Secret message in ET?

[+johnnywc]

Don't laugh too hard, but I've actually gotten *hooked* on ET the last couple of days (finally was able to get ET rescued too). I read somewhere that the HSW's initials are somewhere in the game (with ET turning purple or something...).

 

Does anybody know anything about this?

 

Thanks,

[Joel D. Park]

I've definately heard about it. It's like get Reses Pieces and Use the flower in the pit. I dunno, might even be a Yar in there somewhere...

 

Anyone else have the link??

[Tempest]

From the DP Easter Egg page:

 

· HIDDEN MESSAGES: Collect all the phone pieces and give Elliot 7 pieces of candy. Then, revive the flower. It will change into a YAR and fly away (picture #1). Repeat this for the next round and the flower will change into Indy (picture #2). Repeat this a third time and the initials “HSW3” (for Howard Scott Warshaw) will appear (picture #3)! The “3” denotes the fact that E.T. is the 3rd game Warshaw made. {Howard Scott Warshaw}. Actually you don’t have to get all of the phone pieces for the trick to work. You only need to collect the “H” piece for the YAR, the “S” for Indy, and the “W” for the initials. There is also another (unplanned) method of revealing the initials (see ‘Candy’ section).

 

· HIDDEN MESSAGES: The phone pieces (while in the pit, not in your inventory) are in fact the letters “H”, “S”, and “W” (picture #4)! {Howard Scott Warshaw}

 

· HIDDEN MESSAGES: The initials of the graphic artist, Jerome M. Domurat, are hidden in the game, and appear in the upper right corner of the screen- unfortunately neither Domurat or Warshaw remember how to uncover them. A letter, supposedly from an “insider” at Atari, appeared in the January 1984 issue Electronic Games, page 8, (picture #9) revealing this. {verified by HSW & JD}

 

· When E.T. calls the spaceship, all the humans (Elliot, the scientist, and the FBI agent) return to their respective buildings.

 

· Falling into a well (and hitting the bottom) costs exactly 269 units of energy; extending your neck uses 19 units.

 

· There are subtle changes in E.T. color (hue), depending on his health condition. When 4,000 units of energy are left (and again at 2,000), he turns a lighter shade of green.

 

· A complete map, along with a copy of the manual, can be found at: http://www.dougphelps.com/ryan/ETMap.html {Ryan Phelps}

 

· Hold down SELECT and the FIRE button to hear a slow version of the theme music, along with a “techo” rhythm beat! {Tony Roy}

 

· There are plenty of mistakes in the manual! All known errors are explained below.

 

· BUG: Scoring - the ‘special points’ for collecting candy after the 31st piece in a round (1,000 each) don’t exist. Instead you’re given the same 770 points for each, as before. You’re penalized for collecting over 22 candy pieces, not 31, and you don’t lose it at the rate of 700 per piece. {SS}

 

· BUG: Candy - on rare occasions a round will offer more than 31 candy pieces. If you collect more than the 31 (which the manual says isn’t possible) the programmer’s initials will appear in the score counter, along with some strange graphic symbols, in the following round. E.T. will also turn black. Note- this wasn’t HSW planned method to revealing his initials! {Jeff Adkins}

 

Alternate method? - Play level 3. Get all the Reeses Pieces the game will let you. Call the ship and leave. When the game is over, press the fire button to restart (if you hit reset, the score will reset to 0, but if you use the fire button, the score stays). Play over and over again hoping to roll the score (at 1,000,000). When I got to ~850,000 and started another game, ET was purple, and there were funny symbols on the bar. {Russ Perry Jr.}

 

· BUG: Reviving - the manual states that Elliot can revive E.T. 3 times, plus one extra time every round (after reviving the flower) but the following method proves this wrong. Round 1: get E.T. “killed” 3 times. Revive the flower, then end the round. Round 2: you get one revive, plus one more if you revive the flower. This gives you a total of 5 revives- but this is not all you can get! Every flower revived actually carries over to the next round (if not used), giving you practically unlimited revives. {SS}

 

· BUG: Forgetful Elliot - for this trick, first make sure you don’t have all the phone pieces, and you have at least one revive left. Get 9 candies and call Elliot. Stand near a pit and wait for him to appear. When he takes the candies, fall into the pit, getting killed (your energy must be low enough). When Elliot revives you, levitate out of the pit. Elliot will keep the phone piece he’s suppose to give you, and you have to call him again to get it since it won’t be in any of the pits. {SS}

 

· BUG: The timer doesn’t count off all the “pieces” on the first revolution.

 

· BUG: Landing pad – (1) The Left Difficulty switch (which is supposed to determine the landing conditions with Elliot) doesn’t work. Elliot can’t be present when the spaceship arrives, regardless of the setting. The ship will always crash down on Elliot, locking up the game (picture #5). (2) Extend E.T.'s head just as the mother ship arrives. E.T. will be too tall and his feet will stick out the bottom of the ship as it flies away (picture #6). {Russ Perry Jr.}

 

· BUG: Pits – (1) When E.T. falls into a pit, press the FIRE button just as his feet touch the bottom. If timed right, his feet and sometimes part of his body will be stuck in the ground. Press the button again to get him out (picture #7). {SS} (2) On the screen with 5 pits, go to one of the two left-most pits and fall in. Levitate out and center E.T. over the pit and push LEFT. Before appearing on the adjacent screen you’ll first appear on the other side of the first screen. {SS} (3) Let. E.T. run out of energy while levitating out of a pit. He’ll die in mid-air and fall back to the ground like a rock. {SS} (4) When E.T. dies in a well, his body will float above the ground. {SS}

 

· BUG: Flower power – (1) If E.T. dies while reviving either a live or dead flower, his body will float higher (than usual) above the ground (picture #. When Elliot revives him, he’ll still remain in the air. {Russ Perry Jr.} (2) If E.T. dies while reviving a live flower, sometimes Elliot will not show and it appears as though E.T. “eats” the flower (it disappears). {SS}

 

· FRYING: Fry until E.T. falls in a well, then press SELECT and game "0" will appear. Notice that the numbers are in black. None of the power zones are present, except for a few “Call Elliot" zones (who is not in game 0). {Terence Micharoni}

 

Tempest

[Osbo]

Tempest, what's the page link with the Easter Eggs pictures? (DP Easter Egg page)

Thanks!!!

[Hakogame 箱亀]

I found it. http://www.digitpress.com/eastereggs/26et.htm

[Hakogame 箱亀]

Just wondering, has anyone ever thought of tweaking the source code to E.T. and making a more balanced and enjoyable game. I think everything needed to make E.T. a really great game is already in the rom, maybe it just needs a little help to show it's full potential. Anyone?

[NE146]

hmm ET never did seem too "difficult" but rather more annoying than anything else. What kind of changes/tweaks do you think could be made?

 

I know the biggest complaint probably everyone has is falling back in pits while trying to get out of them, but you just have to make sure to only push left or right when exiting them....I think. (my memory may be a little foggy) Anyway, it's easy enough..

 

Do you think perhaps the doctor/fbi agent guys chasing you could be made less persistant?

[Joel D. Park]

You could cut down the number or at least make all the wells much smaller. That would make a big difference. That way you would only fall in the well if you needed to.

[+Random Terrain]

Wow! Finally an explanation for the black E.T.!!

 

I didn't know that E.T. Easter egg page existed, thanks Tempest!

 

Here's the part that that I'm talking about, "on rare occasions a round will offer more than 31 candy pieces. If you collect more than the 31 (which the manual says isn’t possible) the programmer’s initials will appear in the score counter, along with some strange graphic symbols, in the following round. E.T. will also turn black. Note- this wasn’t HSW planned method to revealing his initials!"

 

Back when the game was new, I found the famous "Yar" on my own, but I didn't know how I did it. I kept trying to do it again, but I never could.

 

That same week while trying to find the Yar in an all day E.T. marathon, I finished one game and when the next game started, E.T. was black and the score did just what the above quote describes (strange initials and symbols). I think the initials and symbols changed as I moved E.T. around the screen.

 

The "black E.T./strange score" was the second coolest thing to ever happen to me while playing any game.

 

I wondered for about 18 years if the black E.T. episode could be reproduced, or if it was a one time glitch. Now, thanks to Tempest mentioning that Easter egg page, not one, but just about all of the brain melting mysteries of E.T. have been solved.

 

It's nice to know that just about any question that you may have will eventually be answered somewhere on the internet.

[khryssun]

great !

I had a yar flying one time, I didnt know what I made to get it... so far

 

thanks tempest

[NE146]

I know exactly how you guys feel.. I found that Yar as a kid and could never find it again after I tried and tried too.. until I began to wonder if it was a glitch that I mistook for a YAR graphic..

 

Like you, I finally did find it on the internet only a few years ago (after emailing the editor of the 2600 Connection who graciously pointed it out to me) but man, it was SUCH a justification and closure to something that was bugging me for years and years...I KNEW I wasn't smoking crack! ;P

[NE146]

hahahaha I just get finished typing the above and resumed surfing around.. look at what I stumbled upon. What a coincidence

 

http://www.classicgaming.com/mailbag/mail177/

 

(scroll down to the last letter at the very bottom of the page ). Too bad the editor was such a clueless butthead in his reply

[+Random Terrain]

Thanks for the link NE146 (and no, I'm not asking).

 

About that link...Just say no? Maybe the Easter eggs don't really exist and each E.T. cartridge was secretly covered in LSD.

[Nukey Shay]

BTW all the secrets of E.T. have not yet been discovered...Domurat's signature graphic still needs a solution. This signature is also in Raiders...but nobody yet has claimed either of them. I had a theory that it had been removed in the released cartidge, but Scott at Digipress says that it had been stumbled on at least twice in the E.T. cart (unfortunately, without a solution). I had been trying to find similar m/l routines between the two games...but it's an uphill battle without a labelled disassembly to work with.

[liquid_sky]

Yeah, i agree.. the new "editor" of classicgaming is a major a-hole.. at least when william did the site the comments had some humor and not just spite... kinda reminds me of the lady off the weakest link.. I remember back when i had e.t. i saw the yars fly off, it was late at night and i was thinking woah i need some sleep.. now i realize i could have stayed up and played anyway

[Scott Stilphen]

Yep, Jerome's initials in E.T. are still hidden. Two people emailed me, saying they stumbled upon it years ago, but don't remember the exact method to reveal it. One said it may have depended on the number of candies E.T. had. The other mentioned it happened on a certain screen with one of the other characters present. It could be a combination of both. At this point, it seems about the only way to uncover the method (for both E.T. and Raiders) is to disassemble the code (which I wish I knew how to do..)

 

Anybody up to the challenge?

[Nukey Shay]

A word of caution...both of these programs (although being pretty efficient) are extremely messy on the inside. There are instructions that put values into registers for no apparent reason, and some lines are just plain bizzare (like jumping into the middle of an instruction, where the argument of an instruction suddenly becomes an instruction in itself). If there are any programs that could be called a work of mad genius, these two should be on that list IMO. He sure did a good job at hiding it (even though there was no practical way for the average gamer to examine the code at the time they were written).

[keerad]

I found the Yar today and was surprised

[Ferris]

What I want to know is who is HIRO? On the front of the box, the name HIRO appears in the bottom right of the gameart on the box. It also appears on Centipede, even on the 7800 version. I'm assuming this is the artist's name obviously, but what is the deal with this? Anyone know?

[pitfallaimee]

"· HIDDEN MESSAGES: The initials of the graphic artist, Jerome M. Domurat, are hidden in the game as well. On game #1, give Elliot 1 candy. Then, whenever you both are on the 8-pit screen, the letters “JD” will appear on the top status bar (picture #9). A letter (supposedly from an “insider” at Atari) appeared in the January 1984 issue of Electronic Games, page 8, (picture #10), which was the first known mention of any tricks for this game. {Ronnie Dingman (StanJr) and Thomas Jentzsch}"

 

http://www.digitpress.com/eastereggs/26et.htm

[StanJr]

Both Thomas and I discovered it (nearly at the same time with different methods).

 

Here is the link to the old discussion where I explain EXACLTY how to do this. The JD initials in ET are NOT missing!

 

http://atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p...=initials#55692

[NE146]

Gawdamn this is an old thread.. I read my post above and though when the heck did I type this Friggin 2 years ago!

[Nukey Shay]

The JD initials in ET are NOT missing!  

[/url]

"Missing" as in "officially undiscovered"...look at the date of the posts in this thread There was some speculation whether the JD signature was removed in the final version of the cart before you and Thomas changed all that (excellent work, BTW). And the Digitpress EE page now includes that solution as well. Other strange occurances (such as collecting rollover candy pieces or turning ET black) have nothing to do with the secrets, and are simply bugs in the program.

[StanJr]

yeah, Nukey. I didn't notice the date on the posts until NE146 said something. DOH!

 

Oh well, never hurts to pimp oneself over, even years later!