E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (Atari 2600) (1982)

E.T. on Atari 2600 

With the success of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Atari wanted to create a video game for their 2600 system before the craze blew over. Atari quickly negotiated rights to the game and negotiations ended around late August 1982. Atari appointed Howard Scott Warshaw to create the game, but gave him only 5 weeks to create the game so that it could be successfully released before the 1982 Christmas Season. The game was rushed into stores and 1.5 million copies were sold around the holiday season. Unfortunately, the game-play was awful and many people disliked the fact that when you fall into a pit it's almost impossible to get out! Atari then wiped all the store copies out and buried them in a New Mexico landfill with other Atari games and covered the games in a layer of concrete. The games were dug up over 30 years later on April 26, 2014! 

The game is considered to be the cause of the "Video Game Crash of 1983" which was ended by the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. 

Source: eBay Auction