Henry's House (1987) - Atari 8-bit in My Closet

I'm a person who technically experienced an Atari 2600 early on but who came of age on the NES. Platforming games in particular I first experienced on an NES, which is to say, on the preeminent 3rd generation console. But as someone who in latter years has become madly interested in the 2nd generation of gaming, acclimating to the platformers of that period and those systems has been a journey from amusement to fury (and back again). It's as if 2nd generation platformers almost unanimously followed a template that required a hair pulling combination of clunky mechanics, awkward strategy, and obnoxiously steep difficulty curves. Such is the case with 1984's Commodore 64 game Henry's House, which was ported in 1987 to the Atari 8-bit computer line. In the game, you control Henry, the son of a king, who has accidentally been shrunken down and trapped in a "clothes cupboard". You must navigate your way out while avoiding obstacles, collecting objects, and recovering keys that allow you to progress from stage to stage. The most maddening aspect of Henry's House is, as with many platformers on pre-NES hardware, the jumping mechanics. Nothing about it is comfortable or intuitive. The awkward spacing, timing, and landing strategy in the game is a slog to adjust to, and I'm on the fence how much longer I want to work at it. For now, here's my frustrating attempt to get further than the mere 2nd stage of the game. Enjoy? Game profile and manual: https://www.atarimania.com/games/atar...