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January 27, 2006
The Great E.T. Debacle
If you had an Atari 2600 as a child (or are fortunate and compulsive enough to have a functioning 2600 now), you almost certainly remember a number of amazing (if simplistic and low-res) games.
You also probably remember a few absolute stinkers. Among these, notably, we would have to include Pac-Man and E.T.
The long-running battle over which game is, in fact, the Worst Atari Game Of All Time (WAGOAT), has new ammunition in the form of a music video by Wintergreen, directed by Keith Schofield, "When I Wake Up."
The video is clever, the story about the game's play, reception, and rejection accurate (excepting perhaps the opinions expressed concerning the WAGOAT), and the landfill really does exist. To top it all off, the song is even pretty catchy.
I highly recommend checking it out. I'll be back on Monday with more on the WAGOAT and "When I Wake Up." Now I have to head home and begin cleaning in preparation for a familial visitation. Perhaps more on that Monday, too.
Posted by reparent at January 27, 2006 4:42 PM
Comments
Yes, having and playing those games does date me. Memory is an odd thing: perhaps I blocked the frustration of playing poor games (moving E.T.- all I knew hoe to do was elongate his neck. I could never get him to levitate.), but when I saw the images it all came back to me.
I wonder what it says that there are now atari games that you can play that you just plug in a joystick to your television (I own Ms. Pac-Man, but there is also the ever-loving Frogger. My sister is waiting for QBert)....is this symptomatic of nostalgia for the past that is being capitalized or is it endemic of something more?
Posted by: jackie at January 28, 2006 11:00 AM