It was the early 80's and gaming was new to just about everyone. The 2600 was a console that could be found in most households, especially if they had kids. Going back and looking at those games now makes it appear as though that we would play just about anything and if you weren't alive back then and go look at it now it all looks pretty bad. Keep in mind that this was a long time ago and today you could fit the entire 2600 library on your smart phone thousands of times.
So yeah, we were products of our time and I do NOT recommend that anyone go back and actually play these games unless you are trying to have a laugh and perhaps peek into the minds of someone that was a game nearly 40 years ago.
One of the most disastrous launces of the 2600 is something that lives in infamy to this day, and that was the launch of the game E.T.. There are a lot of reasons why this game really really sucked but mostly it was because Atari should have waited to launch it, but needed to get it out the door before Christmas.
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In the year 1982 there was no bigger film than E.T., it truly was legendary and even though special effects were in their infancy at that particular point in time, the movie still looks pretty damn real by today's standards aside from a few crucial flying-bike scene moments. This movie was basically everywhere and the merchandising was intense. Since Atari was basically the only viable video game manufacturer at the time, no one else was going to make this thing.
Apparently, the development was delayed because Atari was in negotiation with Universal Pictures for an extraordinary amount of time but a deal was finally secured at $25 million dollars for the licensing rights.
I have no idea what compelled Atari to do this but despite the fact that there was just over a month remaining before the 1982 Christmas season, they decided to make a game anyway. What is even more extraordinary is the fact that they didn't assign a massive team to develop the game, but just ONE GUY.
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His name is Howard Scott Warshaw and had been the lead and many times only designer in a number of successful games up to that point including Yars Revenge and Raiders of the Lost Arc. However, the fact that he OK'd a request to make a game in just 5 weeks that was meant to be the gaming representation of one of the most successful films of all time, was kind of a mistake on both his and Atari's part.
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The game was so bad that most people couldn't even figure out what the hell you are supposed to do and reception to the game and the sales of said game after the initial idiotic Christmas scramble to buy loads of crap you don't need, the sales almost completely disappeared. Atari's name was tarnished and this game nearly lead to people losing faith in home gaming altogether.
Mr. Warshaw would never see a game through to finished product ever again and later changed careers and is now a Psychotherapist. He embraces his fame for being the creative mind of what is regarded as the "worst video game ever made" and even appears to speak at video game oriented conventions from time to time.
I, like most kids whose parents participated in the Christmas spending craze that exists in America, ended up receiving this game as a gift and unlike a lot of the other games I had played on Atari, I think I maybe tooled around with this one before about 10 minutes before I went and found something else to do.
It was really a fantastically bad game the likes of which people can only ironically reproduce. I never did finish the game, and when I watched a YT video showing someone doing so, I can only watch with a tinge of awe and think "How TF did you figure that out?"
This video, even with the guy doing a walkthrough with written tips on completion is confusing as hell. There are all these instructions that keep appearing at the top of the screen that don't appear to have much bearing on anything that you are actually supposed to do. Now imagine being in elementary school and trying to figure this out? I went to college and did very well and I still watch this video with a sense of confusion even though it is a walkthrough.
The Atari 2600 games are all pretty laughably bad by today's standards but we didn't know any better at the time and it was all we had. Even with that being the case though there are some outlandishly bad ones and E.T. is at the top of the list for me. Now imagine waking up on Christmas day and being delighted that you got the game you wanted, only to have this be the end result. It is estimated that more than 3 million E.T. cartridges remained unsold and it was a massive financial loss for the company.
Because of this and many other poor decisions it is really a wonder that Atari managed to function as a business for as long as they did, well into the 90's.