ET the Extra-Terrestrial (computer game)
| ET the Extra-Terrestrial | |
|---|---|
| Studio | Howard Scott Warshaw |
| Publisher | Atari |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1982 |
| platform | Atari 2600 |
| genre | Adventure |
| control | joystick |
| medium | Cartridge , download (republication of the Internet archive ) |
ET the Extra-Terrestrial is an adventure game that was published by Atari in 1982 for the company's own Atari 2600 console . Due to its serious commercial failure, the game is often associated with the video game Crash of 1983 and is also widely regarded in retrospective reception as one of the worst games of all time. Several thousand surplus modules from the game were therefore buried in the New Mexico desert in 1983.
Gameplay
The player controls ET, which was brought to earth by a spaceship at the beginning of the game. ET has to find parts of a phone that are hidden in some of the holes (dark green spots on the map) scattered all over the place. ET therefore has to inspect the holes into which it drops (see sketch), mostly without success. To get out again, ET stretches his neck up (push button on the joystick) and floats up (joystick up). Often, however, ET will fall back into the hole and the procedure will start over.
At the beginning of the game, ET has 9999 life points, which are reduced when he
- moves (1 point per square),
- falls into a hole
- floats out of a hole
- runs.
In the last three actions, ET loses life points particularly quickly. When the points are used up, ET is dead and it's game over. However, Elliott comes to him the first time and he receives another 1500 points. However, since you regularly have to plunge into the holes to find the phone parts, this game is hardly playable.
In certain modes, the search for the phone parts is made more difficult by an FBI man (in a beige coat and hat) who steals the phone parts you have already collected, and by a scientist (white coat) who brings ET into a building.
history
development
The game is based on the Steven Spielberg film of the same name and was developed by Howard Scott Warshaw , the programmer of the bestseller Yars' Revenge , within five weeks in order to be ready in time for Christmas shopping . Because of the great success of the Spielberg film ET , around five million cartridges of the game were produced, as a great success for the computer game was also expected.
Source code
In 2006 Denis Debro decompiled the game and reconstructed a source code version.
Republication and subsequent corrections
After the game was no longer available for a long period of time, the Internet Archive (see web links) made a browser-playable version of ET the Extra-Terrestrial and other classic games available on its website , emulated using the MESS program
In February 2013, a detailed were greeted by a supporter Code Review of the game and unofficial corrections published, many of the weaknesses and often expressed a bug fix in the game. These were incorporated into the version offered by the Internet Archive.
reception
Reviews and sales
In the opinion of many critics, the game was of poor graphic and playful quality, as it should be ready within five weeks in time for Christmas business. The game's bad image is probably also due to the fact that you had to read the instructions carefully to know what to do for this game, while most of the other games at the time were more or less self-explanatory. The title appeared on many lists in retrospect as one of the worst games of all time.
Due to the generally negative reception from players and the trade press, only around 1.5 million of the modules produced were sold, despite significant price discounts recently. Despite being in the top 10 best-selling games for the Atari 2600, Atari was left with most of the units produced (80%) of the game. Some of it was buried along with other leftover goods in a landfill in Alamogordo , New Mexico . It was later widely referred to as the catalyst for the 1983 Video Game Crash.
Legends about the burial
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Over the years, a modern legend has arisen about the burial of ET , as a symbol of the decline of the American computer game industry in the early 1980s, which was widely received. Despite contemporary reports, it was sometimes doubted that the burial actually took place. In early 2014, a search for the buried modules initiated by Fuel Industries and Microsoft was finally approved by the environmental authority of the city of Alamogordo. On April 26, 2014, the search team came across numerous ET game modules at the suspected location , some of them still in their original packaging. This finally dispelled the long-standing doubts about the truthfulness. About the search for the modules was released in November 2014, Xbox Live is a documentary scriptwriter Zak Penn entitled Game Over: Atari .
Web links
- ET the Extra-Terrestrial in the Internet Archive (with play option)
- ET the Extra-Terrestrial at MobyGames (English)
- Review neXGam.de
- Review Gamezone
- Explanatory video for the game
Individual evidence
- ^ Phil Johnson: Digging up ET's source code . ITworld . May 6, 2014 .: " The code, written in assembly language for the MOS Technology 6502 8-bit processor, has been around for a while, having been reconstructed by Dennis Debro in 2006. "
- ^ ET the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Atari 2600 Source Code on pastebin .com
- ↑ Adi Robertson: The Internet Archive puts Atari games and obsolete software directly in your browser ( English ) The Verge . October 25, 2013. Retrieved October 29, 2013.
- ^ Tilman Baumgärtel: Timothy Leary, the games developer - How do you get historical computer games? The Internet archive streams dozens of classics, and Timothy Leary prepares games for research in New York. . The time . November 14, 2013. Accessed on November 14, 2013: “The Internet Archive now not only contains the original game from 1982, but also a version that corrects its worst programming errors. "
- ^ Fixing ET The Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600 ( English ) Neocomputer. February 1, 2013. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
- ↑ BBC.com: The man who made 'the worst video game in history'. Retrieved August 4, 2016 .
- ↑ Levi Buchanan: IGN: Top 10 Best-Selling Atari 2600 Games ( English ) In: IGN . August 26, 2008. Archived from the original on July 26, 2011. Retrieved on September 10, 2011.
- ↑ Marian McQuiddy: City to Atari: 'ET' trash go home , Alamogordo Daily News . September 27, 1983. “The number of actual trucks which have dumped locally was not known. Local BFI officials put it at 10. However, corporate spokesmen in Houston say it was closer to 20; and city Officials say it is Actually 14. " (Engl.)
- ^ Spiegel Online: Game-Crash 1984: When ET Killed Video Games , March 10, 2009
- ↑ Authorization to search for ET granted Microsoft is allowed to search for ET in a dump - not a real alien, but the Atari game published in the early 80s. on golem.de
- ↑ ET games in the desert as a documentary on spiegel.de
- ↑ ET was finally found on golem.de (April 26, 2014)
- ↑ Here it is up close - the very first ET cartridge exhumed after 30 years on twitter.com (English)
- ↑ Gamestar