E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Atari 2600, 1982)

First off, let me say that if you don't actually read the instructions you will not know what to do at all. E.T. was a movie for everyone and alot of kids loved to watch it. You would think Atari would be smart enough to make a game everyone could play. I'm sure if their was rating on games back in 1982, E.T. would of got the rating of Teen. This is due to the fact that there is alot of symbols on the top of screen you have to look for and the E.T. game over screen when you fail your mission. This happens almost every time. While E.T. walks, at a very slow pace, symbols pop up at the top of the screen. Some are to know where the mother ship will land, to call Elliot, or increase for health by eating the reese pieces you collect. Yes, the reeses are the square dots that you some time received when you walk over them. That is, if you don't fall into the a pit. This is probably one of the key elements for this game causing the decline in Atari. I understand that there are pieces to the phone in the pits you need to collect, but why can't you get out of them. Then, there is times when you enter a new screen from a different screen and you fall into a pit. You don't even see the next screen, you just fall into the pit. When this happens it eats up your health, then when you think your out, bang, back into the same pit. This gave me nightmares when I was a child. E.T. falling back into a pit when I know the alien can fly. Then, in one mode there are these two guys that just tick you off. One takes your phone away and the other throws you in jail. If you try to run you usually fall into a pit. They walk faster then you, so running is your only option. Then when you climb out of the pit, they are right there to take your phone or throw your butt in jail. What a pain!!! The graphics are basic and there is no music during the gameplay, only when the game first comes on. If you, by the grace of God, beat the game, Elliot comes out of the house and gives you bonus poits for the reeses you collected during gameplay. What an awesome ending. Years of my childhood wasted to see that. The only reason to purchase this game is to see the worst game ever made and sold to such a large market. Atari buried millions of them in the Desert, so no one would play such a crappy game.
Thanks,
Master K.

I was one who enjoyed playing the E.T game for the Atari. But I guess some of the thing I did in fact dislike was. 1) always having a hard time finding the icon to call the spaceship. And to find the landing icon, uses a lot of energy just trying to find them. And the pesky FBI agent and scientists! haha... BUT that did not stop me from enjoying the game when I got mines in 1986! I HAVE THIS GAME NOW in 2012, boy, it brings back great memories!

I bought this item complete (box, manual, cart) because of the intense history behind it. Although it has been regarded as the worst video game of all time, I don't believe so. To reinforce my belief, take the programming skill. Atari wanted the game ready in time for the 1982 holiday. This meant the programmer would have about 5 months to complete the game for the Christmas deadline. When the game came out, however, the critical response wasn't good. People didn't like the dull graphics, boring gameplay, and short game span. Millions sent the game back for a refund. Atari had believed it would have been the biggest game hit since pong, although this proved to not be so. In the end, Atari corporation ended up with over 5 million unsold E.T. cartridges. What were they going to do with these? They crushed them all and buried them deep in a New Mexico landfill. That was the end of E.T. Because of this historical interpretation of what was believed as such a horrible game, I hailed at the moment I saw this auction. And what a great price too! That is why I bought this game.

This is the worst game I have ever personally played. If you've played a worse game, message me and I'll play the game and review it. But for now, let's get on with this game.

Where do I begin? So you play as E.T., a ship drops you off and you walk around looking for parts to something, but there are these guys after you who pick you up and carry you to a building. Is it a jail? Is it Area 51? Who knows, but you just walk away. As you walk, your score goes down and I can't figure out how to get points. There are green pixels you can pick up, but I don't know what they do. This game makes no sense. I haven't figured it out, and frankly, I don't care. This game is so boring it doesn't count as a game. This is the kind of game you play when you have work to do cause this game will make you want to do work. ANYTHING to get way from this game.

This is the absolute worst video game I have ever played. The graffics are horrid, even by Atari 2600 standards and gameplay/control is even worse. You definately need the instruction manual to play this game, without it you are lost. Heck, even WITH it you are lost. I played this game for a half an hour, and I managed to move E.T. about 5 steps to the left until I fell into a hole, then spent 27 minutes trying to get E.T. out of the hole (those of you that have played this before know EXACTLY what I am talking about). You can pick this game up very cheaply, that is the only upside to it. And of course if you collect Atari 2600 systems/games it is a must-have. But, if you are looking to buy the game to actually play it, do not waste your time. If you bought a lot of games and this game was included, and you have it already . .destroy the extra copies then throw them away. That is the only way this P.O.S. game will ever be worth anything, as a collectors item.