1:50 ...except it didn't because the Magnavox Odyssey was available in 1972 and the Fairchild Channel F, the first cartridge based console, was available in 1976. 8:55 ...if you ignore Adventure and Superman, both from 1979, Haunted House from 1981 and Raiders of the Lost Ark (also by Warshaw) from November of 1982. 10:25 ... if you ignore the manual that came packed with the cartridge. 13:58 ...I say again, if you ignore the manual that came with the game.
I'm sorry, ET was a horribly broken experience and no amount of instructions was going to save it. Further, you can't say "it's in the instructions" without addressing who this game was built for. This isn't Yars Revenge or Raiders of The Lost Ark. It is a game that is aimed directly at young children. Yes, I'm sure adults played it but they were not the target audience. Finally, you seem to take issue with his open world sort of claim. Given the context of the year it came out I think it's fair to say "One of the first" because it was. I saw you mentioned Ghost House... it does not have as many obstacles or things going on as ET does. A good portion of Ghost House is empty rooms or in total darkness. So again, ET matches the criteria based on its complexity alone.
@Sinn0100 I was 9 when this game came out so I was well within the demographic. I read the manual and had no problem figuring out what to do. I got Adventure and Superman when they were released, read the manuals and had no problem beating them. I never mentioned Ghost House and have no idea what you're talking about unless you mean Haunted House which does have enemies; the bats, the spiders and the ghost. All of which will kill you and the bats will steal your items if you're playing certain game variations. It had 4 floors each with 6 rooms and if played with locked doors could leave you with a convoluted maze to explore in the dark. Superman had 25 rooms and 5 subway rooms with almost no rhyme or reason to them. Adventure had 30 warping rooms leading to hyperspace jumps in logic. I beat both of those games when I was 8 years old without a guide or help from adults and even found the secret message with some help from friends. Raiders is an absolute mess compared to E.T. even with a manual. It has 20 rooms, many of which require the player to solve a "save or die" type puzzle to negotiate. That's the only Atari game I played as a child which required me to read a walkthrough in a magazine to beat. E.T. has 6 main rooms and 1 sub-room (the pit interiors). There was no need to do anything with the objects beyond finding them. There was only one way to die by running out of energy. There are really only 2 major faults with E.T. : The pits are frustrating to deal with and the FBI agent and the Scientist can be a real pain. All you have to do to win E.T. is read the manual.
@@mr.pavone9719 I was four when this came out and loved this game when it came out. The game was not confusing at all, everything was well indicated in the game even if you or your parents don't read the instructions.
Oh wow! I clicked on this video because it's one of my favorite tidbits in gaming history - loved it, but imagine my surprise when i clicked off and saw it didn't have 100k views 😅 great stuff! keep going man 👍🏻
Clear to say this video was by a person who wasn't there when the game came out and mostly just going by hearsay from other people who don't know what they are talking about and (as someone else already noted) never bothered to read the instruction manual. The only real "negative" thing about the game is that it was too hard some little kids that couldn't grasp anything beyond Pac-Man. Even at age 4 I felt everything was straight forward and easy to understand. But we do live in an age where it is cool to hate things so everyone finds a person or thing to point fingers at and jump on the hate bandwagon so we get videos like these.
First, AMAZING video. But lack of player guidance? The game came with a manual and a tips and tricks (because they knew LOL). So that's not fair to say. I appreciate the middle of the road views here.
The 2600 had to have been showing its age by 1979 when the world's first 16-bit consoles released (Intelivision). By 1982, the 2600 VCS must have looked like a lumbering dinosaur. It was so weak that even Atari themselves thought it might last a year before they would replace it. Addendum- I have no idea what people thought about the 2600 as I was around but too young. I started gaming in 1986 with the Nes and Master System.
I know that many retro gamers want to defend E.T. but those who were in the minority who actually liked this game when it first came out, cannot revise history. Most did not like the game. Steven Spielberg advocated for a simpler “Pac-Man like” game. I got it for Christmas and enjoyed it. I thought it was comparable to Raiders of the Lost Ark. But unfortunately in a consumer driven business, my opinion didn’t matter.
I had it. It was far from the worst game; especially at the time. It was, in fact, playable and beatable. I beat it; and I was only 6 or 7. I'm shocked Atari still exists and they apparently are trying to put out a handheld console?
Look, I love this channel. But this is a video by a person who didn't learn how to play they game. I got this game in 82. It was expected that people actually read manuals back then. Yes, really. Absolutely assumed consumers did so. That said, I was 4 then. But, my dad read the manual, played it for about 30 min on easy (jeez, select the difficulty where the fbi and sci dude f off mostly. Don't just rawdog the game). And boom, he beat the game, showed me how,and I did it consistently in like 10 min all the time as a kid. The game is easy af if you actually rtfm. Pits a pain? Yeah, true, but not if you aren't stupid. Bottom line, this game had a frickin title screen, an open world, an ending (almost no vcs games had an ending), and was way ahead of its time. Anyone who shits on this game for being "too hard", or "incomprehensible," or blah blah blah blah blah literally never rtfm or watched a tutorial and it really shows that was the case here. Incredibly disappointing. I won't unsubscribe, but gawdamm what a crappy, cliched, uninformed, cookie cutter bias.
Further, those that learned how to play the game know this is actually one of the BEST vcs games, by a longshot. The hundreds of pieces of shovelware compared to this is a travesty. Learn to play it. You will be surprised.
Pac-Man was worse. And then it’s terrible sounds became the go to “video game” / “computer” stock sound samples used it tons of movies, tv shows, and commercials. You couldn’t escape those awful sounds 🤦♂️ 😆
1:50 ...except it didn't because the Magnavox Odyssey was available in 1972 and the Fairchild Channel F, the first cartridge based console, was available in 1976.
8:55 ...if you ignore Adventure and Superman, both from 1979, Haunted House from 1981 and Raiders of the Lost Ark (also by Warshaw) from November of 1982.
10:25 ... if you ignore the manual that came packed with the cartridge.
13:58 ...I say again, if you ignore the manual that came with the game.
I'm sorry, ET was a horribly broken experience and no amount of instructions was going to save it. Further, you can't say "it's in the instructions" without addressing who this game was built for. This isn't Yars Revenge or Raiders of The Lost Ark. It is a game that is aimed directly at young children. Yes, I'm sure adults played it but they were not the target audience.
Finally, you seem to take issue with his open world sort of claim. Given the context of the year it came out I think it's fair to say "One of the first" because it was. I saw you mentioned Ghost House... it does not have as many obstacles or things going on as ET does. A good portion of Ghost House is empty rooms or in total darkness. So again, ET matches the criteria based on its complexity alone.
@Sinn0100 I was 9 when this game came out so I was well within the demographic. I read the manual and had no problem figuring out what to do. I got Adventure and Superman when they were released, read the manuals and had no problem beating them.
I never mentioned Ghost House and have no idea what you're talking about unless you mean Haunted House which does have enemies; the bats, the spiders and the ghost. All of which will kill you and the bats will steal your items if you're playing certain game variations. It had 4 floors each with 6 rooms and if played with locked doors could leave you with a convoluted maze to explore in the dark.
Superman had 25 rooms and 5 subway rooms with almost no rhyme or reason to them.
Adventure had 30 warping rooms leading to hyperspace jumps in logic.
I beat both of those games when I was 8 years old without a guide or help from adults and even found the secret message with some help from friends.
Raiders is an absolute mess compared to E.T. even with a manual. It has 20 rooms, many of which require the player to solve a "save or die" type puzzle to negotiate. That's the only Atari game I played as a child which required me to read a walkthrough in a magazine to beat.
E.T. has 6 main rooms and 1 sub-room (the pit interiors). There was no need to do anything with the objects beyond finding them. There was only one way to die by running out of energy.
There are really only 2 major faults with E.T. :
The pits are frustrating to deal with and the FBI agent and the Scientist can be a real pain.
All you have to do to win E.T. is read the manual.
2600 wasn't the first home games console, but it invented the market for it through its success.
@@mr.pavone9719 I was four when this came out and loved this game when it came out. The game was not confusing at all, everything was well indicated in the game even if you or your parents don't read the instructions.
@Sinn0100, well said
This is one of my favorite channels! Such high quality writing and done concisely. Keep up the fantastic work!
Oh my gosh man thank you sooooo much. You have no idea how much that means to me. Thanks for watching!
Oh wow! I clicked on this video because it's one of my favorite tidbits in gaming history - loved it, but imagine my surprise when i clicked off and saw it didn't have 100k views 😅 great stuff! keep going man 👍🏻
Wow you just made my day. Thank you so much.
Seen this and another video of yours... definitely subscribing to your channel i can feel your love for our old games 🎮
Wow that means so much to me. Thank you 🙏 (love your PFP 🫶)
@TheRetroReload ✌🏽
i had both pac man and and e.t. for atari. i tried so hard to enjoy them. i thought i was the problem lol
lol, no sir, you are not the problem!
Clear to say this video was by a person who wasn't there when the game came out and mostly just going by hearsay from other people who don't know what they are talking about and (as someone else already noted) never bothered to read the instruction manual.
The only real "negative" thing about the game is that it was too hard some little kids that couldn't grasp anything beyond Pac-Man. Even at age 4 I felt everything was straight forward and easy to understand. But we do live in an age where it is cool to hate things so everyone finds a person or thing to point fingers at and jump on the hate bandwagon so we get videos like these.
You’re not totally wrong here…I was born in 83. I did play it and try to do my research. Thanks for the feedback and for the watch!
Hey, that 'Pacman' was a good idea.. just Have an 'ET' run round Pacman maze, eating 'Reeses Pieces'..
SUCCESS!!😂
I’d have been down for this lmao
E.T. has become the Edsel of video games...
lol for real though
'Captured the Essence of the film'... 🤔 😳 Riiiiight.
‘A’ for effort 🤷♂️
have you seen firefly it makes ET look like a masterpiece
lol, I have not
First, AMAZING video. But lack of player guidance? The game came with a manual and a tips and tricks (because they knew LOL). So that's not fair to say. I appreciate the middle of the road views here.
Yeah, you’re not wrong there. Thanks for the watch!
'Ranking In record profits'.
Is that a typo? How does one 'RANK IN' a profit?
Very carefully
Well you can't really get pissed at the developer he had no time to make it
Yeah, I mean, they were ambitious and actually pretty revolutionary for the time
The 2600 had to have been showing its age by 1979 when the world's first 16-bit consoles released (Intelivision). By 1982, the 2600 VCS must have looked like a lumbering dinosaur. It was so weak that even Atari themselves thought it might last a year before they would replace it.
Addendum- I have no idea what people thought about the 2600 as I was around but too young. I started gaming in 1986 with the Nes and Master System.
Oh yeah, Totes not fair that 'agents' didn't fall in those Stupid holes. (Ya know, the holes from the movie).🤔
Lmao!
Wait! You can return a Video Game if you don't like it?.. 😳
Gone are them days
This 🍭
❤
Ty
E.T. Phone Home for the Atari 8-bit computer is quite a bit better.
🤯 I had no idea… It gets a lot of hate, I just think it was a product of timing and circumstance
Popped up on my feed, thought it would be AI generated... who are YOU! ;O)
Oh wow, thank you sooo much 🫶
I know that many retro gamers want to defend E.T. but those who were in the minority who actually liked this game when it first came out, cannot revise history. Most did not like the game. Steven Spielberg advocated for a simpler “Pac-Man like” game. I got it for Christmas and enjoyed it. I thought it was comparable to Raiders of the Lost Ark. But unfortunately in a consumer driven business, my opinion didn’t matter.
Unfortunately, facts.
I had it. It was far from the worst game; especially at the time. It was, in fact, playable and beatable. I beat it; and I was only 6 or 7. I'm shocked Atari still exists and they apparently are trying to put out a handheld console?
Right? Busnell should stick to binoculars
True
Look, I love this channel. But this is a video by a person who didn't learn how to play they game. I got this game in 82. It was expected that people actually read manuals back then. Yes, really. Absolutely assumed consumers did so. That said, I was 4 then. But, my dad read the manual, played it for about 30 min on easy (jeez, select the difficulty where the fbi and sci dude f off mostly. Don't just rawdog the game). And boom, he beat the game, showed me how,and I did it consistently in like 10 min all the time as a kid. The game is easy af if you actually rtfm. Pits a pain? Yeah, true, but not if you aren't stupid.
Bottom line, this game had a frickin title screen, an open world, an ending (almost no vcs games had an ending), and was way ahead of its time. Anyone who shits on this game for being "too hard", or "incomprehensible," or blah blah blah blah blah literally never rtfm or watched a tutorial and it really shows that was the case here. Incredibly disappointing. I won't unsubscribe, but gawdamm what a crappy, cliched, uninformed, cookie cutter bias.
Further, those that learned how to play the game know this is actually one of the BEST vcs games, by a longshot. The hundreds of pieces of shovelware compared to this is a travesty. Learn to play it. You will be surprised.
100% facts. I also passed this game at age 4 and thought it was the best game until the NES came out.
As if SuperMan was any better. Or Indiana Jones..😂
Raiders of the Lost Ark for the 2600 is an excellent puzzle game.
🤷♂️
Pac-Man was worse. And then it’s terrible sounds became the go to “video game” / “computer” stock sound samples used it tons of movies, tv shows, and commercials. You couldn’t escape those awful sounds 🤦♂️ 😆
That was the WORST game....EVER!!
Some would say…thanks for the watch!