On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 10:09 AM, Mike Whalen <mi...@thecomputervalet.com> wrote:
> On August 31, 2015 at 10:17:25 AM, Peter Cetinski (p...@pski.net) wrote: > > I had the same sad experience when they released Pac Man for the 2600. > I do remember feeling disappointment when I got Pac Man. It was a hot > game. My mother picked it up as a surprise. We got it home and… what? > > I enjoyed E.T. at the time. It wasn't until I got on the Internet years > later that I read it was the worst video game ever and had caused the > collapse of a billion dollar industry. > I don't think E.T. caused the collapse of the industry. Pac Man was the worst game ever on the 2600. At least the worst that I ever played. ET had primitive graphics, but was playable (though frustrating if you hit one of the pit loops which, despite doom-sayer videos on the net, you can get out of with a little patience). Pac Man, in contrast, was so bad as to be almost unplayable. The translation from the arcade experience was horrible. Especially since the Activision carts at the time were so much better.... Atari hit a classic problem of failing to transition from a wide-open market to a saturated market and massively over-spent thinking the growth would last forever. When it hit the inevitable knee in the curve, they weren't prepare and had so many huge bets on the table they hadn't hedged that they imploded from bad management, not some silly game that disappointed. Warner
