I live down the street from an awesome used games store and they have a copy of what is arguably the worst game ever created: E.T. the Extra Terrestrial for the Atari 2600, based on the classic Spielberg film. I've never played it myself, but I've done research, and if you ever go looking for a "Worst ever" games list on the internet, E.T. is always near the top. It was one of the biggest contributors to the video game crash of 1983. I desperately want to play this game, just to see first-hand the horror it contains. Problem is, the store down the street never has an Atari 2600 in stock, and I can't find one at a reasonable price online (granted I haven't really looked all THAT hard). Anybody have any ideas on where I could track one down?
Interestingly enough, if you go back and look at the release dates, Pac Man (1980) only has one year on the original Donkey Kong (1981). However, Pac Man was the true star of his first title, and despite DK's success, Mario wasn't known as Mario for another two years when the original Mario Bros. (1983) hit. And it was two more before the platformer that really put him on the map as the iconic mascot of Nintendo was released (Super Mario Bros, 1985). But how reliable can the Guiness Book poll data really be, especially when the difference is only 1%? When you get that close, you kind of have to wonder how you even measure which of the two is truly more recognizable. Sure, Guiness Book's poll says it's Pac Man, but if each of us went out and asked 50 random passers by on the street for the names of each of a big stack of video game characters in pictures, we'd all come back with completely different results depending upon where we are in the world, as well as the age, gender, and race of the people we're asking, and a laundry list of other variables. To be completely honest, polls are pretty useless, especially when you're looking for an answer to a question like, "Which of these characters do you recognize?"
If you're looking for a single-player puzzler, Echochrome is always a fun one. If you want to pretend your in an arcade from the early 90's, Turtles in Time Reshelled is cool for the nostalgia, though a bit overpriced. I strongly recommend Fat Princess, though, for some good clean online multiplayer killing sprees.
At this point, you may as well buy a new one. Legality is questionable at best on pirating a game you already own, and the game's been out long enough now you could probably get it for about 10 bucks. The trick will be finding a place that sells it.
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