. It is widely considered a paradigm of marketing greed: a poorly produced, rushed game that Atari thought would sell well based purely on
[Quote: "[T]he most important consideration in E.T.'s development cycle wasn't the quality of the game...All that mattered was that all-important shipping date. Confident that consumers would rush to buy something that combined two golden names the company pushed the game out the door and fulfilled its orders." ]
{{cite weblast = Parish | first = Jeremy | url = http://1up.com/do/feature?cId=3124081&did=1 | title = The Most Important Games Ever Made: #13: E.T. | publisher = 1UP.com | accessdate = 2006-07-01 Instead, the game fared horribly and cost Atari millions of US dollars. E.T. is seen by many as the death knell for Atari and is widely regarded as one of the worst video games ever produced as well as one of the biggest commercial failures in video gaming history. The game's failure is often epitomized as a major contributing factor of the video game crash of 1983. Hundreds of thousands of excess cartridges were dumped in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico.[1]The gameplay of E.T. consists of maneuvering the fictional alien character E.T. through several screens to obtain the three pieces necessary to assemble a device to "phone home". The phone pieces can be obtained by finding them scattered randomly in various wells (pits) or the player can collect nine Reese's Pieces and then "call Elliot," who will then bring him a phone piece. Additionally, the player must avoid an FBI agent and scientist in pursuit. If either enemy catches E.T., the player is carried to the Washington D.C. screen. If the FBI agent catches E.T. he also will lose all collected phone pieces (or Reese's Pieces if no phone pieces have been collected). The difficulty setting can be changed with the game select and left and right difficulty switches located on the console. This will either change the number of humans present, the speed of movement of the humans, or the conditions needed to call the spaceship.
E.T. is also given a limited supply of energy and starts the game with 9999 points. Any action, including movement, depletes the energy. E.T. can use Reese's Pieces at an "eat candy" spot and press the button to replenish energy. If E.T. reaches zero energy he will turn white and die. Three times per game, Elliot will then appear to revive E.T by "merging" with him, letting the player continue with 1500 points. Locating and reviving a wilted flower adds an extra revival from Elliot. If E.T. dies more times than Eilliot can revive him, the game ends. | E.T. levitating out of one of the many wells in the game. The other object pictured is a phone piece. The icon on the top bar of the screen shows what action can be taken by pressing the controller button (in this case, levitation). |
Four of the six screens are riddled with wells of varying size that E.T. falls into if he gets too close, causing him to lose some energy. In order to get out, the player must levitate E.T. by pressing the controller button and tilting the joystick forward. Since phone pieces and wilted flowers are found at the bottom of wells, this often leads to the majority of the game consisting of players intentionally falling into wells in order to complete the round.
Once E.T. has all three phone pieces, the player may press the controller button at a "call ship zone." This causes a timer to appear and count down the time E.T. has to arrive at the landing zone. In most cases, E.T. cannot call his ship when a human is present (lower dificulty levels will allow it). Once the player finds the landing zone they may press the controller button again to call the ship. If no humans are present when the timer has run out, the ship will appear and pick E.T. up. This will end that round of play. The player is then given bonus points based on how many Reese's Pieces he has left and may continue playing for another round. Aside from bonus points earned, all rounds are functionally identical and do not increase in difficulty with play.Interested in cashing in on the popularity of the movie E.T., Steve Ross, the CEO of Warner Communications (who owned Atari at the time), talked to Steven Spielberg and acquired the licensing rights for the abnormally high price of either 22 or 25 million dollars.[{{cite web]| last = Keith | first = Phipps | date = 2005-02-02 | url = http://www.avclub.com/content/node/24900/1/2 | title = Interview: video-game creators - Howard Scott Warshaw | publisher = A.V. Club | accessdate = 2006-07-01[Kent, The Ultimate History of Video Games, p. 237.] Atari CEO Ray Kassar's response to Ross' query of how he liked the idea of making an E.T. based video game was, "I think it's a dumb idea. We've never really made an action game out of a movie."[Quote: "Spielburg wanted to make E.T. into a Pac-Man game, but I wanted to do something original. In retrospect...Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea."]
Kent, The Ultimate History of Video Games, p. 219. Warshaw attributes most of E.T.'s poor quality to the unreasonably short deadline to ship on September 1 in order to coincide with the 1982 Christmas shopping season.[{{cite web]| last = Stilphen | first = Scott | url = http://www.digitpress.com/archives/interview_warshaw.htm | title = DP Interviews...Howard Scott Warshaw | publisher = Digital Press | accessdate = 2006-06-29 This left only five weeks to get E.T. ready. | E.T. meets Elliot. Note the many wells (darker colored ground), Reese's Pieces (black dot between E.T. and Elliot), and the "JD" Easter egg (object to the right on the upper bar). |
E.T. is also notable for being the first video game to "credit" a graphics artist, with the initials of E.T.'s artist, Jerome Domurat, being hidden as an Easter egg.[{{cite web]| last = Stilphen | first = Scott | url = http://www.digitpress.com/archives/interview_domurat.htm | title = DP Interviews...Jerome Domurat | publisher = Digital Press | accessdate = 2006-07-01 Howard Scott Warshaw also had his initials hidden as an easter egg, but by this point, programmers having their names hidden as easter eggs had become somewhat commonplace and thus is not as notable.
With a rushed game in hand, Atari anticipated enormous sales based on the popularity of the film and produced too many copies of the game with no test marketing. While the game did sell well (it ranks as the eighth best selling Atari cartridge of all time)[Kent, The Ultimate History of Video Games, p. 236.] Even with this being false, the massive amount of unsold merchandise coupled with the expensive movie license caused E.T. to be a massive financial failure for Atari.
This game was one of many bad decisions that led to the bankruptcy of Atari, which posted a $536 million loss in 1983, and was divided and sold in 1984.[{{cite web]| url = http://www.snopes.com/business/market/atari.asp | title = Five Million E.T. Pieces | publisher = Snopes | accessdate = 2006-07-01 It is also seen as one of two major video game releases (along with the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man) that sparked the video game crash of 1983.Reviews and scores| Source | Score | | Reviews |
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X-Play0/5[{{cite web]| url = http://www.g4tv.com/pile_player.aspx?video_key=9439 | title = The Pile: E.T. on the Atari 2600 review | publisher = G4 | accessdate = 2006-06-29 | SwankWorld1/10[{{cite web]| last = Hicks | first =Brad | url = http://swankworld.com/Games/retro/2600/et/review.htm | title = E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (Atari 2600) | publisher = SwankWorld | accessdate = 2006-06-29 | Game Freaks 3654.1/10[{{cite web]| first = Martin | url = http://gamefreaks365.com/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=621 | title = Game Freaks 365 - E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial | publisher = Game Freaks 365 | accessdate = 2006-06-29 | curly = | | User rankings |
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MobyGames1.0/5[{{cite web]| url = http://www.mobygames.com/game/atari-2600/et-the-extra-terrestrial_/rate | title = E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial for Atari 2600 | publisher = MobyGames | accessdate = 2006-06-29 | Average GameFAQs review score 2.8/10[{{cite web]| url = http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/a2600/review/563239.html | title = E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial reviews | publisher = GameFAQs | accessdate = 2006-06-29 | IGN reader average 3.0/10[{{cite web]| url = http://cheats.ign.com/objects/009/009535.html | title = E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial | publisher = IGN | accessdate = 2006-06-29 | Gamespot reader average 3.4/10[{{cite web]| url = http://www.gamespot.com/atari2600/action/ettheextraterrestrial/index.html?q=E.T. | title = E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial for 2600 | publisher = GameSpot | accessdate = 2006-06-29 | External review average at AtariAge 50%[{{cite web]| url = http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=157 | title = E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Silver label) | publisher = AtariAge | accessdate = 2006-07-01 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The title screen: "The best part of the game." |
E.T. has been almost universally panned by critics and gamers. The most common complaint is the tedious repetitiveness of falling into holes coupled with the additional hassle of it being too easy to fall back into a hole once out. Other complaints include the frustration of losing phone pieces to the FBI agent, poor graphics, and the story given in the manual being inane, a departure from the serious tone of the movie. "What do I do now? The only one I can trust is that nice little alienâ€"Ellleeott. He gives me those tasty energy pills (What did he call them?Reeessseess Peeesssesss?)"
― Excerpt from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrials manual The title screen has been described as being the "best part of the game".[Quote:' "The sad thing is... the story was probably the best part of the game (well, besides the title screen)." ]
*title=Atari Parts Are Dumped | publisher=New York Times | accessdate=2006-06-29 }}
* (Scans)Endnotes*Page at AtariAge
*Entry at #13 of 1UP.com's "The 50 Most Important Games Ever Made"
*Entry at #21 of Gamespy's "The Top 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming"
*Entry at #1 of Seanbaby's "The 20 Worst Video Games of All Time."
*E.T.'s Tomb in the Desert of New Mexico: The Great Atari Landfill Controversy
*E.T. The Video game TV commerical
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