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E.T. Is Not The Worst Game Ever, How To Play, & High Score Documentary


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1 hour ago, high voltage said:

All you needed was this:

 

book How to win at ET the Video Game


Or read tip 5 from the manual (of which only trillion copies were made):
et_silver_i_11.jpg

If you don't know how to play E.T. or get frustrated by it, you haven't read the manual or you don't know how to handle a X40 properly.

It's as simple as that.

The game plays well, has its unique genre, a title screen, an ending, great graphics, music & sound FX, follows the movie nicely, contains tons of easter eggs and was made in 5 weeks time.

It's not even a mediocre VCS game, it's a good and well made VCS game that contains only one counter-intuitive mechanism: pushing Left or Right instead of Up while going up (which can easily be learned in 1 minute practice time).

It just didn't live up to the expectations of the masses (of kids), who most probably wanted a more action packed game.

8)

Edited by Rom Hunter
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Just a couple of things watching that video:

  1. The reason the FBI agent gets stuck on the bottom of the screen is he's being blocked by the scientist who is trying to come the other direction.   To fix this deadlock, go to another screen so the blocking NPC will follow you there and free the other

  2. The "Call Elliott" icon will make Elliott come and take your Reeses Pieces.   If you had 9 pieces, he will return to his house and come pack and give you one of the phone pieces you are missing.   Don't use this if you have less than 9 pieces.   Also Elliott can get blocked by other NPCs, so he doesn't always return with your piece in a timely manner.

 

I agree the graphics were good for the time.   It looked better than many 2600 games that preceeded it.  I had never seen the 2600 do anything as detailed as the title screen prior to this.

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E.T. is actually one of my favorite 2600 games. Admittedly it's pretty difficult and confusing at first but it's a pretty fun game. People just hear people(mostly the AVGN) say it's a horrible game, play it on an emulator, see horrible atari graphics, never figure out how to play, and just call it the worst game ever.

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58 minutes ago, bluejay said:

E.T. is actually one of my favorite 2600 games. Admittedly it's pretty difficult and confusing at first but it's a pretty fun game. People just hear people(mostly the AVGN) say it's a horrible game, play it on an emulator, see horrible atari graphics, never figure out how to play, and just call it the worst game ever.

AVGN makes jokes, and has complaints about the game, but even he acknowledges that it isn’t the worst game.

 

 

 

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1 minute ago, CapitanClassic said:

AVGN makes jokes, and has complaints about the game, but even he acknowledges that it isn’t the worst game.

 

 

 

that's the one video, in all his other videos, he treats it as an unholy abomination

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3 minutes ago, CapitanClassic said:

I think I have watched every AVGN video. I don’t remember him ever saying that E.T. Is the worst game ever or even the worst Atari VCS game.

I have as well. He never calls it the worst game, but he treats it like an unholy abomination

 

Edited by bluejay
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9 minutes ago, bluejay said:

I have as well. He never calls it the worst game, but he treats it like an unholy abomination

If he does, it is part of a gag or joke. Even HSW calls it the worst game of all time, even though he clearly knows it isn’t.

 

In the Spielberg games (Jaws) AVGN episode, the whole gag is that James refuses to play the game. It is a setup for when he plays it in the AVGN Movie.

 

Edited by CapitanClassic
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Most people who call ET "the worst game of all time" are

 

1) Little kids who have no business bashing a game made long before their era.

 

2) People who don't like to read the manual and thus have a very frustrating experience playing the game.

 

3) People with legitimate criticisms with the game, although this is rare.

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Most people at that time did not read the manual first. Games were plug and play and the manual an afterthought. Some people would read the manual if stuck but the majority would say it sucked and moved on to the next game. That was my initial experience with E.T., I did not play it again until weeks later after I purchased it due to the pits and weird symbols. I did read the manual and went on to enjoy the game, but I still hated the pits.

Edited by neotokeo2001
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2 minutes ago, neotokeo2001 said:

Most people at that time did not read the manual first. Games were plug and play and the manual an afterthought. Some people would read the manual if stuck but the majority would say it sucked and moved on to the next game. That was my initial experience with E.T., I did not play it again until weeks later after I purchased it due to the pits and weird symbols. I did read the manual and went on to enjoy the game, but I still hated the pits.

True. One criticism of the game I have is that it's almost impossible to play without a manual, just like the Swordquest series.

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18 minutes ago, neotokeo2001 said:

Most people at that time did not read the manual first. Games were plug and play and the manual an afterthought. Some people would read the manual if stuck but the majority would say it sucked and moved on to the next game. That was my initial experience with E.T., I did not play it again until weeks later after I purchased it due to the pits and weird symbols. I did read the manual and went on to enjoy the game, but I still hated the pits.

We got our 2600 for Christmas in 1982 with ET as our first game.  So I had plenty of time to read the manual while waiting while other siblings played their turn. :)   But that wasn't so true for later games.   I remember reading the manual for Raiders of the Lost Ark and finishing that game too.    But there are later Adventure games I got that I never got far in,  like Riddle of the Sphynx, Crypts of Chaos, Swordquest Fireworld, probably because I never spend enough time with the manual.

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50 minutes ago, neotokeo2001 said:

Most people at that time did not read the manual first. Games were plug and play and the manual an afterthought. Some people would read the manual if stuck but the majority would say it sucked and moved on to the next game. That was my initial experience with E.T., I did not play it again until weeks later after I purchased it due to the pits and weird symbols. I did read the manual and went on to enjoy the game, but I still hated the pits.

 

On 8/9/2017 at 11:42 AM, Torr said:

 

Damn near EVERY game released on the Atari had "hard to decipher" graphics, unobvious gameplay mechanics, and tons of game select variations that can be further altered with the difficulty switches.

The idea that "most people" never read the manuals just seems unbelievable to me.

 

How would you know you're supposed to bring a golden cup back the yellow castle in Adventure?

How would you know what Game Variation to pick for Hyperwarp or Shields in Asteroids?

How would you know that if you want to see Evil Otto in Berzerk you have to pick a certain Game Variation?

How would you figure out the Hyperwarp or Smart Bombs in Defender?

How would you know to use two controllers in Defender II / Stargate?

How would you know you're supposed to find 3 pieces of an Urn and then get back out in Haunted House?

How would you know what the other 'moving blocks' do in Maze Craze's many Game Variations?

How would you know what all of Space Invader's 66(!) Game Variations are?

Not even to mention games like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Riddle of the Sphinx, Space Shuttle...

How would you know that you return all the bridge pieces, bring all the bad guys to jail, turn back into Clark Kent at the phone booth and then go to the Daily Planet to win Superman?

Sounds a lot like ET.

 

Growing up I had 9 game of my own that I received. The boxes were of course thrown away, but I still to this day have the manuals.

Plus about 20 more hand-me-downs. None of which had manuals. And I had difficulty with them all.

Berzerk I understood, but never knew about Evil Otto until AtariAge

SwordQuest, Raiders, and ET I had fun muddling with but never figured out.

Damn near every Activision game threw me... I just couldn't understand that the point of the game was to get the best "time"!

Barnstorming, Sky Jinx, Skiing... you just play for a while, then it makes you stop... am I going for the longest or shortest time? I didn't know, generally in games the longer you play the better right?

Dragster, once I figured out how not to blow my engine, it was still no fun, cause know one else could work the transmission for me to race against... and again, I didn't understand the "time" aspect.

Master Builder... HAH!

Basketball... if My cousin never told me there was a one player mode using the second joystick, I sure wouldn't have figured it out...

The list goes on.

 

My best memories are of my "own" games. Because I knew how to Play them

I also had some Great hand-me-downs, but with no manuals, I couldn't enjoy them properly.

 

People read these manuals back in the day. They had to have.

 

I'm quoting myself from an older topic (one the MANY) regarding ET and this stupid idea that VCS games were "plug and play" and "no one read manuals"

Edited by Torr
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