Zero Punctuation: E.T. - "The Worst Game Ever"

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Still kind of odd ET is the worst game ever when compared to Custer's Revenge.

Well, it's certainly bad...but WORST?
I can think of less playable games.

'Did it cause the crash of the entire Western videogames industry?'

ET and to a lesser extent Pac Man for the Atari 2600 were major contributors to the crash, Custer's Revenge was merely a symptom and not as high profile as the two Atari titles.

 

[RyQ_TMC]

At the exact moment that Yahtzee said the "beat music" line and the image with the boombox appeared, some upbeat electro music started playing on my headphones. I thought "ZP with music in? Interesting..." After a few seconds I thought "OK, is he going to keep that on for the rest of the review?"

Only after about 15 seconds did I realize that one of those self-playing video ads loaded in another tab. What fun those are!

 

[Valkrex]

Well this was a nice change of pace! Not a bad episode and a decent way to hold yourself over until the new releases. You could also review some games you missed. Like Fire Emblem: Awakening.











Just saying.

 

[Lightknight]

This is really weird timing. Last night I was holding up my copy of E.T. and laughing with a buddy about how I remember playing the game for ten minutes before running back to Tron game.

Weird that I hadn't even looked at my Atari library for the past decade and suddenly did it the same week Yahtzee would do a throw back to it.

Hmm... Maybe I have powers... what do I want him to review next? I... these powers are lost on me. I don't care what he reviews as long as he continues to do so.

 

[Falseprophet]

Many publishers complained about Nintendo's third party licencing rules back in the NES days but it was all to prevent the atari crash all over again. So yeah someone did learn something....only to forget it many years later.

The publishers back then might not have grumbled so much if Nintendo hadn't also claimed 70% of their sales.

Also, Nintendo's content regulations might have been an effective crap filter (though the Angry Video Game Nerd would probably contest that), but they also ensured console gaming would be seen as a children's toy for almost 20 years afterwards.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

There were other big problems the game industry, and particularly atari were having. One Yahtzee alluded to was the dismal failure of the Atari port of Pac-Man. They bought the rights, and made more copies of the game than there were Atari 2600's.\

The problem was, the Atari wasn't capable of an arcade machine's clean color palate, nor could it render more than one computer controlled sprite at a time. To get around these limitations, the game was in various colors of the sewage rainbow, and the ghosts flashed on the screen in ways that brought new fun to eye strain. Of the ten million carts made, about five million were never sold or returned. Atari wasn't the only console in town, there were at least a dozen, even Atari's own 5200.

 

[Sheen Lantern]

I can't believe he reviewed E.T. before The Wolf Among Us....

 

[Racecarlock]

Oh yahtzee. I enjoyed this review as I do every review, but you're avoiding battlefield 4 as hard as you can, aren't you? I mean, seriously, you could so bust that game wide open and watch it bleed out on the floor. And we'd be applauding you.

I do like this new game history segment, though. I hope it continues.

 

[Something Amyss]

"It caused the crash of 83'!"
No, not really. The shovelware gambit was going on for YEARS without relent or remorse at that point. E.T. is just the lynchpin because it was attached to a very prominent Spielburg film rather than the likes of "Contamination .7"

It's also worth noting that it wasn't so much the issue as the fact that they were sure they'd sell over four million at Christmas and put them on expensive carts. Which, in fairness, Yahtzee does mention. But this is more the cause of the crash. Overspeculation on games like ET and Pac Man led to retailers having shelves full of unsold carts. It wasn't just a financial burden to the publisher, but also to the retailers. Faced with those full shelves, the retailers said "Whelp, that fad's over! What new toy can we find to replace it?"

Of course, this arguably couldn't have happened without a big name tied to it.

Anyway, I still enjoyed the episode, so I'm not knocking Yahtzee. Just engaging in some fact-based information in the comments section because it came up.

 

[Something Amyss]

Also, Nintendo's content regulations might have been an effective crap filter (though the Angry Video Game Nerd would probably contest that), but they also ensured console gaming would be seen as a children's toy for almost 20 years afterwards.

I'd say AVGN was a pretty big testament to how horrible these regulations were at keeping bad games out. Many of the games James covers were hugely popular, some promoted by Nintendo Power, etc. And often, he only reviews the biggest offenders!

 

[Thanatos2k]

E.T. was not the game that crashed the gaming industry - Pacman was. Pacman was far more anticipated than E.T., and a far bigger disaster. Atari manufactured 12 million cartridges, but only sold 8 million. Also, once people realized the thing they bought sight unseen because they thought it was Pacman was actually a piece of garbage, retailers were deluged by people returning the game. It also fostered extreme mistrust in console games that purported to be games matching the arcade game brands they already knew about. That's why E.T. failed - people were already checked out.

There are far more copies of Pacman buried in that landfill than E.T. E.T. was just the final bullet shot into the dying body.

 

[Rinshan Kaihou]

lol I wasn't expecting an evangelion reference from this at all. Coincidentally, it was only a few days ago we were cleaning out my grandfathers basement, and came upon my dad's old Atari 2600 and the games for it, including the ET game. He had never heard about this, so I had to show him an article to read on it, including the whole new mexico landfill thing.

 

[shrekfan246]

BTW: why not review "Divinity: Original Sin"? It's the best thing to happen since the Baldur's Gate remakes. It's true!

He said in a recent Extra Punctuation that he had tried to play it and it bored him.

OT: Laughed quite a bit at this one, particularly with that nice little jingle and the ending.

I do have to wonder how E.T. would compare to titles like Ride to Hell, Dark, and the influx of complete trash Steam has been enduring the past few months were it to be released in modern times.

 

[Atmos Duality]

It's also worth noting that it wasn't so much the issue as the fact that they were sure they'd sell over four million at Christmas and put them on expensive carts. Which, in fairness, Yahtzee does mention. But this is more the cause of the crash. Overspeculation on games like ET and Pac Man led to retailers having shelves full of unsold carts. It wasn't just a financial burden to the publisher, but also to the retailers. Faced with those full shelves, the retailers said "Whelp, that fad's over! What new toy can we find to replace it?"

Of course, this arguably couldn't have happened without a big name tied to it.

Well, that's a good perspective to bring up: video games were just "toys" back then.
As such, there wasn't really much of a critical press or consumer informant. They weren't taken seriously, and this fostered a dangerous relationship between producer and consumer.

Quality control was done entirely on a trust based system, and with the lack of licensing on Atari's part there was no reason to not go with the shovelware route and gouge like a ************. Grab a license, spend a pittance on development, sell for megabucks. Repeat. It's not like anyone could know the quality of content until they played it.

So consumer trust was betrayed time after time, priming the market to go over the edge.
And then Atari grossly over-committed on E.T., and rightly fell.

Anyway, I still enjoyed the episode, so I'm not knocking Yahtzee. Just engaging in some fact-based information in the comments section because it came up.

Agreed. It's nice to see something other than the usual industry myths trotted out.
Saying that E.T. killed the industry is always something that rubbed me the wrong way.

I've played the game, and it is quite bad, but it at least passes the barest test of product functionality and that alone keeps it above shite like Cheetahmen.

'Did it cause the crash of the entire Western videogames industry?'

ET and to a lesser extent Pac Man for the Atari 2600 were major contributors to the crash, Custer's Revenge was merely a symptom and not as high profile as the two Atari titles.

And like I've already said, E.T. was not the only contributor.
An entire industry doesn't collapse over one bad product. A systematic failure is required for that to happen.

 

[Bbleds]

Gotta admit I personally like this drought since I'm able to play games I haven't played/finished before the next big IP comes along and gets me all excited before letting me down and making me feel ashamed of myself for thinking it would be different this time ( I have my eyes on you as well Evil Within!)

Also having played both new consoles I gotta say that I'm glad I finally splurged on a custom gaming PC and for anyone who is thinking of what to get next that would be my recommendation ( though if you absolutely must have a console PS4 is the clear winner). With a PC you can still get almost every major release plus with better graphics, if your into that, as well of a slew of games you can find for free. So you can say I joined the "elite" or the "cult" depending on how you view PC gaming, but I just say I got the best gaming device worth my time, money, and most importantly have the most enjoyment with.

 

[Ewyx]

http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/

An interesting, albeit a bit more technical take on the ET game. Definitely worth a read for all you programming nerds out there.

 

[Trikeen]

The ending of this video is the first good belly laugh I've gotten out of an internet video in months. Good Shit.

 

[Barciad]

If Yahtzee is a bit stuck on what to review next, there is always:-
Beyond Good and Evil
Okami
Killer 7
Crackdown
Half Life 2
etc...

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

It's also worth noting that it wasn't so much the issue as the fact that they were sure they'd sell over four million at Christmas and put them on expensive carts. Which, in fairness, Yahtzee does mention. But this is more the cause of the crash. Overspeculation on games like ET and Pac Man led to retailers having shelves full of unsold carts. It wasn't just a financial burden to the publisher, but also to the retailers. Faced with those full shelves, the retailers said "Whelp, that fad's over! What new toy can we find to replace it?"

Of course, this arguably couldn't have happened without a big name tied to it.

Well, that's a good perspective to bring up: video games were just "toys" back then.
As such, there wasn't really much of a critical press or consumer informant. They weren't taken seriously, and this fostered a dangerous relationship between producer and consumer.

Quality control was done entirely on a trust based system, and with the lack of licensing on Atari's part there was no reason to not go with the shovelware route and gouge like a ************. Grab a license, spend a pittance on development, sell for megabucks. Repeat. It's not like anyone could know the quality of content until they played it.

So consumer trust was betrayed time after time, priming the market to go over the edge.
And then Atari grossly over-committed on E.T., and rightly fell.

Anyway, I still enjoyed the episode, so I'm not knocking Yahtzee. Just engaging in some fact-based information in the comments section because it came up.

Agreed. It's nice to see something other than the usual industry myths trotted out.
Saying that E.T.

'Did it cause the crash of the entire Western videogames industry?'

ET and to a lesser extent Pac Man for the Atari 2600 were major contributors to the crash, Custer's Revenge was merely a symptom and not as high profile as the two Atari titles.

And like I've already said, E.T. was not the only contributor.
An entire industry doesn't collapse over one bad product. A systematic failure is required for that to happen.

It looks as though you added to your post as I was typing mine.

 

[FPLOON]

This episode made me remember Scott Bromley's Internet Rabbithole, where he could have done a full episode on how it's Nintendo's fault that "Otakuism" exist in the first place... or somathing...

Other than that, that ending made me laugh harder than I thought I would... as well as made me think of other consoles (and certain games) pulling the "fool you" sheet... kinda...

PS2: Yes, we are a game console... but, we're also A DVD PLAYAH! *confetti*
Wii: Yes, we are a game console for the whole family... including THE ELDERLY! *confetti*
Call of Duty: Yes, we are a mature-rated game... that EVEN YOUR KIDS CAN PLAY! *confetti* Multiplayer, bitches...
Any Sports-related game: Yes, we do cater to the our sports fans and gamers... but... uh... uh... *confetti* Too soon, dude...

Yeah... I'll stop now...