As some of you likely already know, when movies are released they often have tie-in video games developed to go along with them. Some are very well done, others not so much.

The fact is, there are many, many games that are movie tie-ins, and most of them are understood to be really bad. But which one is the worst, and why do we care?

Among those who know the industry, it is well-known that the worst movie tie-in game ever released was Atari’s 1982 release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, programmed solely by Howard Scott Warshaw in six weeks to tie in with the blockbuster movie of the same name. The movie was one of the new breed of blockbusters (and at this time, Steven Spielberg was responsible for all of them, including Jaws and Star Wars).

With a sure-fire epic hit of a movie coming in, Atari wanted to be part of it. They spent a fortune – $25 million – acquiring the rights, and promptly told poor Mr. Warshaw to design, code, and deliver it in only six weeks, far shorter than the 8-12 month development cycle typical at the time.

Not only that, so mismanaged were they back then, they actually produced more cartridges for the console than there were consoles sold! They felt it would push the sales further, but the opposite happened. The game was so confusing, difficult to control and generally unplayable it resulted in significant returns and unsold inventory. In fact, so serious was their error in judgment that this single game was a major cause of the great industry crash of 1983. It would take years and an unknown company from Japan to repair the damage.

Atari just wanted to forget the whole debacle, and for the 30 years since there has been an urban legend among enthusiasts that they buried excess carts in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. And recently, an excavation team with the backing of Microsoft studios decided to film an excursion to the landfill and see if the rumors are true, or finally lay them to rest. And guess what they found?

That’s right! A horde of buried non-treasure. E.T. cartridges by the thousands, as well as a few Centipede ones thrown in for good measure.

Now we know. Now the rumors can be laid to rest. The documentary will be aired in the future on Microsoft channels, and it should be interesting to see.

One last thing – none of this was Howard S. Warshaw’s fault; he was given an impossible task and did the best he could given the circumstances. He has a strong track record and no one considers this a taint on him personally. I didn’t even mind the game that much, but I’m easy to please.

And frankly, there are much, MUCH worse games than this.