Way back in 1983, over four decades ago now, Atari was in a bind. They mistakenly bet on the future of the gaming market in the worst way possible. They produced too many games for their console; some estimate they produced MORE copies of Pac-Man than they had sold units of the console itself. Talk about a bad bet. The rumor was proven true in 2014 when crews dug up the long-buried games. Approximately 700,000 total cartridges were buried including E.T. Now you can bury them again in Burying E.T. for the Atari 2600, playable in a browser or if you have the means, on your Atari 2600 console.
Is This Peak Trolling?
I grew up hearing this rumor and having, or seeing, countless arguments on either side of it over the years. I was born in 1976 so by the time I was in grade school this was a fairly popular rumor on the playgrounds.
It is interesting to find out it was true, though I am sure all those promises of “it didn’t happen or I will eat my pencil box” are long beyond their expiration date.
What surprised me the most here is that it took so long for someone to troll Atari like this. The game was made about a year ago but recently the BIN file for fans to download was made available, at least according to the itch.io page.
No Need to Be Forklift Certified to Play
Play in your browser or download the BIN file and play in an emulator, or if you are elite, on actual Atari hardware. I am poor and without the necessary hardware so I will stick to browser play.
Move around the screen, looking VERY similar to that of the original Atari 2600 E.T. game and push carts into the holes.
Sounds simple, and most great Atari games are, but there is more to Burying E.T. than just that. There is a timer ticking down (I assume this is fuel for your bulldozer) and often you are given a choice – go after the E.T. cart or the fuel can that randomly pops up on the screen.
Right At Home Hiding Atari’s Failures On Your Atari
Burying E.T. is fun, it has the usual tropes that classic Atari games had. A tiny bit of overlap for your bulldozer and the pit and you are not moving. Remember that in Combat when playing the tanks? While no one is shooting you here, it is either a feature or a WTF moment as you watch the timer count down, but you are stuck trying to get around a pit.
Me personally, I really like Burying E.T. and think it is a great, poking fun at Atari release. Check it out, it is free on itch.io. Give the creator a comment letting them know what you think of it.
I remember getting this game for Christmas as a very young kid and really trying to wrap my head around what TF you are supposed to do in it. We gave up pretty quickly because hell, without a tutorial, now-aged me can't wrap his head around what the hell is going on with ET.
I saw a documentary not long ago about them trying to dig up the famed New Mexico games and the doco ended in such a way that I kind of felt like they could have rigged the ending by planting some carts.
I picked up ET on clearance so it was not a big sting to my small allowance pocket book but still ended up putting it away for years before trying to play it again. It was far beyond what a 7 or 8 year old might be able to grasp.
I know it says how to play in the manual but even then, I was confused then and am now.
The only thing I have read that helped me "do better" in ET was that it is laid out like a six sided di. Each screen is connected in that manner. Apparently when you map out which screen is which face of the di it makes it easier to understand where you will go when exiting any screen via the edges.
Still, I am lost. That is nearly 4D levels of thinking to figure out in the heat of the moment.
Edit to add - Honestly, this game probably would have been better had it been done like Pac-Man or something. I know it sounds trite but the pieces are there. Instead of power pellets, Reese's peanut butter cups, instead of regular dots, call them Reese's Pieces. Collect parts of the phone instead of fruits. Grab a peanut butter cup and have Elliot pick up ET and run with him else where, safely, on the map (maybe use the bicycle for added touch).
Anything other than the game we got. Lol.
that sounds like a good concept for the Pac Man ET version but I'm pretty sure Namco or whoever owns Pac Man would have sued the pants off of them
I thought that too but look at all the maze clones back then from a licensed Alien game to KC Munchkin (it was Atari that went after the publisher, not Namco, due to similarities) and many more.
At this point, I don't think Namco cared about the home market, they were squarely focused on the arcade market, seemingly happy to collect licensing fees for home ports. They got really into the home market with the NES's popularity though.
Good points. Atari really did do almost anything wrong that was humanly possible back then, didn't they?
They really did. I know many give them the benefit of the doubt since they were "new" and were trailblazing a new avenue of entertainment but I just can't give them that much. So many things they did were simply stupidity because even when shown how the industry was already changing, they simply buckled down on their B.S. thinking the industry would bend to them.