当年雅达利为什么要将《E.T.外星人》埋起来？《E.T.外星人》是如何做到使游戏产业大衰败的？

不得不承认，在日系游戏粉丝占领国内主机玩家话语权，大多数人又没有真正经历过Atari时代的中文语境下，很容易就接受那些将Atari污名化的说法。实际上我建议大家去看《雅达利：游戏结束》纪录片，其中讲解了故事背后的真相。

So the legend of the burial was true. Or was it? When the archaeologists cataloged all the games, there were a bunch of E.T.cartridges, but nowhere near the millions that were such a big part of the legend.

那么掩埋游戏的传说是真实发生的吗？考古学家对挖掘出来的游戏进行了分类，其中确实有许多E.T.游戏卡带，但并没有传说中的百万之多。

In fact, E.T. made up about 10% of the total games found.The rest included some of the best games ever made, Defender, and Centipede, and Yars Revenge.

实际上，E.T.只占全部游戏的10%，而剩下的游戏中则包含了不少当时最为优秀的游戏，包括《保卫者》、《蜈蚣起源》、以及《亚尔的复仇》。

There was even one copy of Adventure, which I snagged. The burial wasnt a cover up, or done out of shame. It was a warehouse dump done by a company in financial distress.

At the time, the Alamogordo landfill was just the most practical solution.

甚至我意外地发现了一盘（1979年的）《魔幻历险》。填埋这些游戏并不是为了遮掩什么，也并不是丢人的做法。这只是一家陷入资金困境的公司在丢弃他们的库存。就当是的情形来讲，将这些卡带埋在阿拉莫戈多已是最实际的做法。

E.T. wasnt buried because it was the worst game ever. People called it the worst game ever because it had been buried. And as a result, it got blamed for destroying an entire industry. The game and its creator had taken the rap for a crime they didnt commit. The notion that E.T. caused the demise of Atari is simply stupid.

并不是因为E.T.是史上最差的游戏而没埋，而是因为被埋让E.T.成了（人们口中）史上最差的游戏。并因此受到摧毁整个行业的指责。它和它的作者都因此被安上许多莫须有的罪名。E.T.摧毁雅达利的观点是很愚蠢的。蠢到无法解释。

（诺兰·布什内尔，Atari的创始人）

Its just stupid. Atari committed suicide. It was not homicide. And it wasnt the E.T. cartridge. It was a concomitant effect of a lot of missteps in technology, and deployment, and marketing.

雅达利死于自杀而不是谋杀，而且并非出于E.T.卡带的原因。这是一系列技术、部署和营销失误的副作用。

（Seamus Blackley——Xbox的设计者之一）

Some people say E.T. destroyed the video game industry. And Im sure Ive heard that before, but its just really funny. No.The behavior pattern that created the conditions for the E.T. failure is what destroyedthe video game industry.

有些人说E.T.摧毁了游戏工业，我之前也听到过这样的说法，但这是很可笑的。事实并非如此。

作为E.T.失败前提条件的行为模式才是摧毁电子游戏行业的元凶。

The cause of the fall was Atari trying to sell yet another 10 million Atari 2600s into a market that was saturated.

而大衰败的原因则是雅达利试图在已经饱和的Atari 2600市场上再造千万销量的神话。

（Manny Gerard——时任华纳传媒首席运营官）

E.T. didnt destroy Atari. It wasnt good, but it didnt destroy Atari. Thats one of those things people say. And the reality of life is, if enough people say, it becomes the truth for people. A simple answer that is clear and precise will always have more power in the world than a complex one that is true.

E.T.并没有摧毁雅达利，它不是好游戏，但也无法摧毁雅达利。这只是人们的危言耸听，在现实生活中演绎三人成虎的例子。事实上人们总是更偏信那些听起来更简洁明了的答案。