Topic: Who here is old enough to remember...

[Vipre]

E.T. is legendary.

E.T. is seen as marking the beginning of Atari's downfall and is often viewed as one of the biggest commercial failures in video gaming history, as well as the worst video game ever made. E.T. was a contributing factor to Atari's massive financial losses during 1983 and 1984, and a glut of unsold copies of the game helped contribute to the video game crash of 1983. As a result of overproduction, hundreds of thousands of unsold cartridges were reportedly buried in a New Mexican landfill.

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

Platform: Atari 2600
Year: 1982
Developer: Atari
Publisher: Atari

Landmarks:

One of the most disastrous games ever
Marked beginning of the so-called video game crash and the end of the Atari era
First of countless genuinely wretched licensed games

*shrugs* I could be wrong of course, but it's rare to hear anything good about it.

[knightstorm]

E.T. is legendary.

E.T. is seen as marking the beginning of Atari's downfall and is often viewed as one of the biggest commercial failures in video gaming history, as well as the worst video game ever made. E.T. was a contributing factor to Atari's massive financial losses during 1983 and 1984, and a glut of unsold copies of the game helped contribute to the video game crash of 1983. As a result of overproduction, hundreds of thousands of unsold cartridges were reportedly buried in a New Mexican landfill.

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

Platform: Atari 2600
Year: 1982
Developer: Atari
Publisher: Atari

Landmarks:

One of the most disastrous games ever
Marked beginning of the so-called video game crash and the end of the Atari era
First of countless genuinely wretched licensed games

One of the reasons ET was such a failure was because they wanted to rush the game out by Christmas, and gave the programmer 6 weeks instead of 6 months like he would have needed.  While the game was awful, it was probably the best that could have been done in that timeframe.  Also, Atari acutally produce more cartridges than there were 2600s at the time.  I personally think Custer's revenge which was made by the pornographic company Mystique is probably worse.  While a depiction of crude 8 bit characters which look like legos having sex might be somewhat comical, having the female be a tied up Native American woman is not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custer%27s_Revenge
While Custer's revenge is definitely the most vile, the flood of poor quality games from 3rd party startups like a subsidiary of Quaker Oats helped to erode the 2600's reputation, a job that was completed when Atari itself rushed a number of potentially killer aps like pac man and et through development producing a poor quality product that destroyed what was left of its repuation.

[Vipre]

You have a fair point..er...to a point. Put it in perspective though, what do you expect from "3rd party startups like a subsidiary of Quaker Oats" except junk? It's a bit like comparing a game made by Sony or Microsoft with something that comes as the prize in a box of cereal or some little freeware thing made by a random guy on the net. You expect crap from a fly by night upstart but Atari was king. It isn't referred to as the "Mystique era" after all.

I've played many a 2600 game, still have a box of them and a 2600 system around here somewhere, and compared to other titles ET is bottom shelf all the way. Giving them a pass because they chose to do a crappy rush job and saying it's good for something that only had six weeks development is beyond my generosity level.

[knightstorm]

But the average mom and pop in 1982, would not have realized that there was a difference between the $20 releases, and the $5 bargain releases.  They would have gotten their kids those really bad games which is what tainted the system's reputation.  Also, me saying that ET isn't bad considering it was a rush job is not me giving it a pass.  Its me saying the game could have been a lot worse.

[Greenvalv]

...the original NES and Sega Genesis game systems.

Is it just me, or were video games alot more fun back in those days, even with the crappy graphics and computer generated sound.

I look back to the days when I used to play the old NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis games and remember that I had so much more fun playing those games than I have playing even some of the PS1 games and PS2.

Hell, some of the old Atari games my brother had seemed to be alot more fun than most games these days.

I personally think that most video games these days focus too much on graphics and sound quality and less on whether or not the game is actually fun to play.

Or maybe it's just my age showing.

What do you guys think?

Yeah, I remember playing a Star Wars fighter game on the Genesis. Good God, am I that old? 
 
And yes, today's games, and even today's operating systems, concentrate too much on graphics and how to make a turd of a program look pretty.  Buying software today is like buying a shiny new car with an engine that hiccups and stalls.  Meh...

[Ravok]

We also tend to remember the good games while forgetting the bad, which is predictable.

It's like how oldies stations never play the songs from 1966 that really sucked.

  Nobody who has ever played ET on the Atari 2600 could possibly forget how much it sucked.

 I think game informer, ranked it with some of the all time, worst games ever.

[knightstorm]

We also tend to remember the good games while forgetting the bad, which is predictable.

It's like how oldies stations never play the songs from 1966 that really sucked.

  Nobody who has ever played ET on the Atari 2600 could possibly forget how much it sucked.

 I think game informer, ranked it with some of the all time, worst games ever.

Most of those worst game rankings have it along the top along with Custer's Revenge, and Super Columbine Massacre RPG.  Then again, maybe the fact that it is a contender for worst game among the likes of a sick rape fantasy, and a game about one of the worst school shootings in history says something.

[Panzergranate]

I can remember the original Britsih designed cartridge games system (the one Atari copied the concept from) back in the late 1970's.

I'm refering to the Radofin 1296 home computer system.

6.5 K.Bytes of user programable E2PROM (Signetics 2650 assembly language) or 2 K.Byte to 4 K.Byte third party software cartridges.

Activision started out providing software for this machine and a handful of other makes that ran the 2650 processor and adpoted the same cartride system.

Graphics were 40 x 40 and 16 colour. There was sound as well.

Wait for it.... the joysticks had 12 button keypads and were analogue, something that didn't come around again until the PCs and Macintoshes of the late 1980's and 1990's.

A few years later the Atari game system appeared. It had poorer graphics and used a different processor. It did not have user programmable cartridges either.

Nintendo??

That's "modern" by comparison!!

[Centurus]

...the original NES and Sega Genesis game systems.

Is it just me, or were video games alot more fun back in those days, even with the crappy graphics and computer generated sound.

I look back to the days when I used to play the old NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis games and remember that I had so much more fun playing those games than I have playing even some of the PS1 games and PS2.

Hell, some of the old Atari games my brother had seemed to be alot more fun than most games these days.

I personally think that most video games these days focus too much on graphics and sound quality and less on whether or not the game is actually fun to play.

Or maybe it's just my age showing.

What do you guys think?

Yeah, I remember playing a Star Wars fighter game on the Genesis. Good God, am I that old? 
 
And yes, today's games, and even today's operating systems, concentrate too much on graphics and how to make a turd of a program look pretty.  Buying software today is like buying a shiny new car with an engine that hiccups and stalls.  Meh...

A.K.A. Daewoo.   

[Panzergranate]

There are some on here who's first computer was made by Charles Babage.

[Akira_Commander567]

Did ya'll know that most of the remaining ET games are buried in two semi truck trailers in a landfill in Nevada or New Mexico, most people didn't try to buy the game because it was so bad. I've played it and I hated it with more hate than how much hate I have for my brothers, and that's alot of hate.

[Centurus]

Did ya'll know that most of the remaining ET games are buried in two semi truck trailers in a landfill in Nevada or New Mexico, most people didn't try to buy the game because it was so bad. I've played it and I hated it with more hate than how much hate I have for my brothers, and that's alot of hate.

Is the hate equal to those that have seen the movie Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes, and hated every minute of it?

[Panzergranate]

Why didn't they unload the semis rather than bury them??

Why waste two perfectly good semis.

[Vipre]

The carts were so toxicly bad they were required to be buried in steel containers to prevent future leakage of horrid ideas. 

Watch this if you want to know what it was like playing this game. I love the running commentary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DTjLG3usQo

(warning: watching ET game footage is like walking in on your parents in bed, once you've seen it there's no erasing the memory. you've been warned.)

[Panzergranate]

That was awful, but "The Great Space Race" on the Sinclair Spectrum (Timex 2068 inthe US and Canada) outsucks ET by a long chalk.

Anyone who had the misfortune to aquire that game will be nodding theor heads about now.

[knightstorm]

That was awful, but "The Great Space Race" on the Sinclair Spectrum (Timex 2068 inthe US and Canada) outsucks ET by a long chalk.

Anyone who had the misfortune to aquire that game will be nodding theor heads about now.

I looked it up on wikipedia.  Truthfully, it sound pretty cool.  Shipping the ultimate brew which gets you drunk, but with no hangover, and is nutritious.

[Akira_Commander567]

Hey, those copies of ET ARE buried in Semi trucks, I looked it up on Google, I also have a friend who's father helped to bury those copies, beshides, I prefer shoot-em up games anyway like Halo and Star Trek games.

[Star Dragon]

We should go recycle them!

Otherwise when we are long gone and the aliens come (From the movie AI) they'll go:
"Holy crap look at this! Oh hell no, we ain't gonna clone any of these guys. Better to leave them dead and protect the universe from horrors like this!!!" 

I do remember one of my favorite NES/SuperNES  games, it was a Trek game where the final battle was against a "mystery ship" in a nebula. The aggressor was TNG Galaxy class. I took it on in either a Connie or Excelsior. Hell of a dogfight! You had to out fly it and nickle/dime it cause it's weaponry was like WHOA!!! 

One of my favorites on the Gensis was the Might and Magic series...

[Akira_Commander567]

WHAT ALIENS? We are the only sentiet life in the galaxy, otherwise we'd probably would know that they're there. I would definantly know if there was.

[knightstorm]

I do remember one of my favorite NES/SuperNES  games, it was a Trek game where the final battle was against a "mystery ship" in a nebula. The aggressor was TNG Galaxy class. I took it on in either a Connie or Excelsior. Hell of a dogfight! You had to out fly it and nickle/dime it cause it's weaponry was like WHOA!!! 

Which game was this?  I thought I had played every trek game for those consoles except Star Trek TNG for the NES.