Cavalcade of Awesome

Here we are, Part III of this look back at the Activision Master Gamer program from the early 80s. Did you miss the first two parts of this article? Check out Part I here and Part II here.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s look at five more of the Activision Master Gamer badges.

Activision Explorer’s Club Master Badge – This badge was for the ever popular game, Pitfall!  Everyone knows how Pitfall! is played, so in order to earn this badge you had to score 20,000 points.  Many people don’t realize that Pitfall received a sequel.  And it was also a part of the Activision Master Program.  The sequel is…

Activision Cliff Hangers Master Badge – Pitfall II: The Lost Caverns.  This sequel upped the quality of the graphics, music and game play.  As Pitfall Harry, you roam a large collection of caverns collecting gold as you search for your niece, a diamond and a cat named Quickclaw.  You got unlimited lives, but when you were killed you were sent back to the last checkpoint you crossed (while losing points).  However, since this was released towards the end of the Atari’s dominance, it became lost in the shuffle.  If you could score 99,000 points in this game, you earned the Activision Cliff Hangers Badge.

Frostbite Bailey’s Arctic Architects Master Badge – For the game Frostbite. I never actually played this game, but I think it was one of Activision’s best sellers.  Frostbite plays very similar to Freeway or Frogger.  You play as Frostbite Bailey.  You jump across a frozen river changing ice blocks from white to blue.  With each color change, you add blocks to your igloo.  If you could score over 40,000 points, you could send away to become an Arctic Architect.

Activision Crackpots Master Badge – For the game Crackpots. As Potsy the gardener, you must protect your apartment building from mutant bugs by dropping flower pots on them. If too many bugs enter through the windows, you will lose. To achieve this badge you had to score at least 75,000 points.

Tennis Master Badge – For the game Tennis. I loved this game. It was hard, but a lot of fun.  If you could win a set against the computer (which is a lot tougher than you’d think) you were eligible to receive this badge.

So there are your next five.  Come back tomorrow and I’ll finish this these badges off with 5 or 6 more.

UPDATE – See Part IV of this article here

This entry was posted on September 9, 2010 at 8:00 am and is filed under 80s, Activision, Atari, pop culture, video games with tags Activision, Atari, Cavalcade Arcade, nostalgia, pop culture, video games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.