Make the E.T. landfill true project.

[Mot]

I would like to have people send be copies of E.T. so I can:

1. take them to New Mexico

2. rent a steam roller and roll over them

3. pour cement over them

4. bury them with dirt

 

Then I will go on ebay and tell people I found where the landfill is from the Atari vaults and sell the maps.

 

Does this sound good to anyone else?

How much do you think I can get for these?

[Bryan]

I would like to have people send be copies of E.T. so I can:

 

They made ET for BeOS?

 

-Bry

[Dauber]

Okay, in the past two years or so that I've been an Atari Age member, I've seen the ET game take a lot of flack. Now, this is one that I never got around to getting, although during the later days of the VCS [circa 1987] I nearly bought it at Kay-Bee when they were having a massive sale, but I bought Tax Avoiders instead.

 

So, what is it about ET that's so bad? It's not answered in any FAQ I could find. And please, be specific. "IT SUCKS!" doesn't tell me anything. What sucks about it, if anything?

[Nukey Shay]

The same thing that is wrong with Pacman...high expectations.

[Mot]

I actually like the game my self. I think I own about three of them.

 

But I know people do find E.T. annoying when you fall into a hole and as soon as they come out… they just fall right back in.

 

And those annoying people that take your phone piece right after you get it all together.

[Jess Ragan]

To put it simply, the game is full of holes, and I mean that literally. They're all over the place, and it's very hard to keep ET from falling into them. Getting out requires you to extend your neck and float upward, which takes a very long time and interrupts the flow of the game. Worse yet, you HAVE to enter the holes to collect parts of the phone ET uses to phone home.

 

Also, speaking personally, I never liked the film upon which the game is based. It's sappy and emotionally manipulative, and those kind of movies just don't translate well to the video game medium.

 

JR

[Lost Monkey]

Okay, in the past two years or so that I've been an Atari Age member, I've seen the ET game take a lot of flack. Now, this is one that I never got around to getting, although during the later days of the VCS [circa 1987] I nearly bought it at Kay-Bee when they were having a massive sale, but I bought Tax Avoiders instead.

 

So, what is it about ET that's so bad? It's not answered in any FAQ I could find. And please, be specific. "IT SUCKS!" doesn't tell me anything. What sucks about it, if anything?

 

ET takes a lot of flack because of the following points (which may or may not be true):

 

1. The game was rushed.

2. Atari didn't care if the game was any good, because the license would sell itself.

3. Atari made more copies of ET than there were VCS's sold.

4. Atari buried unsellable copies of ET in a NM landfill for tax purposes.

5. ET was... *falls in hole*

[atari_sammysue]

The best thing i have seen so far with those common commons et's pacmans, combats is those lamps and endtables people make out of them.

[+Random Terrain]

To put it simply, the game is full of holes, and I mean that literally.  They're all over the place, and it's very hard to keep ET from falling into them.  Getting out requires you to extend your neck and float upward, which takes a very long time and interrupts the flow of the game.  Worse yet, you HAVE to enter the holes to collect parts of the phone ET uses to phone home.

 

If you play the game more than 3 times, even a total klutz can learn to zip around the wells without falling in. If you happen to fall into a well by mistake or on purpose, you can press the button and catch yourself before you barely fall in. You will be floating near the top of the screen and can either float out or land and get an object or fart around with the flower. It's simple.

 

Although the wells are a shock when you first play the game, you just learn to accept them and use them to your advantage, like escaping from one of those mean dudes who want to slice you open and play with your guts. I'd rather have items hidden behind trees or something like that, but as it is, the game still has replayability, great graphics and sound (for the time it was made), and is better than most of the crap made for the Atari 2600. You can play that game over and over again and never get sick of it because not only are the items in different places, but the zones are too. As long as we can keep from falling into the wells like we belong in the special olympics and use the trick to catch ourselves if we do fall in, it's a great game.

[+Nathan Strum]

one of those mean dudes who want to slice you open and play with your guts.

 

Now there's an ET game I'd like to play: catch ET, and gut him like a fish!

[Trade-N-Games]

I was at a thrift store in Columbus Ohio about 2 years ago and they had a very big box of ET carts around 200 or so and they wanted $5 each

[ATARIPITBULL]

[ATARIPITBULL]

[space_invader]

i think ET is a good game. falling into the holes was annoying at first, but no more annoying than when you first start any game and constantly get killed until you get the hang of it. when i first played, i had to put it on the game setting where the guys don't come after you, just to practice moving around and getting the phone parts, but after that i got the hang of it and really enjoyed the game

[NovaXpress]

I think ET is very mediocre but not bad. It's not much worse than Raiders of the Lost Ark and used much of the same code. But Indy is cooler than ET and at least he got to shoot something.

 

Defend it all you want, AFKAC, but the pits were rotten. Warshaw didn't have any real challenges in the game for ET to face so the challenge level was the ridiculous level of precision required for what was sold as a kids' game.

 

But the real reason for the hate is long-forgotten. In 1982 the typical price for an Atrari cart was $20-35. When ET came out it was priced at $50. The only higher-priced cart was Zaxxon for Colecovision. Parents balked at the price, then when their kids turned of the game because of all the damn pits the parents vowed not to waste their money on more Atari games.

 

FOR THE LOVE OF CTHULU: Soemone find an old issue of Mad magazine from January or February 82. the back cover shows an Atari ET cart with a $50 price tag. ET points his magic finger at the price tag and says "Ouch."

 

ET had a lot to do with driving the video game crash which began immediately afterwards. And if parents were burned on both Pac-man and ET that was it for new Atari games in their house forever.

[AtariDude]

Cool Marquees Atari Pitbull! Where did you get them?

[+kheller2]

I actually like the 8-bit version of ET. =)

[space_invader]

i was watching "ET" on USA today, and it occurred to me how great it would be if there were a bunch of cut scenes in which ET spontaneously falls into pits. going past the moon (bonk) pit. at the end, elliot's in tears, ET turns to go toward the spaceship, and immediately falls into a pit