Conan O’Brien Gets Clueless with the Atari 2600 and E.T.
Conan O’Brien is turning back the clock, all the way back to 1982’s E.T. the Extra- Terrestrial the Video Game. But that’s not all. Conan and Team Coco’s Clueless Gamer have already cut their teeth on today’s big-time games like Resident Evil 6 and HALO 4, but what happens when things get vintage? Vintage as in the classic burger grill-looking Atari 2600.
Armed only with controllers that look like “the defibrillators that they used on Elvis,” Conan first gets warmed up for his funtastic E.T. foray with a smattering of Atari classics. Journeying through early ’80s hits like Combat, Golf, and River Raid merely seems to dash any of Conan’s hope as the fan-selected E.T. approaches. Even Pitfall denies Conan, before his game-riffic breakthrough with Space Invaders.
After playing the Atari 2600, Conan drew a conclusion:”I can go look at an old-butter churner or turn-of-the-century car and appreciate the beauty of it… this is awful. This is just America on its knees.”
Finally, Conan took on the one game that still manages to captivate audiences in an all-time disappointing and landfill-filling manner, E.T. The experience of E.T. and its ever-present lack of redeeming worth so jaded Conan, that upon finding a flower in-game, he pretty much needed to have his mind rebooted in order to continue. One can only guess that having looked back on the vintage console this one time was enough… until next time.