E.T.: Worst. Game. Ever.

I think it's about time I explained about the E.T. room here on CU.

But first, the game: E.T. is cited by many (Internet) sources as the game that singlegamedly caused the downfall of Atari.

It was simply a terrible game. Rushed into production for Christmas during the E.T. craze of '82, the main plot of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial revolved around finding pieces of the telephone that E.T. could "phone home" with. The main action of the game was falling into deep ditches and attempting, usually unsuccessfully, to get out, by levitating E.T.'s slooooowly up to the top of the ditch and pressing a button at the same instant his body reaches the pinnacle of levitation.

Wikipedia suggests it is a myth that more game cartridges were produced than Atari 2600 consoles that existed at the time, but I choose to believe it.

The remaining and returned E.T. games, 2.5 million of which were unsold (out of 4 million), were crushed into a cemented-over landfill in Alamogordo, N.M. in 1983.

I own a copy of this game.