Digging Up E.T.
Everybody has that one thing they have not done and everyone else has. Chances are, you have a few of these things that are cultural phenomenons. Here are a few things everyone else has done that I have not…
I’ve never eaten a deep fried Twinkie, Ding Dong, butter, none of that stuff.
Until a week or two ago, I’d never heard of Chelsea Handler.
I’ve never been to an NFL game.
Having lived within 75 miles of St. Louis my entire life, I’ve never toured the Anheuser Busch brewery.
In Orlando, I’ve never been to Universal, Islands of Adventure, Sea World nor any of the water parks. Been to Disney once or twice, but not since I was in 2nd grade. Same with Epcot.
And, I’ve never seen E.T.
There is probably a collective gasp from anyone who is between 35 and 43. I mean, for my generation, it was THE movie during it’s time. You could not be a kid in the early 80s and have never seen E.T. It just didn’t happen.
But, my parents weren’t big on going to the movies and, by the time you could rent movies, I was probably a little too old.
Remember Atari? Yeah, never had one of those, either. But, since E.T. was like the big movie, Atari wanted to cash in on it’s success by creating an E.T. video game. So, they did. And, it sucked. Not that I ever played it, but it’s rumored to be the biggest flop ever in video gaming.
Atari took a bath on the game and ultimately ended up with like a million game cartridges that no one would buy. So, they buried them in a landfill in New Mexico.
Now, some 32 years later, and for whatever reason, they are digging these up.
The game’s creator, who is now a psychologist in Silicon Valley, watched the unearthing. He’s well aware what a flop the game was and how his creation is the black eye of gaming from that era.
Yet? This whole unearthing process of this time in gaming history has him excited. He referenced how, though he threw the game together in five weeks and full well knows it was never great, he’s just enjoyed seeing so many people now take pleasure in his creation. Even 32 years later. And with everything in gaming ultra high tech, there is the nostalgia factor AND the knowledge what he did hasn’t died with Atari.
So, faithful reader, what are you creating that, decades later, will still bring joy to others?
