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Post by Discoalucard on Jun 9, 2013 17:29:17 GMT -5
 www.hardcoregaming101.net/extraterrestrial/et.htmFamously known as one of the worst video games ever made, ET is bad...though not really as bad as it's made out to be. Sure, it played a part in ruining Atari and bringing about a market crash, but it's really a victim of overambition and rushed game design - this article explains in depth how it works and how to play it. Noticeably, this game has been in the news lately, both for a documentary that (I think?) is attempting to dig up the landfill to see if they found any cartridges, as well as taking a role in the Angry Video Game Nerd movie. |
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Post by cplethan on Jun 9, 2013 20:09:02 GMT -5
Back in 1982, my family purchased ET and, well, out of all the games we had for the system we enjoyed E.T. the most. You had to and quest for items in order to make your escape, and there was little things like finding a flower at the bottom of a pit. Everything else on the Atari was a shooter or a Pac Man clone.
The big complaint was "you're always falling into pits!" and I don't know how someone could keep doing that, honestly. Being a little kid I never really had this problem, either.
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Post by nickz on Jun 9, 2013 20:44:08 GMT -5
This is actually a pretty cool article! Plenty of graphs that really get into the nuts and bolts of this game and its impact on the gaming world. I've never actually played Atari E.T., only the terrible gameboy advance game. Also, it's awesome that the article mentioning Warshaw. He's actually a pretty cool guy and there is a lot of good information on him and his experiences making early video games.
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Post by Narushima on Jun 10, 2013 8:55:58 GMT -5
"rises ominous" > "ominously"
"a randomly generated a persistent world" > -a
"when humans are the screen." > "are on (the) screen"
"even when he should standing in front" > "should be standing"
"an cut scene" > "a cut scene"
"under Warner Brothers. Under Warner Brothers" > repetitive repetition
"a mixture Pac-Man's maze" > "a mixture of"
"It's balance" > "Its balance"
What's the source for the graph's numbers?
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Post by tbb on Jul 1, 2013 20:26:49 GMT -5
A very flawed game, no doubt, but not even close to the worst game ever the way some people claim. Probably not even in bottom 10%. Quite an interesting, and fair, look back.
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Post by Scylla on Jul 2, 2013 1:20:40 GMT -5
Great article. These kinds of topics are where HG101 really shines. Giving a fresh, fair look at games rather than resorting to lowest common denominator game discussion that just parrots what everyone else has already said. Gamers poking fun at E.T. and calling it "the worst game ever made" really annoys the crap out of me. Not because I like the game and want to defend it, as I actually have never played it myself, but because you just know that these kids have NEVER played the game. Hell, they've probably never played a 2600 at all. And for the rare few that took the extra step, we're probably looking at a couple minutes with an emulator to confirm "yeah, this is totally the worst game ever made, haha". Stop being an idiot parrot of Seanbaby or AVGN or whatever other dumb internet site/celebrity you're obsessed with and actually THINK with your own brain, PLAY a game before you're spouting opinions on it, and come up with your OWN opinions.
And this may sound a little hypocritical after saying all that, given that, again, I've never played E.T. myself, but, from how it looks and how it's been described, I'm pretty confident that it doesn't come close to being the worst game ever anyway. I mean, it's all a matter of opinion and nobody has played every video game in existence to begin with, but E.T. at least sounds moderately playable, whether it's fun or not to do so. Plenty of games don't even manage that. I'm sure there are PLENTY of games that are far more broken than E.T., especially given the fact that E.T. was designed by someone who has well-regarded games under his belt. If you're capable of making a good game, then even your worst game is probably better than the output of completely incompetent developers who have never made anything good. I mean, look at Cheetahmen II and the games on Action 52. I refuse to believe that there isn't at least ONE game among those that is equally as bad as E.T., and I'm inclined to wager that many are actually far worse and far more broken just in terms of pure functionality, let alone entertainment value.
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Post by wxbryant on Jul 2, 2013 15:05:52 GMT -5
Yes, definitely an interesting article. Mostly I just wanted to say that I loved the "pitcher's mound" analogy. That was amusing.
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Post by jorpho on Jul 2, 2013 21:49:53 GMT -5
Oh yes, a very clever analogy, that.
I was kind of hoping for a word or two on the later ET games that coincided with the movie's theatrical re-release. They seem to have been entirely forgotten.
There were a couple of games for the TI99/4a, but I don't even know if those were legitimate.
By the way, who's this Charles Gray ?
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Post by Weasel on Jul 2, 2013 23:54:36 GMT -5
Oops, I just noticed a grammatical error (emphasis mine):
I imagine there is supposed to be an "on" in there...
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CRV
Full Member
Posts: 222
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Post by CRV on Jul 3, 2013 6:39:48 GMT -5
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Post by mateusbond on Jul 8, 2013 14:05:05 GMT -5
In the Google doodle of 8th July 2013, remembering the Roswell affair, if you fall inside the hole made by the cow you just released, the hole is exactly like the ones from the Atari classic.
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Post by vnisanian2001 on Jul 8, 2013 15:35:08 GMT -5
Kurt, here's a video showing the history of the events leading up to the video game crash. You may want to update the article including them: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv7DJrLAZus |
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Post by ataricharles on Jul 11, 2013 0:09:50 GMT -5
Oh yes, a very clever analogy, that. I was kind of hoping for a word or two on the later ET games that coincided with the movie's theatrical re-release. They seem to have been entirely forgotten. There were a couple of games for the TI99/4a, but I don't even know if those were legitimate. By the way, who's this Charles Gray ? Hi, I'm Charles Gray and co-author of the E.T. Book Cart. Enclosed is a free download of the E.T. Book Cart that can be played in an Atari 2600 emulator. Enjoy: db.tt/e6Rvrm24 |
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Post by Weasel on Jul 11, 2013 10:03:38 GMT -5
Huh. That's actually pretty cool. We don't usually have author/developers randomly popping in to the article threads like this, but I suppose there's a first time for everything, right?
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Post by ataricharles on Jul 12, 2013 8:56:37 GMT -5
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