Tag Archives: landfill

You Can Own an E.T. Landfill Cartridge

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Now you can own one of the worst video games ever made. A game so bad, they had to take it out back and bury it. I’m surprised they didn’t shoot it first. You might remember that the E.T. game was so bad that they had to bury millions in the New Mexico desert. Then years later, a documentary film crew finally excavated the landfill. Now you can own one of the cartridges retrieved from the trash heap.

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In the end, they dug up over a thousand copies of E.T. from a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Not millions. 100 games have already gone to Lightbox and Fuel Entertainment for their documentary about the dig. The Alamogordo City Commission has decided that the remaining games can be sold. You know, they love money. 700 games will be appraised and certified at the New Mexico Museum of Space History, and then prepared for sale. The rest will end up at local museums or maybe in that warehouse from the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I already have one without all of the dirt, thank you. Its suckiness is much fresher.

[via Polygon via Geekosystem]

Atari E.T. Landfill Dig Is Finally Happening This Month

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So what is the real story with the fate of millions of unsold E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Pac-Man video games made for the Atari 2600? They were a big time flop and legend says that tons of unsold copies were dumped into a New Mexico landfill never to be seen again. But no one seems to know if this is fact or just urban legend.

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Fuel Entertainment has been trying to get permission to dig up the games for several months, and they finally have a green light. Fuel has acquired the exclusive rights to excavate the landfill, and they took the opportunity to Xbox Entertainment Studios. So now Microsoft is including the dig in a documentary series. This may finally solve an age-old nerd mystery.

They will excavate the burial site on April 26, 2014, and the public is invited to attend. Director Zak Penn will be recording the dig, and people involved with the creation of the E.T. game will even be there. Maybe they can ask them why it sucked so bad. Will they find a massive pit full of games? If they do, how many will they sell as souvenirs? Stay tuned.

[via Kotaku via Nerd Approved]

Atari Landfill To Be Unearthed

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This story is for the true video game nerd. In 1982 the Atari 2600 game for the E.T. movie was so bad that Atari dumped millions of unsold copies at a landfill. At least this is the legend. The Atari...
    


Atari’s E.T. Landfill to Be Exhumed

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You’ve heard the stories about Atari suffering such poor sales with the E.T. game for the Atari 2600 that they were forced to dump millions of copies into a landfill somewhere. Is it true? There seems to be some debate over this. Is it an urban myth, or not? Now a documentary film crew wants to settle it once and for all.

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They’ve been given permission by the Alamogordo, New Mexico city council to excavate the landfill believed to be E.T.’s final resting place. No one seems to know for sure if this tale is even accurate, however, both The New York Times and the local paper The Alamogordo Daily ran stories about Atari dumping back in 1983 when it allegedly happened. The article in The New York Times claims that 14 truckloads of games went in along with other Atari hardware. Ars Technica says that number varies anywhere from nine to twenty depending on the source.

The crew will excavate the site within the next six months. Then we will find out how many E.T. cartridges are in there, if any, and what other treasures they dumped.

[via Ars Technica via Geekosystem]