Should I play E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)?

[Van Halbgott]

I hear this game was horrible, so I thought it would be funny if I asked about playing it for real on my 2600.

 

This is supposed to be a funny post.

[NE146]

Sure why not? Just make sure to start at Game #3 if you've never played it before. 

[Bakasama]

The game, looking back 40 years past, the gameplay feels like offshoot of Adventure or Haunted House.

[Atarian7]

I have heard from some people that it's a good game once you figure out how to play it.  

 

I've tried but those damn pits get me every time!

[bigfriendly]

It's worth playing through at least once.

[bikeguychicago]

58 minutes ago, Atarian7 said:

I have heard from some people that it's a good game once you figure out how to play it.  

 

I've tried but those damn pits get me every time!

There's a hacked version of the game that improves the hit detection between ET and the screen elements. This version makes it harder to fall into the pits unintentionally. If you have a flash cart, you may want to load it on there and give it a try. 

Edited July 3 by bikeguychicago

[4ever2600]

Van, depends on what generation you are, gen x, millennial?

[Van Halbgott]

2 hours ago, 4ever2600 said:

Van, depends on what generation you are, gen x, millennial?

Millennial (2001)?

[4ever2600]

Oh yeah. For sure play it.  We want you to suffer like we did... 🤣

[Big Player]

Be sure to read the manual before you play it.

 

https://atariage.com/manual_html_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=157

[Impaler_26]

Sure, go ahead and give it a whirl! I like E.T. and i still play it from time to time.

 

[Raiu]

Despite its reputation, it's not the worst game of all time.  It's not even the worst Atari 2600 game of all time (I think Froggo's Karate is usually given that distinction).  I would say it's not even the worst first-party Atari 2600 game of all time (Swordquest: Fireworld has it beat).

 

But, yeah, definitely read the manual (which explains how E.T.'s powers work — i.e., what all those symbols at the top of the screen mean), read the tip sheet (which explains exactly how to get out of the wells), play Game 3 first (it's the easiest variation, with no FBI Agent or Mad Scientist to bother you while you learn the basics — Game 2 has just the FBI Agent, and Game 1 has both of them), and, if you can, play the "Fixing E.T." hack (in which case, play Game 4 first, since it adds an extra game variation with just the Scientist but not the FBI agent).

[+jeremiahjt]

On 7/3/2024 at 1:02 PM, NE146 said:

Sure why not? Just make sure to start at Game #3 if you've never played it before. 

And make sure the left difficulty switch is in the b position. You do not want Elliot messing up the landing. And make sure the right difficulty switch is in the b position if playing on games one or two.

[ChopperCommando]

The people that think it's "horrible" never read the instructions.  It also has a bad rap because it was one of the last games released before the Video Game Crash.  The pseudo-wonky pit mechanics are another thing people complain about but once you get the gist of how it works, it's fine.

 

It is a perfectly playable game and in my opinion actually one of the better 2600 games out there.  It's just been built up into an urban legend. 

[BillDMatt]

I think most of the hate towards it came because everyone just kind of joined in on the chorus,  once you get going it's actually pretty fun.  I still remember as kid it was like a group effort to figure it out etc and I never screamed YESS so loud for any other game as when I first got the countdown for the spaceship .   I say play and enjoy. 

[NE146]

This has been said a thousand times in these forums since the beginning, but as someone from the camp of kids who could beat E.T. no problem as a kid BITD, for me the the game isn't horrible, but not exactly big fun either. i.e. In my opinion probably scores a 6/10 in the 2600 library... at BEST a 7/10 on a good day. 

[zzip]

On 7/3/2024 at 1:58 PM, Van Halbgott said:

I hear this game was horrible, so I thought it would be funny if I asked about playing it for real on my 2600.

 

This is supposed to be a funny post.

It was a massive sales disappointment because Atari manufactured millions of carts, expecting that they'd sell a lot of 2600 units to get the game.   It still sold over a million units, making it one of the best-selling 2600 games.   But there were rumors all the millions of extra carts got buried in a landfill

 

As for the game being awful...   A lot of us who got it back in 1982 didn't think it was terrible-  at least not compared to what else was being produced on the console at that time.

 

But over time the landfill rumors caused the game to become an urban legend.

 

First it became "the game was so bad it had to be buried in a landfill"  it wasn't enough to be overproduced.

 

Then it became "the game was so bad, it single-handedly caused the 1983 video game crash!"  As if people stopped buying games for Colecovision, Intellivision and going to arcades because E.T. existed only on the 2600.  I could never figure out how that worked!   Ironically,  Atari was the only console maker to survive the 1983 crash.  So if you could release a product for your own hardware platform that is so bad it destroys the competition, that's a pretty cool trick and should be taught in business school 

 

Finally it became "ET was the worst game ever made!"

 

The landfill rumors eventually turned out to be true, but there were lots of other games buried with it.

[zzip]

On 7/6/2024 at 1:53 PM, NE146 said:

This has been said a thousand times in these forums since the beginning, but as someone from the camp of kids who could beat E.T. no problem as a kid BITD, for me the the game isn't horrible, but not exactly big fun either. i.e. In my opinion probably scores a 6/10 in the 2600 library... at BEST a 7/10 on a good day. 

Sounds about right,  I much preferred Raiders of the Lost Ark, but I will play ET from time to time.   Which is more than I can say for many other 2600 games where the gameplay doesn't hold up.

[davyK]

It's nowhere close to being the worst game on 2600.  It's fine. The collision detection on the pits is counter intuitive which is probably its biggest issue. But if you figure that out it's a decent adventure game.

Edited July 10 by davyK

[Flyindrew]

7 minutes ago, davyK said:

It's nowhere close to being the worst game on 2600.  It's fine. The collision detection on the pits is counter intuitive which is probably its biggest issue. But if you figure that out it's a decent adventure game.

Exactly. Even when I got the game way back in 1982 I didnt think it was a bad game. ET doesnt even come within 100 miles of being put in the category of worst games for the 2600.