The Pit (arcade game)

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The Pit
Developer(s)	Taito
Publisher(s)	Centuri
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release date	1981
Genre(s)	Overhead View Action
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players, alternating turns
Input methods	4-way joystick, fire button
Cabinet	Upright
CPU	Z80 (8-bit, 3.072 MHz)
Sound	Z80 (8-bit, 2.5 MHz); AY-8910 x 2 (1.536 MHz)
Display	Raster, 224 x 256 pixels (Vertical), 99 colors

The Pit is a 1981 videogame by Centuri, an American manufacturer of arcade games.

1 Overview
2 Description
3 Scoring
4 External links

[edit] Overview

The objective of The Pit is to descend into an underground labyrinth, retrieve a gem, and escape.

[edit] Description

The Pit is comparatively rare and devilishly difficult. The player's avatar (described as "The Astronaut-Explorer" by the game manual) lands in a spaceship and must dig his way into a series of underground tunnels. While there, he must avoid being crushed by rocks, eaten by monsters, impaled by arrows, or melted in a vat of acid. In lieu of a traditional timer is a tank (the "zonker") shooting away a mountain near the player's spaceship. If the player dallies too long in the maze, the Zonker will destroy the player's spaceship, and the player loses a life.

After collecting the treasure, the only route back to the spaceship is by crossing "The Pit", which is a room with a sliding retractable floor underneath which is a monster that will devour a player who tarries too long.

There are superficial similarities to Dig Dug, but shooting enemies in The Pit is an incidental activity,

[edit] Scoring

The player receives 200 points for shooting each enemy, 1000 points for each crystal collected, 2000 points for collecting buried treasure, and 1000 points for crossing "The Pit" safely and reboarding the ship.