I am just curious how you would rank these games:
* ET
* Ultima 5 (NES version)
* Superman 64
* Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing

Also, if you feel like it, you could add other games of your own choosing, provided that they are of quality comparable to the games I listed above.

I can't speak about NES Ultima 5 but the others... hmmm from better to worse:

1º Superman 64
2º ET (without the manual is a big WTF)
3º Big Rigs

Ok this one is a smaller game but I'm trying to rank them by "worth playing?" big rigs is broken! you can try some game engine and do the same experiments than you can test on this tittle. The other 2 videogames have more things to do. Titus FTW!

Never heard about the other two, but ET and Big Rigs are legendary crappy videogames. Probably ET would stand in first rank, with all the burying in the desert story. Anyway, never played any of these...

eXtreme Headgames anyone?

Extreme Paintbrawl 2 was one of the first computer games my family got. It was atrocious, but I still played it a lot (and got halfway decent at it eventually)

One of my former coworkers had the ET game. He thinks his dad still has it somewhere along with the Atari.

I can't because I didn't play any of them but I wouldn't be surprised that if gog.com would reject them someone would whine on the forum about the bad curation...

Superman 64 I know by reputation as being one of the worst games ever made.
It was frequently mocked in the various Unofficial Nintendo magazines for how awful it was.

Another one that got awful reviews was Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, I believe N64 Magazine compared that one to having your eyes burned out with acid if I remember rightly.

Ultima 5 NES was an attempt to remake the game using an engine similar to Ultima 6, but it did not turn out well.

Some of the problems with that game:
* The NES runs at about 60 frames per second; each second, for 5 of those frames, the game will ignore your inputs. (It's worth noting that the game's animations are at a very low framerate, so the game doesn't even take advantage of the 60 FPS).
* Excluding the title screen, the intro (when you are asked questions to determing your starting stats), and the ending, there is only 1 music track for the entire game, and it isn't even 20 seconds long. Also, there are no sound effects. (Even Ultima 1 had sound effects!)
* It appears that the only way to restore your MP is to game over; using the tent to sleep does not restore MP.
* There is a spell that can teleport you to various locations, but the place it warps you to is random.
* If you've played another version, you might remember the first person dungeons with interesting rooms; all that is gone here, leaving you with boring corridors and nothing else.

You can watch a speedrun here (note: link autoplays video with audio):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlmrjx19p2c

Of note, my family actually owned this version of the game, and when I got the Ultima Collection, my memories of the NES version turned me off to the game, and it was a while before I tried the PC version, which is actually good (at the very least, it's at least decent, unlike the NES version). Ultima 3 and 4 were good on the NES, so what happened here?

Yes, there was a point in the game beyond which it was impossible to progress. And the game was a huge seller at the Christmas sales when it was released. Hence the refunds and big hole in the ground in which to bury the game, its reputation and all thought of a sequel for the movie. :)

Just out of curiosity, how many of us here have actually played the original E.T., on an actual 2600, not an emulator.?

I did, but I know I'm not the only one because I've seen some of you folks talk about playing it.

Again, this is not a status thing and I'm not looking to hand out any red badges of courage, I'm just generally curious.

My parents got it for me because I loved the movie. It's like they hated me or something.

I haven't actually played any of these, although I have seen some footage.

I would guess that they aren't the worst games ever made, they are just well-known because of their IPs and such.

Pyongyang Racer could be quite high on the bad games list. Again, I haven't played it myself, but from the footage it looks like there's no racing involved at all, which makes a racing game kind of useless to begin with. Also the only challenge in the game seems to be finding fuel barrels, and both audio and video leave a lot to be desired. Especially that engine sound loop is as annoying as it can be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0WhdhbImLM

In decreasing order of 'fun-ness':
1. Ultima 5
2. ET
3. Superman 64
4. Big Rigs
Purely speculative though having only seen videos of each.

I've never played any of them myself, but judging from gameplay footage-

Worst to Least Worst
ET; Everything looks the same and instantly boring.

Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing; Graphics looks pleasantly smooth, but there seems to be no challenge.

Ultima 5 (NES version); Gameplay just looks too slow, the choppy movement is painful.

Superman 64; Call me a masochist, I kinda wanna play it.

The only game from that list I've played is ET. My cousin had the game and I would play it some times when we visited him, I didn't understand the game, but that was pretty normal back in the day; some of my C64 games were completely incomprehensible. So, trying to figure out games back then was nothing unusual, manuals were almost always in English, so they were useless for us kids who didn't speak the language. ET wasn't at all a favorite from all of my cousin's Atari games, but we still played it. I didn't start thinking of it as a "bad" game until many years later.