THE PITS
By Rex Goulding
ARCADIAN 3, no. 10 (Aug. 12, 1981): 108.
Archive notes by Adam Trionfo


THE PITS was archived by Paul Thacker on October 30, 2005 from side B of Mike 
White's third compilation tape of BALLY BASIC programs.  The "modified" version 
of this program that Paul refers to the Bally Alley Yahoo Group message #2308 
(subject line: "Next Set of Programs") has been renamed as an alternate 
version.  It's unknown what the differences are between the modified and 
original program.


THE PITS is a BASIC type-in game that was submitted to the ARCADIAN newsletter 
on October 8, 1980 (it wasn't published until August 1981!). This game is 
extremely simple, and doesn't take long to play (just a minute or two)... but 
that's great, because the game is quite addicting.  You'll find yourself have 
"just one more go" over and over again.

On March 25, 2011, I posted about this game to the Bally Alley Yahoo group 
(message #10456).  Here is that post, in slightly edited form:

THE PITS for AstroBASIC - A Fantastic Game!

I have just finished playing The Pits by Rex Goulding for about fifteen or 
twenty minutes. This program was published in:

ARCADIAN 3, no. 10 (Aug. 12, 1981): 108.

This is an "AstroBASIC" game that I haven't played before (or one that I can't 
remember playing). The graphics are nothing but squares scrolling up the 
screen. The player controls a small dot and tries to avoid the squares (the 
"pits"). It doesn't sound like much, but it sure is fun!

Rules:

The object of the game is to move the small dot in the upper-left corner past 
the pits to the end of the medium-size box in the lower-right corner. The 
clunker is that the pits move up the screen all the time and can catch you. 
Each time the screen rolls up, it counts as one move. A successful trip in 16 
moves is doing well.

If you have an Astrocade, then I highly recommend that you try this game. It 
isn't often that I suggest BASIC games, but I'm doing it now. I'm not sure if 
it is the moment, since I just finished playing the game, but this may be my 
new favorite "AstroBASIC" game. When I'm cursing a game and I want to throw my 
controller and it's my very own fault and I keep coming back for more, then I 
know that the game is a winner!

This is a thirty-five year-old game and it had me really going crazy trying to 
avoid the pits. When I won (in 21 moves), I felt like I really accomplished 
something! I'd give a screen shot, but it really wouldn't do this game any 
justice.

Whenever I play a game that I really like, but that I've never encountered 
before, I always wonder if it's based on another game. Has anyone seen this 
game on another platform?

Load up The Pits... and have fun!
