E.T. is Going Home
E.T. for the Atari 2600 is arguably one of the worst video games ever made. Period. If you’ve played it, you’ll agree. If you haven’t, don’t. Basically you control E.T., he falls in a pit, you press the red button and his head moves up like in the movie, then he starts to leviatate and rise out of the pit. Except, he falls back down after 3 seconds. That and the way you can bring a dead flower back to life (at the bottom of the pit) are the sole memories I have of this horrible console-crushing game. Except for the awesome, I-so-hope-it’s-true urban legend surrounding the fate of hundreds of thousands of unplayed E.T. game cartridges.
As legend has it, Atari put way too many marbles in its basket (or is that eggs?) and assumed E.T. would be the monstrous merchandise machine that Star Wars was, and so everybody would buy up their crappy video game, no matter how unbelievably crappy it was. The result was a serious backlash of angry gamers and a sales numbers insanely lower then predicted. So Atari was stuck with thousands upon thousands of these space-wasters and basically dumped them in a landfill somewhere in New Mexico. A layer of concrete was later poured over the whole thing to add to the insanity
Believe it or not, the urban legend is about the only exciting thing to come out of this totally shitty Atari game. Until now! Because a pack of geeks from Auburn University, Alabama, have decided to go on a Holy Grail quest across country to not only find this mysterious landfill, but to crack it open and find E.T., thus proving the tale is true! But better still, they’re documenting their adventures in a film they call “E.T.’s March.”
As they put it:
E.T.’s landfill burial marks a turning point in Video Game History. The home console industry fell into a downward spiral that wouldn’t be reversed until a certain Italian plumber hit the scene years later. Essentially, E.T.’s fate stands as a reminder of what can happen when video games go wrong.
This is what we wish to document. Over the course of a week, March 15-23, 2008, we will travel from our home in Auburn, AL, to El Paso, Texas. We will retrace the path those dozen semis took, to the landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico, that the cartridges lay in today. Part historical investigation, part spiritual journey, we believe E.T.’s March will stand as a testament to the times we live in. We may find that small New Mexican landfill, or we may not. But at least, we may find ourselves.
I for one, salute these brave men and pray they actually find something. Actually, if they give me an address, I’ll mail them MY copy of E.T. and they can bury it with the rest of them for me!
Extra special thanks to our roving reporter Tish for the hot tip on this one!
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Comments
I distinctly remember the box, but never played the game.
However, somewhere in the top 10 worst video games ever - especially those inspired by movies - has to be Nintendo’s Back to the Future game. If you haven’t played it, you have to just once to realize the sheer insanity of a game, based on Back to the Future, which pretty much has absolutely nothing to do with time travel.
Of course, the Ghostbusters game we had on our Tandy (say what?!) was pretty god-awful as well. You’ve got me all kinds of regressing here.
Christy - The why? You don’t get the why??! Why does anyone climb Mount Everest? Why does anyone dare to eat the deadly Fugu sushi? Why do teenage girls flock to Boy Bands? Because they’re there.
Tish - I’m sure it’ll be wonderfully awful when they finish it. I can’t wait.
Kelly - The box was the best part of the game. Honest. I don’t recall the Back to the Future game, though. But I do remember seeing it in ads a lot. Just never played it. I’m sure it’s right up there. As for the Ghostbusters game, I had one for my old Apple IIE and I LOVED it. It was probably the same cheesy one you had on your Tandy I bet. You drove around in the Ghostbusters Mobile, found ghosts in a crappy map, went in a house and somehow caught Slimer with your eckto packs. I think that was it. And it had cheesy elevator-type muzak for the theme song. But for the time, it was an awesome game.
wow. i have to admire that too, and i’m sure it will be enjoyable to see the outcome. but i don’t really get the “why”. If it’s the turning point for videogame history… the beginning of a downward spiral..*queue dramatic music* why unearth it? ^^