E.T. is not the worse game for the Atari 2600 (was Re: Sales of unearthed Atari games total more than $100, 000)

Sean Conner spc at conman.org
Sun Aug 30 16:54:06 CDT 2015


It was thus said that the Great drlegendre . once stated:
> 
> The game [E.T.] is very common, and generally considered worthless. It's a joke,
> possibly the "worst video game ever made" - up there with Superman 64 for
> N64.

  I would think it depends upon your criteria for "worst video game ever."
I mean, "Chase the Chuck Wagon" [1] or "Custer's Revenge" [2] could easily
take the "worst video game ever" slot.  E.T. actually had a plot (as E.T.,
collect parts to "phone home").   

  Also, given the story behind E.T., it's an incredible accomplishment in
Atari 2600 programming---only five weeks to come up with an idea and get it
programmed on a machine where you had to program the screen nearly
pixel-by-pixel in about 4K of ROM (and 128 bytes of RAM).

  I think the main problem with the game is the pixel-perfect collision
detection that makes it all too easy to fall into the pits.  It can be fixed
[3] but not with some addtional issues.

  -spc (It's certainly more complex than Adventure ... )

[1]	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_the_Chuck_Wagon

[2]	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custer%27s_Revenge

[3]	http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/



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