The 1982 Steven Spielberg film E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial was a critical and commercial success, on par with Star Wars or even The Godfather. Groundbreaking effects, a story that spoke to children and adults, as well as the iconic alien design and cementing Spielberg's name in the film industry. However, of all the E.T. Merchandise that was produced, the most infamous was the video game of the same name. Universally hailed as one of the worst video games ever made, it is often cited as the start of the Video Game Crash of 1983, and the unsold cartridges were dumped in a New Mexico landfill. But the real question behind all this is simply, what exactly led up to the release of the game?
When
the film was released, it was between The Empire Strikes
Back and Return of the
Jedi, the two sequels to 1977's
hit Star Wars. With
both films being science fiction successes, it was only fitting that
Universal, the studio behind E.T.
would want to merchandise the film like it could be another Star
Wars (it should be noted that
Spielberg and George Lucas are very close friends). While a full
toyline was never commissioned, they made money off lunchboxes, board
games, dolls, books, anything they could put the name on. It was only
fitting that Universal would look into the rising video game market
for a tie-in. The Empire Strikes Back had
a relatively successful Atari game, and arcade cabinets were
generating millions of dollars in quarters for companies. A -20
million deal was made with Atari, who had pushed capabilities of
systems with the 2600 console. The film was released on June 11,
1982, and the rights were secured by July 1 of the same year. Atari
and Universal wanted to cash in on the Christmas season, so the game
was given a completion deadline of September 1.
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Developer
Howard Scott Warshaw was specifically chosen to design and produce
the game due to his previous work on Raiders of the Lost
Ark, another Spielberg
collaboration. His original plan was to make a direct adaptation of
the film, again pushing the graphical and gameplay limits of the
Atari 2600. This version would have used 3D graphics to create a
multi-level adventure of E.T. going to “call home” as he does in
the film, with obstacles such as adults and agents getting in the way
of the player, along with a race to beat the timer. Warshaw was flown
out to California to have an official meeting with Spielberg, but the
director was not impressed with this idea, instead wanting something
“similar to Pac-Man.” Warshaw refused to just clone Pac-Man,
so he instead opted to make it a “collect and connect” type game,
where the player falls into pits to collect pieces to build the
spaceship, while including candies for E.T. to eat like in Pac-Man.
With only a few weeks to spare, Warshaw programmed the entirety of the
game before the September 1 deadline. It should again be noted that
Atari had experienced massive failure with their 2600 console release
of Pac-Man, which
could have been a factor in Warshaw's refusal.
The game was released in December 1982 to immense hype and news coverage. It sold well at first, then dropped off hard once reviews and word of mouth came out about the game. From outdated graphics to terrible controls down to the concept of just falling into pits, the game was seen as the ultimate failure of the season. Many reviewers said that the title screen, simply an image of the titular alien and the logo, was “the only good part of the game.” Sales were nowhere near what was expected, despite being reported as a highly sought-after Christmas gift. Atari was dealing with another major failure, and Universal pulled plans to work on an E.T. sequel film.
Atari
began damage control as soon as possible. They offered to buy back
any unsold cartridges and consoles from retailers, and accepted
returns of any cases left in warehouses. The company secretly bought
part of a landfill, and sent in trucks loaded with copies of the game
along with entire unsold consoles to the site to dump into a mass
grave of sorts. Some were smashed, others just thrown in. In total,
700,000 Atari products were destroyed in the burial. Then a layer of
concrete was placed over the rubble, and never spoken of again. Atari
denied the existence of a video game dump, despite evidence to the
contrary. In 2014
, filmmaker Zak Penn found the
landfill and produced the documentary Atari: Game Over
to discuss the game and the resulting failure of the video game
market. The documentary covered the creation, the release, and proved
the existence of the fabled New Mexico E.T. landfill.
It would take
three years before the video game industry in America would be
profitable again. Due to the failures of E.T. and the limits
that Atari had on the technology available, it was almost seen as a
dying fad. But the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in
America in 1986 made video games a major money-maker, continuing to
this very day. Yet, tie-in video games never stopped, and we see
movie-based games almost every year, though they have fallen as time
has gone on. For every E.T. there isa Star Wars:
Battlefront II. Something must be said for a video game that is
so well-known for being the worst, yet people still want to play it
just to say that they did it. In 2016, Lego released an E.T. pack
for their hit collect-and-play game Lego Dimensions. And this
time, it was actually a decent game and playable, unlike it's
predecessor.
