You play as ET going back home, so its like a space shooter, then he gets to his planet and Reeces Pieces are like a drug to ET and he has to keep making trips to Earth to get them back. His friends taste them too and also become addicts, and so then the whole of ET's planet becomes hooked on the stuff and since cocoa trees cant grow there they decide to invade Earth. At this point you can play as Eliot who is older and since theres been so many aliens coming to Earth another Roswell incident happens after one alien crashed its ship while on a sugar high, so the government has learned how to make their own space ships. Eliot doesnt realize hes destroying ET's family and friends while in the space marines, until he and ET meet again, and theyre heart broken by whats happened. Thats the ending of the game though, in the ending credits you find out Eliot and ET go to the US and alien world governments and find a way for cocoa trees to be grown on ET's planet and they all live in peace now while the US government teaches the aliens the dangers of diabetes.
Is that better than the Atari game, or what? I think this also could have been made on the 2600, they just needed to make written dialog or dialog/narration cards like in silent movies to tell the plot.