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The making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the “worst” video game

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Re: The making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the “worst” video game

#41

Post by arkades »

zaarn wrote: post #38
raverbashing wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the interns would be able to code an Atari game by themselves at the time Still, sometimes getting the pink slip is better than getting a black mark on your cv

Back then the video game companies didn't think developers were important. Hence games from this era didn't include them in the credits ("for what? should the blinds and the printer get credit too? FURNITURE!"). If he said no, he would have been given the slip without second thought.

He was paid >1M/yr(>2M in modern dollars); I doubt he ranked quite so low as people are saying. Interchangeable widgets don’t pull down that salary.

Re: The making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the “worst” video game

#43

Post by adam12 »

protomyth wrote: post #11

E.T. might be considered the worst, but Pac-Man for the 2600 was surely the most disappointing. The plumber wrench Pac-Man had to be one of the worst adaptations ever. The 8-bit Atari computer version was such a amazing leap.

Here's a much improved version of Pac-Man for the 2600:

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/229152-new-pacman-for-atar...

Re: The making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the “worst” video game

#44

Post by exlurker »

Johnny555 wrote: post #21
nabdab wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Postmortem refers to the subject not the person. It’s a term Beverly commonly used in tech circles: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmortem_documentation

Postmortem refers to the subject not the person. It’s a term Beverly commonly used in tech circles: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmortem_documentation Ok, I give up -- who is Beverly? I checked the page you linked to, and there was no mention of her.

Possibly auto-corrected "very"

Re: The making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the “worst” video game

#45

Post by kgwxd »

deepaksurti wrote: post #32

Slightly OT, but one of the best ways to master graphics programming is to write at least a few "worse" video games yourself :-)

Graphics programming on the 2600 is super weird, I'm not sure the skills learning it are even transferable, but it's really fun to do.

Re: The making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the “worst” video game

#46

Post by Johnny555 »

krige wrote: post #26
Johnny555 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was disappointing about it? I owned an Atari 2600 and played Pac-Man many times. But I've never played it on another game console or in an arcade, so I'm not sure what I was missing.

Pretty much everything: the flickering and the altered map with misaligned dots is the most obvious change, but it's missing all the different value bonus items, the iconic sounds, and lots of tiny graphical touches like ghost eyes facing the direction they move in, or up and down sprites for the pac. In short, it's severly cut down on all features, and poorly coded to boot (mrs. pac-man shows you can do better than…

I guess I was very forgiving back then... I loved Pacmac on my 2600. Or maybe it's because it was my first game purchase after "Combat!" (which came with the 2600)

Re: The making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the “worst” video game

#47

Post by JoeAltmaier »

hliyan wrote: post #8

The Icarus effect here is both sad and eye-opening: After Atari crumbled, his outsized role in the video game crisis earned him a scarlet letter in the industry. He found work as a real estate broker and spent nearly 2 decades soul searching before discovering his true passion: psychotherapy. A man of that talent should never have had to work as a real estate broker. It's almost as if the business put him in a positi…

I worked with him in computers after his time at Atari. I didn't see him as shunned or having career problems there. Hm.

Re: The making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the “worst” video game

#48

Post by JoeAltmaier »

epx wrote: post #16
hliyan wrote: post #8

The Icarus effect here is both sad and eye-opening: After Atari crumbled, his outsized role in the video game crisis earned him a scarlet letter in the industry. He found work as a real estate broker and spent nearly 2 decades soul searching before discovering his true passion: psychotherapy. A man of that talent should never have had to work as a real estate broker. It's almost as if the business put him in a positi…

How important is to learn to say “no”.

He said Yes, because it was a challenge and he took it.

Re: The making of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the “worst” video game

#50

Post by [deleted] »

swimfar wrote: post #25
29athrowaway wrote: post #22

$39.95 (1982) = $106.48 (2019) That was an expensive game.

I think many people don't realize how expensive games and consoles were 20-40 years ago. I remember paying $70 for a few different SNES games back in the 90's ($110 now based on a quick inflation check). Are there any computer or console games now that cost anywhere close to $100?

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