The game's objective is to guide the eponymous character through various screens to collect three pieces of an interplanetary telephone that will allow him to contact his home planet.

The game was designed by Howard Scott Warshaw, who intended it to be an innovative adaptation, but Atari held unrealistic expectations for sales based on the international box-office success of the film.

In what was once deemed only an urban legend, reports from 1983 stated that as a result of overproduction and returns, unsold cartridges were secretly buried in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and covered with a layer of concrete.

performs any actions (including moving, teleporting, or falling into a pit, as well as levitating back to the top).

[10] The game offers diverse difficulty settings that affect the number and speed of humans present and the conditions needed to accomplish the objective.

[13][14][15][16] When asked by Ross what he thought about making an E.T.-based video game, Atari CEO Ray Kassar replied: "I think it's a dumb idea.

[17] On July 27, 1982, after negotiations were completed, Kassar called Howard Scott Warshaw to commission him as developer of the video game adaptation.

[18][19] Kassar informed him that Spielberg asked for Warshaw specifically and that development had to be completed by September 1 to meet a production schedule for the Christmas holiday season.

Although Warshaw had spent over a year working on consecutive development schedules for games (seven months working on Yars' Revenge and six months on Raiders of the Lost Ark), he accepted the offer based on the challenge of completing a game in a short time frame and at Spielberg's request.

[17][19] Warshaw considered it an opportunity to develop an innovative Atari 2600 game based on a film he enjoyed, "provided we reach the right arrangement".

[19] The player would need to gather parts for a phone to call his ship and arrive at a special landing site to achieve this goal.

[22] Warshaw considered obstacles as an element that would determine the success of a game, and experienced difficulties when taking into account the time constraints and technical limitations of the console.

[19] Atari anticipated enormous sales based on the popularity of the film, as well as the stability of the video game industry at the time.

[25][27][28] John Hubner and William Kistner of InfoWorld have attributed the cancellations to changes Atari initiated in its relationship to distributors.

Hubner and Kistner believed the action prompted retailers to cancel orders, which Atari had not properly tracked.

[16] Lower-than-expected sales figures combined with excess inventory, which produced a negative supply and demand event, prompted retailers to repeatedly discount the price.

[32] Despite sales figures, the quantity of unsold merchandise, coupled with the expensive film license and the large number of returns, made E.T.

[33] While reviews of the film were acclaimed, the game was largely received negatively by critics, with common complaints focused on the gameplay and visuals.

An editor for The Miami Herald described it as a difficult game to learn to play, but believed it was worth dedicating the time.

[36] Vidiot's Kevin Christopher criticized the protagonist's repeated falling down back into holes, but considered it "about the only flaw with an otherwise A-1 game.

14 times, there's no more suspense left—unless you bring home this one-player cartridge", adding that "it’s certain that your patience won't run out—if you're a kid.

In much later reviews, Kevin Bowen of GameSpy's Classic Gaming called the gameplay "convoluted and inane", also criticizing its story for departing from the serious tone of the film,[10] and author Steven Kent described the game as "infamous" within the industry, citing "primitive" graphics, "dull" gameplay, and a "disappointing story".

[15][40] Emru Townsend of PC World discussed the game with a group, and found a universal dislike for the pits that E.T.

[40] Writer Sean "Seanbaby" Reiley also criticized the pits, claiming that they are "time-consuming" and "difficult to leave without falling back in".

[55] GamePro publication named it second-worst movie game ever, citing it as an example of how poor gameplay can bring negative reception to strong licenses.

He stated that the large amount of unsold merchandise was a financial burden to Atari, which pushed the company into debt.

[50] In September 1983, the Alamogordo Daily News of Alamogordo, New Mexico, reported in a series of articles that between ten and twenty[63] semi-trailer truckloads of Atari boxes, cartridges, and systems from an Atari storehouse in El Paso, Texas, were crushed and buried at the landfill within the city, which was covered with concrete.

[14][49][55] On May 28, 2013, the Alamogordo City Commission approved Fuel Industries, an Ottawa-based entertainment company, for six months of landfill access both to create a documentary about the legend and to excavate the burial site.

cartridges was also the basis for the independent 2014 science fiction comedy Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie, based on the webseries of the same name,[70] and featured Howard Scott Warshaw.

[74][75] The Centre for Computing History in Cambridge, England, also received some artefacts from the desert, which are on permanent display in the museum gallery.