Worst Video Game Ever was Re: Sales of unearthed Atari games total more than $100,000

[js at cimmeri.com]

On 8/31/2015 12:56 PM, ethan at 757.org wrote:
>> "3.5 million of the 4 million 
>> produced were sent back to the 
>> company as unsold inventory or 
>> customer returns. Despite sales 
>> figures, the quantity of unsold 
>> merchandise, coupled with the 
>> expensive movie license and the large 
>> amount of returns, made E.T. a major 
>> financial failure for Atari"
>> Thats not good for Atari, but that 
>> doesn't make it the worst game ever.
>> I agree with those who say Pac Man... 
>> I mean it looked nothing like the 
>> Arcade and it sounded like they 
>> sampled a rubber band.
>> Not a good game at all.
>
> But it was the Atari 2600, at that day 
> and age I don't think there was an 
> expectation that the game on the home 
> system would look like the arcade? It 
> was from the era of tennis tv games 
> and such? It had a mouth, and a pass 
> thru, and ghosts and dots.
>
> Colecovision and others started to 
> change expectations. I guess it wasn't 
> too long after ColecoVision that Atari 
> 8 bit computers and that brought with 
> it pretty good ports of Arcade titles 
> -- I was probably late to the 8bit 
> atari (800XL here) I guess the people 
> with the 400/800 were first to have 
> arcade-ish gameplay. The 8bit 
> computers still isn't as same as 
> playing the real arcade PCB though. 
> Just closer.
>
> That day I got the NES..... I think I 
> hit reset 100 times over and over just 
> to hear the intro music from the 
> Gyromite cart. It had clear drumbeats! 
> And multiple part music. It was so 
> good. The reset button felt nice and 
> quality even.
>
>
> -- 
> Ethan O'Toole


You're right re the expectations of that 
time.  It's very difficult to put 
oneself back in that naive mindset, to 
remember how things *first* struck us.

That said, however, I'm still quite 
happy playing with my Bally Arcade... ;-)

- J.