If ET was redone...

[Master Phruby]

or 6 years old.

 

Not many 14 year old boys wanted to be ET for Halloween.

 

[Video]

Redone? Is anything (technically) wrong with it?

 

It's been years, but if I recall from my child hood, it was six screens, you ran around picking up phone bits and then got picked up by the ship. It takes two minutes top to beat (unless you go sperlunking (SP) ) It was a short, rather uninspired game really. And why do you have four screens of the same thing (holes?)

 

Over all, the game was simply to short, especially compared to other similar games of the time (though raiders and adventure are the only ones that come to mind) I never really liked the genera, but I still play the other two, heck, I don't tink I ever beat rotla....which is way different from the first day, no, first hour beating of ET as a kid.

 

At least the phone bits are randomized, but even if they limited it to just a six screen "world" they could have had more than just four screens of holes. If I made it, I would have broken the "town" up into the four screens and had the holes as only one screen.....but then, I would have had a piece of the phone IN one of the holes too, it would have been a much better game, closer to the movie (from the standpoint of where you spent time, town, town, town, hole, forrest)

 

Anyhow, the game is finished, it's not even close to the worst, but I won't ever consider it that good either, more the equivalent of a modern day $10 bargain bin game for the wii or something, probably perfectly good, but only one play through.

[Buyatari]

 

WoW

 

I wonder if it comes complete with a sign on the back that says "Kick me".

 

Can you imagine your mom making this for you to wear in the 6th-8th grade?

[Buyatari]

Redone? Is anything (technically) wrong with it?

 

It's been years, but if I recall from my child hood, it was six screens, you ran around picking up phone bits and then got picked up by the ship. It takes two minutes top to beat (unless you go sperlunking (SP) ) It was a short, rather uninspired game really. And why do you have four screens of the same thing (holes?)

 

Over all, the game was simply to short, especially compared to other similar games of the time (though raiders and adventure are the only ones that come to mind) I never really liked the genera, but I still play the other two, heck, I don't tink I ever beat rotla....which is way different from the first day, no, first hour beating of ET as a kid.

 

At least the phone bits are randomized, but even if they limited it to just a six screen "world" they could have had more than just four screens of holes. If I made it, I would have broken the "town" up into the four screens and had the holes as only one screen.....but then, I would have had a piece of the phone IN one of the holes too, it would have been a much better game, closer to the movie (from the standpoint of where you spent time, town, town, town, hole, forrest)

 

Anyhow, the game is finished, it's not even close to the worst, but I won't ever consider it that good either, more the equivalent of a modern day $10 bargain bin game for the wii or something, probably perfectly good, but only one play through.

 

As you said it isn't a good game but the game is not the worst ever. It is however, one of the biggest hyped video game failures of all time.

[Mr SQL]

Not sure if he covers it in here but anyone with this much knowledge about "behind the scenes" I tend to take their word for it

http://www.amazon.co...s/dp/0985597402

Crazy Climber,

that's an awesome book and I enjoyed the preview enough I've been planning to order it!

 

I'm similarly inclined and also tremendously inspired by Atari; now and way back then when adopting their strategies helped me launch a Software Company in 1984

 

But elucidating beyond "No" would only be more interesting since it's clear Retro Rogue indeed has access to a vast repository of Atari knowledge; sometimes developers have more fun putting on aires than sharing knowledge - one word responses are usually indicative of the latter (LOL Retro Rogue, last response I received from you was use the search function! )

[eegad]

I was always kind of confused about why this game got SUCH a bad rap.....I never thought it was all that bad. Not one of the best, but fairly good. The ONLY real issue I had with it was the frustration of falling into the pits over and over. Far too easy to fall into, and too difficult to exit from. Other than that, it was a pretty decent game.

[esplonky]

People who say ET is bad generally have never played it and are not really atari fans. They just see the old graphics/etc and say how horrible it looks compared to whatever they grew up with, be it the N64/SNES/etc. Most of these guys have never actually played it, only watched a video and the first reply is usually "oh man, that looks terrible" when infact for it's day it looks fantastic graphic-wise.

 

Gameplay wise it is by no means perfect. If they would have spent a little more time making the "pits" more playable/enjoyable the game would be fine but MANY games on MANY platforms have plenty of decent games that just have a problem like that and they are not dubbed the worst game ever made.

 

I recieved ET for Christmas the year it came out and loved it. Was also one of the first games I tracked down when I got back into Atari. I'm not going to say I've never bashed it a little (it's not perfect by any means) but people saying it's the worst game ever made and it caused the crash/etc have obviously not played very many atari games, there are plenty others that deserve that credit, lol

 

An honest grade of the game in my opinion would be a C- not great but not the worst, I can name quite a few F's, lol

 

It being bad wasn't the cause of the crash. It was the over production of the carts due to E.T. being popular, kids didn't really care for it, and Atari didn't sell enough cartridges.

 

Did the game cause the crash? Yes.

Was it because it was a terrible game? No.

 

It's terrible because of Atari, not Howard Scott Warshaw.

[keithbk]

I have been doing all these cartridge reviews on YouTube, and I am convinced that it is all the CRAP cartridges that were released in 1982 that led to the crash of 1983. Yes, ET was overproduced, as was Pac-Man, but there are SO MANY 1982 titles, and so many that are HORRIBLE or just not fun that the market could not handle all the new companies trying to jump on the Atari came cartridge bandwagon. There were plenty of good cartridges, but there is a thing called market saturation.

 

Bermuda Triangle

Dragonfire

Grand Prix

Cosmic Ark

Turmoil

Ms. Pac-Man

Nexar

Mega Force

Amidar

Picnic

Cosmic Creeps

Fast Food

Demons to Diamonds

River Raid

Donkey Kong

Frogs and Flies

Phoenix

BurgerTime

Atlantis

Gopher

Megamania

Vanguard

Wabbit

Towering Inferno

Pole Position

Gorf

Space Jockey

Trick Shot

Chopper Command

Fast Eddie

Berzerk

Venture

Astroblast

Piece o' Cake

Spider Fighter

Demon Attack

Centipede

Gangster Alley

Wizard of Wor

Beany Bopper

Carnival

Fire Fighter

Lost Luggage

Encounter at L-5

 

The list goes on, and that does not even include ANY of the sports games. That's just 1982. No wonder the game market crashed in 1983.

 

Please forgive any dating errors...it's possible I got a handful of the dates wrong, but I'm pretty sure they are mostly correct.

Edited June 8, 2013 by keithbk

[+Random Terrain]

Please forgive any dating errors...it's possible I got a handful of the dates wrong, but I'm pretty sure they are mostly correct.

 

Yep, just glancing at the list, Ms. Pac-Man jumped out at me immediately. It was released in 1983.

[keithbk]

The © on the cartridge is 1982, that's why I listed it as that date. Was 1982 the date of the arcade game for Ms. Pac-Man?

[Retro Rogue]

But elucidating beyond "No" would only be more interesting since it's clear Retro Rogue indeed has access to a vast repository of Atari knowledge; sometimes developers have more fun putting on aires than sharing knowledge - one word responses are usually indicative of the latter (LOL Retro Rogue, last response I received from you was use the search function! )

 

A one word answer was because it was a yes or no question. Regardless, I know because I know Howard well enough to know that's not true. But just in case that wasn't good enough, I also just asked him again outright:

 

Fishy?!?! Holy Mackerel! No, I was never related to anyone from Warner. I wouldn't have minded being an heir to any of the execs there, though. But that is totally baseless. There are a lot of rumors floating around lately. Thanks for checking in on this one.

Chat Conversation End

 

[+Random Terrain]

The © on the cartridge is 1982, that's why I listed it as that date. Was 1982 the date of the arcade game for Ms. Pac-Man?

 

The date on the box, cartridge, manual, and copyright screen can be different from the actual release date. For example, Atari 2600 Pac-Man was released in March/April of 1982, but the date on the box, cart, manual, and copyright screen say 1981.

 

The Ms. Pac-Man arcade game was kind of released in 1981 and early 1982, depending on what you consider to be the first official version of Ms. Pac-Man. The Ms. Pac-Man Atari 2600 cartridge was released within the first quarter of 1983. You couldn't buy it in 1982 if you wanted to. I would have begged for it until my eyes bled if it would have been available in December of 1982:

 

http://atariage.com/...3&currentPage=6

 

http://atariage.com/...ml?MagazineID=5

 

I was able to buy Ms. Pac-Man pretty close to its release date, so I have my memory to go on, not just catalogs and magazines. (I had a burning, drooling lust for Atari 2600 games back then.)

[keithbk]

Well, early 1983 would also have legitimate relevance regarding the increasing glut of games on the market.

 

Ms. Pac-Man, in particular, should have outsold the original Pac-Man 2-to-1 based solely on quality, but of course it vastly undersold the original Pac-Man game cartridge. Why? The glut on the market was in full-force.

[Buyatari]

I was always kind of confused about why this game got SUCH a bad rap.....I never thought it was all that bad. Not one of the best, but fairly good. The ONLY real issue I had with it was the frustration of falling into the pits over and over. Far too easy to fall into, and too difficult to exit from. Other than that, it was a pretty decent game.

 

Because the movie was a such fan favorite blockbuster hit.

Because the game was hyped to be great.

 

It had a great Christmas themed commercial that had people waiting on day one to pick this up.

 

The expectations were so very high and this game failed to meet the expectations of the public like no other game before it.

 

Without the hype and movie tie-in no one mentions this as the worst game ever on any list.

 

Put it this way. A pair of socks and some underwear isn't the worst gift you could ever receive but imagine it is your 13th birthday and your parents have hyped it up every day for the past 2 weeks. THEN it is the worst gift ever.

[_MHR_]

I have been always happy with E.T , bought it in 84 and never regreted it.

[Master Phruby]

I think we need E.T. Phone Home converted to the 5200. Where is Glenn the 5200 man?

[_MHR_]

Now that is a superb idea !

[zimmerfan]

I have been always happy with E.T , bought it in 84 and never regreted it.

YEAH man, nice.