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Topic: E.T. (Atari) : is it really THAT bad?

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HappyHappyist

so everyone keeps talking about how E.T. on the Atari 2600 is such an awful game. so awful in fact, that it caused the market to crash. i wasn't around for the early day of gaming, so i've never played the game. i did a quick youtube search, and honestly... it doesn't look that bad. it looks like an innocent game given a bad label. am i missing anything? i feel like just because the AGVN hates it, a lot of other people feel like they have to, which doesn't need to be the case. seriously, am i missing anything? how could such an innocent looking game cause a crash?

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Blue blue.

MAB

It's also the main reason why hamburgers are bad for your health

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MAB

HappyHappyist

honestly, with a little cleaning up and extra tuning, i don't think its rep would be that bad. it looks like a decent and fun little distraction.

i am part of a social group interested in uniting the world by painting it blue.
Blue blue.

2Sang

You'd have about the same amount of fun as sitting in a corner looking at the wall. It's not painful to play, but it's definitely frustrating and not fun.

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CureDolly

I guess ET was really the most outstanding example of the overconfidence that the videogame boom would last forever and the poor quality games flooding the market. It probably wasn't the worst game, but the most high-profile bad game that became a symbol of the whole phenomenon.

(I haven't played it and I don't know a lot about that era, so I'm just guessing)

Edited on by CureDolly

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I ask you this: have any of you actually played the game? I was curious about it, so I actually made the effort to play it - and it is the only game I've ever regretted playing - so yes, it is as bad as it is said.

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the_shpydar

No it's not that bad. It's bad. But not even close to the worst game ever.
And it was only an example of why the industry crashed, just a part of a bigger problem involving an over-saturation of games — many of which were mediocre at best — combined with bad business decisions that led to big financial losses.
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LzWinky

Didn't they print more copies than there were consoles sold?

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sugarpixel

@DarkwingLz: Yes they did. Apparently they thought it would move several millions systems... which it didn't...

And, let me put it this way: I'd rather play any Atari 2600 game other than this one.

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MeWario

Wow I didn't know that they produced more copies of E.T then there were consoles! Hahaha that's crazy!

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8BitSamurai

It is a horrible experience that nobody should really feel the need to experience, but it's not the worst game ever. You could definitely do worse (See: Superman 64, and Deadly Towers), for better or for worse. As for crashing the game industry, it sure didn't help, but it definitely wasn't the sole cause of it or anything to that degree.

And, yes, I have played all the games I mentioned above (E.T. included).

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BadKitty

the_shpydar wrote:

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micronean

Atariboy wrote:

Go give something like Karate, a 1983 release from a publisher named Ultravision, a try.

It was junk like that from fly by night operators that nobody ever heard of cashing in on the videogame craze that significantly harmed the industry. It wasn't a game like E.T. that was nowhere close to being as bad as some of this 3rd party junk that appeared as a consequence to the platform being open and unable to be policed by Atari.

E.T was total crap! I remember just wandering around as E.T., going from screen to screen, doing nothing! It was basically E.T moving around a green screen with large black spots, which represented holes. After about 5 minutes of walking around, sometimes I got a glance of Elliot (who looked more like Ernie from Sesame Street) and I tried to chase after him, but disappeared out of screen.

And that was basically the whole game, for me. It really sucked! A total waste of time! I'm glad I only borrowed the game. I would have been really upset if I had paid full price for it.
Now, there has been all other kinds of crap games--especially on Atari, because the graphics looked so simplistic rectangular, even your imagination had nothing to work with sometimes--but E.T. stands out because it was such a high-profile title. This was E.T: the biggest movie of the year, and a pop-culture/merchandizing icon in its time. In today's terms, I don't even know how to equate a high-profile debacle like this to. There is nothing like it today. I guess it would be like SimCity, Battlefield 4--and windows 8--all happening at the exact same time...?

micronean

Late

Retroware TV has a show called The Video Game Years. They covered E.T. in their latest episode and actually had the man behind the game in the show (Howard Scott Warshaw). He tells about how he wanted to make something really different, have an actual story and a way to beat the game since the goal in most games was just getting the high-score. He also jokes how he actually made the best game and the worst game on Atari (Yar's Revenge was Atari's best selling original title while E.T. gets a lot of hate).

It's its, not it's.

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Mr_Nose

ET is not a bad game. It's actually more a victim of internet rumors. As mentioned, you cannot play ET without reading the instructions. When you actually know what you're doing, it's quite fun, and up there with some of the 2600s best.

Check these links...
http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-et.html

If you're clueless about playing ET, you must watch this...

Edited on by Mr_Nose

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