The Microsoft-produced documentary Atari: Game Over provides a brief history of Atari, the video game crash of the early 80s, and the “worst video game of all time” that supposedly caused that crash: E.T. The Extra Terrestrial on 2600.  But it’s really about the excavation of the landfill where pop culture urban legends (and history) says the extra and returned ET carts were dumped during the dying days of Atari.

It’s a reasonably well done documentary… I’ve seen (and read) much better histories of the early days of video games but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a decent movie in its own right. And since it’s half focused on the digging up of the landfill, I can forgive any lack of detail it might have had on the early days of video games.

The movie is fine. If you are interested in the topic of Atari and the early days of gaming, and about the E.T. urban legends, check it out.

Score: 80