my understanding is that several acres of (mixed quality) internet real estate has already been taken up with words on the subject of the (in)famous Atari cartridge game based on the motion picture ET The Extra-Terrestrial. indeed, it is also so that at least 1 (one) documentary has been produced on this very subject, look you see. the one thing what all such instances tend to have in common is labelling the game the "worst ever", and concluding that it is the game which "destroyed" Atari.
far be it from me to add too much more on this subject. also, i am very much each to their own, what someone considers to be the "worst" of anything probably is from their perspective. having had a go at the game, well, i have a slightly different take on it.
to the facts, then, or "facts". in and around 1982 it was so that video games - arcade machines and at home the Atari system - were big money. also, ET was on its way to being, for quite some time, the biggest money making, most popular motion picture of all time. i would argue that 40 (!!) years on it remains an undiminished masterpiece. so, adding that all together, a home video game based on ET was one big, large and hefty demographic of a potential market. what could go wrong?
lots of things, as it happens. whereas no, i don't think the game is all "that" bad, it really, really wasn't a masterpiece of a game, generally attributed to the "rush job" done to get it out as fast as possible. other factors were very much in play, mind. arcade games got better and better in terms of the quality of sound and visuals on (in) them, the Atari at home was limited to the constraints of 4kb of space for a game in a cartridge that the console would be capable of playing. computers, such as the Commodore 64, were coming in to the market, offering vastly superior gaming experiences.
generally the view (or consensus) is that Atari blew all of their money on the ET game being a success, and then it "failed" and so the company went, effectively, bust. whilst the game sold around a million copies, the expectations or requirements were for it to sell a lot more, even expanding how many people bought consoles just to get this game. not a bad gamble, considering that this was effectively the only legal way to have some ET visual entertainment at home, what with Spielberg infamously blocking efforts to release it on home video or let TV broadcast it.
yes, as per the one documentary dedicated to it and several others where referenced, it is true that Atari dumped many, many copies of ET in a landfill in New Mexico. but, also, lots of other cartridges and accessories. the official stance was that they "cleared out warehouses". a much more entertaining and funnier story is, of course, that Atari buried just loads and loads of ET games.
what, exactly, then, is so bad about this ET game? the above picture, and one below, pretty much shows you. it's them four (4) diamond shape things, look you. they are holes in the ground, and once you fall in one you have to use ET's special levitation power to hover back out. usually getting out of a hole is followed immediately by you falling right back in to it, and then needing to levitate (or fly) out of it. which is then repeated again and again, until you get really lucky and somehow land on a pixel that lets you stay above ground.
on a superficial level, one might suggest (or say) that surely, then, one playing the game needs to use rather deft joystick skills and simply avoid the holes. alas, no. in order to complete the game, one has to go into specific holes to collect parts of the telephone thing what ET, in game and film, uses to phone home. which does, pretty much, get frustrating and tedious, although maybe not so fast or quick as you might think.
up to now know, i haven't finished the game. in some instances i have managed to get one or two bits of the phone thing. also i've managed to get some of them sweets, or "candy" and feed it to that kid what was in the film, Elliott or whatever. either i lack the patience to persevere and continue with it to a conclusion, or yeah, it's just too frustrating and tedious to do.
i would not go so far, as i have made fairly clear, to say this is a great, or even good, game. but also no, the game is not quite so bad as reputation, myth or legend would have it. applying the standards of other Atari games, this one at least offered different from the usual to do.
should i recall it right, the decision to purchase an Atari game cartridge was one made along the lines of a financial commitment akin to buying a car, or a new house. if in 1982 you'd gone no, let me remain homeless, i shall use the money for the ET game instead, then it's very likely you would be a trifle miffed with how that worked out. but still, not the worst game i've ever played.
just what, exactly, was the worst game what i ever played? likely something on the ZX Spectrum, but also there were a few poor Commodore 64 ones. and quite a few other band Atari ones. maybe that shall be a subject for a post on another day.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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