3 ms·

E.T.'s a funny one. It's one of the top-selling Atari games of all time, but they made 5M copies for (at the time) an install base of around 10M. Assuming half

E.T.'s a funny one. It's one of the top-selling Atari games of all time, but they made 5M copies for (at the time) an install base of around 10M. Assuming half of your customers will buy the game is a bit bonkers to me. As far as E.T.'s quality goes: yes, it's extremely flawed, but it's honestly nowhere near the worst game ever made. I think it definitely contributed to Atari's woes, but it probably wasn't solely responsible.

toast0 3y ago
Wikipedia says they produced 4M copies, sold 2.6M by the end of the year, but ultimately 3.5 M were returned as unsold or customer returns. Wikipedia says, "Atari sold 1.25 million Space Invaders cartridges and over 1 million VCS systems in 1980, nearly doubling the install base to over 2 million, and then an estimated 3.1 million VCS systems in 1981", so if they thought E.T. was going to be as big of a hit as Space Invaders, 4M copies is actually low production. Pac-Man released in 1982, sold 7.2 M copies in 1982 and about 3M more in subsequent years.
zlg_codes 3y ago
I don't think people are understanding the problems with E.T. You cannot even finish it. The game does not fully function. Like honestly, what game is worse? Custer's Revenge?
- sparky_z 3y ago
  You absolutely can finish it. I've done it. It's a confusing mess of a game, but it's not broken.
- bsder 3y ago
  The main problem with ET is that there is a fault in the hit detection. "Fixing E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600" http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/ http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/ > You spend a lot of time accidentally falling in to wells. I believe that I know reason why this happens to so many people, and what can be done to fix it.
- technion 3y ago
  This reminds me of the fact the dos teenage mutant ninja turtles game had a jump you literally couldn't make and yet was loved by my whole friend group despite being unable to complete without exploiting a level skip bug.

toast0 3y ago

Wikipedia says they produced 4M copies, sold 2.6M by the end of the year, but ultimately 3.5 M were returned as unsold or customer returns. Wikipedia says, "Atari sold 1.25 million Space Invaders cartridges and over 1 million VCS systems in 1980, nearly doubling the install base to over 2 million, and then an estimated 3.1 million VCS systems in 1981", so if they thought E.T. was going to be as big of a hit as Space Invaders, 4M copies is actually low production. Pac-Man released in 1982, sold 7.2 M copies in 1982 and about 3M more in subsequent years.

zlg_codes 3y ago

I don't think people are understanding the problems with E.T. You cannot even finish it. The game does not fully function. Like honestly, what game is worse? Custer's Revenge?

sparky_z 3y ago
You absolutely can finish it. I've done it. It's a confusing mess of a game, but it's not broken.
bsder 3y ago
The main problem with ET is that there is a fault in the hit detection. "Fixing E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600" http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/ http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/ > You spend a lot of time accidentally falling in to wells. I believe that I know reason why this happens to so many people, and what can be done to fix it.
technion 3y ago
This reminds me of the fact the dos teenage mutant ninja turtles game had a jump you literally couldn't make and yet was loved by my whole friend group despite being unable to complete without exploiting a level skip bug.