E.T The Video Game Turns 40

The year was 1982 and Steven Spielberg released his sci-fi classic E.T the Extra-Terrestrial and became a worldwide hit. During this time Atari was in talks to getting the rights to create the video game adaptation of the game and in late July of the same year they did.

Atari asked game designer Howard Scott Warshaw to do the job, but with the catch of trying to finish the game within 5 weeks so they can have it ready by the Christmas season to well. After all was said and done this is what was released to the world, the worst game of all time and a major contributor to the video game crash of 1983 which also turns 40 next year.

Yes, the urban legend was true about what happened to the rest of the overproduced and return copies of the game being secretly buried in a landfill in New Mexico and other games as well. In case you are wondering why we are talking about this game even today, ask yourself this question, has the quality of both video games and the studios creating these games have improved over time or not?