Atari's E.T. doesn't suck.

Hey folks!

I produced this video about Atari's 'E.T.', a game regarded as the worst ever made. However I don't believe this is true anymore. After playing it for the first time I believe that this game has been served an injustice. I wanted to see if everyone on Gamespot agreed with me or if they think I'm nuts.

So have you played the game? If so, what did you think?

It is the worst game I have ever played.

@PurpleMan5000: I honestly just don't find it that bad. I have played many bad games, this just isn't one of them.

It's not as bad as people say it is. The reputation of "worst game of all time" is entirely due to the (soon to be debunked) rumor concerning the unsold copies buried in the desert. People who say it's the worst game of all time haven't played Pacman on Atari 2600 or Action 52.

I played Pacman on the Atari 2600. It was better than ET.

@PurpleMan5000: What is it that you find to be so bad in E.T.?

E.T. was pretty bad. I never had the manual when i played it, so that may have helped, but I've never played a game where I had no idea what was going on.

Game starts, ET is on the screen with some bushes. Or are they pits? Or maybe water? Ok, let me touch one. Ah...it's a pit. Let me "hover-neck" up and out of here. Ok, let me go to the next screen. Hmm... more pits. Next screen, more pits. And more pits. Sometimes a guy in a trench coat and hat takes me away. Sometimes I find an item in a pit. How many do I need? Is there any logic to these pits/items?

Screw it, I'm playing Pitfall!

What was wrong with Pacman? Sure it didn't have the bouncing fruit and the graphics were limited by the 2600, but it was a solid game. Hell my dad even liked playing it back in the day.

I had absolutely no idea what the objective of the game was or what I was supposed to be doing. AFAIK, you just run around and fall into pits and then float back out of them.

The ghosts flickered on and off so much it was almost impossible to know exactly where they were and pacman got stuck into corners.

You still knew that you were supposed to avoid the ghosts while eating all the dots, though, and that the big dots let you eat ghosts, too.

Yeah but good luck avoiding them when you don't know where they are because they flickered all over the place.. Plus, the E.T. manual explained how to play. People threw it away along with the box though, so no wonder they didn't get it. That's not to say it wasn't cryptic shit though, it was made by the guy who programmed Raiders of the Lost Ark after all.

This is true. As for E.T. being the worst game ever made I'm sure Big Rigs would give it some strong competition.

Honestly though they should probably make the game available for download for a couple of bucks, advertise it as the worst game ever made, and put some funny achievements/trophies in there. It'd probably sell kind of well just for shits and giggles alone.

I've played a lot of games equally crappy as ET

Like a lot of kids, I requested the game from my parents after I watched the movie. The only good thing about the game was the title screen. ET would have to radically improve to work its way up to crap and I honestly envy those who could enjoy such an experience.

Having to use the manual to understand what the hell is going on in a game wasn't that uncommon in the 2600 days. Raiders was the other game I was going to reference as well, because without the manual that game made absolutely no sense whatsoever since it's not like Atari 2600 graphics could really convey the level of complexity in that game. Even though I liked Raiders once I sat down and actually read the manual to understand what was going on, it was more than a little obtuse for most people.

ET is a pretty bad game. While Raiders followed a similar overall gameplay formula, the actions you took in it were more interesting. Fighting animals, assembling the staff of Ra and using it to find the Well of Souls, etc were all way more fun than walking around falling into pits like in ET. The reason ET got such a bad rep is because it was the hottest license at the time so the expectations were very high.

ET the game was to the to the ET license what the Super Mario Brothers movie was to that license. An incomprehensible mess that bore little to no resemblance to the source material.

-Byshop

Agreed on all counts, but "worst game of all time"? Come on.

Caddicarus actually brings a few good points on it in this video, like the fact the game was made in 8 weeks by one guy with the production company pressuring him. Considering all that, the result could have been much worse. Atari games with any sort of goal other than just scoring points were almost always obscure and, as you put it, obtuse. The two real problems ET has are the holes that clearly were't fixed due to time constraints and the fact it's way too punishing, negating all your progress in a sometimes completely arbitrary manner.

doesn't look much worse than any other arcade games from that era. atleast it's not broken like the good 'ol Big Rigs.

nicely done videos, btw.

@groowagon: It's honestly not that bad, especially if you know what to do.

And Thanks!

That's my point. It's a bad game, but the perception of it is that it's much worse than it actually is because the hype surrounding it was so high both on the part of the fans and Atari. Stack on that the fact that its commercial failure largely contributed to the death of Atari and it's not just another bad game, it's a bad game that has a cemented place in video game history.

-Byshop

Why do people keep posting their youtube shit here.

And ET wasn´t just a bad game it was the worst game ever created and even trying to say otherwise is like saying the moon is green and made of cheese.

Yeah, the shameless self-promotion is annoying but at least he asked a question so as to prompt a discussion (although I refuse to click his link).

As for ET being the worst game ever made, counterpoint: Custer's Revenge.

-Byshop

Game set and almost match

ET is still just a hair in front of that game

Yep, he did put down a question but still this is just bad,

@Jacanuk@Byshop

My intention wasn't to spam my videos. I produce three a week and I would never consider it appropriate to post them all on this forum.

What I was interested in was starting a conversation. I want to challenge the notion of E.T. being a bad game. That video I produced isn't a 'Let's Play' or some kind of random rant. I tried to make a thoughtful attempt at documenting my impressions of a game I really don't find bad. While doing so in this series, I give four positive points to a game others wouldn't even consider playing.

As you can probably tell, my writing abilities are kind of sloppy. It's easier for me to convey my thoughts in videos. I won't ask you to watch, but if you don't I really hope you consider looking at E.T. from another perspective.

Also, the moon is green and the cheeses tastes like havarti.

Since this went unnoticed, and it has generated a discussion, and the OP is an actual human being capable of doing more than just posting his video and leaving, I'll allow this to stand. However, please be aware that we do not typically allow for these kinds of threads. So while this will be allowed to stand. any future posts like it will be locked.

@Randolph: Thanks for allowing this post to stay, but I will adhere to the rules and not post any of my videos in the future.

@getyeryayasout: For it's history and it's short time being produced it's actually pretty impressive, all things considered.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/04/26/the-dig-uncovering-the-atari-et-games-buried-in-new-mexico-desert?utm_campaign=fbposts&utm_source=facebook

Sorry, man. Looks like it was true.

-Byshop

On one hand it's awesome, on the other I wish the mystery had remained such. Oh well, two movies coming out this year about this, it's gonna be fun.

Very cool that they found some E.T. 2600 cartridges buried out there. Looking forward to watching the upcoming documentary.

@Archangel3371:

IGN has posted some pictures of their findings on their Instagram account. If they haven't already, they will most likely post a video about it.

Ever play Raiders of the Lost Ark?