Interesting fact about Atari!

[zmactarheel]

Well back in the 80's when the original game E.T came out for atari 2600 it was such a huge "belly flop" (so to speak). They took all the E.T games that had not been bought (which was alot) and went into the desert in the middle of the night and buried every single one of them. Another interesting fact... It was that very game that almost stopped the gaming industry and it was Japan that helped us out by making the N.E.S. So this helped our huge mistake and now that little company in Japan is the biggest gaming industry in the world! Well I thought I'd let you guys in on those little tid-bits. :D

AHA!!! I found a pic here it is!

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/5021/etfj2.gif

[Zeldafan114]

Well back in the 80's when the original game E.T came out for atari 2600 it was such a huge "belly flop" (so to speak). They took all the E.T games that had not been bought (which was alot) and went into the desert in the middle of the night and buried every single one of them. Another interesting fact... It was that very game that almost stopped the gaming industry and it was Japan that helped us out by making the N.E.S. So this helped our huge mistake and now that little company in Japan is the biggest gaming industry in the world! Well I thought I'd let you guys in on those little tid-bits. :D

AHA!!! I found a pic here it is!

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/5021/etfj2.gif


Wow. I didn't know that! they actually bothered to bury the copies in the desert...

[Dracophile]

That's an urban legend that the games were buried in Alamogordo, New Mexico. There is very little documentation about the subject, and no one has really been able to find much of anything. It's great to wish though.

Also, ET did not cause the "video game crash" of the 1980's, and Nintendo did not "fix" it. The crash was brought upon largely by a sudden mass influx of very bad (and sometimes overpriced) games, mostly for the Atari 2600. These games had very little thought and effort put into them and were released by a bunch of new and unknown (and now dead) companies. The unwanted games stagnated the market with trash and people became disinterested in them. By the time the market for video games had bounced back the NES just coming to America.

Other systems/computers like the Atari 5200, Atari 7200, Intellivision, and Commodore64 were still around before the NES came out.

[zmactarheel]

Hmmmm I saw it on a gaming television show but I suppose I must not take everything so seriously. But I do agree with you on the subject that some of the games that were put out were overpriced and had little thought put into them (just like ET). My dad might know more about this because he had I think the 2600,5200, and maybe the 7200. And now that I think about it the intelivision had better graphics I might be wrong I may not... So I geuss I better get my facts straight :/.

[Yellowtail]

Apparently, ET was made in only 6 weeks. That's pretty short for a game.

[zmactarheel]

Yeah I mean look at that. It pretty much looks like that every level.

[Dracophile]

Apparently, ET was made in only 6 weeks. That's pretty short for a game.

ET was rushed out the door to be finished in time for the Christmas holiday season that year. It was a huge seller, and also mad lots of returns. The creator, Howard Scott Warshaw has commented on the game several times and has done many interviews about what it was like having only 6 weeks to produce a game. By today's standards 6 weeks is nothing, but if you really learned Atari coding you'd see that it wasn't exactly a "rush", but in this case there was a deadline (a big one).

One reason I don't really "believe" in the landfill legend is because, if so many copies of ET were destroyed, why in the world is it so darn common? I have a copy. I had TWO copies at one point. Almost every collector has a copy or copies of it.

Also here's a fun fact for those of you interested. Atari produced more copies of ET than there were Atari 2600's made.

EDIT: Also: Most Atari 2600 games were incapable of "levels". The majority of 2600 games were merely repetive high score games, but there was a lot of variety and gameplay in them. ET was somewhat intended as an adventure title. It's a beatable game but it just has a few too many flaws that could have been fixed if given time.

[Mrblack dud]

ET was rushed out the door to be finished in time for the Christmas holiday season that year. It was a huge seller, and also mad lots of returns. The creator, Howard Scott Warshaw has commented on the game several times and has done many interviews about what it was like having only 6 weeks to produce a game. By today's standards 6 weeks is nothing, but if you really learned Atari coding you'd see that it wasn't exactly a "rush", but in this case there was a deadline (a big one).

One reason I don't really "believe" in the landfill legend is because, if so many copies of ET were destroyed, why in the world is it so darn common? I have a copy. I had TWO copies at one point. Almost every collector has a copy or copies of it.

Also here's a fun fact for those of you interested. Atari produced more copies of ET than there were Atari 2600's made.

EDIT: Also: Most Atari 2600 games were incapable of "levels". The majority of 2600 games were merely repetive high score games, but there was a lot of variety and gameplay in them. ET was somewhat intended as an adventure title. It's a beatable game but it just has a few too many flaws that could have been fixed if given time.

Thats wicked! Pretty cool. Now I wish I had a atari 2600 just to play that lol.