 white pixels. The trouble is, I don't really know what the image I'm expected to construct looks like. I figured I could construct every possible image, look at each one, and then see if I recognized anything meaningful. How many possible pictures does that involve? dog: Way too many. You're up against a very large combinatorics problem. There are 81 choose 40 different images you can make. That's roughly 212,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 different images. You'd never live long enough to analyze that many, not even with nine lives. cat: Then the problem is hopeless? dog: It is if that's all that you know. What else do you know about the problem? cat: It's part of a puzzle contest. Does that help? dog: It sure does! cat: How does that help? dog: Well, if it's part of a puzzle contest, then either A) the problem may be solvable using logical, simplifying assumptions, or B) There are additional constraints you have not yet discovered that reduce the combinatorial complexity of the problem. cat: If you don't start speaking English pretty soon, I'm going to scratch your eyes out. dog: A problem involving images, like yours, can often be greatly simplified by assuming symmetry. Of course, you would need a logical reason for assuming the image you're supposed to make has symmetry. Do you have a logical reason to make that assumption? cat: I don't know. Take a look at this starting image, and you tell me. dog: Oh yeah. Look. This image has symmetry already. cat: It does? dog: Sure. If you fold the image along its diagonal, pulling up the lower right corner to meet the upper left, you can see right away that every black pixel in one half of the image pairs up with a black pixel in the other half. Same thing with the white pixels. This image has symmetry along its diagonal. Therefore, it is very logical to assume the image you are expected to make also possesses symmetry of some kind. cat: Cool! Does assuming symmetry help much? dog: Quite a bit, actually. Maybe not enough, but at least it's a start. cat: Thanks! dog: It's what I do.

Well, this surely is a welcome revelation! All these years, I've been pronouncing it as "I'm a gik." Altho... I should have been tipped off by how, every time I said Imagic, everybody was always quick to say, "You sure are."

You're in luck, then, because this contest is just getting started. If you wish to participate in it, you're getting in pretty close to the ground floor. Nobody has made any significant progress towards solving it yet, as far as I know.

Actually, I have a very high regard for the abilities of AtariAge members. So, it doesn't really surprise me you figured out what the symbols mean. Good job, tho. Since the auxiliary clues I post here aren't technically necessary for solving the contest puzzle (but they do help!), I can't see any reason why you shouldn't feel free to discuss the meaning of the auxiliary clues I post to this thread in whatever detail you wish. To make things sporting to others who are working the contest, you may want to stop short of simply giving away the translation. You may want to say HOW you translated it, rather than translate it outright.

___. . .___Just_______Find_______Diagonal___Words ___. . .___In_________Epyx_______Cartridge__Values ___. . .___Hidden_____Data_______Becomes____Understandable ___. . .___Going______Clockwise__And________Translating ___. . .___.__________.__________.__________.__________ ___. . .___.__________.__________.__________.__________ ___. . .___.__________.__________.__________.__________

Yeah. I did.