Atari 2600

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

Trivia

It was #1 in FLUX Magazine's (Issue #4) Top 25 Worst Video Games of All-Time.

This game was #1 on PC World's list of "The 10 Worst Games of All Time" on Oct. 23, 2006 due to "Everyone I spoke to who singled out particular gripes mentioned the pits that the player, as E.T., fell into and would then have to slowly levitate out of, which led to horrendously monotonous game play."

It came in as #2 worst videogame on GameTrailer.com's list of "Top Ten Best And Worst Videogames" on Nov. 17, 2006.

This game was #7 on a GameSpy list of "Top Ten Shameful Games" on Dec. 31, 2002 due to "Lots of people bought it at first, but gradually the word spread that the gameplay consisted mainly of E.T. falling into an endless series of pits, and the game was much too frustrating for the young kids for whom it was intended. The game is sometimes accused (not altogether without justification) of single-handedly causing the "crash" of the video games market in the mid-'80s."

In January 2005, Gamers Europe nominated E.T. as the worst game ever produced on any platform. They did feel sorry for the programmer, though.

Contributed by Sciere (124883) on Jan 11, 2005.

On the 1st of December 1982, after it became clear that Atari would never sell the six million cartridges it had manufactured, executives announced that they were cutting their '82 revenue forecasts from a 50% increase over '81 levels to a meager 15%. In the end, the price of Warner (owners of Atari) stock dropped almost a third from 52 to 35. It was so bad Atari President Ray Kassar unloaded 5000 of his shares before announcing the cuts to the public.

Howard Scott Warsaw, the programmer of E.T., only had six weeks from July 23, 1982 to program the game and ready it for a September 1 release date.

Atari produced 5 million E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial cartridges. Most of the units that were sold were returned, and eventually Atari dumped the millions of useless copies still on hand into a New Mexico landfill.