Friday, December 14, 2012

Christmas Spectacular 2012: DAY 10 - E.T. the Extra Terrestrial from Atari

InsaneDavid Presents: Christmas Spectacular 2012: Advertisements

DAY 10 - E.T. the Extra Terrestrial from Atari

Ah yes, E.T., the game that uninformed internet personalities would like you to believe lead to the American video game crash of 1983. Fact of the matter, it was only one of about a dozen reasons why the crash happened and a pretty small one on its own at that. However it is a very good example of the excess and detachment of the people running the industry at the time - nothing like manufacturing more software than you have ever sold or ever will sell in hardware to match. Anyway, onto the ad. Here we have a simple, quiet hype machine that shows you exactly what you're getting - which is why I can't understand all the hatred for the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9zNqQS_tHs

My thoughts on E.T. - I always liked it as a kid and I still think it's a decent game. Given how short the dev cycle was it's actually a spectacular game with real difficulty and an actual ending. I do remember buying my copy in a plastic bag (booklet and cartridge only) for like $2.00 from a giant bin at a Kay Bee in 1984 - 1985. Looking back I wonder if they were returns or excess unboxed inventory from the factory, I did grow up in Silicon Valley after all.

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