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"Since the disastrous sales of the 1983 game "E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial" almost drove Atari into bankruptcy, it has been common knowledge that movie-license games are cheap quickies designed purely to capitalize on a film's publicity."

Disastrous? Weird. That was a pretty decent game for the Atari. I enjoyed playing it as a little kid - one of the few games you could actually "beat" instead of just going in endless loops like PacMan, Endoro, Venture, etc.

Actually, E.T. did go into continuous loops. After sending E.T. home, the game would start over, only the FBI and Doctor would increase in speed and appear more often. Eventually, after so many completions of sending E.T. home, they'd become so fast it was impossible to navigate the levels to find the pieces to send E.T. home.

Where were all those pits in the movie, anyway?

I didn't see the movie until long after I had played the game, actually. I agree...other than Elliott, E.T., the spaceship, and Reese's Pieces, there's no similarity. I don't remember E.T. using an expanding neck in the movie either to float...

I don't recall it restarting after the spaceship picks you up...but you've still "beat" it when that happens even if you can play through it again. I think I usually played in the mode where the Scientist and the cop don't show up. Boy that was awhile ago...I was like 4 or 5 when I first remember playing that.