User reviews

I should say in opening, that the whole Atari games console thing passed me by.

This is, on the surface, the story of how a nostalgic geek had a chunk of desert dug up to hunt for games cartridges that were dumped back in the early 80s.

As the film develops it becomes more than that, and delves into the story of how a household name company and an intrinsic part of many peoples childhood, crashed spectacularly.

Many of the individuals at the heart of the success and failure of the games' development, come together to tell their part in the story and to be present at the enjoyable final conclusion.

Whilst seemingly aware of the geekieness of the subject matter, the story is informative and told with obvious affection, nostalgia and an ample share of humour. All in all, an entertaining piece of film-making.

If you're into retro video games, or in the video gaming community in general, there's little chance you haven't heard of the widespread story of the video game crash of 1983, which lead to Atari, one of the most recognized and popular video game companies of the time, losing millions in revenue and causing the entire industry to almost collapse as a whole. The crash was eventually attributed to numerous different things, such as inflation and, most notably, the oversaturation of the home console market because nearly every technology company tried to create its own video game console, yet one myth still stands tall amongst the truth. That myth is that the video game crash was because of Atari's video game adaptation of E.T., a video game that is widely considered to be the worst video game ever made.

Such a compelling and unorthodox story owes itself to be covered in a documentary, and thankfully, there's Zak Penn's Atari: Game Over, a sixty-six minute documentary available for free on Microsoft's Xbox 360 video application. The documentary works to establish the story of Atari's rise to fame before it all came crashing down in the early-to-mid eighties, as well as articulate the real reason for the company's financial troubles instead of reiterating the common myth. In addition, Penn covers the fabled story of the cartridge burial in the Alamogordo landfill in New Mexico.

For years, rumor has had it that hundreds of unsold E.T. cartridges were buried deep in the Alamogordo landfill before being smothered by a thick layer of concrete. Spliced in between interviews with people close to Atari, and those who worked for the company during its heyday, Penn covers the excavation of the landfill, as he works with the landfill's employee Joe Lewandowski. Lewandowski is almost certain that beneath the surface of the dump lies the cartridges so much so that he has created an intricate map that reveals the location of where they'd be.

One of the souls interviewed during the film is Howard Scott Warshaw, who was a video game programmer and creator for Atari during its rise, creating the console's classic games like Yars Revenge and the video game adaptation of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Warshaw was also tasked with creating the aforementioned E.T., a task he was only given five weeks to complete because Atari wanted a presumably hot title for the forthcoming holiday season. Warshaw tirelessly worked to try and complete the game, but the end result was a game that was widely panned for its cryptic, often frustrating structure and layout among other serious problems. Following E.T.'s release, Atari experienced enormous profit declines, a fact later attributed to not only the oversaturation of the video gaming market but because Atari kept funneling advertising money in their flagship console, the Atari 2600, in a time where it commanded the market share and the next generation consoles were already on their way. Warshaw, among over 7,000 other employees, were eventually let go in the mid-eighties, following continuously abysmal performances and small profits.

Atari: Game Over chronicles all this in a delightfully compelling manner, giving us history and the contemporary excavation in a way that will not only please fans of video games but anyone looking for a quirky, offbeat story. Penn is also careful to note why Atari and the video gaming industry are so significant in the world, affirming the idea that the early video gaming consoles turned the Television, a once exclusively passive medium, into an active medium, where one could control their actions and enter alternate worlds with untold possibilities, only limited by one's imagination. In addition, it's also nice to see some affirmation of E.T.'s legacy and quality rather than harping on mindlessly-uttered derogatory statements concerning the game's quality. Humbly emotional scenes come when Warshaw, who now works as a psychotherapist, discusses the imprint E.T. has had on him during his presence at the landfill's excavation and we see the effect one's panned art has had on him over the years. It's a tender scene in a very well done documentary.

Directed by: Zak Penn.

A crew digs up all of the old Atari 2600 game cartridges of "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" that were tossed into a landfill in the 1980s.

There seem to have been a growing amount of video game documentaries over the last few years (roughly 2012-2015), and many of them understandably focus on Atari and bring up the E.T. story. Most of these are pretty good documentaries. And this is one of them.

This was the first I heard that Atari was filled with drugs and had a party atmosphere. However, knowing what I do of computer geeks in the 1980s and 1990s, this hardly surprises me. Even Steve Jobs had his share of experiments with drugs. (Did Bill Gates?) We also get a cool back story on Yars' Revenge (Atari's best-selling original title for the 2600), but E.T. is really the central focus of this story and it pays off. The truth finally comes out about its promotion, failure, alleged burial and the rumors that the game's notoriety "killed" Atari in 1984. Of course, the brand still exists, but that is a whole other story.

Atari: Game Over (2014)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Entertaining documentary from director Zac Penn about the fall of Atari and how many people blamed the disaster sales of the video game E.T.. The documentary talks about the rise of Atari and of course it's fall from grace as well as goes into details about the making of the video game based on the Steven Spielberg movie. We also get current footage of them digging up a landfill where legend has it contains millions of copies of the game that didn't sell.

The term video game nerd is used several times throughout this documentary but you certainly don't have to be one in order to enjoy this film, which is without question a fun little gem that makes you realize how the truth is often very far from the legend. We're told about the history of this video and we get interviews with video game experts as well as the man who designed the game. They discuss what kind of pressure was on for it to be released by Christmas and why something just went wrong along the way.

If you're a fan of video games or familiar with the legend of the E.T. game then you're really going to love what's offered here but I think those unfamiliar with the legend will probably enjoy it even more because it's just fascinating to think that one video game brought down a billion dollar industry. Of course, the truth is eventually revealed. Video nerd or not, this is a very entertaining documentary that's worth watching.

What's the worst video game ever ? I'm rather lost as to how you'd even go about using criteria for worst video game ever . As someone who plays video games on my laptop I'm often frustrated as to how in-depth they are these days . Where as playing a football management game from 15 years ago such as CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER I could complete a season in about two hours where as playing FOOTBALL MANAGER 2015 I have to sacrifice closer to two days to finish a football season . Likewise a real time strategy game like AIRLAND BATTLE is breath taking in its dedication to units , maps and tactics but by the same token the gameplay and micro management needed to play in order to win on a consistent basis is off putting so it's very subjective as to what qualifies as a bad game . This documentary tells the story of the Atari game E.T which we're told to believe is the worst video game in the history of humanity

Again we're asked to buy in to the S word - subjectivity - and this is where everything falls down . Atari once had an absolute monopoly on video games both in arcades and home consoles . Everyone remembers Pong , a tennis like game involving two players knocking a ball in to their opponents space . Then you had Space Invaders and the likes taking up the market in arcade games and I often remember as a child popping in to the local amusement arcades in Rothesay watching patrons play these games wishing I had the money to play . When I did arcade games had moved forward slightly and grown more intricate and visually better and just all round more fun . It wasn't until I consulted Wikipedia that I found out something important which GAME OVER fails to mention and that is how very few games in the mid 1980s arcades were Atari games . And this means this documentary must be taken wit a large salt mine . By the mid 1980s other consoles by the likes of Sega were eating in to the market and despite what the interviewees are claiming it simply wasn't a bad press revolving around a single game that ended Atari it was simply market forces and more innovative rivals that beat them

This is a pity because this selective rewriting of history damages a very interesting documentary that gives us the story of how video games came in to being . Where it works best is with the visuals . Director Zak Penn best known for his Hollywood superhero screenplays uses the documentary as almost a literal comic book cum video game which works very well in what could have been a boring docu featuring talking head interviews . The history of Atari is also fascinating where game developers were allowed to get stoned at work , think outside the box and makes lots of money . As the laws of evolution show however hippies become yippies become yuppies and there's distinct lack of irony involved when people who have done so much to make a corporate company an absolute minority thinks it's a good idea to dig up a land fill site in Alamogordo causing possible environmental harm as a bit of an ego trip while blaming all the world's problems on a video game that didn't sell . Modesty like truth isn't exactly in evidence here but it still makes for an interesting documentary

Anyone that knows anything about video games already knows about this story. Heck, I even watched the awful Video Game Nerd movie portraying this. What made the film for me was the personal side that a lot of people brought it the table. Howard Scott Warshaw's reaction when they found the cartridges was genuine, especially for a man that comes off as incredibly sure of himself. I can only assume a 30-year regret came to pass, especially when he was surrounded by so many people.

These little slice of life documentaries honestly bring little to the table, but not everything can be Titicut Follies. I found it incredibly interesting that the top waste management guy in Alamogordo put so much time into this. So kudos to him. Plus last thing...why does Alamogordo seemingly have so many darn politicians? 🤣🤣🤣

This is a very riveting documentary that tells the grand story of the rise and fall of Atari via highlighting it's worst game. I remember playing Atari as a child, and some of my favorite atari games, such as Adventure, are featured in the film. I almost wish it touched further on some of the good atari games, such as pitfall.

I also played the E.T. game and unlike the lionizing voices at the end of this doc, I do still think it deserves to be called one of the worst ever. That I can now empathize with the game's maker does not diminish the fact that the game was overly simplistic, boring, and one-note. That is the major weakness of this film, as it attempts to redeem the game itself and even bring up insulting explanations about the game not being liked on account of being 'too difficult.' As a young child I usually could beat it in about ten minutes, but there were no additional levels to explore afterwards. It wasn't difficult, but just bad.

Nerds of a certain age are so precious about the pop-culture artifacts of their youth, it's tempting to see this gathering of hundreds in a dump full of discarded '80s detritus as an apt visual metaphor. The spectators see it in more mythic terms, however; more than one enthusiast compares the dig to Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and a sudden sandstorm evokes the opening of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. Everyone here speaks fluent Spielberg. (It's fitting that Penn is adapting Cline's Ready Player One, a book heavily steeped in vintage video games, as a screenplay for Spielberg to direct.) Penn keeps inserting himself into the action, playing the role of the buffoonish Hollywood guy who knows nothing about archaeological excavations, and he's usually not as amusing as he's trying to be. When the revelation finally comes, it's underwhelming to say the least. Yes, there are E.T. cartridges buried in Alamogordo, but not millions of them, and there are plenty of more popular games buried there, too.

As a young child, I grew up squarely in the video game era where the Nintendo Entertainment System was the dominant home console. That being said, my grandma had this "strange black box contraption" (with a controller featuring a single button and a joystick) that I would tinker around with while visiting. Little did I know that I was experiencing the legendary Atari 2600. When I stumbled across this documentary, I didn't know if it would hold my interest. An hour later, I was completely enraptured and on the edge of my seat.

There are two main plot lines that are established during this documentary...

First, the filmmakers explore the legend/reality of the now-infamous "E.T. game cartridge dump", where supposedly a million cartridges of that game were disposed of in a giant hole out in the New Mexico desert. The history of that game is discussed (including conversations with its primary creators themselves), as well as the reasons why the company might have decided to "cut bait and run" after producing what is widely considered to be one of the worst games ever created.

In between the archaeological digs out in the desert, the documentary also explores the history of Atari as a company. This includes its domination of the coin-op business, translation into the home market, and failure to anticipate the expanding nature of the business (like Nintendo would do a number of years later).

As the documentary progresses, I found myself getting more and more invested in what the excavation crews would find out in that New Mexico desert. I won't spoil what the exact findings are, but suffice it to say it has some fairly dramatic moments. It also provided me with some history about a company (Atari) and era (late 70s, early 80s) that I didn't have a ton of knowledge about.

Thus, "Atari: Game Over" really sucked me in and easily exceeded all my expectations coming in. If you have fond nostalgic memories of that time period, or just are a scholar of all things video games, you will enjoy this entertaining and informative little jaunt.

The title of this documentary is a bit misleading since it focuses on the infamous E.T. video game and an excavation to find out whether the legend of burying millions of E.T. cartridges in a landfill is true. I expected it to tell the story of Atari and it's definitely there, but there's a lot more focus on E.T. than I expected.

Anyway, it's an interesting look on Atari - how it started, its success and its demise. It shows how E.T. the video game was born, what made it be called "the worst video game ever" and whether it's justified or not. There are interviews with the key people at Atari and it's both interesting and fun to watch while also giving a great sense of nostalgia.

Recommended.

I don't want to spoil the ending of "Atari: Game Over", but it's one of the major reasons this was a disappointment. The filmmakers go to great lengths to play up the urban legend of the long-buried "E.T." cartridges that supposedly killed the video game industry in 1983, but the end result is an underwhelming payoff to say the least.

But the movie itself is all over the road, covering everything from the history of Atari, the guy who actually made "E.T.", the key players in the company, the guy who oversaw the actual burial, a legion of tourists who dropped by to see the excavation, the dispelling of the myth that "E.T." killed the industry . . . to Ernest Cline and his DeLorean thrown in for good measure, apparently. There's just so much going on.

As such, the best parts of the movie are the interviews with Atari personnel. These are the most worthwhile of the talking heads, and I would love to have seen more. To the movie's credit, it does have some nice production values. But the ending feels like a cheat on the part of the filmmakers, especially with so much editorializing.

5/10

So some guy finds out a legend on the Internet. And he wants to see if it is true. That is the basis of this documentary. The guy is a smart guy. So somebody else has already done all the research. This one is only about exploiting the situation and selling the movie. The research is pretty much we have a photo and we assume we have to dig in this area. Everything else is about bringing the boring cast of talking heads who can barf a lot of meaningless words. Like talking about how a crap game "killed the video game industry". Even if the video game industry was well and making billions at the time the film is made. So one to three minutes of information for over an hour. What a rip off!

Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

The movie kept me amused from beginning to end. It was filled with great facts and interviews from the awesome people at Atari. The creative staff was successful to bravely call it as they saw it - unlike the filtered and censored media for people who ca not handle the truth.

Heartwarming interview with the main programmer for "E.T." explains how to successfully transition from the world's most successful game programmer, into a life which can continue to reward to avoid what otherwise attacks many people in a downward tragic spiral of depression.

The movie was also successful to reveal the greedy position the city imposes that disguises their evil methods claiming to uphold public safety.

If you are careful with the pause and rewind keys on your DVR, you can catch some very interesting photography that flips by too fast.

Great documentary covering the quest to unearth the lost Atari E.T. game cartridges - supposedly buried in landfill in New Mexico because the game was terrible and caused Atari's decline. It's a mix of history - Atari's rise and fall during the early eighties, featuring input from people around at the time, including the E.T. game designer Howard Scott Warshaw - and present day, as we get closer to the excavation. I recommend it if you were a kid in the eighties, especially if you were a gamer then, or even if you just love that decade. Millennial gamers may enjoy learning about the early days of home gaming. Those of a certain age may find it all quite moving.

This overlong documentary is full of hyperbole as it goes on a search in an Alamagordo trash dump to see if they can discover the final resting place for tons of unwanted "E.T." video games. In addition, the film follows the history of Atari up to 1982 (and oddly, completely abandons this after 1982). In the course of the film you are presented with a few interesting interviews as well as many uninteresting ones--either filled with folks who seem to have no reason to be there or who come off as egotistical jerks.

"Atari: Game Over" is a film that drives the history teacher in me mad. While the show is interesting to watch for nostalgic reasons (after all, I had an Atari 2600) it's history is poor to say the least. According to so much of "Atari: Game Over" the company was destroyed by the game "E.T." or at least that it died soon after the game died on the shelves--but this is NOT the case at all. The Atari 2600 was soon replaced by the Atari 5200 and Atari 7800 and the company limped on through the 1980s and did NOT fold after the failure of "E.T."--so pretty much everything about the film is wrong when it comes to the real history. Saying the popularity of the Atari games peaked with "E.T." and it was all decline from then on, that WOULD be accurate. But the company dying was not just because of "E.T." but the lousy controllers for the 5200 (they were cheap plastic and overly complicated--and broke VERY quickly) and the system wasn't fixed...it was abandoned. As for the 7800, its titles never generated much excitement--especially since folks were afraid the system would also soon be abandoned. A variety of other financial missteps also hastened the decline, so the whole notion that the company disappeared after "E.T." debuted it a hoax. There must be better films about Atari out there...this one is full of sentiment but short on facts.

I'm exaggerating of course. But it seems like a particular game on Atari is (was?) considered the worst game ever made. I don't like tags like that - and watching the guy responsible for the game, it is even worse seeing this being said. Now I thought that this would be more of a history lesson on Atari - but that is only the side story here.

With an hour running time not much else could be expected. But digging (pun intended) in the past might uncover something ... well at least will bury the rumors. Ok enough puns - probably. Having watched this I almost want to play ET now ... although ... well at least the documentary is short and really enlightening - for anyone who's interested that is.

I'm not really a gamer myself but for several years I've been watching Youtube shows about old games. Atari is'nt part of my personal childhood nostalgia, but because of all those other game fans whose reviews and stories I've listened, the myth of Atari games being buried in the ground has become a well known legend.

The documentary digs deep (literally) to find answers if the story is true. Were E.T. games really buried? Also some background stories from the programmers of early days of the company are heard.

The documentary stays interesting all the way and is relatively short. If you want to find something to criticize maybe there could be something more... I mean, when talking about Atari in general there exist also a lot of other stories that could be interesting to hear, but this film focuses mainly just on the E.T. game and finding the true reasons for the downfall of the company.

I don't know why would you not want to watch this. Check it out!

The only people who might really enjoy this movie are the ones who think about this burial incident every day. They spent half the time talking about what it was like to work for Atari. All I learned was that the people running the company were fools. Which should have been evident due to the existence of the 5200 and 7800.

My earliest memory was Pac-Man in the video arcades. So, even though the 2600 was innovative, true video game addicts knew how bad EVERY game was for the 2600. It wasn't until the 5200 that the console really improved: Pac-Man looked like Pac-Man/Centipede looked identical to the arcade game AND had a track ball accessory to improve it! I never played E.T. and so I don't care to comment on it. I don't understand why they focused so much on this topic without talking about so many other facets of Atari. How did they go down with the success of arcade games and the 5200? Remember, this was the first home console that not only resembled the actual arcade games but had a PAUSE as well! The best feature ever! Plus, it's hard to have empathy for a designer that had so much ego that it blinded the reality of coming out with a hit game, in a fraction of the time it took previously, that would be of any quality. I have to give it a low rating because it spent too much time on this excavation.