Prompt Cast
The Truth About the ET Video Game: Not the Worst, But Still a Failure
TLDR Contrary to popular belief, the ET video game for Atari is not the worst video game of all time, but it was a disappointment and financial failure. The game's bad design, frustrating gameplay mechanics, and competition from other more enjoyable games led to its decline in popularity and contributed to Atari's financial troubles.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
The podcast discusses the widely believed misconception that the video game ET for Atari is the worst video game of all time, explaining that while it was a disappointment and a financial failure, there were actually many worse video games than ET.
05:01
Howard Scott Warshaw, a game designer at Atari in 1982, was known for creating innovative and enjoyable games, such as Yar's Revenge and Raiders of the Lost Ark, and for incorporating backstories and biographies for his characters, which enhanced the player's imagination and engagement.
09:36
Howard Scott Warshaw was given the task of creating the ET video game in just five weeks, which was an extremely short amount of time considering that it usually took five to six months to develop a game, but he accepted the challenge and successfully completed it.
14:03
Howard Scott Warshaw meets with Steven Spielberg to discuss the ET video game and proposes an adventure game that follows the plot of the film, but Spielberg suggests a Pac-Man knockoff instead, leading Warshaw to convince Spielberg to go with his original vision for the game.
18:58
Atari's sole programmer, Howard Scott Warshaw, worked non-stop for five weeks to complete the ET video game, which featured a unique world with six screens to navigate, but he believes that with one more week, he could have fixed all the issues.
23:32
The ET video game sold about a half a million copies initially, but quickly lost popularity due to word of mouth among kids, resulting in millions of unsold cartridges sitting in warehouses.
28:21
The ET video game was not fun to play due to bad design, frustrating gameplay mechanics, and the availability of other more enjoyable games, leading to its decline in popularity and contributing to Atari's financial troubles.
33:19
The failure of the ET video game contributed to Atari's financial troubles, leading to a loss of $536 million in one year and the eventual sale of the company, but it was not the sole cause of the North American video game crash of 1983, which saw the industry's sales drop from $3.2 billion to $100 million in two years.
38:17
A documentary was made about the ET video game, and through the help of a former Atari employee and the institutional memory of a man named Joe Lewandowski, they were able to narrow down the location of the buried cartridges in the Alamogordo landfill in New Mexico, eventually finding 1300 game cartridges.
43:10
The documentary confirmed that the urban legend of buried ET game cartridges was real, and many of the cartridges were auctioned off, with the highest price being $1,500.
47:37
The episode ends with unrelated ads and promotions.
Categories:
Society & Culture
