WEBVTT - E.T.: Is It Really the Worst Video Game of All Time? 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:14.720 dot com. You and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.479 and there's Chuck and there's Jerry and it's like the 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:22.720 holiday season. I feel great. It is Holidays with a 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:25.439 Z and we're gonna do what we almost did for 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:29.960 a short stuff. Oh yes, Chuck, you're commended for for 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:32.159 that call. Well, I was just like I kind of 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:35.080 wanted to do this one. Always is a long stuff. 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:39.800 We don't have a show called medium stuff, yet we 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:44.640 have a so so stuffed called Stuff you should Know. Yeah, um, 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:48.800 but yeah, I saw that documentary Atari game over a 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:53.680 few years ago, and I also guested on tech Stuff 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:56.960 and did a two part episode on the history of Atari. 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:01.560 It's a good one with Strickland's great too, and um, 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:03.280 we could probably do Atari on its own at some 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:05.480 point too. I agree. I think we definitely should. But 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:07.320 this is I mean, I was about to say if 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:09.160 Strickland and I could get two episodes out of it, 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.479 but you know how that guy goes on. Oh my god, 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:15.680 he's the hardest working man in podcast business. I'll tell 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:20.200 you that. Just ask um. So we're talking today about 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:25.360 what is widely believed to be the worst video game 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:29.280 of all time, except that it's not. Except that it's not. Yes, 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:31.840 it's true. I love stories like this where it's like 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:34.640 everything you thought you knew was wrong and really stop 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:37.680 and ask yourself, how did you even know that this 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:41.360 truth that you knew before? I love that man. Yeah, 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:46.560 et the Atari video game. A lot of people it's 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:49.880 that whole internet bandwagon thing. I think, Yes, worst game 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:51.720 of all time. They try to bury it in the desert. 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:55.760 It was so bad killed Atari killed the whole stinking industry, right, 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:57.920 But it was just that bad of a game. But 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:02.200 you've played it, no, Yeah, um, I will say this, 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.400 it may be one of the one of the most 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.400 disappointing games of all time. It could be, yes, um, 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:10.880 because if you were a kid back then like me 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:17.040 and you and you played Atari like I did, um, 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:19.720 it was. It was a disappointment. It was greatly anticipated. 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:22.240 I'm sure a lot of anticipation that was partial, you know, 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:24.560 that was That was probably the biggest reason why it 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:27.960 gets all the attention because it was et. It wasn't 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:33.640 uh what was that game? Yeah? Or fast Food? There 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:36.680 were so many bad video games for Atari. Yeah, there 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:39.880 were a lot. It was awful. So will this come 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.920 out and say, no, ET is not the worst video 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.440 game of all time. There were a lot of worse, 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:51.120 far far worse video games uh than ET. But like 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:53.560 you were saying, as far as the anticipation went, as 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:55.560 far as the lighttown went, as far as the loss 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:58.640 of money, when you can understand how people would say 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:01.239 this is the worst of all the time, but also 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:07.799 the timing of its failure was so utterly, amazingly perfect 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:11.480 that it just took it from worst video game of 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:16.520 all time to worst video game of all time. Yeah, 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:20.760 it's like here atari in video home console game industry, 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:24.480 you're not doing well, and I notice you're sinking. Let 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.480 me tie this anvil around your ankle that shaped like 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:31.400 ET's right. It's just really bad timing. So let's get 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.000 into the story because it's one of the more interesting ones, 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:38.560 and it features a great guy named Howard Scott Warshaw, who, 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:42.240 if you've seen the movie Game Over you have probably 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:45.840 come to really like and admire good dude, good dude, 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:50.160 brilliant designer and like a just a genuinely great guy. 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:54.760 Uh he um this the story begins back in two 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:59.640 I believe. Um. Yeah, it was Uh. He was a 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.000 design ord Atari. He'd apparently started out writing code at 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:06.000 Hewlett Packard and it was very unhappy, so he made 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:08.280 the move over to Atari, even though he had zero 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.480 experience with game design, but he was really an exciting 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.680 game designer because he came up with some really innovative ideas. 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:20.159 Yes he Uh, Yours Revenge is one of the best 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:24.320 Atari games of all time. Did you have that one? Oh? Yeah, 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:27.080 I never played it. It's great. Great. It's kind of 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:29.839 space invaderies or something. It's like a shooter thing, kind 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:33.760 of yeah, single screen shooter. Well you're a h um. 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:36.640 I guess you're a yar and you're this sort of 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:41.080 bug like creature and um, instead of shooting at something 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:43.360 to to chip away at it, you do it so 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:46.880 with your body, so you just fly into this. Oh 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.480 I think that went. Uh, you would fly into this. 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:53.040 I mean, of course, all this stuff was supposed to 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:56.440 represent like a spaceship or a planet, but it was 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:58.640 made up of you know, blocks and tubes, so I 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:00.920 don't even know what it was. But your whole point 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.479 was to make it smaller and you would fly into 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:05.400 I know you're instead of yeah, shooting, you would fly 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:07.599 into it. For my money, that kind of game the 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:11.080 best of all time with Centipede. Cinnipede is great, it 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:13.040 was great. I mean a lot of those games I 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:17.000 played at ay when I happened upon an arcade, Galagha 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:21.080 and Frogger and Cinipede and Defender like those are still 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:25.920 really good challenging joun games. Yeah, ms pac Man, they 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:28.640 just stand up still for sure. It's not like you 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:31.080 go to Galagha or jous now and you're like, this 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:34.000 is easy. What was I thinking? I was such a kid. 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:37.080 There's still hard challenging games. And I think that's sort 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:40.760 of the key to a good video game is it's 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:43.160 got to be winnable, but it's got to be hard 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:47.680 because the kid didn't want to, you know, a pushover, 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:50.480 but a kid also wants to win. So Howard Scott 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:53.520 warsaw knew this like he was a a game designer. 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.000 He wasn't like a code monkey or anything like that. 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:59.200 He was a game designer, an artist. I'm sure he 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:01.719 considered himself, especially at the time, and he should have. 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:04.599 One of the other things he was known for, um 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:08.120 was he was the guy who realized that you could 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:10.880 make a game way more enjoyable if you created a 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.680 backstory for it. So rather than like, uh, drive this 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:18.040 car there, you're actually running away from this gang of 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:21.240 you know, international mafia guys who are trying to kidnap 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:25.600 your girlfriend or whatever, you make up a backstory for it. 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:28.960 The player reads this backstory and then plays, they care 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:31.720 that much more about the person because their imagination is 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:34.200 now kicked in. They're not just doing a mindless task. 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.760 They're imagining what's going on in computer world. And he 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:39.760 did that for for games, and he was one of 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:43.040 the first, if not the first designer to create backstories 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:46.080 and biographies for his characters and games. Yeah, and you 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:48.960 know what just now is sort of hitting me that 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:53.400 um part of the appeal was the imagination of the kids. 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:57.880 So like when you got the game Adventure or Asteroids 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:03.599 and Asteroids you are a pencil drawn triangle right, shooting 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:08.120 at pencil drawn um shapes, shooting pencils at pencil drawn shapes, 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.320 shooting dots at pencil drawn shapes. An Adventure, you are 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:16.400 a cube that flew around with an arrow attached to 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:18.440 you that was supposed to be your sword. But when 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:21.120 you look at the actual cartridge or the box that 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:24.720 it came in. They had this great artwork of this 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:28.280 night on a horse with his sword drawn or in 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:33.040 in asteroids. This han solo like pilot, like cruising through 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:37.040 a you know, an asteroid field, and that would kick starts. 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:39.320 That kick starts the imagination of a ten year old 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.760 and then they forget they're a cube or an arrow. Yeah, 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.000 it makes it that much more real. Yeah, it was 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.520 really really cool because the imagination can do some pretty 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.720 amazing stuff with eight bites of graphic. Yeah, you know 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:56.320 for sure, um so uh. Warshaw figured this out, Yeah, 0:07:56.360 --> 0:08:00.720 designing worlds. He would design easter eggs into his games too. Yeah, 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:02.520 he was in the first, but yes, no, but he 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:05.000 he was an early person to do that. The Adventure 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:07.400 was the first, I think, And in addition to Yours Revenge, 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.600 he also already had a hit um in the Raiders 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:12.600 of the Lost Art game. He had designed that and 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:15.720 it's still play that so much. I read you did 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:17.360 so from what I never played that one. From what 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:21.280 I understand you, it was extremely difficult. You it required 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:24.320 both joy sticks. Yeah, there was. I think I read 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:27.720 somewhere that there were thirty three screens, which is on 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.360 heard of. I could buy that um and that like 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:34.480 people still have trouble beating it today. Well, it's really 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:38.040 it was really hard. Um. I remember very specifically. There 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:44.119 was one part where you were to parachute um parachute 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:46.280 from one screen and it would all of a sudden 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:49.000 you went to the bottom and you it would pop 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.360 up and you're on the next screen going down and 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:53.920 there's a tree on the left and you had to 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:57.480 start that jump early, going hard left and hook onto 0:08:57.520 --> 0:08:59.720 that tree with your parachute. If you hit it the 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:02.880 wrong angle, it burst your parachute and you would die. 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:05.920 And if you didn't, you would hook onto it and 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.840 slide perfectly. And it was probably one of the hardest 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:11.360 things I've ever had to do in a video game, 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:15.600 you know, as far as video gameplay though. Really it 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:19.839 was very very challenging, but it was possible. So when 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:22.480 you tried it twenty seven times and you nailed it 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:26.439 on that like, you would run around the neighborhood telling 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:30.559 all your friends that you nailed the parachute jump really 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:34.640 really hard. But it was so hard that it was like, um, 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.319 you would get frustrated. It kept you sucked. No, no, no, 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:39.800 You're like, I know you can get it and that's 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:43.080 where et messed up. But we'll get to that, okay, 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:47.360 so um on June, it's funny. He remembers this the 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:51.280 date on Juneo Howard's got warsaw I was hanging around 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:55.040 Otari and he gets a phone call. He gets a 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:58.920 phone call from the CEO, Ray Kassar himself. That was 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:02.440 a big deal back it and Rake Star says, hey, kid, 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:05.880 we know you, we love you. We've got something going 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:10.000 on with Steven Spielberg. He remembers that you made the 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.080 Raiders of the Lost art game for him. He thinks, 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:15.480 you're a certifiable genius. But we have a special assignment 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:17.559 for you. We want you to make the e T 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:21.839 video game. Can you do it? Wait, don't answer yet. 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:26.840 Can you do it in five weeks? Then he went sure, Yeah, 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:29.800 he said yeah, which I mean even today, you're like 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.320 five weeks. That doesn't sound very long. That was less 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:37.480 than a tenth of the time that it would normally take. Yeah. 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.360 And he had the little secret is that he had 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.760 already called some other people in the company and said 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:46.640 the CEO he has this, like, is this even possible? 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:49.280 Or am I just crazy for asking this guy to 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:51.040 do this? In five weeks because it takes five or 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:54.760 six months. And they all said no, it's not possible. 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:57.040 Then he said, all, I'm gonna ask him anyway, right, 0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:00.560 And and Howard Scott Warsaw didn't realize that they had 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.400 already told them like no, they can't be done when 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:05.440 he said yes, But he was locked in the punch 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:08.680 and he was twenty four years old and full of 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:11.720 full of exuberance and hubrists and all sorts of stuff, 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:14.600 and said I can do this. So he did. And 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:16.559 the reason we should say the reason why this the 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.800 schedule was so shortened. Usually took five to six months 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:24.000 for a game to be to be developed, and he 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:25.800 had five weeks to do it. And the reason why 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:29.560 it was because the haggling the deal um to get 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:33.280 the rights for the et game for Atorry to purchase them, 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:37.320 which they bought for twenty one million dollars, took way 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.080 longer than expected, and they really wanted this game out 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:45.160 for in time for Christmas. The whole deal. So because 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:47.800 of the because the deal had worked all the way 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:50.560 up into the summer and Christmas was on the other edge, 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:54.160 they needed also several weeks to manufacture the actual cartridges 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:56.360 and get them into stores. If you lay it all 0:11:56.360 --> 0:12:00.480 this timeline out, they left five weeks to develop a 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:04.240 game from scratch, so they knew just the guy to 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:06.920 do it, and it was Howard's got Warshaw, and Howard said, 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:09.120 I'll give it a shot. I'm gonna do it. Yeah. 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:11.920 And um, I should point out that when you say 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:14.240 five or six months is the usual time, five or 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.280 six months was fast. The usual time was more than that. 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:19.520 Well you also probably had a team working on it, 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:23.080 Like five or six months was the Rush version anyway? 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:29.480 I mean, I think I think that the pretty delightful 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:32.079 prog Rock version did that have a they should add 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:34.600 their own video game. I'm surprised they didn't. They were like, 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:39.360 right there, they did that wheelhouse, we would like game 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:42.400 or something. We would know. There's no way we wouldn't 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:47.120 know about the Rush twelve Atari game. So Warshaw gets 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:52.559 to meet with Steven Spielberg in the l A and 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.640 was not given direction or a brief. He meets with 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:59.760 Spielberg says, here's what I proposed, this adventure game that 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.040 follows the plot of the film somewhat where the kid 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.280 is et playing the game. You are et and you 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:08.240 got to go around and collect all these pieces to 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:10.760 build a phone so you can phone home, and the 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:13.200 government's after you, and these bad doctors are after you. 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.559 It's just like your movie. And Spielberg was like, well, 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:19.640 can't you just have him like running around eating Reese's 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:23.760 pieces like pac Man? And he went, oh, there's this 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:26.600 great there's this great quote where he's like, here, here's 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:30.280 one of my idols, Steven Spielberg asking me to knock 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:33.640 off pac Man for the ET game. And I thought, well, 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:36.079 g Stephen, couldn't you make something more like The Day 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:40.960 of the Earth's to Burn Burn Um? So he he 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:43.120 apparently had to do a little fancy footwork to talk 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:46.360 Spielberg into going with his vision rather than a pac 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:49.760 Man knockoff of ET, which who knows, may have may 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:53.880 have sold a lot better, but it was he got 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:56.480 him to agree to his vision for this game. He said, no, 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:58.720 this is a groundbreaking movie. We need to make a 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:02.880 groundbreaking game. And so Spielberg agreed to it, and Warshaw 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:05.199 started to get to work. So we should probably take 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:30.680 a break before Scott Howard. Scott really jumps in, alright, Chuck. 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:34.960 So it's basically the beginning of July and Howard Scott 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:38.720 Warshaw is the sole programmer for an et video game. 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:43.120 Atari's biggest bet that they spent twenty one million dollars 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:45.800 on the rights to that they're going to spend an 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:49.960 additional five million dollars on the advertising budget, for the 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:52.560 most anyone's ever spent on a video game up to 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:55.720 that point. He's the only programmer who's going to make 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.360 this game, and he has five weeks to do it, which, 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:02.240 from what I understand, no one I'd ever done before. Yeah, 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:04.720 and this was Atari was a giant at the time. 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:08.720 Um if video if the video game industry was beginning 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:12.920 to slip. It wasn't like the public didn't really realize 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:17.760 that yet. The industry may have, but Atari held about 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:21.640 eight of the market. Um they were at about two 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:25.000 billion in annual sales, about three quarters of billion in profit, 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:29.720 which is just unheard of. About two billion in profit 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:32.960 in today's money. Yeah, so a ton of money. But 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:35.440 they saw the writing on the wall. They knew that 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:38.960 the personal computer like the Common or sixty four that 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:41.680 could play games but also do a lot more was 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.760 a real genuine threat to the home console. So I 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:49.200 read a contemporary article in The New York Times in 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:52.720 from Night three talking about this, and Atari said they 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:55.240 did not see the writing on the wall. Well, one 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:59.800 of them said, the first six months of UH three 0:15:59.880 --> 0:16:01.800 was one way. The second six months it was like 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:03.960 we were in a totally different business. Yeah, but if 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:06.320 you if you read interviews with him now, I think 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.480 that might have been Oh the guy covering is well, yeah, 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:10.520 I don't think you want to go out in the 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:12.920 press in the moment and say, hey, everyone, we're super 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:17.880 scared investors, don't freak out, don't panic, You're right, Chuck. 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:21.240 I feel a little foolish. Uh So they what they 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:25.640 did was they set Warshaw up with um everything he 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:27.680 would have at work, they set him up at home. 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:31.000 So the only time he could not be working on 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.160 this game was his very short drive over to the office. 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.560 And he worked on it almost NonStop for five weeks. 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:39.880 He had a manager that was assigned to him to 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:42.560 make sure that he ate. That was I'm sure not 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:44.880 the manager's only duty, but it was one of the 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:48.120 manager's new jobs was to make sure that Warshaw ate 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:53.720 every day. How about a waffle? Sure, whatever, Stop bothering me. 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.920 Eats in the pit again. So for five weeks he 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:00.880 worked almost like you said, twenty four hours a day. 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:03.000 He said, it's the hardest he's ever worked in his 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:07.520 entire life. And when five weeks came and went, he 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:10.879 handed off his He handed off the game. He finished it. 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:14.639 He he completed it in time. And it wasn't done 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:17.800 in his opinion, or it would turn out in anybody's opinion, 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:20.160 but it was done. It was a complete game that 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:23.240 he had finished in five weeks, the et video game, 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:26.880 and it wasn't just something like like a pac Man knockoff. 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.400 He given real thoughts to it and created a world 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:32.720 that was much different from a lot of the other 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:36.000 games at the time. At the time, he it was 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:37.919 a world like it was a cube shaped world with 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:41.320 six screens, and so if you walked to the left, 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:43.280 you knew you were going to end up on this 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:45.199 other screen. If you walked up, you wouldn't end up 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:46.840 on the other screen. It was a world that you 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:50.240 were navigating, rather than say like Yar's Revenge, which is 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.919 just one screen and everything's happening on the one screen, 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:56.040 and it may imply motion or something like this. With 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:58.080 with the e T game, you were moving from one 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:01.240 area of this world to the next X. Yeah, which 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:04.679 is it wasn't. It wasn't new, but it was. It wasn't. 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:08.680 It wasn't standard to have six screens, especially if you 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:11.439 had five weeks to do it. Give we gut a break. Yeah. Yeah, No, 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:15.760 I'm not saying it should. What I'm saying is that, um, 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:19.199 it wasn't like some big revolutionary thing like the Raiders 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:21.320 game was pre this and it had thirty something screen 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.399 an adventure like kids were used to this by this point, 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:28.000 so it wasn't like, oh wait, do they get a 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:31.680 load of six screens? Like leaving the screen? I see, 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.800 But I think he Scott Howard Scot Worshaw should have 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:37.919 gone to everybody's house and been like, here's your copy 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:40.040 of ETV games. Well, you know I made this in 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:43.240 five weeks. Well he designed Easter Eggs in there too, 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:45.080 And I kind of wondered, like how much time did 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:48.480 he spen doing that with his own initials and like 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:51.760 the Little Yards Revenge Flower. I hadn't really thought about that. 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:54.720 I don't know. So he says the time was of 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.320 the essence, though I just maybe put that last on 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:00.200 the list. He says today that Hetty had one more 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:03.600 week to just troubleshoot. He could have worked out all 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:05.240 the kinks. He could have worked out the kinks in 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:07.399 one more Easter egg. But he handed it out. He 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:11.159 handed it off to Atari, and Atari said genius. They 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:14.359 gave it to Steven Spielberg to play. Spielberg apparently liked 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:19.439 it and in the game, Um, it wasn't It wasn't 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:23.400 just some dumb clunky game. It was a mediocre game. 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:25.159 But it was a game, and it was done, and 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:27.680 it was out the door, and they got it out 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:30.919 in time for Christmas. The cartridges shipped. Um. If you 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:36.800 go back onto YouTube and search ET game add or commercial, 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:41.920 it brings up some extraordinarily nostalgic ads of ET dressed 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:45.119 to Santa Claus playing his own video game. Um of 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:47.840 a kid like receiving the ET video game from ET 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:51.320 out in the shed. Just amazing stuff. So not only 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:54.200 is it like Christmas time feeling, but like Christmas time 0:19:55.240 --> 0:20:01.400 feeling Chris. It's nice. It's just like the the taste 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:04.680 of ice sugar cookies swells from the inside of your mouth. 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:08.800 You almost gag on it. It's so overpowering. So they 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:12.240 they produce well, we don't know for sure how many, 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:15.959 maybe as many as twelve million copies of this at 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:19.119 least four million. That's part of the urban legend. Yeah, 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:21.760 I mean, I don't think there's an exact exact number, 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:25.720 but millions of copies of these were produced. Twenty one 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:29.879 million dollars invested in the licensing, five million dollars in 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:33.280 advertising and marketing, not just I mean, who knows what 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:38.440 they paid Worshaw or for the actual production. I mean, 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:40.320 I doubt if it was millions of dollars, but he's 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:43.320 probably salaried. They sunk a whole lot of money into 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:46.520 this thing and sold Okay, at first they sold about 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:49.560 a half a million copies and then and I remember, 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:54.160 you know you do oh yeah, oh, word got around 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:58.280 and this was obviously long before the internet, like you 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:00.520 could still sell some stuff back then, but where everyone 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:03.840 realized it stunk. But and that's what was going on. 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:08.159 But literally kid two kid two kid and cul de 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:12.679 sacs and classrooms got the word that the ET game stunk, 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:16.120 and it killed it. It did it is little kids 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:18.320 killed it. They sold like a half a million copies 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:20.199 right out of the gate almost and then it it 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:24.200 peaked right there very quickly, right around the Christmas season, right, yeah, 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:26.160 I mean, just think about that. Though. It was children 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:29.240 led to the demise. It's not like kids read an 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:32.520 article in the newspaper, even a review on the et game. 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:36.879 It was kids going, man, that game stinks. What you 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:39.360 bought that? Oh, don't buy it at stinks? Yeah, it's 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:42.080 it's terrible. And that happened like a game of telephone 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:45.479 all around the country. That's really cool. Simultaneously, kids get 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:49.159 things done, they do, man. So like you said, it 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:52.240 happened pretty fast. They peaked at a half a million copies, 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:55.280 and over time it managed to sell another million on 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:58.280 top of that, So a million and a half copies success. 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:00.840 I think it's like actually a Natari's top ten of 0:22:01.600 --> 0:22:06.080 best sellers. But the problem is, if this story is 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:09.399 a story of everything or anything, it's not the story 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:15.960 of a over overconfident game designer making a terrible game. 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:21.159 It's a very confident game designer making a middling game. 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:26.119 If it's a story of anything, it is of executives 0:22:26.160 --> 0:22:30.880 being drunk with confidence in hubrists that no matter what 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:34.640 they put out. If it's tied to a hot property 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:36.840 of like a movie or something, it's gonna sell. It 0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:40.240 doesn't matter what the game is, it's gonna sell. Problem one. 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:44.800 Problem two was they forecasted based on that Hubrist too. 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:48.840