Atari: Game Over

Dir: Zak Penn

2014

*****

Zak Penn's 2014 documentary Atari: Game Over covers one of the biggest events of the last century. One of the biggest events if you're a nerd that is. Forget the lost City of Atlantis, Bigfoot, the search for intelligent life on Mars and the Loch Ness Monster, the big discovery of the century happened on 26th April 2014 in Mexico at a land-fill site. The nerds Holy Grail was found. Atari was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Together with a small team of computer geniuses, they pioneered the creation of the arcade machine and the video game. By the early eighties the company had grown significantly, the games designers and programmers were living like rock stars and earning just as much money. One such designer/programmer was Howard Scott Warshaw. Revered by his colleagues, Warshaw was seen as one of the best in the business with several of the companies big sellers to his credit. Steven Spielberg's classic E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was released in June 1982, it's initial reception was huge and the studio was keen to build on its success and approached Atari to make what would be the first game based on a motion picture. The only catch was that they needed the game almost immediately while the film was still relevant and popular. Warshaw was the only man who could design, program and finish a game under the near impossible circumstances. His colleagues still praise him for what he achieved in such a small amount of time, Atari were happy, the studio was happy and Steven Spielberg's himself declared how great it was. The big problem was that it wasn't. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial the game has been voted the worst game of all time. Some argue that there are far worse games but E.T.s reputation is famous as being one of the simplest, most boring and impossible games to play of all time. Everyone hated it, no one bought it and the computer game industry collapsed soon after. Every existing copy of E.T. was said to have been buried by the studios in an undisclosed grave, never to be seen again. The legend grew and so did the amount of classic games collectors. Soon enough, E.T. was sought after as a real rarity. The story entered into pop-culture, no one was sure if the story was true or just an urban myth, indeed, no one really knew if it was true or not until Fuel Industries, a Canadian entertainment company, sought and acquired access to the supposed land-fill site did the truth come out. Zak Penn, screenwriter, director, mega-nerd, explores the myth and legend of this obscure and geeky quest quite beautifully. The documentary is full of the history of Atari, the people who created it, the fans and games creators they influenced. He brings everyone together, puts many misconceptions to rest and puts across a good argument for the case that E.T. wasn't really all that bad anyway. It is brilliant. I can only imagine that it's probably what it was like to watch the moon landings live. Kick back and geek out.