Let's talk about
Pitfall II
It's undoubtably one of the greatest games in early homecomputing history. It was released for nearly all popular consoles and computers, but one version trumps them all: The Atari 8-bit release has a "hidden" level 2.
Brad Fregger, the producer at activision for the C64 and the Atari conversions told, the programmer of the A8 Version, "Mike", said:
I’m going to create a brand-new game that will be tacked on to the current game and end with the character and his treasures on top waiting for a helicopter to come pick him up.
But sadly:
“Mike, I’ve got good news and bad news, which do you want first?” “What’s the bad news?” “They are marketing the products together and demand they have equal game play. They insisted that I pull the extra game out of your version of Pitfall II.” “GOD! … What’s the good news?” “We are going to have the best damn Easter egg ever!“
citation taken from https://www.classic-consoles-center.at/atari-xlxe/pitfall-ii-the-second-level
So here we are. If you pick up all treasures in the correct order, a gate opens up and transfers you to level 2. And as promised you will find new enemies, new treasures, a different (and difficult) level layout and a real end sequence.
If you want to play this level 2 gem, I prepared a savestate for the Altirra Atari 8bit emulator.
Get the emulator here: https://www.virtualdub.org/altirra.html
and get the savestate here: Grab it here
Here's the map for this level:
As always,
stay childish
Webdoc
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