I think Pitfal holds up much better than pong especially in how single player games evolved. There’s some nuance that’s easy to miss, such as the player’s sco

I think Pitfal holds up much better than pong especially in how single player games evolved. There’s some nuance that’s easy to miss, such as the player’s score getting penalized for actions that don’t kill them. The manual provides both the number of treasures and the max possible score, so it’s got a meaningful end goal. https://atariage.com/manual_page.php?SystemID=2600&ItemTypeID=&SoftwareLabelID=360&currentPage=0&maxPages=6&currentPage=1 https://atariage.com/manual_page.php?SystemID=2600&ItemTypeI... There’s basically 3 levels in how players should approach the game. Basic mechanics which aren’t that difficult, but time pressure and trying to remember a rough and there’s a meaningful challenge. Exploration/ Routing, options are limited but exist so you need to discover and remember the games layout. The correct route crossing over your starting position also means you can explore significantly further than an optimal run. And finally actually putting together a run without hitting 20 minutes or 3 deaths to find all 32 treasures. Put it together and you’ve got a basic but perfectly playable game someone could sink a lot of time into even 40 years after release.