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the E.T. hype


toptenmaterial

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There's more of that stuff rattling around in your head again. I wanted to see your playing style. I don't know how many times you fell in a well before you finished the round.

 

You want to critique my well-jumping style? What are you, the John Madden of E.T.? I don't recall offhand how many times I fell in a well. Hard to count when I'm half asleep.

 

Your previous posts were coming from a whiny, complaining guy who clearly knew little about the game, then you changed your story at the last second. Suddenly you know everything about the game and can beat it with your eyes closed.

 

What "story"? What's there to "know" about this game? It's not fucking chess. Weren't you asking questions about this game on a different thread, where I tried to help you understand the concept of writing randomized zones? I guess that's a mistake I won't make again.

 

Merry Christmas. Get fucked.

J.

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What "story"? What's there to "know" about this game? It's not fucking chess. Weren't you asking questions about this game on a different thread, where I tried to help you understand the concept of writing randomized zones? I guess that's a mistake I won't make again.

 

Merry Christmas. Get fucked.

J.

 

I thought mature people knew how to have little arguments? I'm not as mature as you are, but I can argue with anybody, then help them an hour later. The argument has nothing to do with the other stuff.

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Okay, jrok, that's enough. Time to take the fight elsewhere cause you're coming borderline troling here. :) Just agree to disagree and move on. Really, this is NOT the kind of thing to worked up on.

 

Thanks for chiming in with your two cents, Soulblazer. That was really helpful, and worth every penny.

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I can not believe anyone can think et made a crash.. Its urban legend that should be put to rest.. You think actual video game people who were around in those days would know better.. But then again sheeple like to follow modern "trends"

 

Lets talk about hardworks knight rider 2600 or someone create a team 2600..

 

Ok paragrah 1 sounds rude.. But misconceptions are a big deal to me...

Edited by Jinks
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Well, you go on youtube and look at comments on the E.T. videos and it's just ridiculous. The contrived hatred for the game is way worse than I ever realized. I'm sure that the vast majority of the commenters "E.T. SUCKS, WORSTTT GAEME EAVERRR!!!! LOLLLLLLLLLL" weren't even born when it was made. It's just a big E.T. hatred bandwagon.

 

It's so ridiculous because there's literally thousands of "worse" games than E.T., yet, E.T. (and to a lesser extent 2600 Pac Man) get the brunt of it. Ridiculous.

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So, how about that E.T.?

 

So, I would like to respond to jrok's point about falling in the pits being mandatory being like the point that one walks out of a movie theater. I wish he was still in here to respond because I was hoping to get cussed out, at some point. Anyway, from what I remember, the first time seeing those pits was a pleasant experience. The not knowing what to do to get out wasn't frustrating but added to the fun. I remember playing it with my brother. I would guess I was around 4 and he was around 8. Since I was born with a joystick in my hand in 81 it is hard to place the exact year but I'm pretty sure this memory was after the video game crash and before the NES. Maybe 85.

 

I remember my brother being completely stoked about the game. That's kind of weird since this memory was after everyone knew this was the worst game ever created. He was acting like how he eventually did with the NES. He always had Nintendo Power and guide books. He treated NES games like some puzzle that had to be solved and he was privileged to be in the secret club that had the necessary info. He was acting just like that with E.T. He was looking through some papers and describing the game. I assume those papers were the manual, tip sheet, and , knowing him, maybe even the guide book "How to Win at E.T. the Video Game". He gave me this impression that it was an exciting massively complex challenging game.

 

When he started it up the first thing I noticed was the bad ass title screen, the graphics of the characters being impressive, and the UFO. The second thing I noticed was the top down view of the game. It made the game appear huge to me. It had a similar feeling to looking down from the sky like the Civilization games make me feel now. Then the first fall in the pit happened. To use the Civilization analogy, it was like looking at this huge world and then realizing you can go underneath it. The only thing that could beat that would be if there were tunnels connecting the pits in a Super Mario Bros. fashion. It wasn't just that you could go under ground that was impressive but how fast E.T. falls. I was used to falls in video games being like falling on the moon or like a reverse E.T. levitation(Pitfall!) but it was like a real breaking your neck fall. That along with the falling sound and E.T.'s slower levitation made it seem real to me and deeper than the pit really is. I wasn't old enough to realize that the game was just changing screens from the ground to the pit. The presentation made me believe that at the top of the pit the ground was still up there. That was so awesome. Now it don't look like much but back then it was pretty damn impressive.

 

My brother could get out with no problem. I struggled with it but instead of frustration it was fun. It felt like a mini game within the game. The goal of the game is to get out of the pit. The height I can get him to is like my high score and getting out is like rolling the score. There was no crying to mom to take it back or throwing the controller. It was a challenge to get as good as my brother. Of course I didn't get as good as my brother because I was around 4 but it had a fun element to it like climbing a tree.

 

I think a big cause of people's frustration is that they are looking at the big picture of the goal of getting E.T. home but not looking farther than that by realizing that they can keep on taking him home to get a higher score. If you haven't mastered the pits then all the pits and getting E.T. home seems like a massive frustrating pit. If you do just well enough to get him home once it seems like that is just it and there is no higher goal of a high score. If you break it down into mini games or goals then it is less so. I think when someone first approaches E.T. they should just pretend the pits is the game. Maybe learn how to stop yourself before hitting the bottom, levitate out, fall back in, and keep doing it while counting how many times you can get out before dying. That number you can think of as a score. Once you max out the amount of times you can levitate out then you rolled the score and beat the pits mini game. From there maybe you could make a timed game out of how fast you can navigate the cube without falling in a pit. From there you could do like RT's video of him levitating out of every pit.

 

My point is if you treat it like modern games with their mini games, goals, and achievements then it should be less frustrating and there would be more game to it than just frustratingly barely getting E.T. home once. You could write up your own list of objectives that help you master each skill. Once you give yourself a golden star for every objective you can pat yourself on the back and go for the ultimate goal of rolling the score. If you think of it like that then there is a lot of game there. I think next time I bust out the VCS, I'll play E.T. and make myself an achievements list

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My favorite way to play E.T. is to keep collecting candy pieces and giving them to Elliott until I'm about to die on my last life. Then hit the count down and get to landing area with as little life points left. After E.T. goes home, Elliott circles his house and the heart pump counts up the candy pieces I gave Elliott. I treat the number of heart pumps as my final score.

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All this talk about what a let down PacMan and ET were...they were not the only let downs. I remember when I first got Asteroids I was HUGELY let down...the asteroids were colored blobs, the movement was basically verticle with a slight horizontal movement, the play itself...I think had that come out around the same time Pac Man came out, Asteroids would be blamed for the crash. Lots of games were let downs...I think ET and Pac Man were a victim of timing. I think the interest in the system was starting to wayne, it was getting obsolete as far as technology goes, and the computer was coming out, then Atari put out more carts than consoles sold. Some games played great like Centipede, Phoenix, etc...but quite a few were just not what we hoped for in home game releases.

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It's funny. "Back then" I certainly considered certain carts a let down, but now they are treasured and held with high regard on my shelf. In fact, I'd be lost without them in my collection. They bring back warm and fuzzy memories of yesteryear. When I got some of the ones I have now for Christmas, or could afford to buy one with my allowance. I stare at the box art of Asteroids and feel all comfy inside now, but back then, it was like, "What? This is supposed to be Asteroids from the arcade? WTF!!!!????" :D

Edited by wolfpaw1966
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Oh, I agree. I love Asteroids now and I remember bringing Missile Command home and complaining about that too. But now it is one of my favorite 2600 games, as I posted in another thread. In it's own way it is a great game for the system. I too have several that I was let down on but truly enjoy now.

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