The Fall of the ET Atari Video Game

Howard Scott Warshaw was the person tasked with creating the game. He previously created the very popular Yars Revenge and even made the first video game based on a movie, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. This gave Warshaw only 5 weeks to make the game if they were to capitalize on the holiday season. But because of the hype over this game and one of the most beloved Christmas commercials ever, Atari sold 1.5 million copies but they manufactured 4 million. Many see the ET Atari video game as being the straw that broke the camel's back leading to the great video game crack.