Poll: Is ET as bad as people claim?

[mbd30]

...

Edited May 9, 2014 by mbd30

[Andromeda Stardust]

@RandomTerrain: 100 give or take a few points, whatever. ET's IQ was like a million and it didn't save him from falling in pits...

[bradhig]

How do you get Ninja ET. I can't get more then 15 recess pieces in a game.

[+Random Terrain]

How do you get Ninja ET. I can't get more then 15 recess pieces in a game.

 

It's really rare, but you can hack the game to get it if you don't want to wait weeks or months until it happens:

 

atariage.com/forums/topic/154142-is-there-a-way-to-get-more-than-31-pieces-of-candy-in-e-t/?p=1886857

[Nukey Shay]

You are collecting too much candy on the previous round(s) for the carry glitch to take effect.

[Buyatari]

It is not the worst game ever made. It is the worst 2600 game that everyone owned. Pacman is a close second.

[Andromeda Stardust]

How do you get Ninja ET. I can't get more then 15 recess pieces in a game.

Forget Ninja ET; that's not in the story. I want a complete reboot with flying bicycles, dang it!

[bohoki]

the game is not worthy of the movie if there was no et movie and this game was just stand alone it would just be another lackluster title along with coconuts and tax avoiders

[Andromeda Stardust]

the game is not worthy of the movie if there was no et movie and this game was just stand alone it would just be another lackluster title along with coconuts and tax avoiders

Is Coconuts really that bad. I have it, along with Jungle Hunt, Congo Bong, Pitfall, and several other "jungle" themed games. I really need to play all the games I have, LOL! Sometimes I go into retro shops; I'll buy a game based on the title alone; at two bucks a pop they're cheap enough.

 

Tax avoiders just screams lame by name alone. Right up there with Wall Street Kid NES.

[bradhig]

You forgot SSSnake it's just as bad as Coconuts and Tax Avoiders

[Gabriel]

Excuse me while I trot out my tired old E.T. story for the umpteenth time.

 

I think I had some birthday money. I decided I was going to use it to buy a video game, but I wasn't intending to get E.T. I wanted Swordquest: Earthworld. So I went down to K-Mart on my bike, bought the game, and then brought it home to spend the weekend playing.

 

In just a few minutes I realized I had bought a turd. Swordquest: Earthworld didn't just suck as an adventure game, it didn't even really meet the criteria to be a game. It was just a festering gob of suck. Barely minutes after I got it home to play, I was back on my bike riding back to K-Mart to return it and exchange it for a just about anything else.

 

I don't remember what was available. I sometimes think they had Berzerk and Phoenix, both games I wanted, but for whatever reason didn't exchange Swordquest: Earthworld for. I hated the E.T. movie, but for some reason that was the game which caught my eye. I selected E.T. as my replacement game.

 

And when I got it home, I was pretty happy. I found GV#1 too hard, but GV#3 was a good training mode for GV#2. I played E.T. quite a bit. It wasn't one of my favorite games, but it was a reliable game. It was entertaining. I liked it as least as much as any of my second stringers.

 

I never found E.T. complicated. Of course, I had the instruction booklet the game came with. I never considered that instruction booklet overly long. It wasn't like it was an Intellivision game with a fairly hefty (for a videogame) instruction book. E.T. was pretty simple for an adventure game. Nowadays I find it a lot more intuitive than Riddle of the Sphinx or Raiders of the Lost Ark, both similar games of the genre from the time.

 

I never had much problem with pits. There were certain circumstances where I could fall back in if I wasn't careful, but I ascribed learning how to avoid this fate as part of mastering the game.

 

I'm glad I had E.T. when I was younger, and I still play it from time to time today. It's a good game for when I want something different from the usual. Would I have been happier with Phoenix or Berzerk? Probably, but I have them all now, and I don't regret buying E.T. at all.

 

But Swordquest: Earthworld still pisses me off.

[Jinks]

Hell yeah! The swordquest series is definitely where the suck levels are at 11. And wow really guys... 47 freaking ET threads..riddle and raiders to me blow way harder. Et has Et on it!! Cool!! Like I said before I didnt care if its a game or a cereal its going to be grrreat!

[Unbeliever]

I played the Swordquest series...and yes, I agree how bad it was. My question is: How popular did the game become? Did Atarians play it due to the contest? And did someone win the contest?

[+Random Terrain]

And did someone win the contest?

Related Links:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/95804-the-sword-quest-trilogy-competition/?p=1163329

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/102667-agh-swordquest-interview-with-michael-rideout/

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/146539-swordquest/?p=1784212

 

http://atariage.com/forums/gallery/category/5-rare-and-unique-items/

[Unbeliever]

Ah, thank you!

[Andromeda Stardust]

Whatever happened to the four elaborate gold-plated medeval prize bounties for the four Swordquest games? IE The lost Atari grails?

[+Random Terrain]

Whatever happened to the four elaborate gold-plated medeval prize bounties for the four Swordquest games? IE The lost Atari grails?

If I am reading your post correctly, some info is in the links I posted two post up. Here's more info:

 

atariage.com/forums/topic/166192-swordquest-petition/?p=2598348

No, I'm calling it exactly what it is, a myth. There is no "he said she said," we talked to Manny and found out what happened to the prizes. They didn't go to Jack, it wasn't his to have. As with most deal's that Warner had their hand in (GCC/7800, the Amiga contract, etc.) those sorts of things stayed with Warner during the split. The prizes were done in partnership with the Fanklin Mint, another Warner subsidiary at the time. They were returned there when the contest was cancelled because of the split.

 

If someone saw a sword at Jack's house, then it was "a" sword, not "the" sword.

 

Just another one of the many myths we got to the bottom of when researching for the book, leaving no (philosopher's) stone unturned.

[Andromeda Stardust]

^^Thanks for the info. I own the Atari Book, but it's been a little over a year since I read it. 700+ pages is a lot to address, and my reading comprehension is not the best. Maybe when I find the time for a second read? I hear Marty's going to release an updated second edition with new info and corrections concerning the recent dig.

[Gregory DG]

Here's a bunch of games worse than E.T.

 

I mean really, do people really think that the crash of 1983 was 100% E.T.'s fault?!

[Andromeda Stardust]

Well, Atari did grossly overestimate the demand for their titles. But the real cause of the crash was the "race to the bottom" with all the 3rd party developers cashing in on the Atari craze. Some developers had no business designing games: Chase the Chuck Wagon, Tooth Protectors, Kool Aid Man, really?

[silverfox0786]

not enough options on this poll

 

no it should not be buried but then no its not a great game either

 

one thing for sure its far better than COMBAT (Tank)

[Andromeda Stardust]

not enough options on this poll

 

no it should not be buried but then no its not a great game either

 

one thing for sure its far better than COMBAT (Tank)

What are you talking about? Combat is awesome, being a deceptively simple 2-player strategy game. Video Olympics aka PONG is awesome too. I consider both required material for the Atari gamer. Games like Pacman need to be experienced firsthand to understand what a bad port smells like, then Pacman 4k from the AA store should become a mandatory purchase. ET I would consider a requirement for the collector or seasoned veteran, but novice gamers can skip it, especially with the recent 1000% price hike on feebay.

[davyK]

The one flaw with ET and the pits is how collisions are detected. It isn't flaky - it is very solid and consistent - but it is counter-intuitive.

 

Looking at a pit screen you initially think you would only fall into a pit if the bottom of the ET sprite were to touch the pit. Your brain tries to impose 3D onto a 2D scene and you naturally think that way. The fact is ANY part of the sprite touching a pit causes you to fall in. Once you realise that they are easy to avoid and when you realise the collision rules applies when getting out of a pit too, then escaping a pit is easy as well.

 

It was the one thing was probably annoyed people the most and probably the easiest thing to avoid once you know what the collision rule is.

[+Random Terrain]

The one flaw with ET and the pits is how collisions are detected. It isn't flaky - it is very solid and consistent - but it is counter-intuitive.

 

Looking at a pit screen you initially think you would only fall into a pit if the bottom of the ET sprite were to touch the pit. Your brain tries to impose 3D onto a 2D scene and you naturally think that way. The fact is ANY part of the sprite touching a pit causes you to fall in. Once you realise that they are easy to avoid and when you realise the collision rules applies when getting out of a pit too, then escaping a pit is easy as well.

 

It was the one thing was probably annoyed people the most and probably the easiest thing to avoid once you know what the collision rule is.

 

I never had that problem. Up to that point, every video game with mixed perspectives that I played had whole-body/whole-creature/whole-ship collision, if I remember correctly.

[Andromeda Stardust]

^^Like how in Donkey Kong, you can graze the edge of a barrel without dying. I believe all the tile systems used bounding boxes which could be smaller than the actual sprite, and 3D systems use them too. Players can often intersect the polygonal mesh inside the scenery.