GOOCHONLINE - Since 1999

I'm probably going to see E.T. this week, but the experience leaves a bitter taste in my mouth as the lovable alien indirectly took part in what would be known as the video game crash of 1984 Here's a brief rundown:

In 1981 Atari scored the license from Namco to port versions of Pac Man for their game systems. Estimated sales of Atari's version of the arcade mega hit was 20 million copies. Unfortunately, Atari Pac Man, a slow, mediocre, rushed adaptation of the original only sold seven million copies - a drop in the bucket compared to Atari's initial expectations.

In an effort to recover from the losses as a result of lackluster Pac Man sales Atari got the rights to create a game based on the movie E.T. Atari took a huge gamble on this cartridge as it needed to sell 25 million copies to make up for the cost of buying the rights to the license. E.T. sucked. It sucked ass. Development of the game was rushed in an effort to make the Christmas season of 1982. The result was poor graphics, clumsy/ confusing game play, and glitches. E.T. sold a mere one-million copies and as a result, Atari had tons of unsold games on store shelfs. Atari is rumored to have buried 5 million copies somewhere in California.

These two disappointing games hurt retailers enough that most outlets discontinued all video games sales (including those of other manufacturers such as Mattell (Intellivision) and Coleco (ColecoVision) and discounted remaining inventory. Games that sold for $30 a piece months earlier were being picked up for $1 a piece. By 1984 the whole video game market crashed. Not until the Nintendo Entertainment System debuted in 1986 would video games begin to creep into the marketplace again.

I'm sort of a classic gamer, with an Atari 2600 hooked up to my office television and boxes of Ataris, Commodore 64s, Vic 20s, and various Pong consoles in my closet.