Atari: Game Over (documentary)

[Cobra Commander]

If it's true that they don't take a huge steaming watery dump all over E.T., I'll watch it on Netflix. It's not like Netflix has a steady stream of 5 star movies coming in that I could watch instead, so I might as well.

They do a pretty good job of explaining its intent, with the pseudo-3D environment and the interaction with the other people in the game.

[bohoki]

i liked it at one point they did slighty touch on the real reason (the end of the generation) for the crash but they didnt delve deep enough they should have really saw the trend we see today i loosely call the "console law" where they seem to have about a 6 year life span it was just atari that really went through the ringer being on top and falling so far and hard

 

do we hear of the demise of the intellivision or colecovision as often?

 

atari threw the games away because they didnt want them in a bargan bin for

$5 while they were trying to sell new games for $30 they knew their end user was kids but the customer was an adult who often was ignorant

 

they also touched on the issue of back then you could take a game back to the store for any reason that promply changed in my area during the NES era return only for defective replacement there was a change of it being an toy and becoming software much like records and movies

 

 

 

same with et its not horrible game it just was unworthy of the greatness that the movie was at the time

[Retro Rogue]

 

they also touched on the issue of back then you could take a game back to the store for any reason that promply changed in my area during the NES era return only for defective replacement there was a change of it being an toy and becoming software much like records and movies

 

 

It wasn't just that, Atari also had a stock buyback initiative that allowed retailers to give back unsold stock for credit that could be used to replace games with new stock. That was something also done away with for a time after.

[adamchevy]

I watched it today, and I thought it was good. I especially liked the comments about how Howard Scott Warshaw has not been awarded and praised like many other visionaries of his time. Why not?

[+Random Terrain]

I watched it yesterday. I loved it. It was much better than Cats. I'm going to see it again and again.

[retrofixes]

I enjoyed the movie and like hearing the stories from HSW and all the others from the Atari team. Everyone seemed sincere in the interviews. The only person that irked me was Zak Penn he should have stayed off camera. I disliked him so much I had to look him up and then found out he was the director.

Every question from him was pointless and well plain stupid.

Examples (Paraphrased)

Landfill Digger: Hey we found a newspaper article from 1983 we must be close to the games. Zak: So no games yet, wheres the games?

When first approaching the landfill road gate. Zak: dur How to we get around that? Other guy simply walks under the 3' high gate.

God there were tons of other examples. Basically anything out of his mouth was moronic.

At least he directed a good movie.
Surely I'm not the only one that noticed this?

[+Random Terrain]

Surely I'm not the only one that noticed this?

 

No, I loved it. It was much better than Cats. I'm going to see it again and again.

[+wongojack]

I enjoyed the movie and like hearing the stories from HSW and all the others from the Atari team. Everyone seemed sincere in the interviews. The only person that irked me was Zak Penn he should have stayed off camera. I disliked him so much I had to look him up and then found out he was the director.

 

Every question from him was pointless and well plain stupid.

 

Examples (Paraphrased)

 

Landfill Digger: Hey we found a newspaper article from 1983 we must be close to the games. Zak: So no games yet, wheres the games?

 

When first approaching the landfill road gate. Zak: dur How to we get around that? Other guy simply walks under the 3' high gate.

 

God there were tons of other examples. Basically anything out of his mouth was moronic.

 

At least he directed a good movie.

Surely I'm not the only one that noticed this?

 

 

 

 

 

I think your humor detector is broken

[+save2600]

Retrofixes is not the only one that noticed this, but if that's Zak's "brand" of humor, I too cannot appreciate it (for, or in a documentary; media intended for historical reverence) and expected more maturity, professionalism and respect out of somebody that directs, narrates, researches, writes, etc. Remember feeling embarrassed at some of his silly questions and reading the looks on peoples faces as he spewed them.

 

Throughout the film, even my GF was like: "I wish he would stop talking already" and "why does this guy keep asking such questions", "is he trying to be funny"?

[PFL]

The Jim Heller interview linked to by Retro Rogue and the film World 1-1 are more interesting to me. It's not that I'm against entertainment in my movies it's just that I'm not really into fabrication and perpetuated 'myth' nonsense to build 'tension' in my documentaries.

 

If it was a film with actors and a script, fair enough but this 'documentary' is built around fluff. I did enjoy it to a certain extent but that was only because I was already aware of the facts around the dump story and I could shrug off the silly stuff. If I had watched this to learn about a very famous incident in the history of games only to later find that it was built around guff I would've been a little miffed.

 

It's a pity because there is a really compelling story in here and the film does have its moments. It's just that the documentary didn't make the most of them choosing to instead sell itself on something that every informed person knows to be nonsense...

 

Bah, humbug! That's what I say!

[Turbo-Torch]

One thing that's not talked about is exactly how many hours went into the game. Workstation was brought home, so he could work around the clock, but when you crunch the numbers, the potential gulf between this release and a normal one of "6-9 months at the office" is not as great as one might think. Probably not building a case for the predisposed haters, but agree with Bushnell when he said that HSW should be celebrated for the achievement; extremely compressed time put in, dedication, challenge, et al.

 

How exactly did you crunch those numbers?

 

Assuming a programmer worked a bare minumum 8 hour day for only 5 days a week he would have about 1,040 hours logged in 6 months.

If someone worked 24/7 for 5 weeks without taking one minute to sleep, eat, drink or shit, they would have 840 hours.

 

Now to be more realistic, what was the average work week during the 2600's heyday? 60 hours for a total of 1,800 hours over 6 months?

As for a 5 week deadline....remove 6 hours for sleeping and another 2 for eating and you have about 560 hours.

[+Random Terrain]

How exactly did you crunch those numbers?

 

Assuming a programmer worked a bare minumum 8 hour day for only 5 days a week he would have about 1,040 hours logged in 6 months.

If someone worked 24/7 for 5 weeks without taking one minute to sleep, eat, drink or shit, they would have 840 hours.

 

Now to be more realistic, what was the average work week during the 2600's heyday? 60 hours for a total of 1,800 hours over 6 months?

As for a 5 week deadline....remove 6 hours for sleeping and another 2 for eating and you have about 560 hours.

I bet it was either 490 or 770 hours.

[+save2600]

How exactly did you crunch those numbers?

 

Assuming a programmer worked a bare minumum 8 hour day for only 5 days a week he would have about 1,040 hours logged in 6 months.

If someone worked 24/7 for 5 weeks without taking one minute to sleep, eat, drink or shit, they would have 840 hours.

 

Now to be more realistic, what was the average work week during the 2600's heyday? 60 hours for a total of 1,800 hours over 6 months?

As for a 5 week deadline....remove 6 hours for sleeping and another 2 for eating and you have about 560 hours.

I figured 7 days a week for sure and 2/3rds a waking day. Also, I put "6-9 months" at the office in quotes, because we know that despite someone putting x amount of hours in at work, just how many of those hours were truly put toward actually working, is the question. Possible there's not as great a gulf between the two scenarios is all I'm saying.

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

I just watched this today. Ironically marking 1 year ago this timedate the extractions of the burial site started. I really enjoyed it. People that rip on E.T. being the worst game of all time really need to donate 1 hour of their time watching this. Howard really was put into a lot of pressure to make E.T. Damn $22,000,000 to put into it. And all in all just barely over a month. I've played this game since I was younger and I really enjoy it. People back then are used to space shooters and more simpler gaming concepts. While in E.T. you need to read the instruction manual.

[Clint Thompson]

Finally, after all this time, had a chance to watch this. Where are my prioritites, right?

 

It does make you wonder though, had E.T. been well-received and considered a million seller (without returns) if we wouldn't have eventually saw other movie adaptions like Short Circuit or Knight Rider. It didn't stop Gremlins or Ghost Busters... I actually liked Ghost Busters but Gremlins is foggy so apparently it wasn't too outstanding, at least in my mind..

 

He claims it took him 30 years to finally find or do something as meaningful-felt as it had been at Atari but I seriously doubt anything could honestly top that very short time period in space. To be a programmer or just about anything working at Atari in its prime had to have been a dream come true. Really enjoyed the DeLorean bit and ET bulcked into the passenger seat haha

[+Random Terrain]

Now that the documentary has everyone feeling all warm and fuzzy about E.T., hurry up and try to get a single-round high score:

 

atariage.com/forums/topic/237157-season-4-the-new-hsc-week-13-14-sci-fi-movie-weeks/

 

Time is running out!

[Andromeda Stardust]

Finally, after all this time, had a chance to watch this. Where are my prioritites, right?

 

It does make you wonder though, had E.T. been well-received and considered a million seller (without returns) if we wouldn't have eventually saw other movie adaptions like Short Circuit or Knight Rider. It didn't stop Gremlins or Ghost Busters... I actually liked Ghost Busters but Gremlins is foggy so apparently it wasn't too outstanding, at least in my mind..

 

He claims it took him 30 years to finally find or do something as meaningful-felt as it had been at Atari but I seriously doubt anything could honestly top that very short time period in space. To be a programmer or just about anything working at Atari in its prime had to have been a dream come true. Really enjoyed the DeLorean bit and ET bulcked into the passenger seat haha

It was a decent documentary for sure, but if you really want a barrel of laughs, go watch the AVGN movie. It's low brow at it's finest, although they were forced to take certain liberties in the name of copyright. All those poor "Eee-Tee" carts, ROTFLMFAO!

[UberArcade]

I finally watched the documentary. I really liked it. I wanted more information, but it did a good job. There have been so many pointless video game documentaries lately that I enjoyed finally seeing one that actually had a point and was entertaining at the same time. Also it is on Netflix right now so you can't beat that.

[calfranklin]

Sorry, I started a second thread on this subject not knowing that you had an active thread on this subject. I'm glad you enjoyed the documentary also. It also left me wanting to know more about the early days of Atari. As far I'm concerned, it ended to soon for Atari.

[jaholmes]

I'm a big fan of behind-the-scenes documentaries in general, and especially as they pertain to creative works like movies and games. And this one was certainly no exception. All of the Atari folks involved seemed genuinely nice and down-to-earth. Of course, it would be hard not to be humble about what happened to Atari, but then they're certainly deserving of appreciation for what happened on the way up, too.

 

About E.T. specifically: It was only a few years ago that I became aware of the "worst video game ever" label that E.T. had (according to some) achieved. I found that pretty funny. Like just about every kid on my street with a 2600--well, I had a Coleco Gemini--I got E.T. for Christmas that year. But I actually liked the game. It was one of the few games in my 2600 library that had a clear and concise ending rather than being an endless procession of steadily more difficult (but otherwise identical) screens, and that made it good for those times when I had the urge to simply "win" at something.

[Retro Rogue]

Sorry, I started a second thread on this subject not knowing that you had an active thread on this subject. I'm glad you enjoyed the documentary also. It also left me wanting to know more about the early days of Atari. As far I'm concerned, it ended to soon for Atari.

 

Feel free to check out our book for more.

[Clint Thompson]

At the local Half Priced Books store recently and they had about a dozen 2600 carts... all for $1.99 - E.T. was the only cart there for $3.99. Just kind of cracked me up a little.

[Rhomaios]

I enjoyed the movie and like hearing the stories from HSW and all the others from the Atari team. Everyone seemed sincere in the interviews. The only person that irked me was Zak Penn he should have stayed off camera. I disliked him so much I had to look him up and then found out he was the director.

 

Every question from him was pointless and well plain stupid.

 

Examples (Paraphrased)

 

Landfill Digger: Hey we found a newspaper article from 1983 we must be close to the games. Zak: So no games yet, wheres the games?

 

When first approaching the landfill road gate. Zak: dur How to we get around that? Other guy simply walks under the 3' high gate.

 

God there were tons of other examples. Basically anything out of his mouth was moronic.

 

At least he directed a good movie.

Surely I'm not the only one that noticed this?

 

 

 

 

Clueless and clueless that he's clueless.

[Andromeda Stardust]

At the local Half Priced Books store recently and they had about a dozen 2600 carts... all for $1.99 - E.T. was the only cart there for $3.99. Just kind of cracked me up a little.

ET was $1.99 at Game-X-Change along with every other Atari 2600 game. Then a bunch of guys started digging holes in the desert and the price jumped to $6.95.

[high voltage]

Nice. E.T. the most famous game in the world.