Cambridge, UK
Saboteur
8 Posts | I agree that solely blaming E.T. is ridiculous, but that's not what the film itself does: it gives a fairly balanced view, and comes to the conclusion that E.T. might not have been great, but neither was it that bad, and certainly not bad enough to cause the 1983 gaming crash.
The thing is, as you've suggested, there were other factors in play. A couple of obvious things:
- The 2600 was host to a raft of poor quality games, produced cheaply and cynically.
- By 1983 there were plenty of often more capable competitor systems out there, like the NES, and including microcomputers, such as the Commodore 64. Next to these newer systems, with their better graphics, sound, and ability to run more complex and demanding games, the 2600 really didn't stack up.
The first point is dealt with in the film. Unfortunately the second point isn't, which is a shame because it's perhaps the bigger factor (and I otherwise enjoyed Atari: Game Over). |
