The Worst Video Game Ever?

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

Zoo, National Museum, Postal Museum, Smithsonian, Society & Culture, Art19, National Zoo, Tony Cohn, Natural History, Dc, Exhibits, Museum, American History, Exhibit, History Of The World, African American History And Culture, History, Washington, Air And Space, Pop Culture, The Smithsonian, Sidedoor, Science

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 December 2019

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Deep within the National Museum of American History’s vaults is a battered Atari case containing what’s known as “the worst video game of all time.” The game is E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and it was so bad that not even the might of Steven Spielberg could save it. It was so loathsome that all remaining copies were buried deep in the desert. And it was so horrible that it’s blamed for the collapse of the American home video game industry in the early 1980s. This time on Sidedoor, we tell the story of just what went SO wrong with E.T. Episode originally aired June 26, 2019.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, Side Door listeners. Happy holidays from the Side Door team to you. We hope you're gathering with loved ones, drinking something warm, and celebrating the end of the decade. And since the holidays are a time for sharing, sharing gifts, sharing memories, and sharing favorite podcasts, we'd love it if you could tell two or three people about this podcast.
0:24.3	Or better yet, show them how to subscribe. It's like giving a gift that is absolutely free.
0:30.3	Today we're playing a favorite episode of ours from earlier this season. It's a tale of great
0:35.2	expectations and great disappointment on Christmas.
0:40.9	Plus some aliens in the desert.
0:43.0	Enjoy and stay warm, and we'll see you in 2020.
0:50.3	This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.
0:59.2	I'm Lizzie Peabody.
1:10.2	I'm part of a crowd of some four or five hundred people waiting to get into a dump.
1:17.3	This is Howard Scott Warshaw, and on April 26, 2014, he was part of an unusual scene.
1:25.4	Something like a wildly out-of-place tailgate party. People lined up with
1:30.0	folding chairs, sun hats, beverages in the middle of the New Mexico desert. It was a hot day.
1:37.2	I mean, it was hot. But there was no dessert. It was just desert. Oh, yeah. Howard has a real thing
1:43.8	for puns.
1:45.3	And the open up and here we go and we're all rushing into the dump and there's a lot of
1:50.5	excitement.
1:51.2	You know, we're on a mission to uncover the truth or not of a very popular urban myth.
1:59.2	The legend goes like this.
2:02.9	Once upon a time, in the land called Silicon Valley, an American tech company invented
2:08.5	video games that enchanted children and brought billions of dollars flowing through its
2:13.5	doors.
2:14.5	The company was called Atari.
	...

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