Back in 1982, Steven Spielberg brought us one of the most memoriable movies of all times, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Starring Drew Barrymore(Charlie’s Angels, Scream), Henry Thomas(Legends of the Fall), and Peter Coyote(A Walk to Remember). This film was destined to remain in our hearts for a lifetime, yet something sinister game from this movie. Something so life threatening that it almost(or in fact did) ruin an entire gaming generation and single handedly brought down the Atari 2600.


E.T. The Video Game.


Released in December of 1982 for the Atari 2600, The E.T. video game left behind a path of destruction and an extremely huge myth.


The Myth: It’s said that the game is so bad that it’s “commercial failure and resulting effects on Atari are frequently cite as a contributing factor to the video game industry crash of 1983″(source. Because of this, Atari was rumored to have taken millions of unsold copies of the game and burying them in a landfill located in Alamogordo, New Mexico.





So, what was so bad about the E.T. video game? Aside from the Gameplay, graphics(even for 1982), and the horrible story.. well, everything was wrong with the game.

You play as ET, and you are dropped right into the game from your ship. As soon as you land you are confronted by an FBI agent, then what appears to be a child, takes you to a residential area(?). The FBI agent pursues you through out your game, you are guided by arrows to help you find 3 missing telephone pieces while the FBI agent is on your back the entire time. Falling in countless holes, as you move throughout the game a timer ticks down from 9999, once it hits 0 your game is over.


My description is nothing compared to this gameplay video:






It’s been over 30 years, and guess what! The myth is true, the massive amounts of the E.T. video game were found in the landfill that they were rumored to be at. Check out this IGN.com video showing the found games, with cartridges and instruction booklets!

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