Editing Pitfall! (section)

==Legacy==
[[File:David Crane (10453626776) (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[David Crane (programmer)|David Crane]] in 2013]]
''Pitfall!'' was described by authors Montfort and Bogost in ''Racing the Beam'' as an important early platformer, a game genre made famous by ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' (1985).{{sfn|Montfort|Bogost|2009|p=107}} They wrote that ''Pitfall!'' was a much longer game than previous Atari VCS games. These other games were often ports of arcade games which were designed to be a short experience to keep the player pay to play, but even native games could be rather short—the easiest difficulty of ''[[Adventure (1980 video game)|Adventure]]'' can be completed in just two minutes.{{sfn|Montfort|Bogost|2009|pp=112-113}} The authors said that ''Pitfall!'' built upon the [[graphic adventure game]] genre of ''Adventure'' to create an experience similar to later [[open-world]] games. According to them, the world was too large to be contemplated all at once, and a few core gameplay mechanics allowed a variety of more complex actions and possibilities.{{sfn|Montfort|Bogost|2009|pp=113-114}} [[Jeff Gerstmann]] of ''[[GameSpot]]'' spoke similarly in 2004 when including ''Pitfall!'' in the site's "Greatest Games of All Time" list, stating that the game was "responsible for launching the platformer genre as we know it" and that "Despite the fact that platformers have become a lot more sophisticated, especially since video games in general made the shift to 3D, it's surprising how little the fundamentals—like jumping around, avoiding enemies and obstacles, and collecting stuff—have changed since ''Pitfall!''"{{sfn|Gerstmann}}

Unlike [[Mario]] or [[Pac-Man (character)|Pac-Man]], who originated in [[arcade game]]s, Pitfall Harry was the first popular video game character originating in home consoles.{{sfn|Montfort|Bogost|2009|p=109}} The character was featured on licensed merchandise and appeared on the cartoon show ''[[Saturday Supercade]]'', which aired from 1983 to 1985 on [[CBS]].{{sfn|Erickson|1993|p=430}}{{sfn|Reeves|2013|p=99}} Crane said that Activision had to hire seven full-time staff to open and respond to the large amount of ''Pitfall!'' fan letters that Activision was receiving each week.{{sfn|Reeves|2013|p=99}} Pitfall Harry was dropped for its second season.{{sfn|Erickson|1993|p=431}}

===Follow-ups===
{{Video game timeline
| compressempty = yes
| 1982 = ''Pitfall!''
| 1984 = ''[[Pitfall II: Lost Caverns]]''
| 1985 = ''[[Pitfall II: Lost Caverns (arcade game)|Pitfall II: Lost Caverns]]''
| 1986 = ''[[Super Pitfall]]''
| 1994 = ''[[Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure]]''
| 1998a = ''[[Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle]]''
| 1998b = ''Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle''
| 2004 = ''[[Pitfall: The Lost Expedition]]''
| 2012 = ''[[Pitfall! (2012 video game)|Pitfall!]]''
}}
''Pitfall!'' spawned numerous sequels for consoles.{{sfn|Montfort|Bogost|2009|p=109}} These include ''[[Pitfall II: Lost Caverns]]'' (1984), ''[[Super Pitfall]]'' (1986) for the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]], ''[[Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure]]'' (1994) for the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System]] and [[Sega Genesis]], ''[[Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle]]'' (1998) for the [[PlayStation (console)|PlayStation]], ''Pitfall: Beyond the Jungle'' (1998) for the [[Game Boy Color]], and ''[[Pitfall: The Lost Expedition]]'' for various systems in 2004.{{sfn|Weiss|2014|p=171}}{{sfn|Automatic|1994|p=51}}{{sfn|MetacriticA|ref=MetacriticA}}{{sfn|MetacriticB|ref=MetacriticB}}{{sfn|MetacriticC|ref=MetacriticC}}

[[Sega]] released ''[[Pitfall II: Lost Caverns (arcade game)|Pitfall II: Lost Caverns]]'' (1985) to arcades, which incorporated elements of ''Pitfall!'' and ''Pitfall II: Lost Caverns'' from the Atari 2600.{{sfn|Weiss|2014|p=171}} Activision's UK-based studio The Blast Furnace released a follow-up titled ''[[Pitfall! (2012 video game)|Pitfall!]]'' (2012) for [[iOS]] on August 9, 2012.{{sfn|PR Newswire|2012|ref=PR Newswire}} It features gameplay similar to that of ''[[Temple Run]]'' (2011).{{sfn|Nichols|2012}}

''Pitfall!'' remained the game that Crane has been most associated with. In 2012, he stated that "I suppose that's not a bad problem to have, It's not a dark shadow. But I'm not just a classic gaming guy. This is what I do for a living!"{{sfn|Cifaldi|2012}} In the same year, he started a [[crowdfunding]] campaign [[Kickstarter]] to fund a [[spiritual successor]] to the ''Pitfall!'' series, but it fell far short of his funding goal.{{sfn|Cifaldi|2012}}{{sfn|Kohler|2012}}