Atari: Game Over
Atari: Game Over
PG-13 | 19 November 2014 (USA)
Atari: Game Over Trailers

The Xbox Originals documentary that chronicles the fall of the Atari Corporation through the lens of one of the biggest mysteries of all time, dubbed “The Great Video Game Burial of 1983.” Rumor claims that millions of returned and unsold E.T. cartridges were buried in the desert, but what really happened there?

Reviews
Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.
StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.
Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.
Lorace Dem 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.
wayno-6 This review contains spoilers.As a programmer of nearly half a century, I have more then a passing interest in what is considered the worst game of all time.The Atari 2600 was the only gaming console I ever bought. I loved many of the games, but I have never played E.T.In programming you have choices: good, fast, cheap (pick any 2). If a programme is good and fast, it is NOT cheap.If a programme is cheap, it's not good.As a programmer, I have felt these constraints many times. Have I written crappy programmes? Of course, all programmers do. Sometimes you only have a few hours, before the online system comes up, and so you resort to what is expedient, not what is quality code.I have been in Howard Warshaw's predicament many times. As I viewed this biopic, I know very intently the precarious environment he was in, when he had to produce a product in 5 weeks.In the end is was not Warshaw who derailed Atari, nor the entire video game industry. Atari (Japanese for "to hit the target") went for the jugular and committed hara-kiri with their own sword.The end of the programme vindicates Warshaw.Wayno
Foxbarking I really didn't know what to expect from this film. I had heard about the search for the Atari games buried in a landfill and never gave it much mind after that. Curious as to what happened, I decided to give this movie a look when it came on Netflix.This documentary is the strangest piece of propaganda I have ever seen. It tries to salvage the reputation of ET The Extra Terrestrial, largely regarded as one of, if not the worst video game of all time. In doing so, it skews factual information and presents minority opinions in an attempt to give this a new reputation.I grew up in the 1980's and I was very excited when I got ET for my Atari 2600. Being 8 years old, I had seen the movie and loved it and I was so into video games that it seemed like an unbeatable idea. However, after several hours of pain and agony, I gave up on ET. I would come back to it several times later in life, never with any improvement.This movie skews information to exonerate ET from its role in Atari's "death." When the games are found in the landfill, the narrator remarks that only 10 percent of the games were ET. He then lists other popular games that were found, such as Defender and Centipede. Conveniently, however, the percentages found for any of the other games are not mentioned. They then present this as proof that ET didn't kill Atari. You then get about three people talking about how great the game is, including one guy who you don't know and never will remarking how he'd rather play ET than Call of Duty. Well, so would I and I don't like either game.The narrator never makes the obvious point that the reason there were more games than ET in the landfill is because the landfill was filled around the end of Atari, Inc's existence. Atari got rid of a lot of unsold games and ET represented a larger portion than any other game.So, if you want to get an actual unbiased account about this, this movie will not provide that. It's clear purpose is to try to make this horrid video game look good.
jimmsound 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.