Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure

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Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Sega Mega-CD, Sega 32X, Virtual Console
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Activision, Zombie Virtual Reality Entertainment, Big Bang Software
Genre: Action
Release Date RRP Code US 1995 T-130025 EU 1995 T-130025-50 US 1995-10 T-13001B JP ▼ 2009-08-25 600pts600 US ▼ 2009-04-13 800pts800 EU ▼ 2009-05-15 800pts800
ESRB PEGI ELSPA USK OFLC Tectoy

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is a platform game developed and published by Activision in 1994. It is part of the Pitfall series, and is notable for being one of the few games to be released on both the Sega 32X and Sega Mega-CD Sega Mega Drive add-ons, as well as being a stand-alone title for the standard Mega Drive system. It was also released for the Atari Jaguar, Super Nintendo, Windows and more recently the Game Boy Advance. The Mega Drive version has since been released on the Wii's Virtual Console service.

In the game the player controls Pitfall Harry Jr., the son of the hero from the first game(s) who must rescue his father. The original Atari 2600 Pitfall! game is also hidden and can be played.

The game was highly praised for its detailed graphics and smooth animations, similar to Disney's Aladdin. Though the 32X version of the game has a larger color palette, it is let down by slower framerates (despite the systems superior processing power, hinting that this version was rushed out and/or not carefuly programmed). The Mega CD version, as well as including a CD audio soundtrack, contains full motion video sequences and extra stages. Compared to the 32X version, it runs stable. The SNES version has brighter, more balanced color palette, but technical issues such as slowdown, missing animations etc. The "definitive" version is a tie between the Mega CD, Jaguar and PC version.

One weird thing is that the Nordic rental version had different artwork. The hero is almost the same but under him you'll see two crocodiles.

Gameplay

Controls can be configured. The game supports the the 6 button controller. shoots the selected weapon, jumps and is for a physical attack. , and can be used to access rocks, boomerang or smart bomb respectively. On a 3 button controller,  START  cycles through available weapons. Holding  START  pressed for some time pauses the game. Pushing down and {B}} together makes Harry Jr. crawl. Levers are used by pushing .

All stages contain a magnitued of secrets to collect, including hidden letters that for the word "Pitfall".

Extra Stages

• The extra stages in the Sega Mega-CD version are located after the nightime jungle stage. They were meshed into the game and don't require any special method the be accessed. These stages mainly reuse graphics instead of having newly drawn ones. Difficulty wise, they compare to the end game stages of the regular version.

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Production Credits

Mega Drive Version

Producers: Nathalie Deschatres, John Spinale
Programmed By: George Allan
Lead Designer: John Spinale
Level Design: Scott Krager, David Pavoni, John Spinale
Additional Design:Nathalie Deschatres, Tin Guerrero, Sean Vesce
Associate Producer: Kelly W Rogers
Production Assistant: Sean Vesce
Background Art: Lin Shen, Tim May
Additional Tile Art: Scott Krager
Animation and Rendering: Danny Matson
Additional Rendering: Evelyn Hom, Kara Blohm
Art Processing: Thomas Lamb, Christopher Smith
Quality Assurance Director: Jon Doellstedt
Lead Tester: Tin Guerrero
Game Testers: Chuck Bonini, Brian Clarke, Michael Dunn, Andrew Held, Abe Heward, Dan Kamins, Seiken Nakama, Matt Pekarek, Chris Pike, Kenny Ramirez, Mike Schneider, Christopher Smith, Dustin Sorenson, Rawson Law Stovall
Additional Testing By: Lobotomy Software Inc, Gametest
Development Tools: George Allan, Dan Chang
Background Conversion By Cygnus Multimedia: Les Pardew, Ruth Stahnke, Sharon Cunningham, Robert Swindlehurst, Winter Jenssen
Color Coordination: Lin Shen
Original Animation By Kroyer Films

Director: Bill Kroyer

Supervising Art Director: Sue Kroyer

Animators: Joe McDonough, Charles Harvey, Jaqueline Corley, Jeff Johnson, Roger Vizard, Thomas Decker

Effects Animators: Sari Gennis, Kathleen Quaife Hodge, Brett Hisey

Assistant Animators: Jan Naylor, Richardo Echevarria, Bob Miller

Color Stylist: Christopher Naylor, Leslie Hinton

Layout Supervisor: Anthony Christov

Background Printer and Box Illustrator: Nadia Staroselska

Character Designs: David Boudreau

Additional Animation: Shane Zalvin, Wendy Perdue, Chris Sauve, Sue Zytka, Mark Pudleiner

Production Managers: Jan Naylor, Steve Kellener

Production Assistants: Josh Williams, Brian Masters

Animation Processing By Freestyle

Animation Rendering By Karen Johnson Productions

Producer: Denise Roberts McKee

Art Director: Karen Johnson

Pixel Retouch Artists: Robert Churchill, Paul E Nunn, Mary Kay Omelina

Original Music and Sound Effects By Soundelux Media Labs
Music and Sound Effects Conversion By Krisalis

Audio By: Matt Furniss

Music Driver By: S Hollingworth

Special Thanks To: The Atari 2600, Esther the Squish, David Crane, Ritchie Brannan, Ashley Bennet, Gordon and Others, Peter Doctorow, Jefferson Eliot, Garry B Frank, Alan Gershenfeld, Brian Kelly, Tom Ketola, Robert Kotick, Howard Marks, The Mayan Civilization, Jim Mitchell,Tom Sloper, Trish Wright, And the Fellas Down South

32X Version

~In-game credits~

Consulting Producers: Nathalie Deschatres, John Spinale
Associate Producer: Kelly W Rogers
Production Coordinators: Tin Guerrero, Scott Krager
Original Genesis Programming: George Allan
Original Sega CD Programming: Tom McWilliams, George Allan
32X Conversion: Zombie Virtual Reality Entertainment, Big Bang Software
32X Programmers: Robert Champagne, Chris Phillips
Lead Designer: John Spinale
Level Design: Tin Guerrero, Scott Krager, David Pavoni, John Spinale
Additional Design:Nathalie Deschatres, Sean Vesce
Quality Assurance Director: Jon Doellstedt
Quality Assurance Manager: David Arnspiger
Lead Tester: Rawson Stovall
Game Testers: Chuck Bonini, Abe Heward, Roy Houlette, Douglas Jacobs, Lucas Johnson Yahraus, David King, David Meyers, Kenny Ramirez, Mike Schneider
Development Tools: George Allan, Dan Chang, Psyq, Rob Northern Computing, Snasm
Package Design: Ron Graening
Documentation Manager: Michael Rivera
Copywriter: Veronica Milito
Manual Layout: Sylvia Orzel
256 Color Art:

Art Director: Danny Matson

Animation Rendering By Karen Johnson Productions

Producer: Denise Roberts McKee

Art Director: Karen Johnson, Mary Kay Omelina

Pixel Retouch Artists: Lance Dobersek, Paul E Nunn, Mary Kay Omelina

Background Conversion By Cygnus Multimedia

Manager: Ruth Stahnke

Sub Manager: Tylor Lybbert

Artists: Paul Bangerter, Kari Christensen, Carson Davidson, Matt Davis, Mary Gurr, Sterling Hirsch, Kathleen Lowe, Murphy Michaels, Eric Nunamaker, Jason Price, Brad Swindlehurst, Alan Twe, Ryan Wood

Original Art:

Background Art: Lin Shen, Tim May

Additional Tile Art: Scott Krager

Animation and Rendering: Danny Matson

Background Conversion By Cygnus Multimedia
Original Animation By Kroyer Films

Director: Bill Kroyer

Supervising Art Director: Sue Kroyer

Animators: Joe McDonough, Charles Harvey, Jaqueline Corley, Jeff Johnson, Roger Vizard, Thomas Decker

Effects Animators: Sari Gennis, Kathleen Quaife Hodge, Brett Hisey

Assistant Animators: Jan Naylor, Richardo Echevarria, Bob Miller

Color Stylist: Christopher Naylor, Leslie Hinton

Layout Supervisor: Anthony Christov

Background Painter: Nadia Staroselska

Character Designs: David Boudreau

Additional Animation: Shane Zalvin, Wendy Perdue, Chris Sauve, Sue Zytka, Mark Pudleiner

Production Managers: Jan Naylor, Steve Kellener

Production Assistants: Josh Williams, Brian Masters

Animation Processing By Freestyle
Animation Rendering By Karen Johnson Productions
Original Music and Sound Effects By Soundelux Media Labs

Soundtrack Produced By: Scott Martin Gershin, Kelly Walker Rogers

Composers: Lee Scott, Robert Higgins, David Kneupper

Sound Design: Michael Regan, Craon Weidner

Sound Effects Conversion By Krisalis

FM SFX: Matt Furniss

FMDriver By: S Hollingworth

Special Thanks To: The Atari 2600, Ryan Ayanian, David Crane, Mary Eubank, Alan Gershenfeld, Lary Goldberg, Our Hamster, Eric Johnson, Brian Kelly, Robert Kotick, Maryanne Lataif, Mark Long, Howard Marks, The Mayan Civilization, Jim Mitchell,Tom Sloper, The Smashing Pumpkins, And the Fellas Down South

~US manual credits~

Manual Copy: Scott Krager and David Pavoni
Soundtrack designed and produced by Scott Gershin and Kelly Rogers
Soundtrack created and mixed at Soundelux Media Labs

Promotional Material

• PitfalltMA MD-MCD US PrintAdvert.jpg

  Mega Drive/Mega-CD US print advert

• PitfalltMA MD-MCD FR PrintAdvert.jpg

  Mega Drive/Mega-CD FR print advert

• PitfalltMA MD-MCD DE PrintAdvert.jpg

  Mega Drive/Mega-CD DE print advert

• Pitfall MCD MD UK PrintAd.jpg

  Mega Drive/Mega-CD UK print advert

Physical Scans

Mega Drive Version

Sega Retro Average

Publication Score Source Consoles + (FR) 89 Computer & Video Games (UK) 91 №157, p51 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) 74 GameFan (US) 89 81 №70 Game Players (US) 77 Games World: The Magazine (UK) 84 №7, p15 Joypad (FR) 85 Mega (UK) 88 №27, p48/49 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 89 №27, p92-94 Player One (FR) 92 №48, p90-93 Sega Magazine (UK) 89 №12, p88/89 Sega Power (UK) 91 №62, p50-52 Sega Pro (UK) 89 №40, p74/75 Sonic the Comic (UK) 86 №46, p10

	86
Based on 15 reviews

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 70 Cool Gamer (RU) 70 Computer & Video Games (UK) 91 Computer + Video Giochi (IT) 93 Digitiser (UK) 83 Electronic Games (1992-1995) (US) NTSC-U 100 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 70 Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1 (RU) 70 Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 4 (RU) 70 Freak (IL) 81 GameFan (US) NTSC-U 89 Game Players (US) NTSC-U 77 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 83 GamesMaster (UK) PAL 81 Gamestar (AU) 91 Games World: The Magazine (UK) PAL 84 Hobby Consolas (ES) 90 Joypad (FR) PAL 85 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 78 Mega (UK) PAL 88 Mega Force (FR) PAL 89 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 85 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 89 Player One (FR) 92 Play Time (DE) PAL 85 Sega Magazin (DE) 79 Sega Magazine (UK) PAL 89 Sega News (CZ) 73 Sega Power (UK) PAL 91 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 89 Sega Mega Drive Review (RU) 78 Sonic the Comic (UK) PAL 86 Todo Sega (ES) 89 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 89 Video Games (DE) PAL 86 VideoGames (US) 90

	84
Based on 36 reviews

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, BR
Cover
Cart

Mega-CD Version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) 76 Game Players (US) 80 Joypad (FR) 80 Next Generation (US) 40 №4, p93/94 Player One (FR) 90 №52, p119 Sega Pro (UK) 90 №41, p57

	76
Based on 6 reviews

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 76 Game Players (US) NTSC-U 80 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 88 Joypad (FR) 80 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 80 Mega Fun (DE) 85 Next Generation (US) NTSC-U 25 Player One (FR) 90 Play Time (DE) 85 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 90 Video Games (DE) PAL 86 VideoGames (US) NTSC-U 90

	80
Based on 12 reviews

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure

Mega-CD, US
Cover
Disc Manual

Mega-CD, EU
Cover
Disc

32X Version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) 66 GameFan (US) 71

	69
Based on 2 reviews

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 66 GameFan (US) NTSC-U 71 Game Players (US) NTSC-U 62 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 68 GamePro (UK) 81 Next Generation (US) 50

	66
Based on 6 reviews

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure

32X, US
Cover
Cart Manual

External links

• Sega of Japan Virtual Console page (Japanese)

File:MeanMachinesSega27UK.pdf, page 92

1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 177

Cool Gamer, "9" (RU; 2002-10-13), page 157

Computer & Video Games, "December 1994" (UK; 1994-11-15), page 51

Computer + Video Giochi, "Dicembre 1994" (IT; 1994-xx-xx), page 108

Digitiser (UK) (1995-01-02)

Electronic Games (1992-1995), "November 1994" (US; 1994-1x-xx), page 116

Electronic Gaming Monthly, "November 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 42

Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1, "" (RU; 1999-xx-xx), page 347

Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 4, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 213

Freak, "1/95" (IL; 1995-xx-xx), page 1

GameFan, "Volume 2, Issue 12: December 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 26

Game Players, "Vol. 7 No. 12 December 1994" (US; 1994-1x-xx), page 128

GamePro, "November 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 82

GamesMaster (UK) "Series 4, episode 8" (1994-11-08, 24:00) (+9:27)

Gamestar, "February 1995" (AU; 1995-xx-xx), page 71

Games World: The Magazine, "January 1995" (UK; 1994-11-xx), page 15

Hobby Consolas, "Diciembre 1994" (ES; 1994-xx-xx), page 114

Joypad, "Décembre 1994" (FR; 1994-1x-xx), page 78

MAN!AC, "12/94" (DE; 1994-11-09), page 73

Mega, "December 1994" (UK; 1994-11-30), page 24

Mega Force, "Décembre 1994" (FR; 1994-12-02), page 50

Mega Fun, "01/95" (DE; 1994-12-21), page 36

Player One, "Décembre 1994" (FR; 1994-1x-xx), page 90

Play Time, "1/95" (DE; 1994-12-07), page 109

Sega Magazin, "Dezember 1994" (DE; 1994-11-17), page 31

Sega Magazine, "December 1994" (UK; 1994-11-15), page 88

Sega News, "Říjen 1996" (CZ; 1996-xx-xx), page 24

Sega Power, "January 1995" (UK; 1994-11-17), page 50

Sega Pro, "January 1995" (UK; 1994-12-01), page 74

Sega Mega Drive Review, "1" (RU; 1995-04-03), page 113

Sonic the Comic, "3rd March 1995" (UK; 1995-02-18), page 10

Todo Sega, "Enero 1995" (ES; 199x-xx-xx), page 34

Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 21

Video Games, "12/94" (DE; 1994-11-23), page 104

VideoGames, "January 1995" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 64

File:NextGeneration US 04.pdf, page 95

File:PlayerOne FR 052.pdf, page 119

Electronic Gaming Monthly, "February 1995" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 34

Game Players, "Vol. 8 No. 3 March 1995" (US; 1995-0x-xx), page 74

GamePro, "March 1995" (US; 1995-xx-xx), page 54

Joypad, "Avril 1995" (FR; 1995-0x-xx), page 54

MAN!AC, "05/95" (DE; 1995-04-12), page 47

Mega Fun, "06/95" (DE; 1995-05-24), page 84

Play Time, "7/95" (DE; 1995-06-07), page 108

Sega Pro, "February 1995" (UK; 1994-12-29), page 57

Video Games, "3/95" (DE; 1995-02-23), page 87

VideoGames, "February 1995" (US; 1995-0x-xx), page 80

Electronic Gaming Monthly, "October 1995" (US; 1995-xx-xx), page 38

GameFan, "Volume 3, Issue 9: September 1995" (US; 1995-xx-xx), page 16

Game Players, "Vol. 8 No. 10 October 1995" (US; 1995-xx-xx), page 46

GamePro, "November 1995" (US; 1995-xx-xx), page 68

GamePro, "December 1995" (UK; 1995-10-28), page 29

Next Generation, "October 1995" (US; 1995-09-19), page 118