Description

"E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" for the Atari 2600, released in December 1982, is an action-adventure video game developed and programmed by Howard Scott Warshaw. The game's objective is to guide the character E.T. through various screens to collect three pieces of an interplanetary telephone. These pieces allow E.T. to contact his home planet for a rescue, and the game is set against a time limit as E.T. has a limited amount of energy, which depletes as he moves or performs actions like levitating out of pits scattered across the game map. Each game screen features different zones, identifiable by the color of the ground, which affects game play by offering various benefits or challenges, such as healing E.T. or calling for enemy agents who will try to capture him.

The development of "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" was infamously rushed to coincide with the 1982 holiday season, leading to the game being completed in just five and a half weeks. This haste contributed to the game's reputation for poor quality, with critics often citing it as one of the worst video games ever made. Notable issues include confusing game mechanics and frequent, frustrating encounters with pits that interrupt the game flow. Despite reasonable initial sales, fueled by the success of the film and substantial marketing, millions of cartridges went unsold. This commercial failure, combined with returns and deeply discounted surplus stocks, resulted in millions of unsold and returned cartridges reputedly being buried in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico, symbolizing the video game industry crash of 1983.

Title

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - Title

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Gameplay

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - Gameplay

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