Summary
A gamer was hit with a serious case of nostalgia after rediscovering their oldest gaming achievement award, dating back to 1983. The gaming achievement is bringing back fond memories for some gamers, while younger gamers are marveling about the wayActivisioncelebrated gaming achievements long ago.
While in-game achievements have existed in some titles before consoles got involved, gamers really started to take note of achievements in the early 2000s. Starting with the Xbox 360 and PS3, achievement or trophy lists became an effective and exciting way to show one’s progress in a game and brag about pulling off difficult tasks. To this day, some gamers feel they’re not done with a game until they’ve completely polished off the achievement list, even if it means earning some of themost difficult gaming achievementsto do so. However, some games had a tangible reward for certain achievements back in the 1980s, as one fan demonstrated.
Reddit user whyforyoulookmeonso shared a photo of a letter and an achievement patch they received from Activision back in the day for their accomplishments in the gamePitfall. Back in the day, the player photographed their TV screen, showing that they had earned at least 20,000 points in the game, and sent it in to Activision. The company, which had only existed for 4 years at that point, responded with the letter congratulating the player on their achievement and encouraging them to keep working hard in its titles. The patch, which could be ironed or sewn on to clothing, noted the player as a member of the Activision Explorers' Club, giving them a literal badge of honor to show off.
As it turns out, some other gamers on the site also fondly remember these1980s nostalgic gamingpatches, and either earned or tried to earn their own. WhilePitfallwas a popular game, it wasn’t the only Activision title to get this treatment. In fact, there was a whole slew of releases from the game publisher that fans could earn achievements from, includingTennis,Space Shuttle, andChopper Command.Pitfall 2also had its own patch and achievement, tasking the player with earning 99,000 points to get a Cliff Hangers patch.
Gaming Awards Have (Mostly) Gone Digital
These days, gaming achievements are usually limited to a screen. Other than a record of points earned, there isn’t much to physically show for clearing a game 100%. However, in some rare cases, physical awards have made a comeback. A chance to be added to theXbox Hall of Fame, for example, came with an actual Xbox Series X for the winner. While the Activision patches are nostalgic, it’s unfortunately unlikely that any major game publisher will do something like that as a regular thing ever again.
