ET Video

paul4990 · Post by **paul4990** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 1:56 pm

i want ET!

but i read they all got crushed by a steamroller before being buried

and they will all be rusty by now

Post by **bicostp** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 2:31 pm

Well, they probably buried all the unsold ET carts (and likely a few hundred Pac-Man carts) in the desert, as Apple later did with all the old Lisas. I'm betting they probably crused them to save space (cheaper to bury) and then covered them with dirt.

I think it's rather poetic, both ET and the games have a hard time getting out of a pit!

EDIT: In theory, if they did cover them in cement, wouldn't people be able to find them using the same sonar or ultrasound equipment they use to find ancient buildings buried under soil? And if they're really encased in cement, if any of the rom boards are still OK they could play, in theory...

Wayne Venomous · Post by **Wayne Venomous** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 2:39 pm

paul4990 wrote:i want ET!

but i read they all got crushed by a steamroller before being buried

and they will all be rusty by now

You're not missing anything, trust me!
I was one of the poor sods who got it for Christmas.

You can find it on Ebay if you really have to.

paul4990 · Post by **paul4990** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:12 pm

i like that music at the start

*o* · Post by ***o*** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:14 pm

i still want to play it once...it looks THAT bad...

great video, really well directed...

Wayne Venomous · Post by **Wayne Venomous** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:20 pm

paul4990 wrote:i like that music at the start

That's the best bit! It goes downhill from there.

There's been a few hacks of ET for the Atari. Does anyone know if it's been hacked and made into an actual playable game?

paul4990 · Post by **paul4990** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:22 pm

can i have yours?

paul4990 · Post by **paul4990** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:34 pm

i like ET
i played it on an emulator, and its kinda funny.

gamer2 · Post by **gamer2** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:58 pm

My brother grew up with atari, and he LOVES that E.T. game, he thinks its the best game he has ever played

*shudders*

Wayne Venomous · Post by **Wayne Venomous** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 4:05 pm

paul4990 wrote:can i have yours?

Sorry mate, swapped it many many years ago for Defender 2.

Fair enough, you can look back at it now as a bit of nostalgia and video gaming history. But the sheer disappointment I had when I got it for Christmas and spent half an hour trying to work it out and then finally realising how crap it was still haunts me to this day.

That and Super BLOODY Cobra!!!

Why is the first level pretty easy, the second level stupidly hard and on the third level, why am I being attacked (somewhat ineffectually) by giant pickled onions?

Post by **benheck** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 4:26 pm

I actually met the guy who programmed ET. He said he only had 6 weeks to program it, because they got the rights shortly after the movie was released (June 1982) and they had to have the code done so they could start the ROM masks in September for a Christmas release. He got the gig because he also programmed 2600 Raiders of the Lost Ark. (Another Spielberg film)

So that was his *reason*. Also if you read up, Todd Frye blames his crappy Pac Man on Atari being to cheap to allow him a larger ROM.

Atari paid $20-$21 million for the ET rights. Meaning that alone PAID for the movie which was only like $18 million, then STILL went on to be the top movie ever at the time (even more than Star Wars)

Wayne Venomous · Post by **Wayne Venomous** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 4:33 pm

benheckc wrote:Also if you read up, Todd Frye blames his crappy Pac Man on Atari being to cheap to allow him a larger ROM.

I actually liked Pac Man. I hadn't played the original at the arcade (being only 4 years old at the time!).I don't blame the programmers, I know how "post-Bushnell" Atari didn't give any of it's programmers credit and they had a pretty hard time.

But still, if that didn't happen, a bunch of them wouldn't have left and formed Activision. And with no Activision, my wife wouldn't be playing Tony Hawks American Wasteland on the Xbox AGAIN and I wouldn't have this PC all to myself!