Comment on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - Bad Game Hall of Fame
JoMiran@lemmy.ml 4 weeks ago
The E.T. game being “the worst game” thing is all myth. It was a tremendous flop, but it had nothing to do with game quality. I’d say that 90% of Atari 2600 games were objectively bad and E.T. was amongst the 10% of good ones, but they over estimated demand, overhyped it, and sold it during the holidays, which means extended and relaxed return policies. That resulted in too many units manufactured and too many units returned. Thus the landfill full of cartridges.
Well, the landfill isn’t just ET carts. The lack of quality was very much the problem, and yeah it extended across the entire ecosystem for Atari because they let shovelware run rampant when there wasn’t sufficient review platforms/magazines (at least in tbe US where the crash occurred).
This is partly how Nintendo was able to rise so quickly: The Nintendo Seal of Approval and how to get licenced to make games for their system was a huge deal to QA at the time.
I just finished the audiobook from the guy who made the game. He made that game in 5 weeks. He also created one of the most profitable games as well. He has games on both ends of the spectrum. Should read his novel. Once Upon a Atari.
zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks ago
I disagree. It was not fine, it was crappy game that was probably most kids first licensed home video game for the biggest movie of the year. Everyone hated it. There is a reason that I somehow ended up with multiple copies of the games. Friends actually left them at my house and no one would admit to the extra game being theirs!
That being said, I don’t think it is the worst game of all time. At most, it is the worst game on the 2600 and even that is a stretch. I’d argue Superman 64 for the N64 is a worse game by all measures.
MajorHavoc@programming.dev 4 weeks ago
I’ve spent some unfortunate time with both, and can confirm. Superman 64 is worse by a pretty large margin.
E.T. is genuinely playable, after a needlessly awful learning curve. Superman 64 still continues to suck even for (shudder) players who have put in the necessary time to learn to play it.
zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks ago
I still disagree that it was a decent game, it perhaps could have been if given more time (it was famously made in less than 6 weeks), but building this frustratiing POS on the biggest movie of the day made it a kick in the balls to every excited kid, myself included.
MajorHavoc@programming.dev 4 weeks ago
That’s a fair point. I enjoyed the game later out of curiosity - but it wasn’t a “this is your only Christmas gift” kick in the gut, for me.