The fourth installment in the Pitfall franchise, players assume the role of Pitfall Harry Junior as he embarks on a journey through the Mayan jungles of Central America in an attempt to rescue Pitfall Harry, his father and main protagonist of previous entries in the series, from the evil Mayan warrior spirit named Zakelua.

Its gameplay mainly consists of action and platforming mixed with stage-based exploration. There are 13 levels and the action is fast and gripping. You will need to be attentive—and quick. Or prepare to die.

Hidden game
There's a cheat code that lets you play the original Pitfall!.

Technology
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure utilized the initial release of DirectX and was one of the first PC games to be released as a native Windows 95 executable.

Game Boy Advance | Megadrive | Jaguar | PC | SNES

Background
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure was initially in development for the Super Nintendo under the title Pitfall Harry: The Mayan Adventure and formed part in a string of franchise revivals by Activision along with other games such as Kaboom!: The Mad Doctor’s Revenge and River Raid: Mission of No Return, both of which were based on their original Atari 2600 entries respectively.

The three titles were showcased at Summer Consumer Electronics Show in 1993 featuring sprite-based visuals, with early promotional materials and previews for Pitfall Harry touting several features not found in the final release such as underwater and flying sections, as well as 32 stages.

Despite Pitfall being slated for a Winter 1993 launch, the three titles were delayed to 1994 but Kaboom! and River Raid were eventually cancelled for unknown reasons, while the former remained in full development. Kroyer Films, an animation studio who worked on several projects like FernGully: The Last Rainforest, were later brought to assist in the creation of Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure by providing hand-drawn animations and graphics. The game was later showcased at Summer CES 1994, now under its final name and sporting hand-drawn visuals by Kroyer Films, while the lead platform transitioned from the SNES to Sega Genesis.

Audio
Both the music and sound effects were created by Soundelux Media Labs, who would later collaborate alongside Activision with MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat.

Release
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure was first released for the Sega Genesis by Activision and Sony Electronic Publishing on North America and Europe in 1994 respectively, while it was later released in Brazil by Tectoy on July 1997. The Genesis version has since been re-released through the Wii's Virtual Console on 13 April, 2009 in North America, then in the PAL regions on 15 May 2009 and later in Japan on 25 August 2009.

The Virtual Console re-release was later delisted on 26 December, 2013 in Japan and at the end of 2013 in North America and PAL regions. The game has been ported to various platforms, with each port featuring several changes and additions. An extra feature in all versions is the ability to play the original Atari 2600 version of Pitfall!, which is done by finding a secret doorway within the fourth stage.

Sega CD
The Sega CD version was published in North America by Activision and Europe by Sony Electronic Publishing respectively around the same time period as the Genesis original. It shares the same visual design as the Genesis release but contained extra (and expanded) levels, Redbook CD Audio for an arranged soundtrack, an introductory full motion video sequence, among other enhancements.

SNES
The Super NES port was handled by Redline Games with additional assistance from Cygnus Software and like the previous two versions, it was published in North America by Activision on November 1994, then in Europe by Sony Electronic on December of the same year and later in Japan by Pony Canyon on 14 July, 1995, as well in Brazil by Playtronic Industrial on March 1996.

The SNES port runs at a lower resolution than both the Genesis and Sega CD versions, as well as changes to the foreground and backgrounds in some stages but features a higher color palette and special effects not found in the Sega versions, besides other alterations.

PC
The Windows 95 port was made by Kinesoft using their Exodus game technology, which was later reused to make the Windows port of Earthworm Jim: Special Edition and it was published by Activision on August 1995, becoming the first commercial release for the then-recently debuted Windows 95 operating system.

Developed over the course of eight months and based on the Sega 32X port, this version of the game features redrawn visuals displayed at a 8-bit color art, in-game CD audio and sound effects by Soundelux Media, as well as the extra levels from the Sega CD version. The SoftKey version included both America Online's free trial software for Windows 3.1/95, Internet Explorer 3.02 and a Cyber Patrol demo for Windows 3.1/95. This version was also published in Japan by GameBank.

Alternate Titles
"Pitfall: Maya no Daibōken" -- Japanese SNES title "Pitfall: Das Maya-Abenteuer" -- German title