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Salvaging E.T. In Software, Instead of New Mexico

Posted by timothy on from the dust-to-dust dept.

Yesterday, we mentioned a just-approved effort to uncover the remains of goods dumped by Atari in New Mexico decades ago. New submitter Essellion writes "Among the games that legend has it are there is the Atari 2600 E.T. game, infamous for how bad it was. However, an excavator of another kind has cast doubts on how bad it was by exploring in depth the E.T. ROM, how it played and why, and designing some bug fixes for it."

2 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. Re:My friend had that game. by radiumsoup · · Score: 5, Informative

    yeah, but for what I had as a kid, it was the most complex game available (to me) at the time, and was a sink for MANY hours at a time (until I would inevitably hit into one of the bugs that caused you to be unable to continue). I can't recall if I ever finished it or not, but I doubt it. It's still in my parent's garage somewhere, probably right behind my C64 stuff.

  2. Re:related Pac-Man hacks by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 4, Informative

    Pac Man wasn't 8K. It was 4K, which is one reason it sucked so badly. Tod Frye begged for 8K but Atari wouldn't let him have it. Ms Pac Man got an 8K ROM.