Worse Than E.T.? Tax Avoiders for the Atari 2600

"E.T." is supposedly the "worst game ever made". but is it really?
In the first episode of "Worse Than E.T.?" we test Tax Avoiders for the Atari 2600.
Late night fuel support appreciated but not demanded : www.buymeacoffee.com/intothev...
Ambiant music in this video is "GUL-ee-SUCK-uh" by Tony Longworth
All music, audio / video production. writing and game play by #JeffFulton and or #SteveFulton unless otherwise noted. (c)8bitrocket Studios
#Atari #IntoTheVerticalBlank #GenerationAtari
Into The Vertical Theme by Brian Travis
Title: Into The Vertical Blank theme Words & music by Brian Travis (c)(p)2021 Taste This Moment Music ASCAP
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Out of the Vertical Blank Theme By Tony Longworth
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[@HeavyMetalMouse]

This feels like the kind of game you'd see Strong Bad playing and trying to convince himself it wasn't a terrible waste of money and pixels. "Bow before my financial acumen!" "The Red Tape must be flickering as a way to try and confuse us. I ain't falling for your head games!" "Looks like I'm gonna have to jump!" *blip bloop* "Well that was anticlimactic."

[@Jolt7800]

I was not fully aware that the North American video crash was happening. But I bought this one because it looked ridiculous. Got it out of one of the infamous bargain bins. It was the last Atari cartridge I bought “back in the day” before I started collecting a few years ago.

[@steveafulton]

Nice. What did you think back then?

[@Jolt7800]

My friends and I thought it was pretty bad. I was hoping it “was so bad, it was good”, but we didn’t play it much.

[@steveafulton]

@@Jolt7800 Yeah, it ls just sadly bad. "So bad it's good" is "Star Ship", which can be forgiven because it was launch title. This is just an awful game with an impenetrable premise.

[@socrates0603]

Great review! Thanks for taking one for the team? 😂 I actually liked the graphics of this game and John Q’s animation. I had heard about the infamous Tax Avoiders but had never seen the game nor gameplay until now. Having said that, I don’t understand why this game was made. First, the instructions are more complicated than the one for the 1040 EZ form. Second, the concept of this game obviously has zero appeal to kids, so was it intended for parents or adults? I didn’t see too many adults (mostly my friends’ parents I’m talking about here) during the early 80s who played home video games. It might have made for an interesting or funny homebrew game concept, but as a commercial game, it was doomed to fail from the start.

[@IntoTheVerticalBlank]

There are few solid GFX but it's mostly awful. I think at the time maybe the game was made to make some kind of "point" with a new medium? Compared to some of the upcoming game in this series, it's a masterpiece.

[@socrates0603]

@@IntoTheVerticalBlank oh wow! Sorry you have to play them for us :)

[@jon-paulfilkins7820]

And they wondered why the bottom fell out of the market with games like this being shoved onto the shelves.

[@Jolt7800]

David Crane predicted the “end” when he saw the glut of 3rd party games.

[@ArttuTheCat]

OH MY MEOWING GOD 😹!!! What is this game 😹🕹️?!