Atari: Game Over

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 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.

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

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.

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.