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Pitfall Harry's Contest of Doom


Pitfall Harry

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Wrong. The bonus points you get when you start the second quest are the points you earned fom completing the first.

 

Maybe it's just the lateness of the hour getting to me...but this will be my final try for the night...

 

199,000 for the first quest...

 

you then start the next quest with 199,000 points...

 

All true up to this point.

 

going back to my original hypothesis that the items in the second level are worth more than they are in the first quest...(5000 more points each is my guess there)...that you can get an additional 300,000 points in the second quest....bringing your score to 499,000 points.

 

Not true

 

NOW, you add the 199,000 points you got in the first quest to the 499,000 you end the second quest with...

 

199,000+499,000=698,000 points for the two quests total!!!

 

No. You don't add the 199,000 into the mix twice.

 

 

Ben

Ok, there 199,000 points for the first level + 300,000 for the second (45 gold bars, 5000 each + 10,000..25,000 for the additional 4 objects and the escape bonus).

 

But you (have to) loose points when falling down once due to the ladder layout when trying to get to the top rows.

 

:idea: A: 499,000 - 100 = 498,900 points

LOL

 

You know, I can go right now and find 31,000 web pages that deal with pond scum...

 

But not one place to find out how many points you get for stuff in the second level of Pitfall II!!!!! :)

 

Google can bite me.

 

I have a guess of 521,500 written on a piece of paper...I think I made the gold bricks worth 5500, and the bonus items worth 15K, 15K, 20K, and 25K...

 

I just don't have anything more than guesswork to go on...

 

good luck to whoever wins this...I'm as far as I can go.

Now that the question has been successfully guessed, here's how you'd go about finding it:

How about the green letter clue "SKIP ALTERNATE LETTERS"?

 

Did you explain that one before?

 

BTW: I anagramed "FANFOLD HI LIT", but it did the job too. ;-)

OK, I'll try again:

199,000 first level

(=4000 advance, 15000 rat, 20000 diamond, 10000 Rhonda, 10000 Quickclaw; 28 bars @ 5000 ea.)

+225,000 (45 bars @ 5000 ea. on second level)

+30,000 (for the two elements on the second level map that I am guessing correspond to Rhonda and the diamond: 10000 and 20000 respectively).

 

Total: 454,000 points

 

-Eric

 

p.s.- If it's an "advance" of 4000 points, why doesn't Harry have to pay it back?

Too late... Nice job! I was wondering if an "undesired" fall was required, but I was way off on the points, apparently, so the thought was moot. I look forward to seeing the complete solution.

-Eric

Now that the question has been successfully guessed, here's how you'd go about finding it:

How about the green letter clue "SKIP ALTERNATE LETTERS"?

 

Did you explain that one before?

 

BTW: I anagramed "FANFOLD HI LIT", but it did the job too. ;-)

 

 

No, that explanation was an oversight. Sorry. Here it is now...

 

I did mention how to find the clue, FOLD IT IN HALF. Fold the word search puzzle in half so that the bottom half meets the top. Then the green letters line up to spell out the clue SKIP ALTERNATE LETTERS. The only difficulty is that the it will be spelled in mirror image unless you read it from the backside of the puzzle (or in a mirror).

 

The clue THE GREEN FOLDER: ???? ????????? ??????? helps you by suggesting that something needs to be folded and you should be looking at green when you do. The question marks of the clue tell you to look for three words and the number of question marks indicate the number of letters in each word.

 

 

Ben

Drat, I knew someone who has actually played the game would have to win it...good job Thomas...)

Well, to be honest I wouldn't call that "playing". I used maybe 200 save states to rush through the two levels to find out the missing bonus points. :)

 

And that was the very first time I played the 5200 game, so everybody (assuming there exists a good emulator for his platform) could have done that too.

 

second time you've won this cart isn't it??  ;)

Yup, and this time I'll take it. I have a job to do and need some more sleep. :)

OK, I'll try again:

199,000 first level

(=4000 advance, 15000 rat, 20000 diamond, 10000 Rhonda, 10000 Quickclaw; 28 bars @ 5000 ea.)

+225,000 (45 bars @ 5000 ea. on second level)

+30,000 (for the two elements on the second level map that I am guessing correspond to Rhonda and the diamond: 10000 and 20000 respectively).

 

Total: 454,000 points

 

-Eric

 

p.s.- If it's an "advance" of 4000 points, why doesn't Harry have to pay it back?

 

 

199,000 pts for a perfect score in level 1

225,000 pts for the 45 gold bars in level 2

10,000 pts for the basket

10,000 pts for the flute

15,000 pts for the snake charmer

15,000 pts for the golden rope

25,000 pts for escaping the caverns

-100 pts for falling down a ladder (it's unavoidable to get to the rope)

=======================

498,900 pts is the most you can get

 

 

Ben

second time you've won this cart isn't it??  ;)

Yup, and this time I'll take it. I have a job to do and need some more sleep. :)

 

 

And I'll send it as soon as you email me your address.

 

I have to get some sleep too. Thanks to all who participated in the contest. I hope you had fun.

 

 

Ben

I figured Thomas would win it, when I read he was working his way through the game with save states. That's more work than I was willing to put into it.

 

Good going Thomas! You certainly earned it!

 

One more for the road...

 

Carl Wonders - The Finale

carl_13.gif

Nice work, Thomas!

 

I'm glad I didn't bother to try to figure it out. There was no way I was going to actually play through the game to find the total, and I'd never have guessed there was a situation where you had to lose points.

 

Ben, can you post a detail of your map of the second level showing where this fall takes place?

 

I must say, all of this makes me want to download a 5200 emulator (finally) and give the game a try!

Nice work, Thomas!

 

I'm glad I didn't bother to try to figure it out.  There was no way I was going to actually play through the game to find the total, and I'd never have guessed there was a situation where you had to lose points.

 

Ben, can you post a detail of your map of the second level showing where this fall takes place?

 

 

The map below shows the area (highlighted in green) which is impossible to get to unless you take a deliberate fall in one of the two places indicated by a red arrow.

 

 

Ben

post-5-1053613954_thumb.png

Thanks!

 

I find it interesting that the game was designed this way, where you have to take a fall like this. Especially odd is the farther-right option, where there's a frog at the opening. :? Anybody know why it was done this way?

Thanks!

 

Now... how am I going to get myself a copy of the ROM for this game so I can play it in Jum52?  I had forgotten that Activision got AA to remove all of their game ROMs from the archive. :(

 

With a little effort you can still find a .bin file for Pitfall2 out on the Internet. It was there at the Digital Press website when I checked a couple of days ago. I cannot recall where I found an .ATR file for Pitfall2, but if that's what you need and you cannot find it I can email you a copy.

 

 

I find it interesting that the game was designed this way, where you have to take a fall like this.  Especially odd is the farther-right option, where there's a frog at the opening. :? Anybody know why it was done this way?

 

Even if the frog was not there, you still couldn't get to the green highlighted area at that juncture without taking a fall, because you cannot jump onto a ladder.

 

Why the game requires a deliberate fall? I suspect that the designer, Mike Lorenzen, never in his wildest imagination dreamed anyone would ever make it through level two with a perfect score. The layout is so complex and so twisted, I'm amazed you need take only a single deliberate fall in order to get to all treasures and bonus items.

 

I forgot to mention that you do not need to take a second deliberate fall in order to make your way back from the golden rope to the secret chamber where you end the game. You can run off the end of either of the top two platforms and fall safely into the water below without losing points. Or you could leap from the top platform and land safely onto the ledge that overhangs the left side of the water.

 

Ben

Yeah, I found the ROMs elsewhere, so I removed that sentence from my original post.

 

I know the frog's not the reason for the fall, but it makes that particular hole seem extra-strange, since normally with a frog in that position you'd have the smaller type of hole that allows you to climb onto the ladder.

 

Does the frog jump back and forth across this wider hole the way frogs usually do in other positions in the game?

 

BTW, you still never told me how long it took you to put this puzzle together... :)

I see Thomas has once again rightfully claimed his moniker of "The Human Enigma Machine." (OK, so it's a nickname I tossed out last time he cracked a contest code.)

 

When I next run a contest, Thomas is allowed to participate only if he ties half of his brain behind his back - just to make it fair. ;)

 

Nice job to all!

Excellent job Thomas!

 

I'm glad that the person who won was also one of the ones who put in the most effort to get to a solution and didn't just read the messages. Not to mention the fact that I can forget about that crazy word search now! All my printed copies are going in the trash.

 

Ben, you are a diabolical genius when it comes to puzzles. It was fun!

I forgot to mention that you do not need to take a second deliberate fall in order to make your way back from the golden rope to the secret chamber where you end the game.  You can run off the end of either of the top two platforms and fall safely into the water below without losing points. Or you could leap from the top platform and land safely onto the ledge that overhangs the left side of the water.

Yes, that was a mistake in my 299,800 guess. I thought I had to go all the way back. But after some sleep I realized that there is another option.

 

When I first guessed 300,000 I didn't realize at all, that I had to make a deliberate fall. But then I thought the answer could be guessed too easy then, so allowing to guess was an additional clue for me. I had another look at the map and remembered how I played that level a few days ago, and then it just clicked. :)

 

But without the anagraming help of many other people in this thread, I am sure I would have had much more problems to find the right question (or even getting close to it). Thanks! :thumbsup:

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