Review of E.T. for the VCS - I actually like this game. :)

[gorfcadet]

Hope everyone is well today. I just beat ET for the first time ever last week, so I thought now would be a good time to reflect on it. Let me know what you think. Now I guess I need to figure out Krull or try to beat Indiana Jones.

 

[Lord Thag]

Yeah, I've always liked (not loved) this game. It's fun in short spurts, but it definitely needed more dev time to iron out the wrinkles.

Still, nowhere near as bad as people claim. Garbage like Sssnake, Bugs, most Froggo games etc. are FAR worse.

[+thanatos]

We played it as kids and enjoyed it plenty. The reputation is mostly amplified by people talking about it in modern times that never played it back in the day.

[onemoretime]

I can t think of another vintage game with more easter eggs than E.T.

[GeekDragon]

What people don't realize(and neither did I back in the day), like Indiana Jones, you actually need the manual to play. So, yeah, it's not as bad as everyone says it is. Now Real Sports Baseball on the other hand...……..

Edited July 20, 2018 by GeekDragon

[+TrekMD]

I've always liked ET on the 2600. I was one of those kids who loved to read the manuals, so the game made perfect sense to me when I played. It does have its issues (pits, I'm looking at you!) but still a game I've enjoyed.

[dj_convoy]

Ultimately, it's a flawed game, but it doesn't deserve the vitriol it gets. I think the nicest way to say it is that the game's reach exceeds it's grasp.

[gorfcadet]

I've always liked ET on the 2600. I was one of those kids who loved to read the manuals, so the game made perfect sense to me when I played. It does have its issues (pits, I'm looking at you!) but still a game I've enjoyed.

 

Yeah, my copy was a hand me down. That and Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was a long time before those games made ANY sense to me. My family was bad about open the box, take the game, and chuck the rest. When I got older, I was sure to open all games so I could put the box and manual in my closet before they had the chance to destroy it.

[zzip]

We played it as kids and enjoyed it plenty. The reputation is mostly amplified by people talking about it in modern times that never played it back in the day.

It's urban legend at this point. Everyone thinks it's bad because they are just repeating what others have said. Why did it get a bad reputation originally? Because it sold poorly and they dumped millions of copies into a landfill.

 

By rights, ET should have been a massive hit whether it was bad or not, just on the name.

 

So why wasn't it? My suspicion is people were still reeling from the Pacman port. That sold well in spite of being bad by most accounts. It was the most anticipated 2600 game, it disappointed and I suspect it killed a lot of enthusiasm leading to poor sales of other titles. But no other title printed as many copies as ET, anticipating being a huge hit.

 

So ET was the worst flop in videogames at that point. But flop just means that people avoided for some reason, not that it was the worst game ever (as people decided it meant)

 

I'd compare it to "Solo". Solo flopped despite apparently being a pretty good movie. But it was the result of a backlash from a previous release. I think the same happened to ET.

[Lord Thag]

So why wasn't it? My suspicion is people were still reeling from the Pacman port. That sold well in spite of being bad by most accounts. It was the most anticipated 2600 game, it disappointed and I suspect it killed a lot of enthusiasm leading to poor sales of other titles. But no other title printed as many copies as ET, anticipating being a huge hit.

 

 

What a lot of people now don't get is that Atari burned a LOT of retailers/consumers with the Pac-Man fiasco, and a ton of promises that never materialized (the computer expansion, mind link, and a bunch of others). Basically, they really eroded faith in their own brand while developers like Activision and Imagic always delivered. Atari was no longer a symbol of quality.

That said, they just printed waaaaay to many. It wouldn't have been a flop if they'd done a realistic print run, but when you make 3x as many as you can sell...

[gorfcadet]

 

 

What a lot of people now don't get is that Atari burned a LOT of retailers/consumers with the Pac-Man fiasco, and a ton of promises that never materialized (the computer expansion, mind link, and a bunch of others). Basically, they really eroded faith in their own brand while developers like Activision and Imagic always delivered. Atari was no longer a symbol of quality.

 

That said, they just printed waaaaay to many. It wouldn't have been a flop if they'd done a realistic print run, but when you make 3x as many as you can sell...

 

 

I figure this is what also befell SEGA. Retailers and consumers lost faith after the SEGA CD and 32X and it was downhill from there. Sigh. If better decisions had been made we could be playing the Dreamcast II and the Atari Lion today. Or some other large cat name.

[onemoretime]

 

 

What a lot of people now don't get is that Atari burned a LOT of retailers/consumers with the Pac-Man fiasco, and a ton of promises that never materialized (the computer expansion, mind link, and a bunch of others). Basically, they really eroded faith in their own brand while developers like Activision and Imagic always delivered. Atari was no longer a symbol of quality.

 

That said, they just printed waaaaay to many. It wouldn't have been a flop if they'd done a realistic print run, but when you make 3x as many as you can sell...

 

 

You know, and I m not trying to sound like a smart ass or anything, I promise. I had never seen an arcade of Pac Man, so I never thought it was a bad game at all. The only reference to pacman I had until my teen years was the goofy cartoon that came on with pacman, and the lenticular mug I had that showed PacMan on a screen that moved depending on how you looked at it.

[FOX2600]

ET is a fun game, I enjoy exploring its world.

[Matt_B]

Yeah, it's definitely not in worst game ever territory and everyone who has taken the time to play it properly ought to know that by now.

 

Rather, it's just that the mythology requires it to be the game that killed the original Atari. The reality, that the company financials were dire because they'd bet the farm on continued massive growth rather than dealing with the realities of a changing market, is just too mundane to compete with that.

[PlaysWithWolves]

We played it as kids and enjoyed it plenty. The reputation is mostly amplified by people talking about it in modern times that never played it back in the day.

 

I played it back in the day and still believe it deserved its bad reputation. I doubt it had anything to do with Pac-Man, as the movie was hot back then. Maybe I'd feel differently if falling into a pit because your head touched it made any logical sense.

 

Anyway, I'm glad you found a lot of entertainment in it.

[Lord Thag]

 

I played it back in the day and still believe it deserved its bad reputation. I doubt it had anything to do with Pac-Man, as the movie was hot back then. Maybe I'd feel differently if falling into a pit because your head touched it made any logical sense.

 

Anyway, I'm glad you found a lot of entertainment in it.

I think most anyone who owned it back then thought it was not any better or worse than Raiders, Swordquest etc. Most of us played games like this and were like ... wtf is even going ON? I played this, Raiders, Earthworld, Fireworld etc. as a kid an just ran around confused, the fun was discovering new things. I had no idea what I was doing.

 

When I got old enough to figure out how to play it, I ranked it much better than Swordquest and on par with Raiders, Crypts of Chaos etc. Which is to say, not even in the same league as the actual good games Like Pitfall, River Raid, Cosmic Ark, Berzerk etc., but the 'weird adventure games' were playable, and better than the flat out awful ones like sssnake, bugs, Space Jockey, Slot Racers etc.

 

The 'E.T. is the worst!!' thing is a modern invention. It wasn't any more loved or reviled than a dozen other common, average games on the system.

[PlaysWithWolves]

I think most anyone who owned it back then thought it was not any better or worse than Raiders, Swordquest etc. Most of us played games like this and were like ... wtf is even going ON? I played this, Raiders, Earthworld, Fireworld etc. as a kid an just ran around confused, the fun was discovering new things. I had no idea what I was doing.

 

When I got old enough to figure out how to play it, I ranked it much better than Swordquest and on par with Raiders, Crypts of Chaos etc. Which is to say, not even in the same league as the actual good games Like Pitfall, River Raid, Cosmic Ark, Berzerk etc., but the 'weird adventure games' were playable, and better than the flat out awful ones like sssnake, bugs, Space Jockey, Slot Racers etc.

 

The 'E.T. is the worst!!' thing is a modern invention. It wasn't any more loved or reviled than a dozen other common, average games on the system.

 

Well stated. No, I don't think it deserves being called the worst. I do think its reputation of bad-to-mediocre was deserved at the time. That's not to say it didn't click with some gamers then, and doesn't take away from people finding a greater appreciation for it some thirty-six years later.

[Lord Thag]

 

Well stated. No, I don't think it deserves being called the worst. I do think its reputation of bad-to-mediocre was deserved at the time. That's not to say it didn't click with some gamers then, and doesn't take away from people finding a greater appreciation for it some thirty-six years later.

Yeah, exactly. I actually like it a bit better as an adult than as a kid, mainly because it's less confusing now. The pits do get annoying, but not unplayably so, and it's different every time you play. The hardest mode is a respectable challenge too. Besides, the pits are much less annoying than the valley of poison in Raiders is these days. You don't need two joysticks either.

 

It's not amazing, but it is playable and enjoyable in short spurts... something that cannot be said about a lot of Froggo/Mythicon/Dataage games.

[bfollett]

There was a fix made for some of the more frustrating "features" of E.T. .bin can be found in this thread:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/207249-fixing-et-the-extra-terrestrial/

 

Bob

[7800Lover]

It's not the greatest game out there but it is NOT the awful game people say it is.

 

Spielberg wanted Warshaw to make E.T. a Pacman type game but Warshaw said no. I wonder what would have happened if E.T. had been more of a Pacman maze style game. I guess we'll never know.

[English Invader]

What people don't realize(and neither did I back in the day), like Indiana Jones, you actually need the manual to play.

 

Manual right here:

http://atariage.com/manual_html_page.php?SystemID=2600&SoftwareID=998&ItemTypeID=HTMLMANUAL

 

It's very detailed, very easy to understand and will really open up the game for those who take the time to read it. This really is a very complex game with a lot of features and mechanics that seem quite advanced for 1982.

[zzip]

You know, and I m not trying to sound like a smart ass or anything, I promise. I had never seen an arcade of Pac Man, so I never thought it was a bad game at all. The only reference to pacman I had until my teen years was the goofy cartoon that came on with pacman, and the lenticular mug I had that showed PacMan on a screen that moved depending on how you looked at it.

That's the dividing line. People who fell in love with Pacman arcade thought the 2600 version wasn't close, and it didn't even try to be-- the second part made it a letdown. If you weren't enamored by the arcade in the "Pacman Fever" days, you might thing the 2600 was an acceptable game.

[zzip]

I think most anyone who owned it back then thought it was not any better or worse than Raiders, Swordquest etc. Most of us played games like this and were like ... wtf is even going ON? I played this, Raiders, Earthworld, Fireworld etc. as a kid an just ran around confused, the fun was discovering new things. I had no idea what I was doing.

 

When I got old enough to figure out how to play it, I ranked it much better than Swordquest and on par with Raiders, Crypts of Chaos etc. Which is to say, not even in the same league as the actual good games Like Pitfall, River Raid, Cosmic Ark, Berzerk etc., but the 'weird adventure games' were playable, and better than the flat out awful ones like sssnake, bugs, Space Jockey, Slot Racers etc.

Even back then, I thought ET wasn't as good as Raiders, but way better than Swordquest. The Swordquest games never felt finished or something

[PlaysWithWolves]

A bit of a non-sequitur, but someone may find this interesting. Atari E.T. was released in December '82. Here's the back cover of the April '83 Mad Magazine: