[tombert]

I think the complaint is that he is green in the game, where he should be brown.

I think I might know the "why" to the question, which is that I think they might have been worried that a small percentage of people would be using a black and white TV and brown might not be enough of a contrast.

[nsxwolf]

The B&W switch on the 2600 sets a register that can be read at runtime allowing for color changes that better support black and white TVs. Howard Scott Warshaw famously had only 5 weeks to complete the entire game, so supporting that feature probably didn't make the cut.

[RiverCrochet]

NTSC color artifacts may be a factor too, but not sure. I know green and red aren't too happy next to each other. Making ET an actual brown shade may have gotten too close to that red-green conflict.

[lIl-IIIl]

This reminds me of those bug reports that say "Button is green" and you're not sure if "Button is green" is the desired or undesired behavior.