One of the most controversial and best-known video games of the 80s was released at the end of 1982, around 40 years ago: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600/VCS.
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial – The movie and the creature was everywhere at the end of 1982, literally! It was shown, it felt like, for months in every movie theater, non-stop. It was on the cover of every magazine, whether it was Cinema, Bravo or Hörzu. It was so hyped that you absolutely had to see it. But even back then I was more suspicious of over-hyped movies. Besides, it was a „children’s movie“ and you don’t watch something like that as a 16-year-old!
The Game
But what I was extremely interested in back then were video games. I knew that there was a game for the movie from the report in the first issue of TeleMatch. As I didn’t have a game console, the demo stands in department stores were the only way for me to play video games. Which is why I spent a lot of time there at the time. At the beginning of 1983, I had the opportunity to see and play the E.T. game live, at Quelle in Essen to be precise. As soon as I played it for the first time, I realized that it was a completely different kind of game to the one I was used to on the VCS. It was less action/arcade and more puzzle-oriented. In the following days I played it more often and managed to understand the basic gameplay, including the basic structure of the map – all without instructions: collect phone parts that are in the holes; be careful when flying out that you don’t fall into the hole again; avoid the people; when you (finally) have all the parts, look where you can call the UFO and then into the forest and take off – won. Unfortunately, I can’t remember exactly how many times I played it, but I definitely know that I successfully sent E.T. home at least once. In my opinion at the time, the game wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really anything special either. Too much puzzle grinding and not enough arcade action. And so I raked it off as one of the many mediocre games of the time.
The Videogame Crash
You can’t write about Atari’s E.T. without writing about the 83 videogame crash.
Although, contrary to popular belief, this game was NOT the cause of the crash. In my opinion, there are two reasons why the game is always associated with the crash. Firstly, it was released at exactly the time when the video game bubble began to burst, at the end of 1982 / beginning of 1983.
Secondly, you can see from this game which points / mistakes were really responsible for the crash. Especially things like rushed development under time pressure (X-Mas deadline), which automatically led to many bugs – in the technology and in the game mechanics.
In addition, there was an incorrect assessment of the market, which led to overproduction with many returns and therefore losses. Plus the exaggerated expectations of customers. Because if you make a game into the most successful movie of all time, many customers will always be disappointed, no matter how good it is.
The general oversaturation of the market at the time did the rest. Too many companies wanted a piece of the videogame pie with too many games. If E.T. had been released a year earlier, it would probably have sold (much) better. When these mistakes happen in a game, it’s bad and expensive for the company, but that’s all. If it happens more often to a company, it can be dangerous (bankruptcy) for that company. But if it happens, almost simultaneously, to hundreds of games in dozens of companies, then it becomes dangerous for the whole industry and bursts the bubble. Which then drives dozens of companies into bankruptcy.
This is exactly what happened in the video game industry in 1983.
Today’s perspective
Is the game really so bad that it destroyed the video gaming industry? A clear: No!
Sure, it’s not a top game, but it’s not one of the really bad games either, neither on the Atari 2600/VCS, nor at all. In my life I have seen and played many much worse games. The only really annoying „bug“ is that it’s too easy to fall down the well. Especially when you’ve just floated out, that’s the only annoying thing. This just shows the rushed development and the correspondingly shortened test phase. Nowadays this would be solved quickly with a „day one patch“ – but 40 years ago with a game on cartridge this was unfortunately not possible.
Conclusion
Atari’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial was and is certainly not a top game. But the reputation that the game has today of being THE main reason for the 83 videogame crash is more than exaggerated. Because the crash would have happened even without the game or without the other causes that led to the crash, it would certainly have sold more than well.
McHenry's Lair 
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