Atari Game Buried in Desert: Incredible Story
- Innovation flourished, and the industry experienced explosive growth.
- while the film itself was a blockbuster,the game was a critical and commercial failure of epic proportions.
- Atari, eager to capitalize on the film's popularity, secured the rights to create a video game adaptation.
The Game That Almost Killed Video Games: A Cautionary Tale
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The early 1980s were a golden age for arcade games. Innovation flourished, and the industry experienced explosive growth. However, this rapid expansion concealed a fragility that would be exposed by a single, disastrous title: the 1982 Atari video game adaptation of Steven Spielberg’s film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
while the film itself was a blockbuster,the game was a critical and commercial failure of epic proportions. Widely considered one of the worst video games ever made, E.T. wasn’t just a flop; it’s often cited as a key contributor to the video game crash of 1983.
The Making of a Disaster
Atari, eager to capitalize on the film’s popularity, secured the rights to create a video game adaptation. However, the game’s progress was rushed.Spielberg himself was reportedly unhappy with the direction the game was taking, and the development team, led by Howard Scott Warshaw, was given only five weeks to create the game - an incredibly short timeframe for the technology of the time.
the result was a confusing and frustrating experiance for players.The game’s mechanics were poorly designed, and its gameplay was repetitive. Players controlled E.T., attempting to rescue his alien friends while avoiding or evading government agents. The game’s difficulty and lack of clear objectives led to widespread disappointment.
The burial at Alamogordo
The failure of E.T. was so profound that atari infamously buried approximately 700,000 unsold cartridges in a landfill near Alamogordo, New Mexico, in September 1983. This act became a symbol of the industry’s collapse and a legendary story within gaming history. For decades, the story was largely dismissed as an urban legend, but an excavation in 2014 confirmed the burial, unearthing hundreds of the cartridges as reported by CBC News.
A Secret Canadian Counterpart
Adding another layer to this story, a lesser-known fact is that a Canadian company also developed a seperate E.T. game around the same time. Details about this game remain scarce, but its existence highlights the intense pressure and competition within the video game industry during that period.
Lessons Learned: The Crash and Its Aftermath
the E.T. debacle, combined with a glut of low-quality games flooding the market, contributed substantially to the North American video game crash of 1983. The crash nearly destroyed the industry, leading to bankruptcies and a loss of consumer confidence.
The E.T. failure served as a harsh lesson for the industry,emphasizing the importance of quality control,realistic development timelines,and understanding consumer expectations.
The industry eventually recovered, thanks in part to the introduction of the Nintendo entertainment System (NES) in 1985, which revitalized the market with higher-quality games and stricter licensing standards. As of September 20, 2025, the legacy of E.T. remains a potent reminder of the risks associated with rushed development, poor game design, and the importance of respecting the audience.