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.