so you guys had this and still didn't manage to play the game?

[high voltage]

[ColecoJoe]

All you needed was the manual to play the game. Most people didn't bother with it

[+Random Terrain]

People have this now and they still can't play.

 

To What Degree Do You Love E.T.?
E.T. Manual and Tips Sheet
E.T. Map
E.T. Tips and Reminders
E.T. Appreciation Page
E.T. Cake

[NE146]

I did have that book.. not sure if I still do. However all I needed to play the game was the manual (and knowing to choose game variation THREE)

[high voltage]

I just purchased it from US ebay, finally, after all these years even I can play ET

[fabman99]

If you need one of these PM me.

[Swami]

I just purchased it from US ebay, finally, after all these years even I can play ET

Theres also a hack around here that fixed the brokenness

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Managed just fine, E.T. AND Raider of the Lost Ark, read the manual, played them, finished them, loved them.

[Flojomojo]

I agree that ET and fellow "deep" game Raiders are perfectly playable if you read the manual, like others have said.

 

They're just not super FUN and they're not as sticky because they're not immediately approachable or understandable. You can tell the objective of Space Invaders in 5 seconds. Something like these games -- or something like Adventure, Haunted House, Superman, Riddle of the Sphinx don't hold up as "a minute to learn, a lifetime to master" like arcade style games.

 

See also:

The Master Strategy games on Odyssey 2 (books and game pieces to deal with)

Space Giraffe (folks REALLY didn't get this, because it wasn't Tempest)

I, Robot

Stargate

Donkey Kong 3

Many Intellivision games

 

Not BAD games, just inpenetrable to many people at first glance, which in a crowded field, can be all you get.

[hizzy]

If I can figure it out, I would like to make a hack of ET, expanding the game like Haunted Adventure.

[matt2d2]

It's incredible that it was completed in a few short weeks by Howard Scott Warshaw alone. I remember caring enough about Raiders to actually beat it, but E.T., not some much. IMO though, the E.T. game followed it's movie better than the Raiders game.

[zzip]

Finished ET many times. It's just Haunted House with better graphics.. find three pieces of an object and escape while avoiding the 'spooks'

[Lord Thag]

Managed just fine, E.T. AND Raider of the Lost Ark, read the manual, played them, finished them, loved them.

Yeah, same.

 

Most of the kids I know who were dedicated games did just fine with both games. I beat both of them many times as a kid, and I read both manuals. The people who struggled were more of the occasional players who just wanted something simple like Pac Man or Galaxian.

 

[Jim Pez]

It's incredible that it was completed in a few short weeks by Howard Scott Warshaw alone. I remember caring enough about Raiders to actually beat it, but E.T., not some much. IMO though, the E.T. game followed it's movie better than the Raiders game.

 

Its kinda sad though that he lost his job for something that wasn't really wasn't his fault.

[crsdawg]

At the ripe old age of 11 I was speed running E.T. before there was a name for that sort of play style. No special books, no online run through...I just used my ability to read words (in the manual) and my brain to invent different strategies to overcome the games difficulties and short falls. It became one of my favorites for a time as I found that trying to get through it as fast as possible was a fun challenge.

[Raiu]

I'm sure I've said this before on these forums, but at the time of its release, I really enjoyed E.T., and didn't learn that it was supposed to be a bad game until much, much later. Even as a kid, I loved most of the Atari "Adventure Territory" games (Superman, Haunted House, Adventure, Raiders), and E.T. was no exception*. I read the manual, which explains exactly how to get out of the wells, so I never had the problems with them that everyone else seems to have.

 

* The exceptions were the Swordquest games. I think they're all worse than E.T., and Fireworld is the worst of them all.

[Syzygy1]

I agree that ET and fellow "deep" game Raiders are perfectly playable if you read the manual, like others have said.

 

They're just not super FUN and they're not as sticky because they're not immediately approachable or understandable. You can tell the objective of Space Invaders in 5 seconds. Something like these games -- or something like Adventure, Haunted House, Superman, Riddle of the Sphinx don't hold up as "a minute to learn, a lifetime to master" like arcade style games.

 

See also:

The Master Strategy games on Odyssey 2 (books and game pieces to deal with)

Space Giraffe (folks REALLY didn't get this, because it wasn't Tempest)

I, Robot

Stargate

Donkey Kong 3

Many Intellivision games

 

Not BAD games, just inpenetrable to many people at first glance, which in a crowded field, can be all you get.

Hey, I figured out Superman on my own (OK, I think I lied, I needed the manual to help me the first few rounds or so. Now I'm like, "This is Superman, this is Lex Luthor, this is Otis, this is Lois, this is Clark... this is Cyb- oh wait this was 2 years before he was introduced...")

 

I never bothered to play E.T. at first cause I didn't like the movie as much as other people did (My mom didn't like it either, she never thought E.T. was "cute" and she was stuck in the front when she went to see it) but nowadays I seem to have it figured it out without the help of that book (or even the manual.) The movie's a good experience of 80s culture from that period with the addition of an alien that reminds me of Maz Kanata and the chocolate lady from SpongeBob, even Strawberry Shortcake dolls appear owned by a young Drew Barrymore, but there's no Cyborg.

 

Oh, and with my vivid imagination, I always picture E.T. taking the Underground Railroad when it falls into the pits lmao

[Syzygy1]

* The exceptions were the Swordquest games. I think they're all worse than E.T., and Fireworld is the worst of them all.

Hey! How can you NOT like the George Perez illustrated comics? None of the characters are drawn similar to Cyborg (or even Starfire and Raven) but for a Titan fan like me, it's AMAZING!

[+Random Terrain]

Hey! How can you NOT like the George Perez illustrated comics? None of the characters are drawn similar to Cyborg (or even Starfire and Raven) but for a Titan fan like me, it's AMAZING!

---

The variation of Asperger's that I have never forced me to like comic books. It pushed me in other directions. To me, comic books always seemed to be similar to professional wrestling. Too much drama, bluster, and bulging muscles. Turn it into a movie or a TV show and I might watch it, but I'm not wasting eye pain reading it. I'd rather spend my eye pain reading non-fiction.

[Raiu]

Hey! How can you NOT like the George Perez illustrated comics? None of the characters are drawn similar to Cyborg (or even Starfire and Raven) but for a Titan fan like me, it's AMAZING!

The comics were fine (and I wish they'd finished and released the fourth comic, even if they didn't finish the game), but the games themselves were awful.

[Syzygy1]

---

The variation of Asperger's that I have never forced me to like comic books. It pushed me in other directions. To me, comic books always seemed to be similar to professional wrestling. Too much drama, bluster, and bulging muscles. Turn it into a movie or a TV show and I might watch it, but I'm not wasting eye pain reading it. I'd rather spend my eye pain reading non-fiction.

And exposed pecs. Or if you're Starfire, boobs. Besides, comic books aren't staged like professional wrestling. All the fight scenes you saw in comic books were real... except when they made movies and TV shows out of it. Yes, those were staged.

[Syzygy1]

The comics were fine (and I wish they'd finished and released the fourth comic, even if they didn't finish the game), but the games themselves were awful.

All the video games in that period of time were awful. But we still played them because it was the only things we had! We weren't graphically advanced yet! Try showing GTA V: San Andreas to someone in 1982. They'd spontaneously combust and upon coming back to life, yell "BOOYAH!"

[Raiu]

All the video games in that period of time were awful. But we still played them because it was the only things we had! We weren't graphically advanced yet! Try showing GTA V: San Andreas to someone in 1982. They'd spontaneously combust and upon coming back to life, yell "BOOYAH!"

.... no, all games of the era weren't all equally awful, and it has nothing to do with graphics. Adventure, Haunted House, Raider of the Lost Ark, even E.T. were better adventure games than Fireworld, which was buggy (several challenges forced you to lose a life immediately, sometimes you'd start a challenge and immediately get kicked out as if you'd lost, enemy movement was so choppy that some challenges were barely playable, etc) and unfinished (the contest clues, literally the entire reason for the game to exist, were never actually put into the game, only placeholders 00 through 09).

Edited March 31, 2019 by Raiu

[Syzygy1]

.... no, all games of the era weren't all equally awful, and it has nothing to do with graphics. Adventure, Haunted House, Raider of the Lost Ark, even E.T. were better adventure games than Fireworld, which was buggy (several challenges forced you to lose a life immediately, sometimes you'd start a challenge and immediately get kicked out as if you'd lost, enemy movement was so choppy that some challenges were barely playable, etc) and unfinished (the contest clues, literally the entire reason for the game to exist, were never actually put into the game, only placeholders 00 through 09).

Placeholders?

 

Damn it if they got George Perez to illustrate the Swordquest comics, then WHY WASN'T THERE A CYBORG GAME FOR THE ATARI 2600?! Wasn't The New Teen Titans the most popular comic book of the 80s? Why did we just get Superman and not Cyborg?

[+Random Terrain]

Wasn't The New Teen Titans the most popular comic book of the 80s? Why did we just get Superman and not Cyborg?

I never heard of Teen Titans or Cyborg. I also didn't know that the X-Men existed until the movies came out. I knew about the main ones like Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, and Wonder Woman.