History VideoGame / ETTheExtraTerrestrial

* ActionAdventure: Collect phone pieces while avoiding the FBI agent and scientist. Once you've called home, get back to the landing site, again while avoiding capture.

The game itself is a ThreeQuartersView ActionAdventure game. You play E.T., and at the beginning, you are dropped off by the [[WebVideo/JoueurDuGrenier phonebooth-looking spaceship]]. You then have to find three pieces of an [[PlotCoupon intergalactic telephone]] so E.T. can "phone home." You wander around six screens, and perform various actions by pressing the fire button; [[ContextSensitiveButton different actions are available depending on where E.T. is standing]]. The most important screens are the ones with wells; the phone pieces are in the wells. You can try falling into well after well to check them, or (the intended way) you can find the part of the screen where you can use an action that shows which well has a phone piece. Once you assemble all the phone pieces, you head to one spot on one screen where the available action is phoning home. Phone home, then head to the landing site for a pick-up before a timer runs out.

The game is considered by the mainstream to be the worst video game ever made, though that's up for debate by actual Atari 2600 fans (and most are really sick of talking about it). It does, however, undoubtedly remain one of the biggest financial disasters in video game history, and definitely helped to [[CreatorKiller sink Atari]].

->''"E.T. certainly isn't the worst game or even the least polished, but I actually like having the distinction of it being the worst game. Between that and VideoGame/YarsRevenge, I have the greatest range of anyone ever on the machine."''

The game is considered by the mainstream to be the worst video game ever made, though that's up for debate by actual Atari 2600 fans (and most are really sick of talking about it). It does, however, undoubtedly remain one of the biggest financial disasters in video game history, and definitely helped to sink Atari.

[[quoteright:256:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/etzx2.gif]]

'''''[[TropeCodifier The]]''''' UsefulNotes/{{shovelware}} game.

An adaptation of [[Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial the movie]] for the UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}}, that became infamous as the {{Trope Maker|s}} for TheProblemWithLicensedGames. Considered [[WorstWhateverEver one of the worst games of all time]], and one of the events that led to UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983.

Following the success of the movie, in July 1982 Warner Communications, Creator/{{Atari}}'s parent company, paid an unprecedented $21 million (almost 65 million in 2022 adjusted for inflation) for the rights to do a video game adaptation. Programmer Howard Scott Warshaw was given just six weeks to write it, [[MoneyDearBoy in order to]] [[ChristmasRushed meet the Christmas deadline]]. In comparison, Warshaw's previous 2600 games, ''VideoGame/YarsRevenge'' and ''VideoGame/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', both highly regarded, took seven months and six months respectively.

So, does this sound like one of the worst games of all time?

Taking into account how little time he was given, Warshaw can hardly be faulted for the end product; the game isn't bugged or incomplete. This is no ''VideoGame/BigRigsOverTheRoadRacing''. But the gameplay is boring, confusing, repetitive and frustrating. If this had been just another 2600 game, it would have been considered below average and relegated to bargain bin status. It's Atari's huge gamble on it that caused the ''real'' damage.

Atari produced over 4 million units, presumably expecting that over a million people would buy Ataris ''just'' to play this game. Although one and a half million were sold, most of these were sent back. In fact, Atari's licensing deal with Spielberg would have required selling at least ''five million'' copies to recoup their costs, which is another factor in their overproduction. Warner Communications' stock price took a 35% hit, and within a few months, UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983 was underway.

Because the game sold so many copies, you can find ''E.T.'' cartridges with relative ease even today.

Following the success of the movie, in July 1982 Warner Communications, Creator/{{Atari}}'s parent company, paid an unprecedented $21 million for the rights to do a video game adaptation. Programmer Howard Scott Warshaw was given just six weeks to write it, [[MoneyDearBoy in order to]] [[ChristmasRushed meet the Christmas deadline]]. In comparison, Warshaw's previous 2600 games, ''VideoGame/YarsRevenge'' and ''VideoGame/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', both highly regarded, took seven months and six months respectively.

An adaptation of [[Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial the movie]] for the UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}}, that became infamous as the {{Trope Maker|s}} for TheProblemWithLicensedGames. Considered one of the worst games of all time, and one of the events that led to UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983.

!! The ''E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial'' videogame contains examples of the following tropes:

* ContextSensitiveButton: Pressing the fire button will do different things depending on where you're standing. Symbols at the top of the screen tell you what will happen.

* JerkAss: The FBI agent will take away your phone pieces and Reese's Pieces.

* ThreeQuartersView: The surface. Gameplay is TopDownView, and the wells are seen from above, but the characters are shown in SideView. The buildings are also in side view, even though gameplay there is still in top view.

Atari produced over 4 million units, presumably expecting that over a million people would buy Ataris just to play this game. Although one and a half million were sold, most of these were sent back. In fact, Atari's licensing deal with Spielberg would have required selling at least ''five million'' copies to recoup their costs, which is another factor in their overproduction. Warner Communications' stock price took a 35% hit, and within a few months, UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983 was underway.

-->--'''Howard Scott Warshaw''', designer and programmer of ''E.T.''

* SerialNumbersFiledOff: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwdOZjS6N4U Abbex made a version for British microcomputers called "ET-X: The Extraterrestrial Xargon,"]] as shown by Creator/GuruLarry. This version has some interesting instances of {{Woolseyism}}s, relocating the setting to England and changing the Reese's Pieces to bits of fruit [[RealitySubtext as the candy was not available in the UK]] at the time of publishing.

The game is considered by the mainstream to be the worst video game ever made, though that's up for debate by actual Atari 2600 fans (and most are [[FandomBerserkButton really sick of talking about it]]). It does, however, undoubtedly remain one of the biggest financial disasters in video game history, and definitely helped to sink Atari.

Atari produced over 4 million unites, which was actually more people who owned the Atari, presumably expecting that over a million people would buy Ataris just to play this game. Although one and a half million were sold, most of these were sent back. In fact, Atari's licensing deal with Spielberg would have required selling at least ''five million'' copies to recoup their costs, which is another factor in their overproduction. Warner Communications' stock price took a 35% hit, and within a few months, UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983 was underway.

* ReadTheFreakingManual: Nearly all of the gameplay (like the symbols at the bottom of the screen) is explained in the manual. Without it, the game is way more confusing than it actually is.

* SerialNumbersFiledOff: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwdOZjS6N4U Abbex made a version for British microcomputers called "ET-X: The Extraterrestrial Xargon,"]] as shown by Creator/GuruLarry.
** Interestingly, the microcomputer version has some instances of {{Woolseyism}}s, relocating the setting to England and changing the Reese's Pieces to bits of fruit [[RealitySubtext as the candy was not available in the UK]] at the time of publishing.

Taking into account how little time he was given, Warshaw did well enough; the game isn't bugged or incomplete. This is no ''VideoGame/BigRigsOverTheRoadRacing''. But the gameplay is boring, confusing, and repetitive. It's also very easy to fall into a well, and once you levitate back out, you often fall right back in again. If this had been just another 2600 game, it would have been considered below average and quickly forgotten. But Atari's big bet on it is what did the real damage. Atari produced four million units, expecting a massive hit, and presumably that people would buy their console just to play the game. One and a half million sold, but most of these were sent back. Atari lost millions, [[note]]Atari's deal with Spielberg required selling ''five million'' copies of the game to recoup their costs, hence the massive overproduction[[/note]] Warner Communications' stock price took a 35% hit, and within a few months, UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983 was underway.

* ReadTheFreakinManual: Nearly all of the gameplay (like the symbols at the bottom of the screen) is explained in the manual. Without it, the game is way more confusing than it actually is.