Total Failure: The World's Worst Video Game
Howard Scott Warshaw has had many gigs over the years, but perhaps his most notable achievement was also a spectacular failure:
"I did the E.T. video game, the game that is widely held to be the worst video game of all time," he says.
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600 was a commercial flop and a gaming disaster. Based loosely on Steven Spielberg's 1982 blockbuster of the same name, the game was a confusing mess that left players frustrated and disoriented. Millions of copies went unsold, and Atari ended up literally burying the game by dumping many surplus cartridges into a New Mexico landfill.
Within a year of E.T.'s release, the entire video game industry collapsed. Warshaw ultimately had to give up his career as a game designer. But the failure also laid the foundations for a new life.
To understand the makings of what has been described as the worst video game ever, you have to understand the mind of the man who made
