How the ET Video Game Ended Atari
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Date: 2022-12-29
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Comments and reviews: 20
Darth
So much misinformation here.
1) Atari NEVER contracted Activison. In fact Atari under Warner tried to SUE Activison to stop them making games for the 2600, but lost IN COURT as Activison didn't break Atari's copyrights since the 2600 had no lock out ability which prevented their games from working.
2) Everyone KNEW for 100% facts that Atari buried carts in the landfill long before that documentary. There was newspaper articles proving it, dump records which proved it as well. It wasn't a urban legend at all. It was fact because there was documents proving it already.
3) ET did NOT kill Atari. Not by a long shot. It is one of Atari's best selling games along with Pacman. The issue was the game was not very good and yes it was panned. But also, Atari never learned their lesson from the Pac-Man which they made the same mistake with. They made more carts than systems sold, so they had tons of unsold merchandise that they couldn't get rid of.
4) The gaming crash never truly happened. Consoles died out (kinda, Intellivison was still going strong via mail orders and still pumping out new games all the time) and gaming just moved over to home computers. That is what happened.
5) The gaming crash happened because there was tons of companies making bad games. You had stuff like Kool Aid Man, all those games by Froggo, Chase the Chuck Wagon (based on the dog food) just to name a few of the bad games. Allot of companies would release the games that were bad, go under and retailers were stuck with tons of inventory. So to get rid of them, they lowered the price of those games so people would buy these cheap games instead of paying premium prices for the good quality games then get turned off by those cheap games sucking thus hurting quality companies sales who just couldn't compete. This is what helped cause the console crash, along with too many consoles out there as well, plus microcomputers such as the C64 and Vic 20 gaining traction as they could produce more sophisticated games with better graphics and sound.
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So much misinformation here.
1) Atari NEVER contracted Activison. In fact Atari under Warner tried to SUE Activison to stop them making games for the 2600, but lost IN COURT as Activison didn't break Atari's copyrights since the 2600 had no lock out ability which prevented their games from working.
2) Everyone KNEW for 100% facts that Atari buried carts in the landfill long before that documentary. There was newspaper articles proving it, dump records which proved it as well. It wasn't a urban legend at all. It was fact because there was documents proving it already.
3) ET did NOT kill Atari. Not by a long shot. It is one of Atari's best selling games along with Pacman. The issue was the game was not very good and yes it was panned. But also, Atari never learned their lesson from the Pac-Man which they made the same mistake with. They made more carts than systems sold, so they had tons of unsold merchandise that they couldn't get rid of.
4) The gaming crash never truly happened. Consoles died out (kinda, Intellivison was still going strong via mail orders and still pumping out new games all the time) and gaming just moved over to home computers. That is what happened.
5) The gaming crash happened because there was tons of companies making bad games. You had stuff like Kool Aid Man, all those games by Froggo, Chase the Chuck Wagon (based on the dog food) just to name a few of the bad games. Allot of companies would release the games that were bad, go under and retailers were stuck with tons of inventory. So to get rid of them, they lowered the price of those games so people would buy these cheap games instead of paying premium prices for the good quality games then get turned off by those cheap games sucking thus hurting quality companies sales who just couldn't compete. This is what helped cause the console crash, along with too many consoles out there as well, plus microcomputers such as the C64 and Vic 20 gaining traction as they could produce more sophisticated games with better graphics and sound.
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johneygd
Atari bought the rights for ET for $21 million dollars,
They sold 2, 6 million with a revaneu of $52000 minus $13. 380. 000 million since 669000 were returned (if those cartrides were sold for $20 each)
Sothat they would only had a revaneu of 39+ million with only a profit of $18 million
But if atari sold each game for $30 then that means that they would, ve made a revaneu of $78000. 000 minus 20. 070. 000 from those 669. 000 returned cartrides,
Sothat they would only end up with a revaneu of slightly less then $50 million thus having atleas a profit of $29 million
However i havent count the costs of unsold cartrides and i dont know how much they costed to produce but what if it only costed $3 each then atari would, lost atleast $10+ million, but i might be wrong but whether then game was considered a flop or not, if atari did made some profits thenthey could speak them selfes to be lucky since that game was overrushed.
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Atari bought the rights for ET for $21 million dollars,
They sold 2, 6 million with a revaneu of $52000 minus $13. 380. 000 million since 669000 were returned (if those cartrides were sold for $20 each)
Sothat they would only had a revaneu of 39+ million with only a profit of $18 million
But if atari sold each game for $30 then that means that they would, ve made a revaneu of $78000. 000 minus 20. 070. 000 from those 669. 000 returned cartrides,
Sothat they would only end up with a revaneu of slightly less then $50 million thus having atleas a profit of $29 million
However i havent count the costs of unsold cartrides and i dont know how much they costed to produce but what if it only costed $3 each then atari would, lost atleast $10+ million, but i might be wrong but whether then game was considered a flop or not, if atari did made some profits thenthey could speak them selfes to be lucky since that game was overrushed.
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Coroa
ET was far from the worst game on the 2600. There are many Atari 2600 games that are worse, like Star Ship and Fire Fly. Imo, there are two main reasons why people say that ET was the worse 2600 game. The first, people are just repeating what others have said without actually knowing about other 2600 games (like the two I mentioned above. The second, hardly anyone read the ET game manual on how to play it, and what each symbol in the game meant, thus leading to a LOT of frustrated kids back in the day. With that said, go play Fire Fly for the 2600 with an original 2600 console, or with an online emulator, then tell if if you still think ET is worse.
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ET was far from the worst game on the 2600. There are many Atari 2600 games that are worse, like Star Ship and Fire Fly. Imo, there are two main reasons why people say that ET was the worse 2600 game. The first, people are just repeating what others have said without actually knowing about other 2600 games (like the two I mentioned above. The second, hardly anyone read the ET game manual on how to play it, and what each symbol in the game meant, thus leading to a LOT of frustrated kids back in the day. With that said, go play Fire Fly for the 2600 with an original 2600 console, or with an online emulator, then tell if if you still think ET is worse.
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Aaron
The New Mexico burial had more to do with Atari's overall bankruptcy and less to do with the specific failure of the E. T. video game. Atari was making room in thier factory at El Paso, because they were renovating it to become a sort of community center. They needed to do something with all of that unused, unsold inventory, so they buried it all in the desert, including several copies of E. T.
Atari had likely had another burial where they buried unsold E. T. games from the store shelves, but that would likely be near thier headquarters in California.
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The New Mexico burial had more to do with Atari's overall bankruptcy and less to do with the specific failure of the E. T. video game. Atari was making room in thier factory at El Paso, because they were renovating it to become a sort of community center. They needed to do something with all of that unused, unsold inventory, so they buried it all in the desert, including several copies of E. T.
Atari had likely had another burial where they buried unsold E. T. games from the store shelves, but that would likely be near thier headquarters in California.
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JsRetroVideoGames
Good video but I disagree with the ending. First of all, ET only made up 10% of the games in the Landfill and there were over 700, 000 games (that was even said in the documentary Atari: Game Over. And I think Atari would've ended with or without the creation of ET. After the Video Game Crash, Other video game companies such as Coleco and Mattel had something to fall back on. They went back to making toys. Atari started as a video game company and had no where to turn after the crash.
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Good video but I disagree with the ending. First of all, ET only made up 10% of the games in the Landfill and there were over 700, 000 games (that was even said in the documentary Atari: Game Over. And I think Atari would've ended with or without the creation of ET. After the Video Game Crash, Other video game companies such as Coleco and Mattel had something to fall back on. They went back to making toys. Atari started as a video game company and had no where to turn after the crash.
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Cynnister0021
E. T. Was bad, but I think Purina Dog Chows game Chase the Chuckwagon was a hell of a lot worse. In all my 50 years of playing games its still one of the worst games Ive ever played. People are fond of blaming E. T. when in reality that was just one bad decision among so many that brought Atari to its knees.
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E. T. Was bad, but I think Purina Dog Chows game Chase the Chuckwagon was a hell of a lot worse. In all my 50 years of playing games its still one of the worst games Ive ever played. People are fond of blaming E. T. when in reality that was just one bad decision among so many that brought Atari to its knees.
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weird_history
I would have just came up with basic dash game. You help ET outrun the government on a bike avoiding pitfalls, trees, the FBI and etc. leading to the end with you flying on a bike with the moon in back leading to E. T going into a spaceship and a voice bit ET phone home. Would have been pretty easy to do.
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I would have just came up with basic dash game. You help ET outrun the government on a bike avoiding pitfalls, trees, the FBI and etc. leading to the end with you flying on a bike with the moon in back leading to E. T going into a spaceship and a voice bit ET phone home. Would have been pretty easy to do.
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Dustbowl
I know I got really good at playing the game xD, but back then, I would eat my ET cereal, and goon out for an afternoon of ET Atari time. It's kinda nostalgic now, but most games back then were pretty boring compared to everything that came out next!
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I know I got really good at playing the game xD, but back then, I would eat my ET cereal, and goon out for an afternoon of ET Atari time. It's kinda nostalgic now, but most games back then were pretty boring compared to everything that came out next!
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Jhonshmo
Is it really the developer's fault? They told them to make an entire game in only 6 weeks! Most games now take like 7 years to make, but even for that time that is a ridiculous amount of time to give someone to make an entire game.
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Is it really the developer's fault? They told them to make an entire game in only 6 weeks! Most games now take like 7 years to make, but even for that time that is a ridiculous amount of time to give someone to make an entire game.
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Bobby
You have to think about how much money that Atari made especially production of the arcade games I think that he made his money and used the et game as a way out and to enjoy the rest of his life out without any worries financially
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You have to think about how much money that Atari made especially production of the arcade games I think that he made his money and used the et game as a way out and to enjoy the rest of his life out without any worries financially
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Victory
All these years later and it's still the worst game I ever played but at least it didn't require a day 1 patch to even play. I don't blame the developer though. It was greedy suits then and now that are the true demons.
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All these years later and it's still the worst game I ever played but at least it didn't require a day 1 patch to even play. I don't blame the developer though. It was greedy suits then and now that are the true demons.
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Anthony
For the landfill yes, you are going to find et games because as far as spotty original notes, there were but after a burglarized store, and the company already selling it, they literally threw the store away.
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For the landfill yes, you are going to find et games because as far as spotty original notes, there were but after a burglarized store, and the company already selling it, they literally threw the store away.
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HMRLTL
I had Atari and ColecoVision. I had ET but just like the movie, I don't remember much about it. I spent all my time playing the same 5 games: Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Burger Time, Pitfall, and Kool-Aid Man.
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I had Atari and ColecoVision. I had ET but just like the movie, I don't remember much about it. I spent all my time playing the same 5 games: Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Burger Time, Pitfall, and Kool-Aid Man.
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Douglas
Who could have ever predicted that two employees from Nutting Associates would go on to create the very first gaming system that would allow its users to play with themselves?
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Who could have ever predicted that two employees from Nutting Associates would go on to create the very first gaming system that would allow its users to play with themselves?
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education
I had less than 10 years but remember I loved visiting my cousins who had an Atari, and playing this game. Even back then in the 1980s I knew instantly the game was crap.
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I had less than 10 years but remember I loved visiting my cousins who had an Atari, and playing this game. Even back then in the 1980s I knew instantly the game was crap.
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weird_history
they should have made it a shoot em up or something ET flying around shooting reeses peeces or somehting like that. The game is a Disaster. it deserves to be buried
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they should have made it a shoot em up or something ET flying around shooting reeses peeces or somehting like that. The game is a Disaster. it deserves to be buried
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trumpet_boooi
We just found one of these at a garage sale for 20 bucks, complete with an atari and some other games too. It works, and yes, the game is bad. Too many pits, 1/10.
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We just found one of these at a garage sale for 20 bucks, complete with an atari and some other games too. It works, and yes, the game is bad. Too many pits, 1/10.
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probro9898
They ought to have made the game about the flying bicycle - that was an iconic part of the movie. I don't remember anything whatsoever about ET falling into holes.
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They ought to have made the game about the flying bicycle - that was an iconic part of the movie. I don't remember anything whatsoever about ET falling into holes.
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Erik
I was six in the early 80's when I played ET, and I literally thought I was just plain bad at it. but I feel reassured about the after seeing this video, lol
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I was six in the early 80's when I played ET, and I literally thought I was just plain bad at it. but I feel reassured about the after seeing this video, lol
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Ricardo
I just thought that it was so cool that the author of Ready Player One was there at the excavation site. Not a doubt in my mind he was a real gamer.
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I just thought that it was so cool that the author of Ready Player One was there at the excavation site. Not a doubt in my mind he was a real gamer.
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