Have a burning desire for your anti-ET message to be heard?

[+Random Terrain]

Not that long ago, I noticed in my log file that a post in some rinky dink little forum was linking to my pro-E.T. section. As usual, there was some ignorant little doofus putting down the game without ever playing it. I finally understand that I shouldn't waste my time replying to stuff like that in forums. I should just spend that time working on my web site and trying to make it better, but from the exchange I had with a 'moderator' there, I did learn something valuable. According to him, the world is clamoring to have their anti-E.T. messages added to my web site, but I will not let them. That's news to me. I don't think I have ever received any usable anti-E.T. e-mails.

 

If anyone here has read the manual and tips sheet, played E.T. more than once, and still hates it, please either post your message here or contact me using my e-mail form and I will add it to a new 'I Hate E.T.' page if I get at least three good ones. Be sure to tell me what name you want to use such as a user name, a nickname, or your real name. Please keep it about the game and leave out things such as you wanting to violate me with a wire brush or how much you want to have sex with my dead grandmother's eye socket.

 

Thanks.

Edited December 17, 2007 by Random Terrain

[shep]

I hate E.T. because EGM told me to!!!1!

[shank]

I was on your web page and i think it's cool. I remember playing ET, and it's a very challenging game! of course i havn't played it since the 80's! This is the game that i'm going to go buy next, now that i own a 2600 again. Why does everyone hate the ET game? I think it's a brilliant adventure game! And i love the ET movie as well!

[Recycled]

I was on your web page and i think it's cool. I remember playing ET, and it's a very challenging game! of course i havn't played it since the 80's! This is the game that i'm going to go buy next, now that i own a 2600 again. Why does everyone hate the ET game? I think it's a brilliant adventure game! And i love the ET movie as well!

 

 

I think it has nice graphics too!!

[NovaXpress]

Most people hate ET because the pits are the pits.

[Room 34]

Most people hate ET because the pits are the pits.

Right.

 

I never got into E.T., but it's certainly not the worst game for the console. (That said, it, along with Pac-Man, provided a nice pair of disappointments in 1982, just as things were REALLY picking up steam. People expected more from Atari. But E.T. is nowhere near as bad as about 90% of the third-party tripe that was appearing on the scene around the same time.)

[NovaXpress]

Aside from the annoying pit mechanic, it's an impressive game. There's nothing fun about levitating yourself over and over again. I don't see any other problems with it.

[awsomo3000]

is ET woth buying, i once herd on tv it sucks balls so i never picked it up when i had the chance, should i have?

[hex65000]

Since its so plentiful you can probably find one in the wild for a dollar (or less). And really, I'm sure you've spent more money on something you didn't like in the past. A trivial outlay just makes the risk more palatable if you aren't impressed. Do go through the manual first though, it'll help the game make more sense.

 

I did admittedly play ET a lot when I was kid. It did not age well to me, but still. I've blown more money on dumber things...

 

Hex.

[ Some might call it keepin' it 'real'... I call it perspective. ]

[Room 34]

is ET woth buying, i once herd on tv it sucks balls so i never picked it up when i had the chance, should i have?

If you don't mind getting it as a loose PCB, PM me your address and I'll mail one to you... no charge.

 

[+Random Terrain]

If things keep on like this, I guess I won't have to make that 'I Hate E.T.' page. Again, without getting into an argument about why I think you are wrong, I will post thoughtful 'I Hate E.T.' messages on a new page that I will create if I just get two good messages. I have received no e-mails about this so far.

[keilbaca]

E.T. isn't bad at all. The reason why they are claimed to be bad is because E.T. and Pac-man were highly anticipated games. Another words, if Pac-Man was named something else (it is a good game, just the name killed it), and if E.T. was not well, E.T. and if it wasn't so hyped up, then I don't think there would have been a crash.

[Clint Thompson]

Hey man.. don't hate just because you can't levitate.

[Troy_Whelan]

Random Terrain,

 

If you start a web page to address the "I hate ET" email, you might want to include a prelude addressing why people are inclined to hate ET. Many of the people who hate the game have probably never played it, or they are younger gamers who did not grow up with games such as this are are not inclined to like any of them. HSW did an interview where he stated that the game was released prematurely due to marketing deadlines and how he was not finished with it or satisfied with it. Others have associated this game with the "Video Game Crash". Many people hate the game for these reasons even if they never played it, while others are simply frustrated with it for the pits. Personally, I do not hate the game but I did find the pits rather frustrating. Still a playable / enjoyable game.

 

The web page addressing this issue should include some background on each individual posting a message: 1) Have you played the game, 2) Did you play it when it originally came out?, 3) How old are you, 4) Why exactly do you hate it?

 

Troy

[TheRedEye]

It's not a terrible game. It just wasn't the right game. Remember that E.T. was a high profile holiday release aimed mostly at a younger crowd. Though you may love it, and you may find the gameplay deep and engaging, it is not easily accessible by any means. You couldn't, on Christmas Day, simply pop in the cartridge and start having fun, like say Pac-Man or Space Invaders. It had a steep learning curve, and was fairly frustrating on the onset, so a lot of consumers didn't bother learning the ins and outs. Think about it from a parent's perspective: you bought a game based on E.T. for your 5-year-old, confident that the difficulty would cater to his capacity. The kid finds it too hard and, after maybe an hour of running around and trying to figure out what the hell he's doing, he gets frustrated and starts playing with his Transformers instead. What are you going to do? Let that $50 purchase sit there and collect dust? Hell no! You're going to take it back to the shop and get him a different game.

 

I agree that the mainstream slams against E.T. are completely misguided and full of historical inaccuracies, but to praise E.T. as a good game without bringing up these points is just as ignorant.

[Jess Ragan]

E.T. isn't bad... just boring. It reminds me a lot of that other alien game that encourages you to wander around aimlessly, Toe Jam and Earl for the Genesis.

 

I don't harbor any ill will toward Howard Scott Warshaw for making E.T... it wasn't like it was his idea, and he more than made up for it with Yar's Revenge and Raiders of the Lost Ark, one of the most complex 2600 games and one the most faithful film adaptations on any of the older systems.

 

JR

 

P.S. Did you know that Steven Spielburg, in his infinite lack of wisdom, wanted E.T. to be a rip-off of a more successful video game? He eventually got his wish when the game was released for the TI 99/4A... E.T. on that system was a Frogger clone with characters from the film!

[awsomo3000]

is ET woth buying, i once herd on tv it sucks balls so i never picked it up when i had the chance, should i have?

If you don't mind getting it as a loose PCB, PM me your address and I'll mail one to you... no charge.

 

pm sent

[Brad2600]

E.T. isn't bad... just boring.  It reminds me a lot of that other alien game that encourages you to wander around aimlessly, Toe Jam and Earl for the Genesis.

 

In other words, the kind of game that a stoner would enjoy.

 

 

E.T is horrible mainly due to the pits. I can't even bother with it for 5 minutes before turning it off in digust.

[+Random Terrain]

The web page addressing this issue should include some background on each individual posting a message:  1) Have you played the game, 2) Did you play it when it originally came out?, 3) How old are you, 4) Why exactly do you hate it?

Those are good questions. Might be useless though if there is no reason to create the 'I Hate E.T.' page.

 

 

I agree that the mainstream slams against E.T. are completely misguided and full of historical inaccuracies, but to praise E.T. as a good game without bringing up these points is just as ignorant.

I thought I covered that good enough on this page:

 

http://www.randomterrain.com/a2m/r7et.html

 

An Advanced Adventure

 

I understand that many people who hate the game were little kids when E.T. came out, so they had trouble with the wells. It's not their fault because kids of 1982 usually weren't as advanced as the kids of the 1990s and beyond who seem to master the most complicated games before they can even tie their own shoes.

 

E.T. is a fairly complex adventure game, so making it seem like a little kid's game was a mistake. Even teens and adults would have a hard time with this game until they played it a few times. Atari did include a nice manual and a tips sheet, but most of the kids who were old enough to read probably ignored that material and started playing the game immediately. Since E.T. is an adventure game, you can't just slap the cartridge in and start playing. You must read the manual and tips sheet that Atari provided or you won't know how to play the game and you'll become frustrated.

[TheRedEye]

I agree that the mainstream slams against E.T. are completely misguided and full of historical inaccuracies, but to praise E.T. as a good game without bringing up these points is just as ignorant.

I thought I covered that good enough on this page:

 

Well, granted, I did miss that, but I also wasn't specifically targeting you with that comment.

[pinball22]

I don't have an anti-E.T. message either.

I was 8 or 9 when E.T. came out and I got it the first month or two it was out, I think.

At first I did find it frustrating... I fell in pits, got grabbed by the scientist or FBI guy,

couldn't find the call-home zone, etc. But then I played for a little while on game 1, got the hang of it,

and got to where I could consistently win on game 3 and really enjoyed it.

 

So I think most people who hate ET either haven't played it or didn't put the time into it to get past

the initial frustration. The fact that there's so much of the frustration factor keeps me from saying it's a really great game,

but I definitely think it's a good one.

[rockman_x_2002]

Aside from the annoying pit mechanic, it's an impressive game. There's nothing fun about levitating yourself over and over again. I don't see any other problems with it.

 

Here I agree. E.T. isn't bad, exactly. Just that the pits are annoying. If you had something better as an obstacle than falling into pits, or at least something that gave you a fighting chance around pits (for instance, an instant levitation that lasted for a split second to give you enough time to escape without fully falling in), well then you'd have a half decent title. Maybe not the best, but certainly not the worst.

 

As I said, E.T. isn't bad. Just certain parts of the game are annoying to the point of frustration.

[Jess Ragan]

E.T. isn't bad... just boring.  It reminds me a lot of that other alien game that encourages you to wander around aimlessly, Toe Jam and Earl for the Genesis.

 

In other words, the kind of game that a stoner would enjoy.

 

HA HA! Oh man, it's so true. I can imagine people lighting some reefer and playing Toe Jam and Earl for hours on end. What would be immeasurably boring to a sober person would be the most fantastic experience in the universe to someone high on pot.

 

JR

[+Random Terrain]

If you had something better as an obstacle than falling into pits. . .

Yeah, like how about changing the wells into trees or boulders? Instead of falling in a well, the next screen would be the back of the tree or boulder. There would be no levitating, you'd just walk or run out of there to the left or right.

 

 

. . . or at least something that gave you a fighting chance around pits (for instance, an instant levitation that lasted for a split second to give you enough time to escape without fully falling in). . .

I'm probably misunderstanding you, but if I'm not, we pretty much already have that. As soon as you go to fall into a well, you can hit and hold the fire button to catch yourself in mid-air, then push up to levitate right back out. That saves a lot of time and frustration. The only reason to go all the way down to the bottom of a well is when an object is in there. Even then, I catch myself before I hit bottom and lower E.T. on my own because it saves energy.