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.

Atari : game over, 'some stupid documentary on video games and why an I-don't-care video game company collapsed , why did it bury a stupid video game'. This is the plot I got from the first few minutes. Always looked upon those video game geeks. Never understand what's their obsession with that. It's about an Engineer Howard Warshaw ,who created video games getting millions of dollars profit to the Atari video gaming company, the initial years seemed like from that of the Wolf of the Wall street, that heightened exuberance, mad celebrations, partying - as if that's it and life's going to be that way forever. when you see those things, you know an impending doom is on its way. That's what happens here too. Here's this geeky engineer, having the time of his life, getting the opportunity to turn the classics/ one of the greatest movies ever E.T into a video game. I know how geeks work , my brother is one- shut themselves up in rooms and never come out until the game is done. He was given just 5 weeks of time – apparently, that's not at all enough. Here, two crazy things happened – the company is just too ambitious to grow even bigger, and in that frenzy, greed, it took a stupid decision of producing just too many E.T. video games and then, this guy, who knew what's he's doing – i.e. he's turning a predominantly children's movie into a video game. So, it's common sense that it should be simple. But, no, he wanted to prove his genius or just to change things up and give something unique to the world of video games- the game , it seems – was pretty tough. Nobody got it and they returned the millions of video games. Hmm.. not, clear if this is the reason for the company's downfall, but, the company's stocks spiraled down like anything and they had to shut up. And this engineer guy was held responsible for a company's downfall and thousands of people losing their jobs, including his. His career got destroyed , and upon that the guilt and accusation of ruining a company. That guy seemed to have never recovered from it. That was just too emotional to see. So, at the end, at least after like 30 years, the blemish is a bit washed away , and now people kind of seem to understand E.T. is truly a good game. Many ardent video game lovers vouch for it. As one of the head guys said, if too many people say something, it becomes the truth – the reality of the herd mentality and the toll it can take on people like Howard Warshaw's lives. Firstly, kudos to the guy who wanted to dig it out. He's absolutely mad otherwise. Nothing good could have come out of the digging if not for absolving a man's conscience of a false, imposed guilt. The guy who made the documentary , great job.

Atari: Game Over (2014)*** 1/2 (out of 4) Entertaining documentary from director Zac Penn about the fall of Atari and how many people blamed the disaster sales of the video game E.T.. The documentary talks about the rise of Atari and of course it's fall from grace as well as goes into details about the making of the video game based on the Steven Spielberg movie. We also get current footage of them digging up a landfill where legend has it contains millions of copies of the game that didn't sell.The term video game nerd is used several times throughout this documentary but you certainly don't have to be one in order to enjoy this film, which is without question a fun little gem that makes you realize how the truth is often very far from the legend. We're told about the history of this video and we get interviews with video game experts as well as the man who designed the game. They discuss what kind of pressure was on for it to be released by Christmas and why something just went wrong along the way.If you're a fan of video games or familiar with the legend of the E.T. game then you're really going to love what's offered here but I think those unfamiliar with the legend will probably enjoy it even more because it's just fascinating to think that one video game brought down a billion dollar industry. Of course, the truth is eventually revealed. Video nerd or not, this is a very entertaining documentary that's worth watching.

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.