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[maxcriden]

I thought these were pretty interesting pieces. Any GAFers out there played this mythically bad game? How was it?

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico environmental regulators are blocking two companies from digging up an Alamogordo landfill in search of a rumored cache of what some consider the worst Atari video game of all time.

Game cartridges for "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," based on Steven Spielberg's blockbuster hit film, were reportedly dumped in the landfill in the 1980s, according to the Alamogordo Daily News (http://bit.ly/1kLNXjD ).

New Mexico Environment Department spokesman Jim Winchester said Wednesday an approved waste excavation plan, or WEP, is needed before any dig can begin.

Fuel Entertainment and LightBox Interactive recently announced plans to search the landfill for the game that proved a financial drain for Atari. The companies plan to record the dig for a documentary to be released by Microsoft Corp. for the Xbox One console. Filmmakers have even offered fans the chance to enter a giveaway of anything that might be unearthed.

The end result was a huge commercial dud that caused the troubled company's worth to sink even further.

Atari purportedly disposed of millions of game cartridges and other equipment by the truckload at the landfill. The area's supposed role as a gaming burial ground has snowballed into mythic status over the years.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=291982653

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
"E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial" is a beloved and popular Steven Spielberg movie from 1982. Less known is that E.T. was also a video game.

CORNISH: A lousy game. In fact, it's regarded as one of the worst ever made. It has a few problems.

ZAK PENN: Well, our goal is to document the excavation of this game to kind of find the truth behind the story.

CORNISH: That's director Zak Penn. The studio backing him has been trying to get the state of New Mexico to let them dig the E.T. games up. Negotiations are underway and it's been a tug-of-war. At last check, the state's Department of Environment rejected the request to exhume the landfill - too many risks and hazards.

PENN: Last week, the kind of normal back and forth somehow got reported as we're not making the movie anymore. We keep joking, it's like the games don't want to be dug up.

SIEGEL: So the filmmakers will revise their proposal to solve the mystery of what happened to E.T., the worst video game ever. But for now, it remains shrouded in red tape and tons of garbage.

http://www.npr.org/2014/03/25/294385139/rip-et-the-legend-of-the-long-buried-video-game

More here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial_(video_game)

 

[PoweredBySoy]

I played it, but was too young too remember any of the bullshit that surrounded it. I probably thought it was still cool.

 

[DeviantBoi]

Played it and finished it a bunch of times.

 

[maxcriden]

Played it and finished it a bunch of times.

How was it?

 

[wuxian fengguang]

Man, that would've been awesome. They should keep pushing for a permit, I want to see one of gaming's oldest urban legends being revealed.

 

[plank]

More people need to watch NPR news. The topics they do seems on point very thorough, mostly fact based and not opinionated.

 

[Boogdud]

Played it and finished it a bunch of times.

Same, it was a bad game surely (mostly just so repetitive). But there were a LOT of bad games at the time. ET just came with a giant marketing campaign and high hopes based on the license.

It was no Demon Attack, that's for damn sure.

 

[cacildo]

I played it, but was too young too remember any of the bullshit that surrounded it. I probably thought it was still cool.

Back in the day i thought it was great. The ET face on the start screen was great, and falling into pits all the time didnt feel as terrible as it sound today

But then again, i also had to me the Ghostbusters game, spectrum version, was the best game ever made (but the GHOST BUSTEEERS AHAHAH! scream was scary)

Still have the game and manual

 

[Discomurf]

As a kid I remember playing it and never considered this the 'Worst Game Ever' -- was it great? , no - but there were absolutely much worse games on the Atari VCS. In fact the entire game was developed in about 3-4 months, so taking that into consideration it really wasn't that bad.

 

[rogue74]

I played it as well.

I think objectively you could call it a "bad" game. The problem is that as has already been mentioned is that the vast majority of games of the era were pretty terrible.

I do remember it being more ambitious than the typical 2600 game of the era. Given the tech at the time any game more complex than Space Invaders or Pac Man tended to suffer.

At least I was able to beat the game. Another big movie license of the time, Raiders of the Lost Ark, was also made into a 2600 video game. That thing was so cryptic I didn't get anywhere near beating it. I actually found it more frustrating, even though it doesn't get the same hate.

 

[MaximoffZero]

I never played it, but when I was young I had friends who had. Whenever they would talk about it, they would usually do so mockingly.

 

[Haunted]

Looks like the Angry Videogame Nerd needs to hurry up with his movie or the plot will be totally outdated.

 

[maxcriden]

More people need to watch NPR news. The topics they do seems on point very thorough, mostly fact based and not opinionated.

They're great. (They are a radio show, BTW.)

 

[spyroflame0487]

I was born in the ET. Molded by it. I didn't play on a Gameboy until I was already a young man.

Its pretty....I dunno. Its something. Its just really annoying to play.

 

[Boogdud]

At least I was able to beat the game. Another big movie license of the time, Raiders of the Lost Ark, was also made into a 2600 video game. That thing was so cryptic I didn't get anywhere near beating it. I actually found it more frustrating, even though it doesn't get the same hate.

This. That game was really really bad. My cousins and I decided we were going to "beat" it, which honestly wasn't really much of a thing in those days. You didn't really "beat" many atari games, they just went on forever. But anyway, we spent an entire day trying to beat it (we were around 8-10 at the time). I'm not even sure if we did. It literally just threw you in these levels with all kinds of nonsensical stuff and no sense of direction or purpose.

I do remember that's where I learned what a titisee fly was...

 

[EvilKatarn]

So what you're all saying is that E.T. is a misunderstood classic?

 

[rogue74]

So what you're all saying is that E.T. is a misunderstood classic?

Not at all. I do think it's reputation as a terrible game has been partly built by it being a scapegoat for the video game crash. Still, I'm not going to argue it was a good game.

According to Wikipedia, the game initially sold very well to the tune of 1.5 million units. It was actually one of the best selling 2600 titles. However, there were 2.5 to 3.5 million unsold. That's due to a bad business decision more than a bad game. Sounds to me like someone greatly overestimated how much this would sell just because of the license.

 

[REMEMBER CITADEL]

My neighbour had it, but we couldn't figure it out.

 

[plank]

They're great. (They are a radio show, BTW.)

Yeah I know I screwed up there, and I listed tho them all the time too.

 

[maxcriden]

Yeah I know I screwed up there, and I listed tho them all the time too.

Just making sure you were a true fan!

 

[DeviantBoi]

How was it?

It was okay. It was a bitch to find the landing site. I usually just went nuts with ET (make him move really fast) in the forest area and kept an eye on the top of the screen until I saw the correct icon. I did that first so that I could make it back in time once the countdown began.

I was too young to know any better.

I also finished Raiders of the Lost Ark a couple of times. That took me a long time to figure out.

 

[Harlock]

The legend never ends.

 

[PJFJosh]

It's bad but not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. I used to play it for hours, beating it and playing again since it randomized the placement of items.

It was challenging (perhaps unnecessarily because of poor programming) but that's why I kept playing it.

I still appreciate it for what it is and have played it again recently. Exactly as I remembered it.

 

[deim0s]

I played it too, dad bought it with the E.T. craze back then. It is frustrating for me at the time - so i just played COMBAT or Berzerk instead.

Even my older brother can't get out of the pits and eventually did the right thing - to the trash can.



AND... someone fixed it: http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/

 

[jaypah]

I own too many copies of this game. If you buy a box of 40 Atari cartridges at least 5 of them will be E.T. Anyway, the game sucks. It sucked then and it super sucks now. But I agree with the poster who said a lot of games sucked that came out around E.T., this one just has so much legend surrounding it. Props to Howard Scott for making the game so quickly though, that's pretty impressive.

 

[bug_42]

Played it and finished it a bunch of times.

Same here. It took me forever to figure what I was suppose to do. Once I did I found it to be boring, and to easy. (if memory serves me correctly)

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Pfft. Hardly the worst game ever made. Anyone making that claim with a straight face cannot even know the true horrors of playing terrible games in the 8-bit computer and console days.

 

[blackflag]

Terrible game but there were so many terrible games back then. This one just stood out from the pack because of the license.