ADG Filler #38 - E.T. (Atari 2600)

Channel:

Pixelmusement

Subscribers:

24,000

Published on April 16, 2015 2:06:51 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbcXFyb0s_g

Game:

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Duration: 9:57

2,723 views

70

Originally Released: May 17th, 2014

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E.T. for the Atari 2600 is often considered to be the worst video game ever made. :o

This preconception however is based on the fact that it was a massive commercial failure which is thought to have sparked the video game crash in the early 80's, when the market was simply oversaturated with games and no clear distinction as to what was good or bad.

Truth be told, E.T. is not a bad game by any means. It is below average, but only because it's got some bugs and is virtually impossible to learn how to play through trial and error. Read the manual, avoid the bugs, and the game suddenly becomes surprisingly playable!

...still would rather play Megamania or Pressure Cooker though. ;)

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Additional Information and Corrections:

* There's actually some impressive, subtle features in this game which are easy to miss, such as the volume of the footsteps of the Human characters getting louder the closer they are to E.T.

* It's possible to find a dying flower in some pits which you can bring back to life. I'm not quite sure of the mechanics behind how to find the flower, but giving seven Reeses Pieces to Elliot before touching a flower and doing this multiple times is how you find the initials of the game's coder, Howard Scott Warshaw. (Atari was against giving credit to the people making their games so many programmers for Atari would hide their initials in some manner, requiring the player to perform very specific sequences of actions in order to make those initials appear.)

* BTW: The rumours of hundreds of thousands of Atari 2600 carts being burried turned out to be true. Those of you following the news may already know that a documentary crew set out to confirm the rumours and ended up digging up countless dumped cartridges, not just E.T. but even games which were GOOD, like Centipede. The person in charge of getting rid of the cartridges way back when has also since come forward about it.

* I'd rather play THIS game over Skunny Kart any day of the week... :P

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