E.T. Is not the worst game ever and is not responsible for the video game crash.

[pxlbluejay]

Seriously. I'm not trying to defend my guilty pleasure of playing E.T.. Some people complain how E.T. looks like a green deformed giraffe. The E.T. from the game looks hell a lot more realistic than the so called "dragons" in Adventure. The gameplay is a bit too hard for the regular 8 year old back in 1982, and the pits can be a bit annoying when you keep falling back in as you levitate out, but you'll learn how to avoid that as you play the game. And speaking of hard games, Swordquest, anyone? Given that Warshaw had only 5 weeks to program the game, the thing is surprisingly complicated and is like a "real game". Non-retro gamers think that the graphics are way too chunky, but I personally think that E.T. reached the maximum graphic capabilities of the 2600. They are not thinking that the game was made almost 40 years ago. By 1982, there were so many terrible games other than E.T., that it's hard to pinpoint the exact game that caused the crash. But I still don't understand why people didn't like E.T. back then and why Atari when into bankruptcy because of the game. And also, I doubt that any more than half the people claiming that E.T. is a bad game actually played and won a game of E.T. before. Either they played for 5 minuted and thought the game was impossible to beat, or they never even touched an Atari joystick. Sorry about posting this on a Nintendo based forum... But AtariAge recently had a similar thread and I had enough of listening to people who say E.T. is bad.

[UglyJoe]

Agree.  It's fairly ambitious for a 2600 game.  It has plenty of flaws, but doesn't deserve to be at the top/bottom of so many lists.

It's a pretty classic commercial flop, though, and at a rough time in industry history.  It's unfair to say it caused the video game crash, but I think it would also be disingenuous to not mention it at all when talking about the crash.

[boye]

It's essentially an attempt at a Zelda-like game in 1982. Its ambition combined with the tight deadline and low ROM space killed it.

[portnoyd]

Funny, I always got the impression from AA that they were the few that shared OP's opinion. Maybe it was people on Digital Press?

The reason the videogames crashed is the same reason why the dot com bubble burst in 1999. Everyone jumped on the bandwagon irrationally with only a concern to ride the wave instead of doing something meaningful with it. No specific game caused it, it was just too much mediocre to bad stuff being pumped out.

ET was just a casualty of it and then pop culture latched onto it being the root cause because of the landfill thing.

[Yelir]

Funny, I always got the impression from AA that they were the few that shared OP's opinion. Maybe it was people on Digital Press?

The reason the videogames crashed is the same reason why the dot com bubble burst in 1999. Everyone jumped on the bandwagon irrationally with only a concern to ride the wave instead of doing something meaningful with it. No specific game caused it, it was just too much mediocre to bad stuff being pumped out.

ET was just a casualty of it and then pop culture latched onto it being the root cause because of the landfill thing.

Never thought I'd see your username around these parts. Are you still active on either of those boards?

[portnoyd]

Never thought I'd see your username around these parts. Are you still active on either of those boards?

I never really posted on AA, but I haven't been back to DP as the guy running it banned me. He's kind of a dope and took what was left of the site with it so it is what it is. Otherwise, I've largely kept to myself so to answer your question, no, lol.

[Peege]

E.T. reminds me of how some older games, like early versions of League of Legends, get criticized by people who didn't really dive into them. Sure, the mechanics or graphics might not hold up by today's standards, but back then, they pushed the limits of what was possible. Like E.T., LoL has had its share of ups and downs, but anyone who stuck with it knows there's more to the game than first impressions. It's easy to dismiss something without fully exploring its complexity.
Just like with E.T., many players jump into League, play for a few minutes, and give up when things get tough. But once you really invest time into learning the mechanics, it gets way more rewarding. And speaking of League, if you're looking for a reliable way to start fresh, this Lol accs offer aged League of Legends Smurf accounts with enhanced security, ready for ranked games instantly.