Software:Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle

From HandWiki
Short description: 1998 video game
Not to be confused with Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle.
Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle
File:Pitfall-beyond-the-jungle-game-boy-box-art.jpg
Developer(s)David A. Palmer IMS Productions
Publisher(s)Crave Entertainment
Programmer(s)Nigel Speight
Artist(s)Martin Smith
SeriesPitfall
Platform(s)Game Boy Color
Release
  • NA: December 1998
  • EU: February 1999
Genre(s)Platformer

Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle is a 1998 platformer video game developed by David A. Palmer IMS Productions and published by Crave Entertainment for the Game Boy Color. The game features Pitfall Harry's son, Pitfall Harry Jr. as he enters an interdimensional rift to help a band of rebels led by a woman named Mira. The game features side-scrolling gameplay with the player controlling Pitfall Harry Jr. through various levels themed around areas like jungles and volcanoes.

Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle was part of a series in Pitfall games that were released in 1982 to 1986. During the 1990s, Activision would resurrect the series with games like Software:Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (1994) and Software:Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle (1998). Following the 3D games release in early 1998, Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle was released in December 1998. Along with Virtual Pool 64 (1998), Milo's Astro Lanes (1998) for the Nintendo 64 and Gex: Enter the Gecko (1998), Men in Black: The Series for the Game Boy Color, the games gave Crave a $40 million proft in the fourth quarter of 1998.

Reception ranged from 64 Magazine and Game Informer praising the games graphics while 64 Magazine and IGN writing that the game paled in comparison to similar games in the Wario Land and Super Mario series.

Plot and gameplay

Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle feature's Pitfall Harry's son, Pitfall Harry Jr..[1] While exploring the jungles of South America, a rift appears and Harry is met with Mira the leader of a group of rebels. Mira is against an entity known as The Scourge and seeks help from outside of her dimension to fight back. Harry heads into the city of Shenrak to destroy the evil Scourge.[2]

Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle is a side-scrolling platform game.[3] In the game, Pitfall Harry Jr. can be controlled move left and right, jump and crouch.[4] Harry can also perform long jumps by standing on an edge of a cliff before jumping.[5] He is equipped with an axe to attack enemies swing from hooks placed on walls all while collecting treasure along the way.[1] The game starts the player with four lives. Harry has a health meter and when it runs out, he loses a life.[6] Health power-ups and extra lives can be collected throughout the stages.[6][7]

The game features four environments with themes of jungles, caverns, volcano and a prison. The first three environments have four levels while the prison environment has two.[8] After each environment area, the player is presented with a password which can be used to resume their game.[1]

Background and development

Activision was one of the first third-party video game publisher. The publisher went to build and expand and their portfolio, with academic David B Nieborg stating that chief among their catalogue was Pitfall! (1982).[9] The game playable character was Pitfall Harry, who became was the first popular video game character originating in home video game consoles.[10] A string of Pitfall! games were released for arcades and homes consoles between from 1982 to 1986.[3]

Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle was one of the three games Crave Entertainment published for the Game Boy Color for the 1998 holiday season.

In the 1990s, Robert 'Bobby' Kotick would lead a group of investors to transform Activision by restructuring the company by keeping intellectual property licenses and taking the publisher public in 1993.[9] In 1995, Next Generation highlighted the revival of long dormant video game franchises, which included Activision releasing Software:Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (1994).[11] Two new Pitfall games would follow in 1998: Software:Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle (1998) for the PlayStation and Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle for the Game Boy Color.[3]

Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle was developed by the Sheffield-based development company David A. Palmer IMS Productions. The game was programmed by Nigel Speight with graphics by Martin Smith and music and sound effects by Mark Cooksey, Pete Frith and Allister Brimble.[5]

Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle was set for release in late 1998.[12] It was released for the Game Boy Color in December 1998 by Crave Entertainment.[13] Crave Entertainment was founded by Nima Taghavi in 1997 from distributor SVG Distribution, inc.[14] Crave Entertainment released five games for the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color for the holiday season for 1998. Crave generated over $40 million in revenue during its fourth quarter through their releases such as Virtual Pool 64 (1998), Milo's Astro Lanes (1998) for the Nintendo 64 and their line-up of Game Boy Color titles: Gex: Enter the Gecko (1998), Men in Black: The Series (1998) and Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle. The senior marketing director of Crave, Jane Gilbertson said the three games did well over the holiday season and in January, partially because the were all based on solid licenses.[13] It was released in Europe in February 1999.[15][16] It was published by Pony Canyon in Japan with the title Pitfall GB (ピットフォールGB, Pittofōru GB) on May 28, 1999.[17]

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
64 Magazine3/5[18]
Famitsu17/40[17]
Game Informer6.5/10[19]
IGN3/10[20]
Total Games Guide to Game Boy Color81%[1]

From contemporary reviews, critics in 64 Magazine and Game Informer complimented the games games graphics with the latter publications specifically highlighting the animation.[18][19] Aaron Curtiss of the Los Angeles Times said the game suffered the same fate as the Game Boy Color version of Gex: Enter the Gecko, but ultimately was a superior game to Gex with more fresh levels that held onto their interest more.[21] Reviewing the game for Billboard, Doug Reece said it was a "respectable effort" from Crave, as the game was engaging and challenging and the game's hidden levels and secret codes show "just how far Game Boy titles have come since the days of Tetris (1989)."[22]

A number of video game publications ranged from lukewarm to poor reviews of the gameplay. The Total Games Guide to Game Boy Color said the gameplay was "all pretty-standard fare - but this is exactly what Pitfall fans will be looking for.[1] Game Informer found the game had the same issue as its 3D counterpart released the same year which was "tedious play mechanics".[19] Both 64 Magazine and IGN said the game paled in comparison to similar games in the Wario Land and Super Mario series.[18][20]

See also

  • List of Game Boy Color games

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Total Games 1999, p. 24.
  2. ↑ Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle Manual 1998, p. 5.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Hunt 2012, p. 85.
  4. ↑ Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle Manual 1998, p. 6.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle Manual 1998, p. 10.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle Manual 1998, p. 7.
  7. ↑ Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle Manual 1998, p. 9.
  8. ↑ Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle Manual 1998, p. 8.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Nieborg 2021, p. 187.
  10. ↑ Montfort & Bogost 2009, p. 109.
  11. ↑ Next Generation 1995, pp. 48–49.
  12. ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly 1999, p. 96.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Ward 1999, p. 5.
  14. ↑ Crave 2000.
  15. ↑ Daily Mirror 1999, p. 22.
  16. ↑ Super Play 1999.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Famitsu.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 64 Magazine 1999, p. 69.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Game Informer 1999, p. 59.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Averett 1999.
  21. ↑ Curtiss 1999, p. C3.
  22. ↑ Reece 1999, p. 24.

Sources

  • Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle at Gameboy.com via The Wayback Machine
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

On February 13, 2025, Freyholtz stepped down as the site lead to move onto new projects, leaving operations to Tracy Poff, a veteran coder on the site, and Atari staff.[18]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
  18. ↑ "An update on MobyGames leadership". 2025-02-13. https://www.mobygames.com/forum/3/thread/269628/an-update-on-mobygames-leadership/#post-269628. 
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