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back to article It's the WORST game ever, just pulled from a desert DUMP ... now ET can be yours for $500

In a world ... when video games were invading every home ... a legendary American company set out to create ... the most lucrative console game of all time ... It failed ... horribly ... and set the gaming industry on a path ... of annihilation. Atari Inc's 1982 game E.T. The Extra Terrestrial for its 2600 console bombed so …

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  1. RNixon
    Facepalm

    Don't blame the game for bad management.

    ET is not the worst game ever.

    It's bad, certainly. But I've played far worse. The Akira game, for instance, makes ET look .. well, not good, but at least mediocre.

    And at least it was possible to both win AND lose ET, which puts it one up on Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing.

    3 0 Reply
    1. GregC
      Reply Icon

      Re: Don't blame the game for bad management.

      Ah, Big Rigs. Now that really is a contender for worst game ever. I remember hearing how bad it was, not believing a game could be released that was really that bad, and then trying it. And it really was that bad, and then some.

      1 0 Reply
    2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Don't blame the game for bad management.

      And at least it was possible to both win AND lose ET,

      Agreed. I did both, playing it on the 2600 emulator on my Colecovision. Good times. Well, times, anyway.

      which puts it one up on Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing.

      Yes. There's a Cracked article, which I can't be bothered to look up in order to link to, listing several contenders for Worst Video Game. Big Rigs is there, and some other doozies.

      0 0 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Cool....

    ...need to dig out my copy from the loft somewhere. The again, finding them in the desert was probably an easier job.

    4 0 Reply
  3. Steve Jackson

    Mine still works.

    0 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Or just get your ET cartridge, put some sand in the box and sell it as being one of those dug up.

    The game wasn't as bad as people think, you need to RTFM to play it.

    Read this for an explanation of why this game is better than people think:

    http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/#whyhate

    8 0 Reply
    1. Dave 126 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      The same site as AC has linked to also has fixes for E.T, if you want to roll up your sleeves and play with a HEX editor:

      http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/

      1 0 Reply
    2. Professor Clifton Shallot
      Reply Icon

      Excellent article. Thanks for the link.

      0 1 Reply
    3. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      That link was an enjoyable read, and it does seem to explain why people found the game so unplayable.

      0 0 Reply
      1. graeme leggett Silver badge
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        Ditto, found the explanation and fixes interesting, though the code was all greek to me.

        0 0 Reply
      2. Steve the Cynic
        Reply Icon

        "it does seem to explain why people found the game so unplayable."

        I'll admit to being one of the people who actually played this all the way to the end. I fell in holes (but I learned how to do it when *I* wanted to), and I found flowers. Hell, I even found a flower once in a hole that, instead of doing what the flowers normally did, turned into a Yar (protagonist from Yar's Revenge, a sort of pixellated fly) and flew up the screen. And before you ask, no, I couldn't tell you how I did it. That was more than 30 years ago, and I only did it the once, so I have no idea what pattern of activities caused it. Overall, though, I'd say it wasn't such a bad game, aside from being a trifle repetitive (and these days I play MMORPGs, so I can't complain too much about repetitive activites...). And I consequently don't get the way people pile so much hate on this game.

        (I also found the dot in the 2600 game Adventure, and carried it to see the Easter Egg.)

        2 0 Reply
        1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Hell, I even found a flower once in a hole that, instead of doing what the flowers normally did, turned into a Yar (protagonist from Yar's Revenge, a sort of pixellated fly) and flew up the screen.

          There was a hidden Yar in the 2600 Raiders of the Lost Ark game too. If memory serves, it sometimes showed up during the parachute stage.

          Now I feel a GOMLy urge to complain about all these identical modern FPS games...

          0 0 Reply
  5. macjules

    And right beside the buried hoard ...

    Did they find any copies of Daikatana perchance?

    2 0 Reply
  6. DXMage

    If only he had 120 days instead of less than 30

    Can you imagine how the game would have turned out if he had 120 days to make the game instead of less than 30 days?

    1 0 Reply
  7. Captain DaFt

    "The cartridges themselves are almost guaranteed not to work, thank God."

    Quick fix: all you have to do is blow on'em.

    1 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      That really was just Nintendo. Atari carts for some reason had remarkably bad corrosion, like really bad, so bad the rust seemed to invade the PCB. Mine were left in a semi-moist basement for 15 years, and some of the Atari carts hand turned to brittle chips of rust.

      0 0 Reply
  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Never dig up the past

    Unless you're game..

    0 0 Reply
  9. Muskiier

    According to the Hamilton Spectator this game was authored in Burlington, Ontario by Skill, Inc. which was part-owned by a now retired professor at respected McMaster University in Ontario. I'm a proud Canadian: http://www.thespec.com/news-story/5031472-burlington-made-e-t-atari-game-cartridges-dug-up-from-u-s-landfill-hit-pay-dirt-on-ebay/

    0 0 Reply

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