Giant Bomb community member buzz_clik threw theses screens together in lieu of an actual game after reading a story about the Rutgers University robot that conquered the Atari 2600 classic game. It would have been cooler to have an actual flash game, of course, but what buzz_clik lacks in programing know-how, he (or she) makes up for in Photoshop skills.

And I can't argue with buzz_clik's logic on this — the games do seem to be a match made in heaven. Or, post apocalyptic brown heaven as the case may be.

Why not make a game that combines Pitfall! and Fallout ? They're both open-world games, with our hero braving a harsh landscape looking for stuff to pocket. They both have portions that take place underground. Both games have scorpions, as any good game should. Hell, there's even an expansion for Fallout 3 called The Pitt!

PitFallout! [Giant Bomb]

Yup. Pitfall. First step, Atari games, next step, the enslavement of humanity. Or our eradication. Whichever our robot overlords feel up to once they assume control.

This clip shows off the university's Object-Oriented Markov Decision Processes, which is a fancy way of saying the AI tries, tries then tries again until it knows how to do something. And while the clip is jarring, it's worth watching to the end. Where the robot gets to the end, and does a happy dance.

Machine Plays Pitfall, Dances [GameSetWatch]

The best sequences are ones requiring the rope swing; the rest of the time, you're looking at people with tiny vertical leaps, if not waiting contestants' backs. But thanks to Chris for giving us a look at it. It sounded cool.

Chris says his team finished with 24,000 points, 5,000 shy of the overall winner. "We were within striking distance the entire time." There are two more videos over on his blog post about it.

Pitfall!! [Chocolate Lemon, thanks Chris]

Up to 100 players will be entered in the game, which begins at 7 pm, so if you want to participate, you should plan on getting there early. (It's at 354 W. 45th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.)

Here's how it works: Pitfall! levels will be projected onto a back wall and floor of a theater stage. A rope is suspended from the middle of the ceiling. Team members must advance through the level by running, jumping or swinging over pits, alligators, snakes and other obstacles.

Grabbing treasures gives a team 4,000 points - touching a rolling log deducts 100, just like in the 1982 game. Teams will play until they lose all four members or 5 minutes are up, whichever comes first. The winner gets a trophy made from the original 2600 cartidge.

Sounds like a neat idea. If anyone goes, snap some pics and send them to me or to tips. We'll run them tomorrow.

Pitfall! Live at the Tank [Come Out and Play 2009]

It's week two of the DSiWare invasion, with two new titles dropping for Nintendo's slight step up. We've already told you about Mixed Messages from Activision (500 points), a drawing game for up to 21 players. It's joined this week by Master of Illusion Express: Shuffle Games (200 points), which includes a couple more card tricks to impress your friends and family.

The Virtual Console sees the return of a classic gaming icon in the not-so-classic Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure for the Sega Genesis (800 Wii points), which stars Pitfall Harry Jr., searching for his kidnapped father.

By far the most unfortunate game this week, however, is Party Fun Pirate by Tomy for WiiWare (500 Wii points). Based on the children's toy Pop-Up Pirate, one to four players take turns sticking swords into a barrel that a pirate captain is hiding in. Thrusting a sword into the wrong hole (shush) causes the pirate to pop out of the barrel, at which point Navy sharpshooters put a bullet in his head.

Of course they don't actually shoot your pirate, which is sad, because I would have purchased the game in a heartbeat if they did. Check out the official descriptions of the latest crop of Nintendo downloadables below to make sure I didn't dream up any other cool omitted features.

Nintendo DSiWare™

Mixed Messages (Activision, 2-21 players, Rated E for Everyone, 500 Nintendo DSi Points): Mixed Messages is the hilarious party game of mixed-up miscommunication. Sketch a picture to capture your friends' sentence, or try to figure out what in the world they've drawn. You might start with, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" and end up with "A crazy surfer outruns flying sticks of dynamite while his fans cheer!" Two to 21 players take turns writing sentences and drawing pictures to pass along a message. This isn't a game about winning and losing - it's all about the funny miscommunications that happen along the way. You'll laugh when you see just how wacky things can get. Get together with your friends and mix it up.

Master of Illusion™ Express: Shuffle Games (Nintendo, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 200 Nintendo DSi Points): Master of Illusion Express titles are mind-boggling magic tricks pulled from the popular Nintendo DS™ game. Learn the illusions, practice up and amaze your friends. Master of Illusion Express: Shuffle Games will boggle your audience members' minds as they try to figure out how you know exactly what they're thinking. Also included is the bonus Vanishing Card trick, which the Nintendo DSi system performs for your enjoyment.

WiiWare

Party Fun Pirate™ (TOMY Corporation, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone - Comic Mischief, 500 Wii Points): Based on the popular Pop-Up Pirate toy, players take turns thrusting swords into a barrel that holds your captain captive, trying to see who can insert the most swords into the barrel. Thrust a sword into the wrong hole and you'll send your captain flying, which means it's game over for you! Unique Wii features add to the excitement, making for a fun-filled party game. Try swapping out the captain and putting your custom Mii character in the barrel for some real laughs!

Virtual Console

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure™ (Sega Genesis, 1 player, Rated T for Teen - Animated Violence, 800 Wii Points): Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is a side-scrolling action game in which you play adventurer Pitfall Harry Jr. in search of his father, Pitfall Harry. Pitfall Harry has been taken captive by the dreaded warrior spirit Zakelua: Lord of Evil. Armed with only a trusty sling and his father's journal, young Harry Jr. must now venture into the unknown to rescue him … before it's too late! Bungee jump and boomerang your way to safety as you battle through treacherous Mayan jungles, waterfalls and deserted mines. With 13 levels of fast, gripping action, you will need to be attentive and quick - or prepare to die …

Since Gametap isn't quite the original content developer they used to be, the six animated shorts now appear on the Gametap YouTube channel, rather than getting the sort of attention the first season of Re/Visioned did with its unique takes on the Tomb Raider franchise. Still, fanfare or no, these are some brilliant cartoons. I particularly like comic book writer Christos Gage's take on Cosmic Ark, which was technically an Imagic game, but who's counting?

Below you will find comic legend Mark Waid's take on Kaboom, along with shorts for Pitfall, H.E.R.O., Freeway, and Pressure Cooker. You'll never look at your old favorite 2600 games the same way again.

Racing the Beam sets up the Atari Video Computer System (later 2600) as a console that profoundly shaped game design because its limitations forced programmers to come up with new efficiencies and tricks to deliver more complex games. The book also points out that it was an unusually long-lived platform - going into 1992 - despite its lightweight computing power.

The VCS' big setback, according to the book, is that the console had a tiny 128 bytes (yes bytes) of RAM, which could not accommodate a frame buffer - in other words the portion of RAM that stores the image data for each successive screen displayed by the game. So VCS programmers had to generate graphics purely in real time. For those who complain about how difficult it is to program for the PlayStation 3, this is the equivalent of "In my day, I walked six miles to school in the snow, uphill both ways."

By "racing the beam," programmers came up with a few tricks. The information space inside three blank spots that the electron gun didn't have to render was rededicated to things like joystick inputs, scoring and other processes. In some cases they shrank the playing screen more to give themselves more programming space. Pitfall!, one of the deepest games of its generation, made use of this.

Further, the VCS could only display two sprites on the screen at any given moment. How they compensated for that is a technical challenge that I can't intelligently describe. But suffice to say, in Pac-Man - a disappointing port partially blamed for the early 1980s video game crash - every time you ate a dot, the game redrew the screen. This manic redrawing accounted for the ghosts' flicker, which, of course, was justified because THEY GHOSTS after all.

The book's authors, Nick Monfort and Ian Bogost, say that arcade ports to the 2600 lay the foundation for future practices in bringing arcade games home. Says Bogost:

"The porting of arcade games to home systems was first really worked through on the VCS. It was because of this VCS development that developers were able to figure out what to try to carry over and what to leave behind, and how to adapt the arcade experience for more limited consoles that would be played at home."

The authors say Racing the Beam is the first in a series of "platform studies" that will probe how gaming platforms affect how games are created.

Racing the Beam: How Atari 2600's Crazy Hardware Changed Game Design [Wired]

GAMETAP LAUNCHES RE\VISIONED: TOMB RAIDER JIM LEE FINALE

Announces Season Two will explore the worlds of Activision

GameTap launched today "A Complicated Woman," the final episode in the premiere season of its new animation series "Re\Visioned" which features story and art from legendary comic book illustrator Jim Lee of Wildstorm/DC Comics.

Launched in late August, the first season of "Re\Visioned" features ten episodes focusing on the legendary Tomb Raider franchise and the adventures of popular video game heroine Lara Croft. Academy Award-nominated actress Minnie Driver provides her unique voice for leading lady Lara Croft, while Jim Lee, Warren Ellis, Peter Chung, Brian Pulido, Gail Simone, Michael Stackpole, Ivan Reis, Cully Hamner, Christos N. Gage, Louie Del Carmen, David Alvarez, and Six Point Harness, have provided their 'Re\Visioned' view of the famous video game heroine.

GameTap has also announced that the second season of "Re\Visioned" will feature six animated episodes that spotlight games from the golden age of Activision. For the new season that launches in December, GameTap has partnered with The Hero Initiative to develop episodes that will feature the work of top industry writers, including Mark Waid (Flash, Kingdom Come, Legion of Superheroes), John Ostrander (X-Men, Punisher, Star Wars Republic) and Paul Jenkins (Spectacular Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, Civil War: Front Line).

The Hero Initiative is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping comic book creators in need. "We're thrilled that GameTap is continuing to support comic book creators with this second season of the 'Re\Visioned' series, especially since so many creators are video game fans," said Jim McLauchlin, President of Hero.

Episodes in Season Two will revolve around the worlds and characters featured in Activision's most iconic titles such as Pitfall, Kaboom and Pressure Cooker.

"Re\Visioned" is exclusive to GameTap and visitors can watch the finale and previous episodes from the first season absolutely free. For more information and to see the latest episode of Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider, visit www.gametap.com/tombraider.

Simply magnificent. For me, it shall be Yar's Revenge. Michael Fahey

Jack Rabbit's Knitted Atari Goodness [flickr - thanks Chris!]

Reader John Freeborn writes to say that after two years of work his retro flashgame, a mashup of Pitfall with skateboarding, is done. Skatefall! combines the foot-pumping action of Skate or Die with the leaps and lakes of Pitfall. Personally, I suck at this game, but it's still tons of fun to play. Brian Crecente

Skatefall!

Over at smart guy visual theory blog Think in Pictures, jeremiah McNichols has mashed together two of his seemingly discordant mutual interests — atrocious 70's wall paper and retro video game screenshots — with some absolutely beautiful results.

I'm particularly fond of this Pitfall screenshot, where the jungle foliage is the exact decomposed hummus wallpaper that was peeling off my grandmother's kitchen wall as a boy. Florian Eckhardt

Fan Fiction: I've Been Wrong Before [Thinking in Pictures] (via Boing Boing)