Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

thehustle.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–56 of 56 posts

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

#51

Post by ASalazarMX »

mypalmike wrote: post #27

I played ET as a kid when it came out and then many years later. It was a massive disappointment when it came out - it made no sense, and of course it had those infamous pits. When playing it as an adult, I realized it wasn't the adventure game it looked like (and arguably ought to have been) but rather a fun little puzzle game. An interesting novelty, and flaw for a mass market mainstream game, was that the printed…

I guess I had a lot of time to waste as a kid, because I bought it used and figured the gameplay without help. For an Atari 2600 game it was more involved than average, but the game itself gave you clues like the cryptic glyphs.

I also bought used the SwordQuest games, and with no comics or Internet, those really left me stumped.

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

#52

Post by pmiller2 »

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…

From Wikipedia: "Kassar reportedly offered Warshaw US$200,000 and an all-expenses-paid vacation to Hawaii in compensation." [0] . $200K in 1982 is equivalent to over $500K today. When you give a halfway intelligent and sensible 25 year old that kind of money, "have to" is probably not something that applies to working anywhere.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial_(vi...

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

#53

Post by ASalazarMX »

Johnny555 wrote: post #18
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.

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.

I think the most disappointing thing was the "klong klong" sound it made while eating pellets, and that the pellets were bars instead of dots. The ghost flickering looks awful in an emulator, but it's almost bearable in a CRT.

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

#54

Post by krige »

Johnny555 wrote: post #46
krige wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

I mean, I'm in the same boat as you. 2600 pacman is the only one I knew for a long while and I still kinda prefer the meaty beep sounds over the original sound effects. But for people who knew arcade pacman beforehand, the perception was obviously rather different.

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

#55

Post by 29athrowaway »

michaelmrose wrote: post #28
swimfar wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

It's not unusual for a new game to have dlc available at launch which is the say the game is split into pieces and monetized that way. A new game will have different editions ranging from 60 to 80 bucks and 2-4 dlc at launch and later for 10 - 20 bucks each. I guess the maximum spend you could end up with is $100 to $160 depending on quantity of dlc and original purchase price. Call of duty ghosts has a pack with the…

How many people was involved in the creation of CoD, vs ET? I think the production costs are very different.

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

#56

Post by LocalH »

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.

I think it was more that they were worried about headhunters poaching their programmers, or at least that was the excuse they’d give.
Post reply on HN