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Posted by filthy light thief
Why read lengthy articles on the history of Atari when you can hear stories first-hand?
Hear Nolan Bushnell (and a few others) tell all about how a little company named Syzygy became Atari, in clips both new(ish) and old;
tune in for four episodes of Once Upon Atari, featuring Atari staff reminiscing about the good times and bad; and visit Alamogordo, New Mexico, home of rocket sled land-speed records and the grave of Ham, the first chimp in space, with Zak Penn as he digs for the truth behind the legend of the buried E.T. cartridges in Atari: Game Over with fans and Howard Scott Warshaw, the man who made the Atari E.T. game in five weeks.
If you want more of Zak Penn on his documentary, here's a long video interview with clips that didn't make in into the documentary, and you can read an article on The Atlantic from the "punk archaeologists" who were present to oversee the dig.
A few post-documentary notes: the Smithsonian has an excavated E.T. cartridge in its collection, but unlike others who bought copies from Alamogordo's official eBay auctions, the company behind the dig sent a cartridge to the Smithsonian. And if you were wondering, with a bit of restoration, some cartridges were still functional.
If you want to skip the drama around the dig, let The Gaming Historian debunk the Atari Landfill Myth in under four minutes (cutting to the chase: Atari's dumping of excess materials, including cartridges, was public knowledge and covered in newspapers), and review the documentary in less than five minutes.
Dig further into his archive of video clips for a nine minute overview of the reasons behind the (North American) Video Game Crash of 1983.
If all this talk of the E.T. game has intrigued you and you haven't experienced it, Archive.org has both the original and fixed versions available for online play, but don't forget to read the manual, or you can simply watch someone else play it, and even play it and find the Easter eggs. Even Conan has played it, continuing the "Worst Game Ever" hype.
E.T. for Atari, previously:
Why read lengthy articles on the history of Atari when you can hear stories first-hand?
Hear Nolan Bushnell (and a few others) tell all about how a little company named Syzygy became Atari, in clips both new(ish) and old;
tune in for four episodes of Once Upon Atari, featuring Atari staff reminiscing about the good times and bad; and visit Alamogordo, New Mexico, home of rocket sled land-speed records and the grave of Ham, the first chimp in space, with Zak Penn as he digs for the truth behind the legend of the buried E.T. cartridges in Atari: Game Over with fans and Howard Scott Warshaw, the man who made the Atari E.T. game in five weeks.
If you want more of Zak Penn on his documentary, here's a long video interview with clips that didn't make in into the documentary, and you can read an article on The Atlantic from the "punk archaeologists" who were present to oversee the dig.
A few post-documentary notes: the Smithsonian has an excavated E.T. cartridge in its collection, but unlike others who bought copies from Alamogordo's official eBay auctions, the company behind the dig sent a cartridge to the Smithsonian. And if you were wondering, with a bit of restoration, some cartridges were still functional.
If you want to skip the drama around the dig, let The Gaming Historian debunk the Atari Landfill Myth in under four minutes (cutting to the chase: Atari's dumping of excess materials, including cartridges, was public knowledge and covered in newspapers), and review the documentary in less than five minutes.
Dig further into his archive of video clips for a nine minute overview of the reasons behind the (North American) Video Game Crash of 1983.
If all this talk of the E.T. game has intrigued you and you haven't experienced it, Archive.org has both the original and fixed versions available for online play, but don't forget to read the manual, or you can simply watch someone else play it, and even play it and find the Easter eggs. Even Conan has played it, continuing the "Worst Game Ever" hype.
E.T. for Atari, previously:
- Alien Found Buried in New Mexico Desert (April 26, 2014)
- Atari Archaeology Allowed (May 31, 2013)
- Fixing E.T. / Rehabilitating E.T. (March 31, 2013)
- The most godawful game ever (February 24, 2011)
- If your company has more VP's than it does bathrooms, you’re in trouble.
- (March 17, 2008 - Dadhacker, survivor of the Crash of '83, but not involved with E.T.)
- Hope Fading at Atari (February 10, 2006)