This is great !

[Level42]

[somunny]

Are any of those guys in the video old enough to have actually played the game when it was released?

[Level42]

Probably not....still fun though !

It's my most hated game ever

[somunny]

I agree, it's entertaining.  I just wonder why so much effort goes into further sensationalising an  already over-sensationalised game.  Maybe they're still trying to get the message out to the un-learned - stay away from this game!

I remember playing it when it came out and that it was pretty lame.  I also remember quite a few other 80's blockbusters that were translated into awful 2600 games (Raiders Of The Lost Ark anyone?).  I just don't dwell on it.  For me, the memories focus on the good games, not the crappy ones.

My point in the previous post being that if you weren't old enough to remember having this tripe shoved down your throat in '82, what's your reason for making the 'I Hate E.T. 2600" video.  How were they duped?

Ah well, points to them for making something that the older peeps can appreciate.

Steve

[ahofle]

I never understood all the hate towards that game.  Yeah it was typical crappy Atari graphics and was pretty difficult, but it was a better game than many other Atari games before it.  It at least had multiple screens and a mission that could be completed instead of the same repeating screen over and over again.  I'd say atari pacman was my least favorite game.  I even made fun of it back when it came out when I was a kid.  I mean they couldn't even make the effort to turn pacman's head when going up and down?  LOL

Funny video though. 
I wonder how they collected all those cartridges?  There's no way they would be that pristine after being buried for decades.

[gamecreature]

My guess is that they're props created specifically for the video. Shouldn't be too hard to repro the sticker and I'm guessing a clever propmaster could figure out a way to make a fake cartridge and mass produce it.

On a slightly related subject, have you ever noticed that the quality of the game is inversely proportional to the popularity of the IP it was licensed from? Congo and Waterworld were duds in the box office, but they were really fun pins...

[Pasqualz]

Here's the real question. . . Is the story in the video true? Did Atari end up throwing out all of those carts??? All in all, it's a pretty good video. What's the band name?

[alexandro98]

Here's the real question. . . Is the story in the video true? Did Atari end up throwing out all of those carts??? ...

Dont know, but its very possible.  They made something like 5 million ET cartridges. 
I think its very possible that they dumped the cartridges in a New Mexico Landfill.
But dont go to New Mexico and expect to find to find any ET cartridges.
If you have ever been to a Landfill you have seen those large Caterpillar tractors with those huge spiked wheels.  They use those to move the mounds of trash around but the PRIMARY reason for them is to compact the trash and get rid of any air.  Basically, they are a huge movable trash compactor.
So if any ET cartridges where dumped they would be crushed to get rid of any air in them by those tractors.

Did a quick google search and found this wiki about them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._(video_game)

Seems like no one knows 100 percent for sure but it seems likely.

[DaveMMR]

Here's the real question. . . Is the story in the video true? Did Atari end up throwing out all of those carts??? All in all, it's a pretty good video. What's the band name?

Yes, very true.

http://www.snopes.com/business/market/atari.asp

It was for some quite time a rumor, but was revealed to have happened.  But these guys weren't going to be able to dig them up as they were crushed and buried beneath concrete.

I could see the fascination with this story (Atari was big, and all it took was one bad decision too many to topple it all), but I don't see making it the basis of a music video.

[gamecreature]

Damn, beat me to it!

[alexandro98]

 
Haha!
Beat you all! =P

[Level42]

My point in the previous post being that if you weren't old enough to remember having this tripe shoved down your throat in '82, what's your reason for making the 'I Hate E.T. 2600" video.  How were they duped?

What part indicates that they actualy hate the game ? Why else would they dig up all of them and play them all (as is suggested by the huge stack in the end) ?

Come

[ahofle]

My point in the previous post being that if you weren't old enough to remember having this tripe shoved down your throat in '82, what's your reason for making the 'I Hate E.T. 2600" video.  How were they duped?

B.t.w. if the story's are true ( and this may be a relief for ahofle) there should also be 5 million Pac Man carts there. (although they did sell 7 million of them).

Haha, yeah I couldn't believe when I read that on that Snopes link from DaveMMR!  Well I guess I can believe it.  That one had to be up there with "Daikatana" as the most highly anticipated game release disappointments ever.
At any rate, thx for sharing the video -- I enjoyed it.   

[DarkBubble]

God I hate that game.  And yes, I'm old enough to have seen the movie in theaters, played the game at release, and met E.T. at the grocery store.  He gave me Reese's Pieces.

The best 2600 movie-based games?  Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

[somunny]

Come

[DaveMMR]

On the game itself: remember that this was the very first game to be based on a movie, and totaly screwed in development and marketeers had taken over because they "knew" what would sell. Little did I know then when I played ET that this was a bad mistake long to be repeated until present day.

Not really the first game based on a movie.  Off the top of my head, "Raiders of the Lost Arc" predates it.  I need to check the dates but I think Tron also came out before E.T., but I could be wrong. 

It wasn't so much 'overdeveloped' as it was 'underdeveloped'.  A single programmer threw this together in 5 weeks (even though he was given six).  It was just one of those 'contractual obligation' things.  The brass just wanted something to sell at Christmas and this was at a time when Atari though they could put "s**t in a cartridge and still sell millions" (actual quote from Warner exec). 

Yeah, Atari was a great company until the suits came.

[NightGod]

I remember playing it when it came out and that it was pretty lame.  I also remember quite a few other 80's blockbusters that were translated into awful 2600 games (Raiders Of The Lost Ark anyone?).  I just don't dwell on it.  For me, the memories focus on the good games, not the crappy ones.

Oddly enough, I have some really good memories of the Raiders of the Lost Ark game-a friend and I used to stay up till 2-3 in the morning playing it and trying to figure out how to beat it (damn you tetse flies!). Was cool when we finally figured it all out and managed to beat it-it was really the first console-RPGish game any of us had played.

[Dreamwriter]

Yeah, Raiders of the Lost Ark was one of the best Atari games, man, what's the deal?  As for ET, the funny thing is they manufactured *more* cartridges than there were systems to play them on - Atari apparently felt that the game would sell systems.

[rescue161]

I'd say atari pacman was my least favorite game.  I even made fun of it back when it came out when I was a kid.  I mean they couldn't even make the effort to turn pacman's head when going up and down?  LOL

EXACTLY!!!  What was the deal with the sounds of Pac-Man?  And what about the "side" doors on the top and the bottom???  Did the creators ever play the original game before they put that POS together???

Yes, I remember when my younger sister wanted the ET game for Christmas - What a let-down.  It was still better than Pac-Man.  My vote is that Pac-Man is the worst recreation of an arcade game EVER!

[Level42]

Yes, I remember when my younger sister wanted the ET game for Christmas - What a let-down.  It was still better than Pac-Man.  My vote is that Pac-Man is the worst recreation of an arcade game EVER!

Yeah Pac Man was bad, but Donkey Kong was definitly the worst arcade "conversion". Only two levels, some blurbs representing mario and kong, impossible game control and....well a desaster !!!

But this one was made bad because they wanted it to be bad. This way, Coleco/CBS could show the gap between the Colecovision and the 2600 even more clearly.

I think the best DK conversion WAS on Atari however, being the 8-bit version. I still love that "licensed by Nintendo" on the label on the cartridge and on-screen.
And what about that intermission on the levels menu !?!? Great !
This game made me buy an Atari 600XL and this machine taught me most of my computer knowledge, and I still have that advantage of knowing the BASICS of a computer today.

Which reminds me of another terrible mistake by Atari.....ignoring Nintendo and missing out on the "NES" deal.... ahhh but there's so many more. How about Nolan Bushnell not believing in Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak's homecomputer project....(Apple !).....and Nolan's fault of selling Atari to Warner, or, or,or. On the other hand, it's always easy to judge those things afterwards....

I love Atari however, they kicked it off, they had brilliant games, the 2600 was a revolution and the 8-bit series was superb over anything available at the time. Even the ST brought the "Mac for the masses" and I used it for a very long time, before I had to bow for MS.

OK, I'm drifting off....