The man who made Atari's E.T. names his worst video game of all time

[stevenhowlett]

Interesting article from ET programmer Howard Scott Warshaw.

 

http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/26/5939559/atari-et-buried-howard-warshaw-nolan-bushnell

[+Random Terrain]

I'll post some replies so other people won't have too:

"Great article!"

"That article sucks!"

"E.T. isn't as bad as people say, and if you know how to play, it's full of replayable fun."

 

"I build houses for the homeless using E.T. carts."

 

"E.T. gave me butt cancer!!!!"

[sega_SHARK]

Charlie's Angels destroyed the Gamecube and the entire industry. Luckily the Xbox 360 came out and saved gaming.

[Mayhem]

That's MY question btw... I was in the panel and I'm the fan in question hah hah...

 

And yes, I did say that ET and Pac-Man are nowhere near the worst 2600 games, and got a round of applause from the audience...

[+bennybingo]

Are video game "journalists" so strapped for interesting/new stories to write about these days? That dead horse has been beaten so many times, they need to just burry it in the landfill with the rest of the Atari carts…once and for all!

[high voltage]

I'm very glad there are worse games on NES, SNES, N64 and Game Cube

[BassGuitari]

I'm very glad there are worse games on NES, SNES, N64 and Game Cube

Your ability to shoehorn a dig at Nintendo into any given thread is nothing short of remarkable.

[Greg2600]

What does Bushnell have to do with this? He was out of the game for years before E.T.

[Crazy Climber]

E.T. carts in the landfill are the reason all the Bees are dying off

 

E.T. carts crushed into a fine powder can cure AIDS

 

E.T. carts are linked to ED

 

E.T. carts can increase testosterone levels in rats

 

Howard scott Warshaw has been linked to new world order propaganda

 

My wife cheated on me with an E.T. cart

 

E.T. carts spread the ebola virus

 

Cattle near the atari landfill have signifigantly less mad cow disease

 

More E.T. carts were manufactured than Bibles

[+freewheel]

E.T. is more popular than Jesus.

[Muzz73]

I let the whole E.T. thing slide for a couple of reasons.

 

First off, I never owned a copy of the game. I only borrowed it.

 

Secondly, Warshaw is also responsible for Yars' Revenge. I'd say that makes him even.

[Gabriel]

Are video game "journalists" so strapped for interesting/new stories to write about these days? That dead horse has been beaten so many times, they need to just burry it in the landfill with the rest of the Atari carts…once and for all!

 

You're operating under the misconception that it's something other than an advertisement for tangentially related XBox One merchandise.

[R.O.T.S]

Charlie's Angels destroyed the Gamecube and the entire industry. Luckily the Xbox 360 came out and saved gaming.

Really?, I blamed Metroid Prime (re-spawning enamies..pffff!),never played Charlies Angels but looking on Youtube it does looks poor but really need to play it to be sure , even so I am quite confident I have played PS3,Xbox 360 and indie games worse than or as bad as Charlies though, that's why I mostly stick to retro games .

[Retro Rogue]

What does Bushnell have to do with this? He was out of the game for years before E.T.

 

Because a good part of the documentary has to do with covering the story of the rise and fall of Atari itself. It's not all about E.T.

[AtarinDave]

Don't get me wrong, I don't like E.T. at all. But I much rather play E.T. than playing Atari's porn games, or how about the Zelda games for the Philips CD-i? I mean seriously, that game sucks! I don't understand why Pac-man is known to be a bad game, it's pretty fun and addicting.

[+Random Terrain]

I don't understand why Pac-man is known to be a bad game, it's pretty fun and addictive.

This is why:

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-favorite-games.html#pacman

[Mr SQL]

Pacman is an awesome game and met Nolans equally awesome mantra of easy to play and difficult to master.

 

But his view on ET according to the article, was that ET was clearly unfinished.

 

I think the question about 5 weeks is misleading though; seems to me when you do the math Warshaw really had about a year to write ET because he used a Framework; Frameworks are awesome and accelerate development tremendously - warp factor 10!

 

Frye had no framework to speak of and had to create from the ether; marshalling code and concept together. Ms Pacman in turn benefitted from using his codebase as a framework and massive amounts of ROM - the Ms Pacman programmers didn't need to walk the walls!

 

It doesn't matter, Warshaw walked the walk with Yars - he could have done it again if properly motivated with a better management team but unfortunately Nolan had stepped out for pizza...

 

[AtarinDave]

This is why:

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-favorite-games.html#pacman

Well to be honest, just because it didn't look similar to the arcade does not mean it's a bad game ....

Now I understand it was disappointing as a kid. But for today it's a pretty good game.

Edited August 5, 2014 by AtarinDave

[SoulBlazer]

This is why:

 

randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-favorite-games.html#pacman

I've always said, from when I was first a kid playing Atari 2600 Pac-Man for the first time until today, that if the game had NOT been called Pac-Man no one would have complained about it. If you pretend it's not Pac-Man, it's a decent game. Not great, but not the worst game for the system either.

 

The problem is Atari getting so ass full of themselves that they KNEW they could demand that the programmer make do on 4k and release a game that was NOTHING like the arcade game and people would buy millions of it. They didn't give the game the attention it deserved.

 

So it worked -- tons of money for them, but it gave people their first sour taste of Atari. That was added on later on by E.T, also not a terrible game but clearly rushed out the door. If they had only given HSW one more week to fine tune the game, and make the pits a bit harder to fall into and easier to get out....that's all it really needed!

 

Atari's act of hubris on these two games really bit them in the ass later on.

 

No, they did not cause the crash, but they sure were Example A and B of the one of the main causes of it -- terrible shovelware games for the system. And Atari was so big they brought everyone else down with them.

 

Even at the age of 6, I knew Pac-Man on the Atari 2600 was crap.

Edited August 5, 2014 by SoulBlazer

[+Random Terrain]

Well to be honest, just because it didn't look similar to the arcade does not mean it's a bad game ....

 

Are you just being honest right now? Are you lying the rest of the time?

 

If you can manage to get over the shock that it looks nothing like what you saw on Atari computers (Pac-Man was on Atari computers before it was released on the Atari 2600), it still has some horrible sound effects and a stupid maze. Atari 2600 Ms. Pac-Man was released the next year and it looked more like what we were hoping Pac-Man would look like. In other words, Atari listened to the complaints and made a better game.

 

 

 

I've always said, from when I was first a kid playing Atari 2600 Pac-Man for the first time until today, that if the game had NOT been called Pac-Man no one would have complained about it. If you pretend it's not Pac-Man, it's a decent game.

People have complaints about other maze games on the Atari 2600, so why wouldn't they complain about that game? It still has unpleasant sound effects, a crappy maze, and annoying flicker. I'd rather play Lock 'N' Chase.

[+freewheel]

 

People have complaints about other maze games on the Atari 2600, so why wouldn't they complain about that game? It still has unpleasant sound effects, a crappy maze, and annoying flicker. I'd rather play Lock 'N' Chase.

 

I'd rather play K.C. Munchkin (O2) or Trashman (Vic20) than 2600 Pac-Man. Those are much better maze games of similar vintage.

 

People who defend 2600 Pac-Man either forget or don't realize that we had much better "not Pac-Man" maze games back in the day.

[Retro Rogue]

I think the question about 5 weeks is misleading though; seems to me when you do the math Warshaw really had about a year to write ET because he used a Framework; Frameworks are awesome and accelerate development tremendously - warp factor 10!

 

No, he did not.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/228859-the-130000-game-preorder-thread/?do=findComment&comment=3077114

[Shawn]

E.T. is more popular than Jesus.

[Torr]

What IS this E.T. game people are always talking about?

I know it was a movie, but a game too? No way...