Pitfall II Easter Egg Hintergrundgeschichte

Hi,

na sowas, manchmal gibt es ja seltsame Zufälle. Mein Zweithobby ist ja Schlagzeugspielen und da bin ich doch glatt im Drummerforum über eine Hintergrundgeschichte zum Easter Egg von Pitfall II auf dem Atari 800 gestolpert. Ich habe selber keine Ahnung vom Atari und vielleicht sind das alles ganz alte Hüte, aber auf der Facbookseite eines Drummers, der wohl früher mal einen Review des Spiels geschrieben hat, hat sich der Produzent der Atari 800 Version gemeldet und Hintergrundinformationen zum geheimen Zusatzlevel von Pitfall II (dem "best, damn, Easter egg ever") geliefert.

https://www.facebook.com/geral…/videos/2142727825758661/

Ist in den Kommentaren zum ansonsten absolut retrofreien Beitrag zu finden. Vielleicht interessant für Ataristi?

Man kann es wohl auch ohne Konto lesen, aber ich archiviere es trotzdem mal hier. Bin aber zu faul zum übersetzen.

Brad Fregger: Are you the Gerald Kloos that wrote the review of Pitfall II?

Gerald Kloos: I think so... Brad you seem genetically close to Sherlock Holmes. Fantastic! Best wishes from Germany.

Brad Fregger: It appears you are. I wanted to thank you. I was the producer on Pitfall II for the Atari computers and the one basically responsible for what we called, “the biggest computer game Easter egg in history.” I’m writing a book and I was looking for any pictures I could find out of what I think you called the second level. And, there were your screen shots! Perfect!
For your information, the entire story of why and how that happened is in my book, “Lucky That Way”. Or, if you’re interested, I could post a summary here.

Brad Fregger: An Easter Egg The Story with Martha MacCallumDavid Crane, the developer of Pitfall, had broken all records when he’d programmed Pitfall II. This was the first 8K game for the Atari 2600. … But, it was still only 8 K.
I was the Producer for Pitfall II on the C64 and the Atari 800 and we, all of a sudden, had 64K, eight times more than David had when he programmed the Atari 2600 version.
The two programmers doing the conversions were Tim for the C64 and Mike for the Atari 800.
At our development meeting I asked Tim how he was going to take advantage of the extra K.
He replied, “I’m going to create the finest graphics ever seen in a computer game.”
“Sounds great. How about you Mike?” I can’t improve the graphics, the graphic chip in the 800 is the same as the chip in the 2600. So, 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.”
“That sounds like a lot of work. We are supposed to have the conversions done in about a month. Can to do that much that fast?”
“I’ll have it finished on time, I promise you.”

Mike was true to his word but it almost killed him. He brought a sleeping bag into the offices and almost never left his office. At one point he got very sick and I called an ambulance. He was dehydrated; I made sure he had plenty of water after that. That was the last time I ever allowed a programmer to work that hard with so few breaks. But, it was worth the effort, the extra game was actually better than the original. What an accomplishment.
When the two products were done, I went over to marketing to fill them in on the development and the way the two games differed.
The Marketing VP said, “The two games are different?”
“Yes, the C64 has dramatically improved graphics and the 800 has a new game attached to the original game.”
“What?”
“When the player is finished with the original game, he is taken into a brand new game and when he finishes that he ends up back on the surface waiting for a helicopter to come and pick him up.”
“We can’t have the, Brad. We are marketing the two products together and they need to have the exact same game play. You are going to have to strip that second game out of the product.”
I couldn’t change his mind, none of my arguments worked. I drove back to the office trying to figure out how I was going to give Mike this terrible news. He had just spent a month working 18 hour days and it looked like all of the work would go for naught. Then the solution came to me.
Back at the office I called the two guys together and said, “Tim they loved the new graphics, you did a great job.”
“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 the Pitfall II.”
“GOD! … What’s the good news?”
“We are going to have the best, damn, Easter egg ever!

And that’s what we did. We made the extra game an Easter egg that would appear if the player collected all of the treasures in the proper order, the first treasure, first, second treasure, second, etc.
Every once in awhile I’d get a call from customer service telling me that a C64 customer was complaining about not having the extra game that he’s friend with the 800 version had.
“He’s just confused because of the different graphics.” I’d reply. Trouble is, we did such a good job of hiding it that there are very few people in the world who know that the world’s biggest Easter egg is in the Atari 800 version of Pitfall II.

Was der Programmierer in Wahrheit dachte: "Oh no, ich hab keinen Bock auf die ganze Pixelei, da programmiere ich lieber einen neuen Level. Hm, wie sag ich's dem Produzenten? Ach, der hat eh keine Ahnung von der Technik "