As some of you likely already know, when movies are released they often have tie-in video games developed to go along with them. Some are very well done, others not so much.
The fact is, there are many, many games that are movie tie-ins, and most of them are understood to be really bad. But which one is the worst, and why do we care?
Among those who know the industry, it is well-known that the worst movie tie-in game ever released was Atari's 1982 release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, programmed solely by Howard Scott Warshaw in six weeks to tie in with the blockbuster movie of the same name. The movie was one of the new breed of blockbusters (and at this time, Steven Spielberg was responsible for all of them, including Jaws and Star Wars).
With a sure-fire epic hit of a movie coming in, Atari wanted to be part of it. They spent a fortune - $25 million - acquiring the rights, and promptly told poor Mr. Warshaw to design, code, and deliver it in only six weeks, far shorter than the 8-12 month development cycle typical at the time.
Not only that, so mismanaged were they back then, they actually produced more cartridges for the console than there were consoles sold! They felt it would push the sales further, but the opposite happened. The game was so confusing, difficult to control and generally unplayable it resulted in significant returns and unsold inventory. In fact, so serious was their error in judgment that this single game was a major cause of the great industry crash of 1983. It would take years and an unknown company from Japan to repair the damage.
Atari just wanted to forget the whole debacle, and for the 30 years since there has been an urban legend among enthusiasts that they buried excess carts in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. And recently, an excavation team with the backing of Microsoft studios decided to film an excursion to the landfill and see if the rumors are true, or finally lay them to rest. And guess what they found?
That's right! A horde of buried non-treasure. E.T. cartridges by the thousands, as well as a few Centipede ones thrown in for good measure.
Now we know. Now the rumors can be laid to rest. The documentary will be aired in the future on Microsoft channels, and it should be interesting to see.
One last thing - none of this was Howard S. Warshaw's fault; he was given an impossible task and did the best he could given the circumstances. He has a strong track record and no one considers this a taint on him personally. I didn't even mind the game that much, but I'm easy to please.
And frankly, there are much, MUCH worse games than this.
I think they tried too hard to get the game out while the E.T. movie craze is still going on. They probably thought it was going to sell anyways. With the look at the video posted along with the post, it was really confusing but not too bad for six weeks worth of work.
ReplyDeleteThis posting was amusing! Why on earth would they really bury the the game cartridges in Almogordo, NM??? When, I read that I thought it was going to be like some urban legend. To actually find that they dug them up is funny. Anyway, I remember the Atari 2600. We didn't actually have one, but my best friend did. A lot of the games were crappy and hard to understand. It's funny, for some reason I remember Journey having a game! This poor guy Warshaw. For his whole career he probably had to hear about this from everyone. Asteroids was the best that I remember playing!
ReplyDeleteI found this interesting to read. Companies try all the time to try and create games that match a movie getting ready to be released. They should have realized the game was only going to be as good as the time put in it to create it. They did allow for any time at all for the game to be created. I really cannot understand why they decided to bury the extra carts in a land fill. I remember playing Atari when I was younger and even though some of the games were bad I still loved them. I never did play the E.T game.
ReplyDelete-Stephanie Theobald
For Atari to spend $25 million on the rights for the game, you would think that they wouldn't rush things and come out with a game that people would enjoy playing. While watching the video of the game I was probably even more confused as to what you were supposed to actually do and accomplish than the one playing it. The was really no real objective to the game, rather than running around and catching the little black dots. If there was more time put into the game, I believe that they could have made something quite fun and entertaining, but only working on it for six weeks, this is what you should come up with.
ReplyDeleteI think I remember this game, I bought it and remember not liking it. I did not now that this game caused such ramifications. It makes sense though, game creators often try to come out with a game that relates to a movie so they could make huge sales and profits. The problem with that, they lack in decent play or challenge. I think they are afraid of some other creators might design the game first and getting the rights to sell it. It reminds me of the Simpsons game. It was OK, and considering its time it was comparable to other games. However, it does not compare to games like: Vexx, Halo, Oddworld Munch's Oddysee, Sonic, etc. These are awesome in comparison.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how far the gaming industry has came alone. I did own an atari but I do not remember this game. To me it seemed that with every new console the quality and game play upgraded significantly. Now we are in the era of the PS4 and XBOX one which are two of best consoles ever created. There graphics and game play are life like, I can not wait until we have the virtual reality gaming that should be fun.
ReplyDeleteThat video play of the game was terrible. Understand technology wasn't as good as now back in the days, but Jesus what was that crap. I use to be a big video game player and if I stumbled along that game, I probably would of quit a lot sooner.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post! I found it interesting that they were trying to push this game very fast, when this movie is a classic in which kids today have seen this film. So if it came out in 6 weeks or 6 months I think it would do just as well! Thanks for sharing!
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