Video Evidence: 10 Games Worse Than E.T.

[tcv]

Joe at Digital Press created a series of videos showing games that are, in his estimation, worse than E.T. Here's his message from the forums:

 

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I know I have a face made for audio only, but there's a point I've been trying to make for awhile now and it simply required video evidence. Special thanks to Frankie ("Says_Relax") for recording and supplying some insight as we literally "winged it" one morning in the store.

 

Part I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzdqaJIeE0Q

 

Part II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR50m78IIJs

 

Part III

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwoUt-AGW3c

 

Two things post-production that I noticed that I probably would have changed or elaborated on. Games by Apollo, while "arriving late on the scene" were actually one of the first third-party companies to design games for the 2600. The words didn't really come out right there. Also, there will be much debate forever regarding the dumping of E.T. cartridges in New Mexico. My stance is the same as Howard Scott Warshaw, who in a discussion he led at my store last summer shared his viewpoint - which makes perfect sense.

 

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[liveinabin]

There are hundreds of games worse than ET. ET just couldn't live up to the name and the hype. Compared to most, it was a pretty good game, I thought.

[Nukey Shay]

The middle statement is wrong. The game could live up to both at the time...and it sold in record numbers. It's only after the console market crash that it earned the title as "the worst game of all time" for "having caused the crash". The second part is unquestionably incorrect, so the first part has no basis in fact.

[Christophero Sly]

I say the same thing every time this topic arises--E.T. is not the worst video game ever made. It's not even the worst 2600 game. It also didn't cause a "great video game crash", and 5 million copies weren't buried in New Mexico. I agree with you on all those points.

 

However, once you dispel all these myths about E.T., what remains is still one of the least fun video games I've ever played. It's tedious and beyond boring. I believe if you showed a video of yourself actually playing E.T. from start to finish, those qualities would be plainly evident.

 

BTW, if you're going to rip a game like Star Fox, at least take it off the practice level.

[Sayton]

I don't care how long he's been "gaming" or how many thousands of games he has...it's hard to watch a video of someone trying to talk about games better than E.T. when he can't even play it right. And when he said "this guy will take you to this screen" was he talking about the FBI Agent, cause it seriously looked like the FBI Agent?

 

I dunno, I'm just so sick of these types of things now. I've proven time and again with my videos E.T. is VERY playable (just like RT has) yet people still whine it's "unplayable". Oh well. Life doesn't revolve around E.T. on the Atari 2600.

[8th lutz]

I do agree with the fact there are worse than E.T. released on the 7800.

 

Football is actually a fun 2 player game. I played it against my younger brother back in the late 1980's and early 1990's on my Atari 2600 Jr. or the Atari 7800.

 

The game is lacking in some ways. It caused by the fact It was released around the time I was born. Sports games on the 2600 didn't have a lot of depth at the time. Home Run is a prime example of that.

 

It was caused by the following reasons:

 

1.) 2600 was the first game console for most of the programmers and the designers didn't know what the system could do.

 

2.) I think the first games on the 2600 were 2k in memory. 2600 were 4k in Memory by the release of Adventure.

 

3.) Programmers thought the 2600 couldn't do games with a lot of depth back in 1978.

[Vic George 2K3]

It still wouldn't be enough for me to want to play E.T. again, even at its easiest level.

[bohoki]

its not that et is so bad it that a great movie was reduced to a travisty of a game

 

 

like say if that same game was alf running around and he has to find willy it woldnt have been that bad since it was just a lousy tv show into a lousy game

 

 

ha just watched them and he makes my point in episode 3

Edited November 2, 2008 by bohoki

[Atarifever]

its not that et is so bad it that a great movie was reduced to a travisty of a game

But it isn't a travesty of a game. It was a pretty decent adventure game that stuck, the best it could, given the system, to the ideas in the movie. A much, much worse movie game for the 2600 is Gremlins. On the overall 2600 games list, E.T. has to be over a hundred places away from Gremlins, and Gremlins isn't even the worst movie game on the system.

[tcv]

I'm sorry. I liked it.

[shadow460]

one thing I do not agree with Joe on was when he indicated that Quaker Oats, Parker Brothers, and Avalon Hill had no prior experience with games and no business making them. I suppose he either misspoke there about Parker Bros and Avalon Hill or he was thinking only of Death Star Battle and Strawberry Shortcake! I don't even think Quaker deserved that bad of a rap. Word Zapper (I know it's edutainment, but if you want a challenge, take it off the easy level!!), Commando Raid, and Entombed are all solid titles in their own right. I even liked the two Avalon Hill games I've played, London Blitz and Death Trap. They are quite different from the norm, IMO.

Now he says that RealSports Football (Soccer in the US) is bad. This is very true.

 

One thing I will give to ET, though, is the frustration factor. I don't find it frustrating at all, really, but there are many more modern games that are quite good until you realize they are difficult as, well... I actually pick on games like Goldeneye because the missions are so blasted difficult on the 00 Agent level. I gave Crisis Core a 2 out of 10 on GameFAQs because of the extreme difficulty. I know they're not 2600 games, but if you're gonna say a game's too difficult, it better be difficult!

 

I didn't think Racquetball was terrible at all. I got the hang of it and I'm able to win after a couple of games. ET is a better game, yes, but neither one is abhorrent at all. Sssnake, on the other hand, is!

 

Now he's ripping on Stargunner...whoo...yeah, that bad guy is a terrible shot! Cool game, though.

 

I loved the explanation given in the manual for Star Fox as to why you can't move left and right while near the ground. It's something to do with "radar interference" or some garbage...why didn't they just tell us the program sucked!?

 

I've never played Sea hunt or X Man, so I'm probably not missing much. I got Stellar Track for the first time in 2005 and I realized I hadn't missed much on that one for the last 20 years, either!

 

As for EarthWorld, I really don't have much to say. It's pretty much a non-game, as it WaterWorld. Fireworld, on the other hand, gets a -1 review from me due to (you guessed it) the extreme difficulty. If you've finished FireWorld, my hat is off to you. I'll even put a second hat on underneath the first, and the second hat is also off to Michael.

Edited November 2, 2008 by shadow460

[AtariLeaf]

ET is a high profile property. Like Pacman, everyone heard of ET and played it back in the day. Thats why it gets so much press as "the worst game ever" on the 2600 but I think as collectors we know that there are dozens and dozens of far worse games out there than ET.

 

Its an interesting video for those who aren't Atari collectors and who don't know many of the horrid games in the 2600 library but for those who frequent this forum, its pretty much old news.

[sandmountainslim]

Multitudes of games worse than ET.........among them is.........Desert Falcon and YARS REVENGE

Wp

[Foxsolo2000]

Multitudes of games worse than ET.........among them is.........Desert Falcon and YARS REVENGE

Wp

 

Yars Revenge??? You are kidding right?

[sandmountainslim]

Multitudes of games worse than ET.........among them is.........Desert Falcon and YARS REVENGE

Wp

 

Yars Revenge??? You are kidding right?

 

 

Nay, not a joke

 

HSW is a great programmer and did a fine job with ET and A-Team but Yars Revenge is mind numbingly boring and always has been.

Wp

[Inky]

Nay, not a joke

 

HSW is a great programmer and did a fine job with ET and A-Team but Yars Revenge is mind numbingly boring and always has been.

Wp

 

*slaps slim with a glove*

 

10 paces, turn and fire!

 

 

 

 

Yar's is a GREAT game.

[Mirage]

Nay, not a joke

 

HSW is a great programmer and did a fine job with ET and A-Team but Yars Revenge is mind numbingly boring and always has been.

Wp

 

My guess is that you'd be in the minority opinion there, but to each their own.

 

I think Yars' Revenge is one of the better Atari-programmed games and I had more fun with it as a kid than most any other 2600 game.

[2600Lives]

Slim's just trying to raise some blood pressure, like he tends to do. Next he'll be defending Uwe Boll as the greatest movie director of all time, and you guys will fall into his trap like you ALWAYS do. Lol.

 

E.T. is ass, plain and simple. It's NOT fun, and the only challenge comes from the horrid controls concerning the damn pits. I will agree that HSW did a magnificent job given the time he had to complete it, and if he had been given, say, another two months to program it, I'm sure it would be a million times better, but as it stands, it is ONE of the worst games ever made. The worst? No, not by a long shot, but it's on the list, for sure. I really don't understand why people try to defend this game so much.

 

And Stargunner is a fun game. Not the greatest by any means, but a fun time-waster. Much more so than E.T. Hell, by the logic used behind this video, Surround would be a bad game because it looks worse than E.T., but if you get two players going at it on Surround, it's fun as hell.

[Mirage]

Slim's just trying to raise some blood pressure, like he tends to do. Next he'll be defending Uwe Boll as the greatest movie director of all time, and you guys will fall into his trap like you ALWAYS do. Lol.

 

E.T. is ass, plain and simple. It's NOT fun, and the only challenge comes from the horrid controls concerning the damn pits. I will agree that HSW did a magnificent job given the time he had to complete it, and if he had been given, say, another two months to program it, I'm sure it would be a million times better, but as it stands, it is ONE of the worst games ever made. The worst? No, not by a long shot, but it's on the list, for sure. I really don't understand why people try to defend this game so much.

 

And Stargunner is a fun game. Not the greatest by any means, but a fun time-waster. Much more so than E.T. Hell, by the logic used behind this video, Surround would be a bad game because it looks worse than E.T., but if you get two players going at it on Surround, it's fun as hell.

 

I don't know, I had an awful lot of fun with E.T. when I was about 10 years old... thought it was the greatest thing. Now, not so much, but I can still get that warm mushy feeling for a few minutes by putting it in. I certainly don't think it's "ass, plain and simple". I think you're going to give a couple defenders here heart attacks (or at least conniption fits) by talking like that! Uh oh... I hear them coming now!

[AtariLeaf]

I almost had a fit when I mis-read and thought he listed Solar Fox as one of the games worse than ET, not Star Fox. Man, I love Solar Fox, that game is crazy challenging and fun.

[2600FunTimes]

In my opinion, any game can be easily "playable" if you put enough effort into it... as I saw before in this topic, some of these games simply fail to live up to the proper hype of what they're expected to be.. ..not to mention they have to then compete with the hype of other popular games.

 

either way, more gamers these days, modern or classic are expecting everything to be perfectly written down ahead of time so they don't have to think about the challenge as much... thats when the "unplayable" games are born, when somebody simply chooses whether or not they wish to play or not play a game.

 

to me "unplayable" means that the screen freezes in the middle of a game because of a major programming error, at no fault of the hardware condition.

 

EDIT: I can't stand the 7800 port of Karateka [like most people], but I'm not going to claim that it's completely unplayable.. I try it again rarely, and each time I move a little further than I did in previous months before [lol].

Edited November 2, 2008 by 2600FunTimes

[Rik]

The problem with movie games is that folks expect the game to mirror the same excitement and in E.T'S case,emotion also,as the movie did,which is silly and absurd.If one takes time to learn how to play correctly,and not give up on the game after 3 minutes of falling in the pits,might actually enjoy it.Funny how games like PAC-MAN and E.T. were considered 2 of the worst games for the 2600,but sold phenomenally well,both of which were Atari's biggest sellers,crap or not.Dollar amount in sales was the measuring stick of how successful a game was,so in that regard E.T. was far from a flop.Atari might have made some stupid mistakes,but they marketed their games extremely well IMO,I'll give Atari that much,since games considered crap by the consumer,still sold like hot cakes.

[cougar302b]

I agree completely with TCV that there are 2600 games worse than E.T. , but I would have added a few more. Here are just a few that come to mind....... Karate by Froggo (UNPLAYABLE !!!!), Defender (sucks pretty bad), and one of my least favorites Pac-Man.

[Rik]

LOL,Froggo Karate.That game makes me laugh,the 2 fighters look more like they're disco dancing,than fighting

[+Random Terrain]

I really don't understand why people try to defend this game so much.

Even if you don't agree, there's plenty of info available online for you to at least understand why:

 

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

 

http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-me...preciation.html