I hate this game so much...

It all started with the E.T. movie, I saw it with my husband and 3 children (1 girl and 2 boys) and we loved it, it was a very nice memory, we even bought a vinyl with the OST made by John Williams, it was amazing.
So when a game of the movie came out in 1982, we were all very excited!
My husband, Harry, worked at Atari, Inc. so he asked for the game to surprise us, but he decided to try it first, that's where the tragedy began...
He started playing a lot, I told him that he was going to hurt his eyes if he continued playing for so long, and he responded vaguely by saying something like "I'll be done soon, honey." Considering his frustrated dream of playing basketball, and not being able to due to a childhood injury, I ignored it at first, and was glad that he found a hobby.
I realized something was wrong, when one day I saw him at home, when he was supposed to be at work, carrying a refrigerator to the game room, I asked him what he was doing and he replied: SORRY, HONEY, I HAVE TO FIND THE PHONE PIECES, E.T. NEED MY HELP

I was so shocked that my head started to hurt, I didn't believe what was happening, I told him to go pick up the kids from school today, and after him whispered "sure" I went to bed. Later I woke up because someone was calling the phone, it was one of the children's teachers, asking if something had happened, because no one had come for them. I quickly went to get the children, and when I returned home to ask Harry for explanations, I found him drinking liters and liters of milk, non-stop, like a vampire sucking blood from a young lady, or a viking bathing in the blood of his enemies, while playing that damn game, he ignored my words, If I moved him away from the screen he would reposition himself to see it, if I stood in front of the screen he would move me away. Suddenly he stopped drinking milk and started mumbling something, it sounded very low, so I approached him to listen, and he was humming the damn song from the fucking video game. I got angry, I took a broom and broke the television, then he started crying and hugging the television shouting: E.T. E.T. E.T.!!!!
He asked me to do something, because E.T. needs his help, but I took the children and went to my mother's house for a few days.

Some time later, having assimilated everything a little, I saw news about E.T. game, buried in the desert, I laughed ironically thinking that the devil's game deserved it, but that was when I realized that among the images on the news, there was him, Harry, digging with his bare hands to look for the game, he even had blood on the tips of his fingers. How long were he digging? What was he doing there? How was it possible...

In the end I decided to forget about it and continue taking care of the children as a single mother, but seeing this game on my favorite website, backloggd, has brought me very bad memories...

Time for the main event!
Behold: One of the worst games of all time. A game so bad it crashed the whole market. Copies of it were hunted and destroyed.

...uhhhh am I missing something?
When I look at this game, then look at the small selection of atari garbage I recently played I can see that they are not created equally.
E.T. actually has a title screen, an opening and ending cutscene, a map made of multiple screens, 3 npcs that wander the map, multiple collectibles...
Sure at first I was constantly falling into the holes over and over, and it took me a while until I understood how the hell I could get out without falling again.
Then I was walking aimlessly around the map trying to understand wtf I was supposed to do, or what anything did.
But through trial and error I kinda understood my main objective: gathering... shiny pieces of something (it's hard to tell what anything is on the atari) found randomly on the holes.

I don't think everyone would be as patient as I was, figuring out what to do when nothing seemed to work immediately. I especially don't think that the people that were hyped for this game (thanks to the movie and whatever deceptive advertising was used to promote this), would be happy after booting this up and playing for a few minutes (although having the manual is an advantage they would have over me lmao). This released around christmas...
History tends to repeat itself and I believe that this game is the first hyped AAA game that was rushed in development and then underdelivered. You hate to see it.

It's funny how expectations warp your reception of media (or anything in general really). Since I was expecting the worst of the worst, I'm... disappointed but not in the same way.
E.T. is not that bad. It's not good either, it's full of flaws, but for the console it's in... I mean what were people expecting a movie adaptation?
Most of the game's flaws can be blamed on the rushed development. Imagine if escaping the holes wasn't that painful, the game's reputation would be better for sure.

I ended up beating the game on my 3rd try. So, you have to find 3 of the shiny things, and once you have them all you activate the alien ship power and a count down activates. Oh, I forgot, the powers (or actions idk): On the top of the screen icons will appear as you move. I believe it's random but certain coordinates will result in specific powers. Some move you to the next screen, others heal you. One highlights a hole if it has a shiny object.
The one you need to use when you have the 3 shiny objects looks like a space invader, after activating it you then have to stand on the landing zone on the first screen where the game started. If you are standing on the correct square when the timer ends, you win, and E.T. will go back home.

It's... kind of dull but it's way more elaborate that the atari2600 games I recently played. It definitely isn't "worst game of all time" material.

After fiddling around with this game for less than 2 hours I can confidently say that anyone who thinks this is one of the worst games ever made has either
1. Never played another 2600 game in their life
2. Didn’t read the manual
Seriously y’all need to calm down about this one. Not that it’s perfect, obviously. Getting out of pits is easy with practice but sometimes you fall into one on a screen transition. Or the fact that humans will frequently walk onto the screen while you’re waiting for the timer and ruin your attempt. But it’s pretty ambitious for a 2600 game, and unfortunately it was a bit of a rush job. It didn’t crash the video game industry, Atari did by wasting money producing way more copies of this than anyone could reasonably sell. Give this one a chance (with a manual at your side) and you might actually have a little fun with it! But play Yars’ Revenge first. Or maybe just play that actually

Look its a terrible game but worse game of all time?
Sure in a way but I...feel ive played worse. Its such a nothing game. I felt more bewildered than angry or frustrated, like I was in a dream and had gone lucid playing a strange game.
Its terrible and in 1983 id definitely feel like a ripped off child mad that I spent what little money I had.but its...not really this "gotta get angry over it" game that youtube game reviewers play up. Finding out that the programmer (the only person who worked on the game btw) had only 5 weeks to rush out something makes it impressive

Is it worth the joke? Did I need to spend 45 minutes deciphering and maneuvering through this game's absolute nothingness of an experience just because I shared my username with it? To experience the E.T. video game?

Fuck it, yeah. Sometimes I pull myself into poor decisions, sometimes I irony my way into doing dumb shit for a bit, but in the end, it's an experience to have. There's a huge difference between taking someone's word on a game being bad and giving the word.

actually, sorry, no, i'm not going into detail on this game. it sucks, but not for very long, and it's very funny being able to say that i've finally played and beaten E.T., especially while having parents who played the game on official hardware back then and couldn't.

i promise i won't do it again.