Next year, it will be the 30th anniversary for one of the worst game ever, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Also, AVGN will review it in his movie. But this Christmas is coming and nothing specials than this Xmas gift from 1982.
Well, Atari released this legendary bad game in December, 1982. Although they had learned that “quality is important than big names” (because they had released another bad game before, Pac-Man, which is bad and doesn’t resembles ANYTHING from arcade version), they thought that that quicker they made, the richer Atari is. But no! It became one of the worst game EVER since then. Why? Let’s find out.
This is the first thing you see on the screen. As you might know before, the object of this game is to find E.T.’s phone and contact the mothership (also avoid FBI and scientist). The number above E.T. logo is the mode of this game that you can choose in three modes. Number 1 is the original mode, which is, to be honest, hardest! Number 2 is similar but no scientist, so it’s easier because no more scientist that stole your pieces of phone. And, finally, Number 3 which is the easiest one because there’s no more FBI agent and scientist, you can find the phone easier.
Here it is, the most boring game screen ever. What’s it like if you have sit through and play the game which has 90% of green color? Although I play this through emulator and in number 3 mode, I think it’s quite boring to walk, levitate, walk again, accidentally fall in to the hole, levitate, accidentally fall in to the hole again, levitate, grab some candies (well, it’s a dot on the screen that makes you extra life),accidentally fall in to the hole again, and the number beneath the screen is run out, I’m death! What the f*ck?!?! These are the reason why this game sucks.
1) It’s Boring
I think I don’t have to say anything, I said it all above. It’s the same thing over and over and over again, especially the “falling into the hole”. OK, if that’s my intention, it’s not a problem. But many times when I levitate over the hole, I fall back again for no reason! It annoys me a lot and slowly turns into something boring.
2) It’s Complicated
As you can see in the screenshot, what’s the point of navigation arrow? Every time I follow it, it changes direction suddenly. Why? And what about those symbol, I know where the piece of phone is because of trial and error and watch this video.
Whoa! Actually I leaned a little bit more from this manual that tells me what symbols are. To cut a long story short, if you lost the manual or don’t know anything before you play, you’re in big trouble.
3) It’s Rushed-Produced
This is the most important reason. As I mentioned before, it was rushed-produced for 1982 Christmas, the season that many people buy gifts to their family, so Atari told programmer to programmed it in a limited time. And the result? Tons of cartridges were buried some where in New Mexico because lots of people returned it to Atari due to reasons above. But wait! It’s also the symbol of 1983 Video Game Crash because Atari loosed a lot of money to sold and promoted this game, which doesn’t made profit enough for the company. That’s the end of The Golden Age Of Atari and Nintendo will conquer the world years later.
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Although I can beat this game (well, in number 3 mode) by sit through this piece of, nevermind, it still better than many games in these days which is dark and has dull colors. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still playing nowadays games such as GTA series or NFS series but I think it’s like the weird thing, you know? When color comes to game console first time, we were excited and game companies try to put most vivid colors as possible, but nowadays they bored of those stuffs and try to make dark and sombre games.
Anyway, happy Christmas!
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Thanks:
- Wikipedia
- AtariAge for information and screenshots.
- Uploaders and filmmakers of these Youtube videos.
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P.S. I’m new at writing articles in English language. So if you spotted mistakes in this entry (like grammar or information). Please comment below at Comment Box.
Thank You.
